Last night Azerbaijan won the Eurovision song contest for the first time in their history.
As usual I donned the patriotic Swedish flag and cheered on Eric Saade. After not qualifying for the final in 2010, there were high hopes on the Swedish lad to perform, and he certainly did not disappoint. After leading at the half way stage, he slipped back into sixth only to finish third following a late surge in support.
Some of the songs were great, some were awful, but that is the beauty of the Eurovision Song Contest. It’s a chance to stay in, have a laugh and support you country.
Yet unfortunately, there is still a black political cloud that shrouds the Eurovision, and it has to stop. “Block voting” is evidently still in existence and it has now become something of a predictable outcome. Last night, as soon as the voting country was on, I instantly correctly guessed 90% of who they awarded 12 points to instantly.
It is mainly Scandinavia and Eastern Europe that has this approach and, even as a Swede, you have to admit that this needs to change. It does leave credible songs in isolation, and that in itself ruins the Eurovision.
I found this map on this blog that shows the voting pattern from last year’s contest and you can clearly see that Block Voting is still happening.
The map showing all the countries who competed in last year’s contest and colour-coded it according to how much the televote rankings differed from the jury vote. Darker red means a country did much better in the televote than the jury vote, darker blue means the opposite. (This data are taken from the semi-finals as well as the final, taking the final results if a country appeared in both.)
All in all the Eurovision is losing credibility each year and it’s a shame because it is still a fun and wonderful occasion to have some drinks with friends and enjoy.
I feel sorry for the UK Entry, Blue, whose career must have taken a bit of a bashing finishing only 11th.
As for Eric Saade, well he put on Twitter today that he felt a loser. Far from it son, you won you countries vote, you won the second semi-final and finished with a Bronze medal. You have a wonderful worldwide career ahead of you.
Well that’s it for another year. I will leave you with Eric Saade’s entry followed by what is likely to be Sweden’s representative next year. Danny Saucedo.
From Sweden, we will see you again next year.
Many congratulations to all those who took part and well done to Azerbaijan on a fantastic win.
