Okay, I know you’ve all been waiting for this with eager anticipation, so, given that a week has now passed since the final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2011, it’s about time I filled you all in about Düsseldorf (not worth a visit), the final itself (fantastic), my thoughts on the winners (not bad, but not my favourites by any stretch) and a postscript on German customer service (don’t expect any – but I’ll leave that there!)
Firstly, I must say the German host broadcaster, NDR, put on a fantastic show this year. With almost 40,000 people in the arena on the night, it was also a very large show, even compared with the larger venues we’ve become used to in recent Eurovision history. The arena took six weeks to put together, made a German football team temporarily homeless and the end result was a beautiful stage that complimented the theme of this year’s Eurovision well – last year, we had Share The Moment, this year, Feel Your Heartbeat. Azerbaijan have a lot to follow on from given the successes of the last three Eurovision Song Contests. But anyway, back on this year for now…
Düsseldorf
To be honest, I can’t recommend Düsseldorf as a place to go. It’s not a bad place by any stretch, but it’s not great fun either. It’s very business oriented, and this is reflected well in the airport itself, which I have to say was a lot larger than I had expected! It’s not a particularly expensive place to go, but if you’re looking for something to do, I don’t think you’ll find a huge amount going on, save a visit to the zoo.
Düsseldorf always struck me as an odd choice to host Eurovision this year – I would have thought Hamburg, Munich and Berlin would be better host cities, but obviously the organisers have more to consider than my whims, but it would be nice if they consulted me and gave me at least one veto each year…
The Final
I must say, I thought the general quality in the final was rather good this year. There weren’t too many I didn’t like, even in the final third of the draw, which was definitely the weakest. The contest was very tight this year and people universally struggled to pick a winner. Most people – myself included – were surprised France were favourites. Corsican opera didn’t seem like a winner as a concept, but there was firm betting money behind it, it was clearly the frontrunner in that regard, and the betting has been on the money in recent years. Thus, in the absence of a clear alternative winner, many of us just assumed our reservations must be misplaced…
Personally, I expected the UK entry to be up there, but not to win, and with similar expectations for Sweden and Azerbaijan. I didn’t seriously think Ireland would challenge, and not Italy either… It was obvious that Germany would finish in the midfield, and that Switzerland and Lithuania would struggle. I expected Estonia to be up there and thought Moldova would struggle. So, I got it all a bit wrong. After the results, there was a lot of head-scratching in the Eurovision world. But, in hindsight, Azerbaijan winning was perhaps quite obvious – they always do well, they always have a good, popular act, and they have some good neighbours who usually give them favourable points. In 2009, when Norway stole the show, they finished in third, only eleven points behind Iceland’s Yohanna - any other year, and that could have been victory. Last year, they finished fifth – not far behind second place, in fact – despite pulling the short straw of opening the show. So, to be honest, maybe I should have seen it coming, with a good draw in a year with nothing really standing above the crowd.
My personal scorecard from the final places my top five as follows:
- Lena (Germany) – Taken By A Stranger
- Anna Rossinelli (Switzerland) – In Love For A While
- Blue (United Kingdom) – I Can
- Paradise Oskar (Finland) – Da Da Dum
- Kati Wolf (Hungary) – What About My Dreams
Of course, what you hear in the arena and what you hear on TV are different. Eric Saade sounded flat in the arena, to my disappointment at the time, but watching the final on TV, the track came across very well. Had he received a later draw, I suspect he may have sneaked the win. Kati Wolf sounded a little quiet in the arena, but her vocals sounded much weaker on TV. Blue sounded better in the arena than on TV too. The French entry was not at all popular in the arena. Polite applause was all it receieved – at which point, everyone realised it wasn’t going to win!
But, I have to say, my two favourites, far and away above the rest, were Lena and Anna Rossinelli. Lena is just so quirky, you either love it or you don’t. Taken By A Stranger was definitely a Marmite song in that respect. I came firmly on the “love it” side, and the crowd – being German – went berserk when Lena came on both at the start of the contest and for her entry. Anna Rossinelli was also very good, but unfortunately, In Love For A While is probably too slow to get enough votes to do well across Europe these days.
Noelinho.org, Live
This system worked really well for the two semi finals, but unfortunately, German mobile coverage appears not to be as robust as their Norwegian counterparts, and it kept falling over itself in the arena. Note to self – leave someone else in charge at home next time! But thank you to everyone who visited the live site – it was a good experiment, and one I may repeat in future for other things! I built the live site myself, from scratch (with a little jQuery thrown in) in three frantic weeks of evenings. I’m amazed it survived without crashing and also that I made it so easy to use and update form my mobile – although I will need to tighten the security if I want to use it for anything else…
Final Thoughts
It was great fun, as you’d expect. It was nice to have someone with me this year, but Oslo easily beats Düsseldorf as a place! Norway > Germany. Sorry Germans, but it’s true. Also, Norwegian > German. Can’t wait for next year, but I don’t think I’ll be there! I would like to go to the Norwegian/Swedish National Finals though…
Hi, Noel!
Great overview of the show! Not that funny, but very professional. You should bring this to some newspaper! It would be very good to reed it in Ryanair’s magazine, for example!Haven’t you think about it?! I’m glad you liked the show in general. How did you like the hosts (Anke Engelke, Judith Rakers and Stefan Raab)? And how did you like”Satellite” sang by Stefan Raab? I can’t really decide if I liked 2 hosts better than 3..I think I vote for 2 hosts, cause 3 makes kind a crowd, hard to focus on them!
Your live website was just awesome and gave me lot of fun! Tusen takk!
If you are really going to Melodifestivalen and Melodi Grand Prix, please let me join!
Good job! :)
evija