Album of the Month

Afternoon bloggers....

Unlike most other blogs around the world (i.e. sport, music) its a 365 day a year thing, but with eurovision song contest virtually two/three weeks after the contest has finished the news all goes quiet....so whats the answer? Have a long holiday, get back to normal, or maybe pretend you work for the Sport and make up a load of drivel like:

'Serbian singer in three-way love triangle with Dana International and Big Brother's Kemal'.

Hmmmmm Perhaps not!

Talking of Big Brother, Ive often thought maybe its time for Straighteurovision to give big brother a go in aid of fame and fortune, and to plot a possible eurovision 2008 entry????

Again...........perhaps not!

In the meantime lets reflect on a great new eurovision-related album; Mans Zamerlow or whatever, has released 2007's 'Stand By For'. Its basically something Robbie Williams would have distributed about 5 years ago. Seriously, its actually a very credible album from the highly popular Swedish popstar. The only negative is that it is basically a album of covers, which is something which seems to happen a lot nowadays!

Check out the second best track 'Miss America' which was Fredrick Kempe's track recorded on his 2005 album, which he has clearly passed onto Mans.....bless him! Must have been Mans' birthday...(choking!!!!)

The best song is obviously Cara Mia - winner of NFSC 2007 by a clear mile!

The other song of note is 'The Prayer' which has the lyrics 'theres a boy I used to know' in a haunting tale. Is Mans' trying to tell us something secret about his sexuallity or is he simply reminiscing of the man he used to be? Its all a bit cryptic isnt it!

Finally, check out 'Maniac' from the film Flashdance.

If you want to buy the album, then you better google it cause frankly Im not going to give you everything!!!! Im not that generous! Oh you could always LEGALLY download it :-)

In actual eurovision news, yet not too credible, Hugh Grant has said quite candidly that he would consider taking part in eurovision for the UK. Yes, he may consider it, but I might also consider swoping lives with Hugh Grant...It doesn't mean it will actually happen though does it! The guy can't sing, and although he may watch eurovision, its only a throw away comment that the media have taken a little too seriously!

The incredibly nice Mr Bobo who I almost made late for one of his rehearsals, has stated that Serbia was the right song to win eurovision! How very thoughtful of him, especially as he is clearly ready to stake a claim for next year's eurovision. I hear he will offer his services out to various countries!!!! The slut!

The return of Esctoday

Hello all....

After much digesting and conjetating over the eurovision results, it appears that both albania and andorra used juries as their votes. Whats even more interesting is that both juries gave points to three of the big four. OK so the UK didnt get any points, but with Juries I think it would be safe to say all of the big four would have been top 10.

I really think the voting procedure needs to be reviewed. I harped on about going back to only allowing countries to vote who are actually in the final during my eurovision week, and to be honest I think im right on this. Here's why:

1) In the semi final, ex-Russian and ex-Yugoslav states can't vote for their neighbours or ex-pats can't vote for their country of origin....because they are not in the semi themselves...

This is not to isolate the ex-russian and ex-yugoslav states, as it could be agreed that all 10 of the songs qualified deserved to?!?!?!

In the semi and final you have more of an open-field in this case. Picture a situation where an citizen of Georgia (for example) knows of all the russian, ukrainian, belarusian, macedonian, croatian, romanian singers (basically they are all well-known in Georgia)...combine this with loads of ex-pats voting for their country of origin....and let's throw into the mix that the individual also likes the Danish song! What chance does Denmark have of scoring? If they do it will likely only be a maximum of 5 points at best....

If you ensure that countries participating in the semi-final can only vote, then it stops all this nonsense, and potentially results in songs which are UNIVERSALLY preferred to qualify, not singers/songs that are already well-known before the contest...(example TATU)


2) Bring back the jury - but only 50/50

If Svante is hell-bent on ensuring that the voting income is secure, then why not ensure a 50/50 split of jury and televotes. That will ensure that there is a smoother playing field. Often juries are fans, and therefore the neighbourly voting isnt always so prevalent....not always the case, but probably not so much!

Frankly, this is the weaker choice of the two, but it strikes me that you could probably predict that Russia and UKraine will be top 5 again next year, almost 1 year before they choose their song!!!!!! Also, that Macedonia will make the final, and Croatia will either just make it or narrowly miss out! It all frankly sucks, and gives the BIG FOUR or any other western nation vitually no chance!!!!

Why????

Because the western side of europe generally votes for their favourite song without too much bias....Svante has maybe five more years until ALL of the big four pull the plug. This mess must be sorted out, but dont expect a change until at least 2009 (where we enter two semi-finals)

Two semi-finals????

That wont make any bit of difference. You will still see the same country guarantee qualification from the semis, while the countries who should have qualified miss out. How many people felt Andorra were mugged of a place in the final?

Finally, Daz (of Daz Sampson fame) text me to basically rub my nose in it in a kind of 'I told you so...' kind of way. Bring back Daz. I really hope we send him again next year.

By the way, I noticed Jonathon Kind in Helsinki......Lets hope he is not sniffing around the Beeb again!!!! Shock Horror!

Oh and esctoday.com has reappeared as if it had never vanished, in a sort of bermuda triangle sort of way!

Unsubstantial Blues

How crappy is it when you realise there is no more eurovision until Albania decides in December just in time for Christmas? OK so nobody gets excited about the albanian final, but hey at least we know that the season will soon be upon us!

Personally, ive lost eurovision and now the football season, so its really crappy for me!

It now means that when going online there is f**k all to look at!

Most websites and blogs take a few months out to decide what to do with themselves. Straighteurovision has lots of ideas for the future, but have decided to take four or five weeks break and restart in the summer....so please check back now and again. The changes will be fab (in a kind of DQ double dress change fab, and not a aging old norwegen double dress changing kinda way!)

BTW what the ruddy hell has happened to www.esctoday.com?? Its been offline for simply days now, and there is no word on its return!!!

I look forward to see you all very very soon. In the meantime check out the schlagerboys blog! (see my links)

Flying the Flag home with Scooch

So another eurovision finale ends, and it was all sadness sadness sadness all over Helsinki yesterday. For me, frankly, I was glad to get home...I was simply gutted on Saturday evening and am not too sure whether I can take much more euro-humiliation!

Congrats and all that bollox to Serbia; frankly they deserved it, and Ukraine did not! Uk deserved top 5, along with Germany, France and Spain, although I liked Turkey, Bulgaria and Armenia.

So the aftershow party was good, Magdi won the songwriter prize...thoroughly deserved, although Scooch came a close second!



The bulgarian girl (who is smaller than a nat) seemed extatically happy with Bulgaria's best ever result! Rumour has it she wore the same costume all week; to rehearsals, to home and to bed and out again! Dirty cow!



The presenters were seen at the after-show party; their first fan appearance of the week! In my opinion the best presenters of eurovision ever!



What did worry me was this, which some of us found walking down the street...



Not quite sure of the eurovision connection, although it was probably something to do with the Serbian entry.

Finally, talking of Serbia, she was very charming at the press conference, saying she said a little prayer before the contest that she would win only if god wanted her too. She came over well and hopefully Belgrade will be ready for a eurofest next year.



Oh yeh, almost forgot the point of the title. Scooch, the beeb, Paddy O'Connell, Sarah Cawood and the backing dancer/singers were all literally behind me on the plane home. In keeping with their character, Caroline bent down to pick up something she dropped down the isle, and David (the man behind 'anything to suck on for landing?') said in a carry on eurovision moment 'while your down there', to which Caroline replied 'oooh wrong end'.....Magic!!!!!!!!!!

Bless them, they gave away scooch t-shirts, pads, and flags! Straighteurovision didnt ask for one, as we had no-where to stash it to hide the embarassment!

Interestingly, Terry Wogan was suposed to be on the flight but didnt turn up....hope he didnt enjoy his eurovision just a little too much!

So, 2nd bottom and the worst UK eurovision result since Jemini....Bring back Daz!

Serbia Was Absolute Rubbish!!!!

Ok only joking!

It was a superb song and an equally superb vocal! Shame for the UK though, and from the after party Russ was in good spirit, while Caroline seemed very down! Oh its all Jemini again isn't it!

To be fair, the UK did give a performance of an OK song, while following my TXT to mrs straighteurovision after song 14 that Ireland and France were going to do well, I seem to have taken them with me! Oh well at least our neighbours went with us!

The EBU need to look at the voting proceedure, and I would suggest returning to voting from only the countries who have qualified for the final, and a same system in the semis....it's much fairer that way! Serbia would still have won no doubt, but maybe Sweden, Finland, France, Ireland and maybe the UK would have had much more respectable scores....

Talking of respectable scores, Olivia Lewis' blog the other day was all doom and gloom, and one could be accused of suggesting she was close to the edge; well it doesn't get better for Olivia. The news broke out that Malta finished 4th last in the semi, while Austria also only managed 4 points...Switzerland finish 20 out of 28, while Portugal narrowly missed out...thats right Portugal finished 11th...shocker!!

But the voting is neighbourly, or political whatever you want to call it...Croatia (the dire, vomit enducing, elevator music) finished 16th...not because it was any good, because countries like Bosnia, macedonia and serbia all voted for it!

Anyway all in all a great week, but I am not looking forward to Belgrade next year in the slightest. I would have prefered a flight to St Petersberg! Gotta go, am flying later on this evening...hope to see you all soon as I have some aftershow party pics to upload tomorrow.

Finally a word for those who chose to boo during virtually every song last night....MAKE LOVE NOT WAR! Or Alternatively your a bunch of pathetic w##kers!

X

All done!

Right thats it all 24 have been played and if the Uk could vote for ourselves, Scooch would have at least one set of 12 points. As it stands Russia, Belarus, Latvia, Serbia and oh and the UK....lol....

(BTW) the Norwegens to my right conceded the UK song came over well!

Final Dress-rehearsal - Moldova

Watch out for the outfit. It seems to be the talk of the town! Plus the serbian girls got her eye on it, or maybe Natalie Barbu herself! Yikeeesss!

The song is a rock anthem, much like evanescence. Some other rumours had this winning the semi-final...I seriously doubt it, but it could go top 5 and be the big surprise of the night!!! Certainly a top 15!