Well it is if you are an Austrian Eurovision fan. Over the years Austria have taken part 45 times and only finished in the Top 5 on 5 occasions including their win back in 1966 with Ugo Jurgens with his famous ditty "Merci Cherie". The last time Austria graced us with a placing in the Top 10 was in 2003 with Alf Poier when he finished 6th. Austria then finished 21st in 2004 and since then have been stuck in the Semi Final. Global Kryner was probably Austria's best chance of re-qualification to the Final in 2005 as it was one of the best performed songs in the semi and also one of the most original, unfortunately it was not meant to be and the result ended in the Austrian Broadcaster saying "Enough is Enough" and then withdrew from 2006. Coming back in 2007 after much pressure from Eurovision fans both living in and out of Austria, a singer and song were chosen internally which once again ended in disappointment for the Austrian faithful 27th out of the 28 nations in the semi. With that in mind Austria have not thrown their teddy out of the pram and said we wont be in Belgrade they have in fact embraced the challenge and will be in Belgrade singing their hearts out with god only knows who and you never know with the 2 semi finals anything is possible and Austria could well be in the Final for the first time since 2005.
Well another year's contest is over and I'm now back at home. So what are my thoughts on the contest? There are two things that stand out this year.... 1. Belgrade's/Serbia's apathy towards the contest, and 2. The results (as always!) So let's look at them in turn.... 1. After the recent elections, it appears that Serbians are keen to join the EU and after many years of troubles, which I will not go into, I would have thought that hosting the Eurovision would have been an excellent way to show what they are capable of. However, in the city itself, you would have been hard pressed to actually know that the contest was taking place! For most of the week, the only thing you could see with regards to the Eurovision was that a few shops were cashing in on the merchandise, a single information stall in one of the squares and I saw one advertisment for the Azerbaijan entry (there may have been more). So why did they not take up the opportunity? Was it that after the rec...
So it's the beginning of February and the UK are all ready for Eurovision . For so many years we've had to wait until the last minute before finding out who was going to represent us. However, with the passing of Wogan's reign over the ridicule of Eurovision in the UK, we were told that it was now time to take it seriously again to bring the Eurovision back to the UK shores, rather than being the laughing stock of the rest of Europe. With UK fans having been told this numerous times before by the BBC, could we believe that this year was any different? Enter Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber , probably one of the best musical writers ever known (well, in my eyes anyway!) Maybe we were going to take it seriously this time. Stepping into Wogan's shoes, to take it seriously.... we choose a comedian!!?! To choose our entrant, 5 shows - 4 being live, with Andrew Lloyd Webber writing the song for the winner. Seriousness is thrown out of the window right from the start with so...
After watching the Cypriot final on eurovision.tv I am left with one burning question! Do Cyprus want to qualify from their semi-final? With a good number of entries over recent years I was looking forward to seeing the first national final to be webcast over eurovision.tv, however I really couldn't believe my eyes when the result was announced. One word that comes to mind with the winner is..... outdated! I could quite imagine this song being sung in an old black and white movie, but in the 2008 Eurovision - come on! It's about time that countries took this contest seriously! To win Eurovision now, you have to either have very good friendly neighbours or a damn good song. I know good songs are hard to find, but at least they could try! This song isn't even a good novelty song like Ukraine 2007. I'd say that this song would be a nil pointer, but everyone knows that they'll get 12 points from Greece! Here's a video of the winning song...... why Cyprus, WHY?!
Well it is if you are an Austrian Eurovision fan. Over the years Austria have taken part 45 times and only finished in the Top 5 on 5 occasions including their win back in 1966 with Ugo Jurgens with his famous ditty "Merci Cherie". The last time Austria graced us with a placing in the Top 10 was in 2003 with Alf Poier when he finished 6th. Austria then finished 21st in 2004 and since then have been stuck in the Semi Final. Global Kryner was probably Austria's best chance of re-qualification to the Final in 2005 as it was one of the best performed songs in the semi and also one of the most original, unfortunately it was not meant to be and the result ended in the Austrian Broadcaster saying "Enough is Enough" and then withdrew from 2006. Coming back in 2007 after much pressure from Eurovision fans both living in and out of Austria, a singer and song were chosen internally which once again ended in disappointment for the Austrian faithful 27th out of the 28 nations in the semi. With that in mind Austria have not thrown their teddy out of the pram and said we wont be in Belgrade they have in fact embraced the challenge and will be in Belgrade singing their hearts out with god only knows who and you never know with the 2 semi finals anything is possible and Austria could well be in the Final for the first time since 2005.
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