I love Eurovison...
I rarely hear anything I'd normally consider listening too, but that's not the point.
The voting in itself is hilarious; it used to be by a jury in each country. Then they moved to telephone voting; the results were still as partisan. Ukraine obviously want to have gas next winer as they gave Russia 12 points! If you share a border or share a language, give extra points. Turkey were given 12 points by both the Netherlands and Germany due to canny voting by the large Turkish populations in those countries.
The UK attemp was a bit crass; pseudo-St. Trinian's school-girl fetish with the ultimate anathema; a white guy rapping. How more bad can you get?
Lots of classic Euro-pop like Sweden, getting lots of votes like always.
Lativia were really good, as was Bosnia-H.
But Finland; I'd heard it before and thought it rather jolly, liking that sort of shit. But I had no idea what they looked like - my jaw quite literally dropped, and I'm glad they won.
It was quite fab; and they won because of the 'rock triangle' and Scandinavian solidarity; they got 10 or 12 points from all other Nordic countries and any country in the 'rock triangle' (start in the Balkans, draw a line to Norway, and then to Russia before going back to the Balkans) gave them good points. You would not believe the unreconstructed rock music that is still loved there, from poodle hair to Spinal Tap to Death Metal.
I think accusations they're Satanists would come as a surprise to the band members - it's a band okay? Eurovision is about theatrical music; it's not about a song you hear a few second of and are entranced by (like when we turned over at the end and caught the end-titles of something with some beautifully ethereal girl singing with a guitar as end music).
Expect too much and you'll be disappointed; it's a $ucking laugh, that's what it is, but no more an indication of musical qaulity than winning Pop-Idol.
The Finnish entry are actually an established proper band, it wasn't some get-up for the night. I love it... and the fact the Finns voted for it to represent them is even funnier... shit like that restores my faith in human nature...