So we're finally done for another year! That was a ride. So many thoughts and opinions to summarise, but I'll only give my main ones or I'll be here until next NF season starts.
Firstly - Jamala won! A unique, heartfelt ethnic entry rose up as an underdog to barely take first place, breaking all kinds of records and trends. It's the kind of music I love, and I'm hoping it'll inspire some great stuff next year (though I do give my condolences to those who weren't a fan. I get that it's very much a divisive song).
The voting was... better than I'd expected the new system to be, really. The new method of combining jury and televote let my favourite take the win, which was nice, plus it also rewarded some other controversial entries (most notably Poland), which I'm always happy with regardless of my personal views on the song. It wasn't perfect - I'd have preferred it if they'd kept the reveal of the 8s and 10s, and perhaps if they'd swapped the ways of revealing the jury and televote - but it certainly made for some of the most dramatic voting since I started watching the contest. Hats off to Sweden, I'll admit that they made it work better than I thought they could have. I wouldn't mind extending the trial of the new system for another year!
I still have no idea how to feel about how things went down - I was sitting there in my loungeroom, watching three great songs battle it out, each of which I loved for different reasons. In a way I'd have absolutely loved to see Dami get the win, take home the medal for some patriotic joy, give us the chaotic spectacle of seeing how we'd try to host... but it wasn't to be, I suppose. I was never going to get both the patriotic win and the 'best song' win, and I'm entirely happy with only getting the latter.
The stage ended up being average, I think - and I mean that in the literal sense, not 'it was boring'. Better than some, worse than others. A slight shame, considering how amazing it looked in the initial promo pictures, but combined with stage direction it did its job - we got plenty of spectacular stage acts, and I like that countries were putting a lot more effort into staging for this year. Sure, there was a bit of an obsession with projections and the colour blue, but we also had some really cool props, screen effects and dance routines, so I think the end result came out ahead of last year's tree-fest. If nothing else, it was an improvement on Sweden's last stage from 2013!
The non-stage parts of the hosting were great - probably the best I've seen since I started watching in 2007. The hosts were both fantastic, they played off each other well, and the jokes in their scripts were actually pretty good for once. For once I actually loved the majority of interval acts - despite the rather forgettable and out-of-place Justin Timberlake cameo, pretty much everything else was great and memorable, with 'Love Love Peace Peace' being a particular highlight of mine. It's certainly a step above the usual level of '20 minute drum solo, advertisements for tourism in the host country, and a local rapper you've never heard of'.
My only big negatives were, perhaps, the relative glut of same-ish mainstream pop, and the fact that a lot of my favourites (Hungary, Latvia, Serbia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Belarus, Iceland) ended up far lower on the scoreboard than I'd have liked them to. You can't win 'em all, though, and I think having my big underdog favourite take the win, with my own country second, negates any other complaints I could have had about the scoring and songs.
A pretty good year overall, I'd say. Bring on Ukraine 2017!
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