Brom goes to Eurovision

Coocoo

It was that time of year again when Eurovision comes into our lives. And you may know that Mara loves it. And when Duncan Laurence won for the Netherlands in 2019, she was screaming and hollering, waking the neighbours two blocks away and being very very happy. 

Ticket for Monday's Jury show, this year

Then the tickets for the 2020 edition finally went on sale and both she and Gera managed to get tickets. Real tickets to see the real Eurovision! They had chosen the jury shows, so they would get the whole proper show, but would be able to see it afterwards on television as well. Money was involved as well.

And then the unthinkable happened: a little round virus was doing the rounds. More and more and more and in the end, the contest was cancelled. The ticket prices were returned and apart from a cd with music: nothing!

However the show must go on eventually and this year it did. With restrictions (only 3,500 spectators per show instead of 16,500), face masks, testing, exclusion of 'at risk' people. The tickets would go on sale first of all for those who had had tickets to the original show. And Mara managed to get one. So did Gera, which she then handed over to Mara as she is still unable to travel to the Netherlands. 

The first thing to do on Monday and Wednesday was get tested. Because only a negative test result would allow you in. This was checked against your ID, so faking it was already quite hard. Then everything was scanned (they scanned me specially, I was ok) and we were in! We got bracelets that lit up during the show, but it fit better around my neck.

Tix, the Norwegian entry.

We took our seat and there were people sitting right next to us. Like touching! It was quite strange, but also quite nice to feel 'normal' again, even for a night. And then the show started. The four hosts came on, they introduced the show and then the first act came on. Lithuania! We did wave our little Lithuanian flag for them. 

Ticket for Wednesday's Jury show, this year

The songs were great (apart from Romania who couldn't keep her notes right) and we sang along, waved our flags, shouted, clapped and really enjoyed the shows. But we also admired the backstage crew. There was only like two minutes between acts and in that time they would sweep, mop and hoover; take out the old and put in the new sets and then run off again. 

The Icelandic delegation had a confirmed Corona case and used this rehearsal video.

On Tuesday and Thursday it was the televised show and it was really good to see the acts again, this time the way they should look and sound: slick and polished and good. Apart from Romania who was still rubbish. Our favourites were Lithuania from show one and Portugal from show two. 

Supplies

On Saturday we watched the final at home with Oma and Opa. We all had different opinions on who was the best, but in the end we were all wrong. We all thought the Ukraine (5th), France (2nd), Switzerland (3rd), Iceland (4th) or Portugal (12th) would score highly. But in the end, it was Italy who took home the win! Limp Bizkit style apparently. Next year: Rome (or Hadrian's Wall, which was built by a Roman).