Oops!

It's that time of the year again: Eurovision! Well, it was last week. By now the winner is safely home, being regarded as a hero. First things first however, the ones I liked and didn't like. Let me say this first though: my favourites usually don't count for much. I tend to pick out the ones that end up in the nether regions of the final, or don't make it to the final at all. So, keep that in mind when reading this post. 

During the first semi final a week ago, there were two favourites that stood out for me. Belgium and Portugal. Belgium had a young girl in a dress that seemed to belong to her mother, but she had a beautiful song. Portugal had a young man in a jacket that was probably two sizes too big for him, but he sang a fantastic love song. In Portuguese as well, which meant he got an extra point from me. 

During the second final that took place on the Thursday, it was very much samey-samey, but there were a few songs that stood out. Croatia had the most awful song (I thought) sung by a guy who looked too slick and slightly on the creepy side. Norway was a close second on the bad-front, although when I listened to it again, it wasn't that bad. 

My favourite though was Romania. Who knew the combination of rap and yodeling was any good? And of course you are wondering about the Netherlands? Well, for me it was neither here nor there. The message was good, but it just didn't do it for me.

Of course the semi finals is one thing, you have to bring it on the night of the final, which was Saturday. All the countries mentioned went through plus the 'big five' (UK, France, Spain, Italy and Germany) plus the host country (Ukraine, after last year's win) who were already in.

Anyway, everybody sang their songs, there was a horse head, semi-naked men in a paddling pool, a moon, the always present violins, big dresses, little dresses, a mask and basically it was a good night. Until the voting started and it became brilliant. First off it was the jury's votes. And my favourite got points. Lots and lots of points. And then some more. Something special was happening. At the end of the jury-vote, Portugal was leading by just over 100 hundred points. But everything could be lost easily in the viewer-vote.

They started with the country who got the fewest votes and worked their way up. Even though the jury had given the Netherlands a fair amount of points, the viewers didn't feel the same and only gave them 15. Norway didn't do much better with 29 (they ended on 11th and 10th place respectively). Croatia had not been popular with the jury, but the viewers liked it a bit better, it ended in 13th place. Romania had gotten a bad score from the jury, but the fun of the song made sure it got lots of points from the viewers. It ended up in 7th place.

So, what about Belgium then? It had been in the middle with the jury, but again the viewers liked it better and it went all the way up to 4th. In the end there were only two countries left on the board that hadn't got their viewer scores yet. Bulgaria (who was in second place) with 278 points and Portugal (in the lead) with 382. The next country to be called would most likely be a deal breaker. It was tense, it was exciting, it was Bulgaria with 337 points! Which meant that for the first time in the 53 years of their participation in the contest, Portugal had won! They got 376 points which made them the clear winner with nearly 150 points more than the runner-up Bulgaria!

PS: Salvador sang alone during the final, but for the reprise of the winning song, he asked his sister and writer of the song to join him on stage. I think it's even better! And yes, just in case you hadn't figured it out yet: this was my favouritest song.