Denmark: Eurovision queen

I can't wait to book my ticket to Copenhagen!!! 

Last night Denmark conquered Europe on the motes of "Only teardrops", signing one more year of Scandinavian hegemony on the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC).

Since 1956, ESC sees singers from all over Europe (actually, an extended area that includes, among others, Israel and Azerbaijan) competing in a live show, in order to bring the contest in their home country the next year. This year, the show was hosted by Sweden, who won last edition with the song "Euphoria" by Loreen.

Eurovision Song Contest is a festival that gathers all sorts of music genres and performers and last night was no exception: we enjoyed fireworks, voiceless bimbos, folk music, lesbian kisses...

To be honest, although I voted for my home land (Italy) I was hoping on the success of Denmark and I really think she deserved to win. At least for the effort this nation puts in this contest: they have a whole national competition, called Melody Grand Prix, exclusively meant to choose their candidate and they have young singers able to sing in English! 

I must say, I appreciate that some countries decide to perform in their own language, but, then you should not pretend to get a score of any relevance. Italy, together with Hungary, Iceland and many Eastern European countries had this strategy and it apparently did not pay back.

Since I am in Denmark, this year I have been able to follow the whole contest, including the two semi-finals:; only 26 countries can take part into the final show: 20 of them through semi-final selection and 5 of them are lucky ducks, enough loaded to (literally) buy their way to the final, plus last year winner. This year, the "Big five" group included France, Spain, UK, Germany and Italy. I don't understand if it's because they have no money to host such a huge event (I'm talking about Italy and Spain), but, in my opinion, they really didn't put much effort in it. France and Spain ranked respectively 23rd and 25th (out of 26) and we let this speak for itself. Germany gave us the chance of a trip back to the 1990s and Italy gave us a glimpse of Metro-sexual macho (I liked the style but his eyebrows were so creepy!), but the boy can definitively sing. Anyway, the "I-don't-wanna-win" award goes to.....(drum roll) United Kingdom and the mummy of Bonnie Tyler that has been dusted off and botox injected here and there for the occasion. She was breathless after her performance...

With its high and lows, I really enjoyed last night show and I completely disagree with those saying that the competition was about the least bad song. The songs quality is improved very much since last year. Is the crisis closer to an end and countries see the possibility of including gazillions for the show in their budgets? We hope so! In the meantime, see you next year in Denmark :)

Did you like the show? Who did you cheer on and what did you think about the performances?

Let us know and    ♫ "how many times do we have to fight... only teardrops..." ♫