The big night is almost here!

Just back from a fabulous 4 night break in Turkey...now catching up with all the Eurovision news before getting ready for the big night.  So, how many of my foolish predictions from my previous post from last Sunday came true?  By the way, I have not yet watched the semi-finals and won't watch them till after the contest, so I don't really know how deserved these results were...!

Well I didn't do too badly, got Israel, Netherlands, Slovenia, Belarus wrong - particularly sad about "Time" and "We Are The Heroes" as they're two of my big faves this year.

On the plus side though, well done to Compact Disco - fantastic!  Kurt for Malta was a very surprising but quite welcome qualifier too.

However...
Bosnia-H?  Macedonia?  Would these songs have qualified if they'd come from, say, Finland or Switzerland?

I am far from being one of those people who reach for the sour grapes and blame bloc voting whenever certain results occur at ESC - a particularly British trait perhaps.

But in my own view, I feel there's been a particularly drastic change notably since the introduction of the semi-final in 2004.  On the one hand, it's a good thing that everyone gets a chance to compete on Europe's biggest musical level playing field for at least one night; but it has to be said that since 2004 the focus has shifted so far to the extent that you find yourself sitting on the Saturday night yelling out the 8s, 10s and 12s before the jury spokesperson does.   Whether or not you agree, bloc voting and the so-called "diaspora" vote do exist, and you will see more evidence of that tonight.  Rant over.

Regardless of all that, the Eurovision Song Contest is still the greatest TV show in the world, and I wouldn't miss it for anything.  I have always had my reservations about Azerbaijan staging the contest, but I hope that Baku gives us a sparkling and worthy final tonight, with all the performers giving their very best.  

Happy Eurovision night!