Eurovision 2008

Following on directly from my recent admission that I'm sometimes a bit of a trekkie, I've got another confession to make. I think that I'm, um, just going to come out and say it ... I enjoy the Eurovision Song Contest :-). Phew, now that I've admitted it I feel much better. Some people think that Eurovision is exceptionally uncool, but then I think that those people take themselves too seriously!

Eurovision has an amazing history. In the 1950's, as Europe slowly rebuilt itself after the second world war, it was conceived by the European Broadcasting Union as a way of promoting international co-operation and mutual understanding of each other's cultures :-). Back then, even linking several countries simultaneously for live TV broadcast was quite a feat. It's obviously evolved a lot since then, from its small beginnings in Switzerland in 1956 when just seven countries that took part, to the huge extravaganza that we saw coming from Belgrade last Saturday night which involved 43 countries.

My favourite song this year was Iceland's "This is my life" sung by Friðrik Ómar and Regína Ósk. The song was a bit Abba like, but then it was the Eurovision Song Contest which launched ABBA on their international career so there's nothing wrong with that. And there was something about the way Friðrik swiftly lifted his forearm as though doing a bicep curl at various points during his routine that had me captivated, although I enjoyed the song as well!

The biggest disappointment of the evening was the poor reception that the UK's song got from the other countries. I thought that it was quite a reasonable entry, certainly much better than France's and Portugal's entries this year, however for some reason we came joint last with Germany and Poland. Never mind, there's always next year :-).