And so the contest reached its conclusion last night. After months of me sarcastically livetweeting the national selections (I do wonder how many unfollows I got as a result of that), then flying out to watch the semifinals in Vienna, and then watching the finals on back home on TV, it’s all over.
So, how was it?
This second review of the contest comes from my home back in Wales, having negotiated a flight, the circle of Hades that is the M25, and the Bank Holiday traffic to get back from Bratislava. I watched the Jury Show of the second semi-final on Wednesday live in Vienna. Last night I discovered that, disgracefully, Slovakian TV doesn’t screen the Eurovision, so I had to watch the event via an online livestream. There was some amusement at watching the “spontaneous” interviews between artists and Conchita Wurst being repeated verbatim from the previous night.
I’m currently sitting in a very pleasant hotel room in Bratislava, Slovakia, having got in at 2am last night from watching the first semi-final of the Eurovision live in Vienna. I’ve also been catching up some of the highlights on YouTube, because from past experience some acts comes across differently on TV to watching them in the flesh. Time for me to post some thoughts on last night’s show.
Apologies to those of you who’ve had your Twitter timelines clogged up with me livetweeting the various national selections for this year’s Eurovision Song Contest. The good news for you is that all the entries have now been announced (with the exception of Montenegro, who for some reason are waiting until next weekend to unveil their act).
Watching all these shows has been at times fun, at times exhausting. I’ve seen some great entertainment, and also some rubbish along the way. Having gone through this process, I’m now going to reveal my top ten acts that you’ll be seeing perform at Vienna in a couple of months. Naturally, these are my own subjective opinions, so feel free to disregard them as worthless.
I’m sure some of my regular blog readers are rolling their eyes and skimming past whenever I go off-topic to talk about the Eurovision. It’s something that outside of May tends to be feel (in the UK anyway) like a bit of a niche interest. Which is odd given that it’s the biggest musical event in the world. Personally I enjoy following it because of the way an ostensibly-silly show has a habit of highlighting all kinds of interesting topics.
Last year’s contest highlighted the issue of gender identity, with bearded drag act Conchita Wurst taking the prize. This year, 3 of the acts have physical or intellectual disabilities. This leaves me wondering whether 2015 will do for disability what 2014 did for gender.
As some of you may have noticed, I’ve been going a bit off-topic recently on this blog, talking about my guilty-pleasure Eurovision hobby. As it happens, there’s a development which neatly juxtaposes this with my professional interest in health and social care.
In a fortnight’s time, Finland will pick their Eurovision entry. In the running is a punk band called Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät (which means Pertti Kurikan’s Name Day). They all either have Down’s Syndrome or are on the autistic spectrum.
It’s time for you all to roll your eyes again as I present a follow-up to my previous post about the Eurovision Song Contest. I have no doubt that in recent weeks my Twitter followers have been scrambling for the mute button as I livetweeted various national selections around Europe.
Time to reflect a little on what’s been learned so far. Continue reading
Over the past couple of months some of you may have had a shock. Tuning into my Twitter account expecting some highbrow insights on psychotherapy, or politics, or mental health….and instead discovering I was livetweeting the Albanian or Maltese selections for the Eurovision Song Contest.
What can I say? Everybody needs a guilty pleasure.
Unsafe Spaces 