Recent content by Mickey

I can still clearly remember in 2012 when I first heard a short clip of Euphoria. At that point, they might as well have cancelled the show in Baku. I already knew who the winner would be. The next year we were a dead cert to be going to Norway. Alas, Euphoria, by Silya Nymoen, failed to get...

It's back! After a successful first run, it's time for the second season of Eurovision Champions' League. The aim of this game is to determine which country has performed best overall at Eurovision since 2004. To enter, a country must have submitted a song every year from 2004 to 2012 and at...

Anyone else seen this? Last night was the fifth annual West End Eurovision. A contest where the casts of a whole bunch of West End musicals come together and each do a cover of a Eurovision classic. Then there's a vote for the winner. This year Sweeney Todd were victorious, singing the ESC entry...

I thought this might be a good idea for a game. The aim is to determine which country has performed the best at Eurovision since 2003 (admittedly in a very unscientific way). The idea is that the 10 most successful ever-present nations from 2003 to 2011 (as chosen below) face each other in a...

And did this affect your country's votes? The Eurovision commentator's have a lot of power and I'm curious to see how much they are able to influence votes. I don't think they intentionally try to affect the voting, but it can make a big difference to a viewer's perception of an artist if...

We've now had the last of the national finals. This was the first ESC where I've watched other countries' preselections. I haven't seen every entry, because I'm still clinging to the idea of saving something for May 14th. From what I've seen, the national final watching experience has been one...

There's more than one way to skin the Eurovision cat. Eurovision wouldn't be the same without the comedy entries and I sometimes think they get a bad press on this forum. So which comedy entry made you smile? I've mentioned before my love for Teapacks' Push The Button (Israel 2007). It had...

Re: UNITED KINGDOM 2011 When I saw him perform that at The Royal Variety Performance, I thought it was a perfect Eurovision song. Given free reign to pick whichever artist I wanted to perform for the UK, Mika would be right at the top of my list.

You want a pair of those shiny hotpants and you know it. Seriously, though, the Lithuanian outfits (not just the shorts) perfectly fitted in with the subject matter of the song and enhanced the overall performance. That's what a good costume should do.

If the previous system (nine televote finalists plus a jury-picked wildcard) had been used, Finland would have taken Moldova's place and Lithuania and Sweden would have replaced Ireland and Cyprus in the final. The juries really hated France. To put a song that good in the bottom five is...

I'd refrain from saying things like "I'm sorry but this is the truth," then. I voted for Estonia 2001. I just found it wholly unremarkable. There was nothing I could pick out about it that suggested it was a winning song.

While Lena didn't have the best voice of the contest - far from it - I do wonder whether those 64 notes missed include the parts of the song where she spoke the words. Her song wasn't intended as an exhibition of perfect vocal gymnastics. What it was was a very catchy tune that got stuck in a...

12 - 2009 Kejsi Tola (I'm in love with that song too) 10 - 2004 Anjeza Shahini 8 - 2008 Olta Boka 6 - 2010 Juliana Pasha (quality about to drop) 4 - 2007 frederik Ndoci 2 - 2005 Ledina Celo 1 - 2006 Luiz Ejlli

There have only been two songs in my entire experience of watching Eurovision where after watching their performance for the first time I knew they had to win. Those two are Fairytale and Wild Dances. Both had a great, distinctive song, with a performance that fitted perfectly with it. It's a...

I really liked Russia's song. I felt like I was watching a group of tramps sitting around a fire as one told the story of how he got there. Then he throws one of his hand-drawn photos into the fire, like he does every night, only to make a new one in the morning. Having said that, I didn't vote...