Eurovision 2021: Finale and Summary

After the first and second semi finals comes the big night….

Bye Bye Awards…. (in order of appearance).

UK: Affable looking singer in an under-powered performance of a forgettable song (I can’t remember a single thing about it).

Spain: Wimpy ballad that kind of went nowhere. He spent part of the time standing under a large Moon and I found myself wondering about the possibility of it falling and cutting the whole thing short.

Germany: Upbeat little ditty that I might not have hated….. who am I kidding? I’d hate it in any context. Featured a dancing middle finger to the audience (and the feeling was very mutual).

People can't believe Germany's 'middle finger' Eurovision entry - Wales  Online

Germany expressing its love for Eurovision

France: Very Piafesque. Not completely updated (as opposed to revived) but delivered with a lot of intensity and a real feeling of momentum toward the end. Best thing France has done at Eurovision in decades.

Netherlands: I want to like this but partly it sounded as if it were from a musical called Lion Kings of the Caribbean. I liked that the chorus was in Sranan (creole language from Surinam) but the English lyrics were woke and dreary.

Italy: A hard rock number delivered with glam rock flair and the lead singer wore a type of bondage overalls while rockstarring his best all over the damn place. Enough energy and commitment that even I (not a hard rock fan at all) was won over.

In the final voting, it turned out, longtime betting favorite Italy won (thanks to a massive win in the televoting), with France and Switzerland in respectable runners up.

Nul Points Award

Major shock when the televotes were announced. The UK (with no votes from the judges) got skunked by the public as well. But… he took it stride and owned the moment with good humor big bows and spraying beer like champagne.

Will Ferrell's Eurovision: Story Of Fire Saga Predicted James Newman Getting  No Points

Losing with class

And a good thing too, as his reaction took a little bit of the sting out of the next three (Germany, Spain and the Netherlands) who also got nul points.

All the countries getting no points and finishing at the bottom had byes into the final. It would be so much better for the big 5 and the host country to exit gracefully in the semis than be rushed into the final for this type of humiliation.

The Babel Award

In a big break from tradition the top three and number five rated performances were not sung in English. The winner was in Italian, the two runners up in French and number five was in Ukrainian. Maybe viewers are decided that committed and competently performed numbers in other languages can connect with audiences more than simplistic songs in international crap English (which tends to the awkward and weirdly affectless simultaneously).

Final thoughts…. I barely watched any interval acts or extra features. I did happen to see the second semi interval act which featured a dance duet between a guy on a bike and a whirling dervish.

This makes perfect sense in Eurovisionese….

But I’m so glad Eurovision is back. May it never be cancelled again!


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