Terminal 3.... The Eurovision Blog

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...

Well I don't think so anyway!!! With the first semi final out of the way I managed to correctly predict that Russia Azerbaijan Poland Norway Romania Greece Armenia Bosnia & Herzegovina all would qualify. What happened to Belgium and The Netherlands??? Well by the looks of it the viewing public didn't think them good enough to qualify!!!!!!!!!!!!! Such a shame as for me 2 of the best songs have once again been knocked out!!! Well the big question is who will join them???

Dobro Dan! Hello from Belgrade and from the Eurocafe, where we are typing this blog from! Wednesday of Eurovision week and what has happened so far?! Well, the travel over from the UK to Belgrade is a story in itself! Paul and I were due to meet up in Frankfurt after taking different Lufthansa flights to Frankfurt. Paul was due to land in Frankfurt from London Heathrow 15 minutes before my Manchester flight landed. However, it seems that Heathrow's problems go further than terminal 5 and his flight was delayed just enough for him to get to the Frankfurt gate, just after they closed it. So there was little old me on the Frankfurt to Belgrade flight by myself wondering where Paul was! After arriving in the hotel, a few hours later I was joined by Paul who looked like he was ready to go home already and was without luggage, which was still somewhere between London and Belgrade. To cheer us all up, we have a UK TV star as one of the receptionists. Yes, Mr. Cheap as Chips, David D...

Ok the first set of rehearsals are over now for semi final 2 and my opinion has not really changed. I still think that the following will go through to the final:- Sweden Iceland Turkey Ukraine Switzerland Denmark Hungary Malta Portugal However I now think that the final place will be between Georgia, Macedonia and Cyprus. Now suprisingly enough I never really liked FYR Macedonia or Cyprus when they were first chosen however, I now think both could qualify but we shall see.

My Opinions have changed somewhat.............. The first 2 days of rehearsals saw the first semi final being rehearsed and I have to say I was pretty suprised by what I saw which now means that I think that the following will qualify:- Norway Azerbaijan Russia Greece Armenia Belgium Greece Romania Poland Bosnia & Herzegovina 1 week to go and we will know

Saturday, 13th May 1995. Dublin, Ireland. The third year running that the contest had taken place in Ireland! To save Ireland's TV company from going out of business, Norway won the contest instead of Ireland. With a song containing only 24 words, Secret Garden won with the song entitled "Nocturne." The top five finishers were..... 1st - Norway - Secret Garden - Nocturne - 148 pts, 2nd - Spain - Anabelle Conde - Vuelve conmigo - 119 pts, 3rd - Sweden - Jan Johnsen - Se på mej - 100 pts, 4th - France - Nathalie Santamaria - Il me donne rendez-vous - 94 pts, 5th - Denmark - Aud Wilken - Fra Mols til Skagen - 92 pts.

Saturday, 13th May 2000 saw the final of the Eurovision Song Contest take place in The Globen Arena, Stockholm. The contest set a record of attendance of 13,000 people, a record which would only last for one year. The contest saw The Olsen Brothers, representing Denmark, win with 195 points, 40 points clear of 2nd place Russia. The top five finishers were.... 1st - Denmark - The Olsen Brothers - Fly On The Wings Of Love - 195 pts, 2nd - Russia - Alsou - Solo - 155 pts, 3rd - Latvia - Brainstorm - My Star - 136 pts, 4th - Estonia - Ines - Once In A Lifetime - 98 pts, 5th - Germany - Stefan Raab - Wadde Hadde dudde da - 96 pts.

We were celebrating the first Estonian win at the Eurovision Song Contest which was the largest contest to date with 38000 in the audience held at the Parken Arena in Copenhagen, Denmark. Dave Benson and Tanel Pader won with the song Everybody and what a close competition it was. I still think France were robbed!!!! Estonia won by obtaining 9 x 12 points and 4 x 10 points. The top 3 of 2001 were:- 1 - Estonia - Dave Benson and Tanel Pader - Everybody - 198 points 2 - Denmark - Rollo & King - Never Ever Let You Go - 177 points 3 - Greece - Antique - Die For You - 147 points

Was Saturday 12 May 2007 and I was just walking out of the arena to celebrate the Serbian win at the Euroclub in Helsinki. I still cant believe that it is a year and I am 5 days away from flying to Belgrade. A convincing first win for Serbia by Marija Serafovic and her song Motliva wining by taking 9 x 12 points and 2 x 10 points. The top 3 in 2007 were as follows:- 1 - Serbia - Marija Serafovic - Motliva - 268 points 2 - Ukraine - Verka Serduchka - Dancing Lasha Tumbai - 235 points 3 - Russia - Serebro - Song Number 1 - 207 points

The first set of countries from Semi Final 1 have today started their rehearsals for this years Eurovision Song Contest. Montenegro Israel Estonia Moldova San Marino Belgium Azerbaijan Slovenia Norway San Marino was very impressive from watching the videos and for me one of my pre contest favourites Slovenia was poor. The musical arrangement for Slovenia's entry has changed quite dramatically but unfortunately in this rehearsal I felt her vocals were poor. I also liked Azerbaijan, Israel and Norway. Well we shall see what tomorrows rehearsals bring.

To Belgrade and I really am not excited about it............NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!! All is in order and myself and Colin will be in Belgrade from Monday 19th until Sunday 25th May, hopefully we will still be able to give some interesting views on what we think and I'm sure that our views on certain songs will change....... I myself with 16 days to go till the final am almost totally convinced that FYR Macedonia will qualify but not sure who will forfeit their place for them. Poland for me is now one that I think the Juries will choose rather than the televoters, but hey what do I know. It would be nice to see Portugal, Switzerland, Belgium and Poland in the final along with the Netherlands but how will the voting public react to the songs............we will soon see. The stage is set for the participants and their delegations to arrive and the rehearsals are due to start next week..... I wish I could have gone earlier but again I have not got enough time off from work. Good Luck to all ...

Way May 9th 1998 and Eurovision fans across Europe were celebrating a not entirely suprising 3rd victory for Israel who were represented by the unforgettable Dana International and her song "Diva. 1998 was the first time in 16 years that the UK had played host after their victory in 1997 it as decided that the best location for this years contest was the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham, and what a contest it was 4 countries held the lead at one point or another throughout the voting those being UK, Netherlands, Malta and Israel and in one of the closest battles fought Malta who were joint 1st with Israel leading in to the penultimate vote actually ended up finishing 3rd behind Israel and UK. The Top 3 of 1998 looking like this:- 1 - Israel - Dana International - Diva - 174 Points 2 - United Kingdom - Imaani - Where Are You? - 167 points 3 - Malta - Chiara - The One That I Love - 166 points

Was May 9th 1992 and Eurovision fans across Europe were celebrating the 4th victory for Ireland and the 3rd for Johnny Logan. Yes it is really 16 years since Linda Martin won in Malmo, Sweden with the song written by Johnny Logan "Why Me?" 1992 was also the first year that the Top 3 songs were sung in English with the Top 3 lloking like this:- 1 - Ireland - Linda Martin - Why Me? 155 Points 2 - United Kingdom - Michael Ball - One Step Out of Time - 139 points 3 - Malta - Mary Spiteri - Little Child - 123 points The lead changed between Malta, UK and Ireland on a few occasions that was until Malta who voted 10th gave Ireland their 12 points and then the lead never changed at all and Ireland won taking 3 sets of top marks and 7 sets of 10 points.

On the 9th May 1987, Eurovision fans around Europe were celebrating the very third victory for Ireland and Johnny Logans second triumph in 7 years Can you believe it 21 years..it only seems like yesterday that Johnny Logan stood on that stage in Brussels and sang Hold Me Now and it was a fairly convincing win since he didnt take the lead until 7th round of voting which were given by Italy. Yugoslavia took an early lead with Novi Fosili and "Ja Sam Za Ples" then on the 6th round of voting Germanys Wind and their song "Lass Die Sonne In Dein Herz" took the lead for one round only to be overtaken by Ireland next. Irelands win was fairly convincing with them ending up taking 8 x 12 points and 3 x 10 points The Top 3 in 1987 looked like this 1 - Ireland - Johnny Logan - Hold Me Now - 172 points 2 - Germany - Wind - Lass Die Sonne In Dein Herz - 141 points 3 - Italy - Umberto Tozzi and Raf - Gente Di Mare - 103 points

Good news for UK fans for the up and coming Eurovision! It seems that with the latest revelations regarding the 1968 contest could see the Spanish in hot water with voters. So the story? Apparently, General Franco wanted to increase the image of Spain so that tourism would continue to florish. So what was his grand plan? Why of course, win the Eurovision. The only sticking point in his plan was that the Spanish entry for that year wasn't of winning quality. So not to be outdone, they decided to rig the vote and hey presto, Spain wins. So can Sir Cliff feel hard done to? No, not according to the French artist for that year! The one who finished below Sir Cliff, she believes that she would have won if it hadn't been for the votes being rigged. So how does she work that one out? She was third! If Spain wouldn't have rigged the votes then the UK would have won with France second. So it will be interesting to see if there is an reaction from voters, but seeing as th...

And the Eurovision Song Contest Final will be upon us............... Who will win? Who will come last? Will the fans favourites qualify? Well with less than 2 weeks now till I fly to Belgrade I must make my own conclusions!!!! My favourites songs are Sweden and Iceland with Armenia suddenly coming up fast on the rails. Suprisingly enough since I have heard some of the revamped songs on this years CD my personal favourites are changing, I now like the songs by Macedonia, Croatia and San Marino but still cannot see any of them winning! Personally I see the race for the Eurovision Crown being a 4 horse race between Russia, Armenia, Serbia and Sweden. Russia or Sweden would be a nice trip in 2009 but expensive. I would like to see Serbia win but only because I have pulled them out of the hat in the office Sweepstake which is now in its 4th year where I work and I organise and it manages to get an extra 50 odd viewers just to see if they have won or not. Now who will come last? Well the...