The ESC soirée rundown

[jawnbc]

First and foremost, many many thanks to the co-host with the co-most: the gorgeous querrelle. It's not everyone who can manage a queer pot luck. Not a single fist fight.

We invited folks for 1030am for the brunch. toneyvr brought an LCD projector to follow the stream from eurovistion.tv--which aside from a couple of brief glitches was terrific. Last year we invited about 20 and 12 showed: this year we invited 20 and ended up with 21! People were crammed cozily on the chesterfield, in chairs, on the floor. So anytime someone needed the 'loo we had to briefly reconfigure. There were perhaps 5 Eurovision virgins--counting the fella who watch once. When Dana Domestic won Ireland's first crown in 1970.

And what better food to serve the guests (as our contribution to the pot luck) than hot dogs. Beef and veggie. A huge hit!

To warm them up we had the 50th anny DVD running, plus I showed them Dustin. I think that scared the newbies. I also gave out a few valuable prizes for answering trivia questions. Which My Evil Twin Dr Dyke kept getting right, so I ignored her. We also had the BBC's ballots and people were encouraged to vote for their faves.

Here's a recap of the audience reaction to each song:

Romania: the guys all wanted to shag Vlad. When Nico started singing everyone burst out laughing. I gave 'em 12!
UK: He can sing. He needs a song. And an outfit. But mostly a song.
Albania: People were being a bit harsh, until I pointed out she was 16. Then all of sudden they were like "wow, then she's great"
Germany: the highlight of the night really. If we make the Big 4 qualify, we won't have any awful songs in the final. And what's the Eurovision without at least a couple of awful songs? The sort of performance that would make Mother Theresa say "shut up betches!"
Armenia: A very divided reaction. A third loved her; another third loathed her; the last third liked it except for the chorus when she shrieked.
Bosnia & Herzegovina: This went over huge! People were singing, laughing and everyone burst into applause at the end!
Israëll: Everyone was captivated by the opening. The lads remained captivated by his looks. Best arms and armpits of the night. Great song. Also very popular.
Finland: Everyone but the newbies said "Lordi again?"
Croatia: Also well-liked. The li-di-di-di-di song, the old geezer, even the dancer wasn't too annoying.
Poland: I warned them about the teeth, but we were still afraid to put our fingers near the projector. But a few liked the song.
Iceland: Aside from his slightly scary in-bred looks, this was very much appreciated for keeping the queer in Eurovision. Trance music, muscly arms, a basque, passionate singing. A bit repetitive though.
Turkey: Those who like rock liked it. Those who liked Turkish men did too. ;)
Portugal: At a time when the energy flew out of the room during the 'loo break, Vania wrested our attention back very well. But several of us will always go for the big girl with the big voice.
Latvia: Camptastic. Everyone was enjoying until someone asked "did it keep better songs out of the final?" End.Of.Laughter. We are robbing you blind, and yes we do fucking mind. We wanted Bulgaria or Macedonia, thanks.
Sweden: Again, everyone started laughing when she opened. Then they trashed her plastic surgery. Then someone shouted "oh come on now, she is 70 you know!" Towards the end several begrudgingly admitted she's a great singer. But the performance was too polished--to the point of soulless. Even so, we were shocked to find out the juries had saved her in the semi's (she was actually 12th).
Denmark: Pleasant
Georgia: Peas will come. Mushy peas most likely. But if she doesn't win the Barbara Dex Award there is no justice: not 1 but 2 bad frocks. And no blind jokes peoples.
Ukraine: the hands down favourite. The second cheer of the night.
France: kinda fun, kinda ok song, kinda boring, really.
Azerbaijan: Best comment "we could build another hospital? Or maybe some more schools?" "No--we need more wings for the Eurovision!" Thank you Europe for putting them in the final. Although most assumed they were singing in Azerbaijani rather than English.
Greece: Some of us thought it was fun and very polished. Most found it too Britney betch.
Spain: Fell flat.
Serbia: Another BBBB (Big Bloody Balkan Ballad), complete with na na nas. But she's no Marija or Hari or Zejko, and the song was no Molitva, Lane Moje or Leila. Thank gawd: had Serbia won again I think we'd be back down to 30 countries next year.
Russia: OK song, good performer who needs a sedative to calm those bug-eyes. No one believed me when I said there was a rising ladder in this originally. Evgeni Plushenko sure must have a lot of free time on his hands. Will there be hockey players behind next year's Swedish entry?
Norway: A relief really: a nice song sung and performed well by a really nice, meaty gal. Very popular, but everyone was glad that was the last song.

So clearly Bosnia, Norway, Ukraine were the favourites for all the right reasons; Azerbaijan for all the wrong ones.

The results of the Canadian jury were:

1 point: Poland
2 points: Iceland
3 points: Armenia
4 points: Greece
5 points: Portugal
5 points: Still Portugal
6 points: Norway
7 points: Croatia
8 points: Israël
10 points: Bosnia & Herzegovina
12 points: Ukraine

Russia (the winners) didn't rate highly. In fact, no one had them down for 12 points. We had to count back twice to find someone who gave Dima International 8 points--Dave, one of our newbies. He was awarded a precious 2007 Helsinki Eurovision Song Contest casquette. Surprisingly people cleared out shortly after the end (15h15 local time)...what, 4 hours is too much? ;)

Thanks again everyone--see you next year?

Comments

[jamaisneutral.livejournal.com]

Fantastic! A fresh take on Eurovision. The same thing happened on my sofa with Israel. First off "you know that's a guy singing, right?" "that's a guy??" ... then he comes on and it's all "well hel-lo there".
The Girlfriend and I love the song, but the guys (and straight girls) just kept going "he's good looking". Tsk.
And NO points for Russia, that's even better ;-) We all burst out laughing when he ripped open his shirt. How spontaneous.

[jawnbc]

I think Israël should send nothing but Yemeni singers, non?

I don't know anyone who's even considering going to Russia next year either...

[jamaisneutral.livejournal.com]

One girl here kept going "Russia's not in Europe, it's Asia". When I pointed out the EBU rules to her she was still not convinced.
Poor Dima. Still, by this time next year he'll probably have received a sainthood and a whole city named after him.

[thedeej.livejournal.com]

Personally I like Ajerbaijan but hey, two hot europeans gotta love that. Very disapointed with Russia's win. what's with slow smaltz winning two years in a row? Unfortunatly there was no way for Greece to catch up.

It is nice to know I'm not the only Eurovision freak. Most people I know don't even know what it is.

[jawnbc]

you are not alone :)

[jawnbc]

And you should join the community on here. In fact, you've just been invited (I moderate it)

[thedeej.livejournal.com]

I am so there!

yet to download any songs from this year but after I finished watching and walked to the pool I felt compeled to listend to Ukraine from last year.

I had to do something to get Ireland Douze Points out of my head. I may need surgery

[jawnbc]

Eastern Europe, we love you! do you like Irish stew? Or goulash as it is to you?

Classic. Almost as brill as Silvia Night

[thedeej.livejournal.com]

It's more of a constant loop of Terry Wogan's wig, the title and Eurohands and Eurofeet.

[weekilter.livejournal.com]

Just FYI: If you're going to spell en français it's Israël :)

[jawnbc]

I did ;)

[gfrancie.livejournal.com]

I thought Israel had a lot of pretty going on. (but this might lead to a whole conversation about my long hot lust for Israeli guys in general)
Russia winning? Oh man. Who knew that super tight pants and on the knees singing would win? It was okay but it wasn't great.
Germany scared me and amused me. The redhead who appeared to be sporting a fright-wig. The capes! The barely there dresses! So bad and so funny.

[jawnbc]

You should totally book a hotel up here for the Friday night, have Mr Jenner take Senior Onion to the Stanley Park choo-choo (I assume Sir Jenner is aloof about the Eurovision, as the English are), and join the partay next year!

[gfrancie.livejournal.com]

Mr. Jenner isn't terribly aloof but he doesn't have the enthusiasm that you have.
But that would be a kick-ass party.

[gorkabear.livejournal.com]

Awesome comments, hehehe
In my place everybody was biased with Spain's entry. Boooo!
I personally liked Ukraine and voted for them

Bear Pride Eurovision

[aadroma.livejournal.com]

I ran into a certain iberianbear at Bear Pride, and we did an impromptu party. Iceland was the clear favourite in the room, whereas Geramany's entry ... well, that got plenty of laughter (the fro, the offkey harmonics -- the whole package!).

France's camera angles were ... erm ... very disjointed. o_O

Did you have decent sound from eurovision.tv? Because we'd tried that initially and the sound was barely loud enough to hear from that feed, so we just used Alberto's rigged feed from his TVE station in San Francisco...

A shame Portugal didn't do better, but great taste with Israel; I'm quite proud of the top 10 placing!

Re: Bear Pride Eurovision

[jawnbc]

Our sound was fine, but we used external speakers that were quite strong.

[perkk.livejournal.com]

I was hoping for Iceland. We watched it streaming over the Internet in a hotel room in Chicago.