Eurovision Song Contest 2017 Grand Final - Saturday 13 May 2017
Songs
I'll just mention a few here:
Italy: this was among my most-liked songs in the Grand Final. It was a lively catchy song, predominantly in Italian, and very well sung live. What was the significance of the gorilla and the various background screen images? I think this should have finished top five overall, but I'm not sure this was good enough to win.
Spain: I didn't think much of "Do It For Your Lover" this song from the moment I first saw its online preview video, and the Grand final performance still failed to impress me. However I liked the simulated surf boards on stage and the background scene. It's hardly surprising this finished last with 5 points overall. Although this deserved to finish near bottom, I would have preferred to have seen Moldova, Norway, Romania and Ukraine, all of which I thought were worse still, placed below Spain.
United Kingdom: an excellent ballad, very well sung live in the final. The flying stars in the background added to its impact. Definitely one of the better finalists. This certainly ought to have finished top ten in both jury and public voting, and overall; maybe even top five overall, but it was clearly not worthy of winning the Contest.
Germany: "Perfect Life" was a reasonable ballad which was quite well sung live during the final, but not particularly memorable. I'm not surprised this finished 25th (second last) with 6 points overall. Although a bottom 6 result was expected, I would have preferred to have seen the entries from Moldova, Norway, Romania and Ukraine placed below Germany.
Ukraine: the host entry was a rock song "Time". Although this style of rock is not my taste in music, I think this was one of the worst songs in the Grand Final. What was the significance of the giant head? This ended up where it belonged, 24th place with 36 points overall.
Belgium: after my disappointment with Blanche's live performance of "City Lights" in the First Semi-Final, her Grand Final performance was a significant improvement, but I still felt her voice wasn't strong enough for most of the song. I think 4th with 363 points overall was a bit high; 9th or 10th would have been a more appropriate combined placing.
France: one of my most-liked songs among the preview videos and on the CD album. Going by the Grand Final performance alone, it was quite a nice song and very well sung live in a mixture of French and English. The graphics were impressive too. One of the better finalists, but by the end it was obvious to me this wouldn't win. This should have finished 8th to 10th in both voting schemes and overall.
Grossly over-rated: Moldova, Norway, Romania (all should have finished in the bottom four, just like Ukraine did)
Grossly under-rated: Poland (deserved top five overall)
Under-rated by public: Austria, Australia, United Kingdom
Under-rated by juries: France
Interval and Televoting
The BBC showed all the recaps and all the staged interval acts. They didn't put any of their own substitute fillers in at any point for UK viewers.
I must admit, I missed much of what came up during the interval on the night, because I wanted to vote for several countries (I deliberately waited quite some time into the voting window to ensure lines wouldn't be engaged when I dialled; thankfully I managed to get through whenever I tried). The interval was also a handy moment for me to make a cup of coffee, go to the toilet, post ESC related messages on Facebook and even take a few pictures of myself watching the ESC (using the self-timer on my digital camera atop a tripod), all of which diverted my attention from the interval acts. Anyway I've since paid full attention to the staged interval acts when re-watching the final on video. I don't think the acts a) Ruslana - "It's Magical" (and her dancers), b) ONUKA featuring the NAONI Orchestra – Megamix or c) Jamala "I Believe in U" were as memorable as Måns Zelmerlöw and Petra Mede – "Love Love Peace Peace" in 2016, but nonetheless they served their purpose adequately. At the end of the day, those interval acts are really just fillers to entertain viewers between song recaps during the televoting window (which in the current two-part voting system really does need to be about 30 to 40 minutes to give people adequate time to vote). 1994 was unusual in having an interval act "Riverdance" which became a greater commercial success than the 25 competing songs; I don't see a similar scenario happening with another ESC Grand Final interval act in the foreseeable future.
Back to 2017, I didn't even know there had been a stage invasion during Jamala's "I Believe in U" until I read about it online somewhere a day or two after the final; only after reading that and subsequently re-watching that particular act did I watch out for and first notice the stage invader. Thankfully he was removed quickly by one of the officials
Jury Results
I noticed this time announcement of the jury results very shortly after the televoting lines closed. That was a good time-saving measure; fitting in one or two more interval acts between closure of the televoting lines and starting the jury vote announcement would have been a pointless waste of time.
Sweden (who hosted in 2016) announced first and Ukraine (who hosted in 2017) announced last. Presumably it's now become a tradition to start with the country that hosted the previous year and finish with the current host country.
Points announcement by country: showing the 1-8 and 10 points at the foot of the screen whilst the spokesperson says "Thank you for an incredible evening" (or similar), adding them to the scoreboard and verbally announcing just the 12 points is fine by me. Obviously you've got to read the 1-8 and 10 point scores yourself, but at least it keeps your mind alert; I found it's best to start reading them as soon as they appear at the bottom of the screen. From the last 2 years (2016 and 2017), that announcement method has enabled the host broadcaster to get through all 42 countries' jury votes on the scoreboard in 30 to 35 minutes, which is important considering announcing the televoting totals takes another 10 minutes or so afterwards. Basically this method is a time-saving compromise, you read the 1-8 and 10 points yourself, whilst awaiting the excitement of the spokesperson announcing the 12 points. If your country isn't among the 1-8 and 10 points listed, you can still hope your country will be the one with the top score of 12 jury points.
Televoting Results
Undeniably this was the most nail-biting moment of the evening. Due to the way the televoting totals were announced from the lowest to the highest, the later your country was called the greater the number of points it would get. No doubt viewers in every finalist country were hoping their country would be called as late as possible.
As a UK resident, I was hoping the UK would be called as late as possible. When the first few televoting totals (0, 2, 3, 5 and another 5) were called, I was glad when none of those were UK as I didn't want the UK to end up with fewer televoting points this year than the 8 televoting points it received last year. When "With 8 points it is" was called, I still hoped it wouldn't be UK, as I thought the UK deserved more than 8 televoting points this time; thankfully the 8 points were for Denmark. However when the next televote total, 12 points was called, I was disappointed it was the UK, as I felt "Never Give Up On You" deserved more televote points than that. Thankfully that was four more than the UK got on televoting last year and a higher televote placing (20th instead of 25th).
Likewise I hoped that Portugal and Bulgaria, both of which finished top two on jury voting, and favourites to win, would be called as late as possible; in fact I hoped Portugal would hold its lead until the end. Consequently I hoped the first few (lowest) televote totals wouldn't be Portugal or Bulgaria as well as the UK, and once the UK had received its 12 televote points, I continued hoping neither Portugal nor Bulgaria would be among the countries placed 19th to 11th in the public vote. After that I hoped neither Portugal nor Bulgaria would be among the 10th to 5th placed countries. In the end I was so glad Bulgaria finished second and Portugal won the televote, putting them second and first respectively overall; they deserved it.
The biggest shock was seeing Australia score just 2 televote points after finishing 4th with 171 points in the jury vote. Basically this was the opposite way around to Poland last year.
I was surprised to see such a large number of countries (6 altogether) get less than 10 televoting points, and even Azerbaijan which finished 11th on the public vote score just 42 televoting points. After that I was surprised to see a sudden leap in points between 11th placed Azerbaijan and 10th placed France with 90 televote points. At the top end of the public vote, I was surprised to see the top 6 countries all get more than 200 televote points (last year only the top 3 got more than 200 points on televoting).
A more detailed review of the Grand Final, containing my points of view about all 26 songs, as well as an outline of the jury and televoting results, is available here:
Eurovision Song Contest 2017 Grand Final
A separate report containing an in-depth analysis of the jury and televoting is available here:
Eurovision Song Contest 2017 Grand Final Extended Voting Analysis
To have some idea of how the results would have appeared if the 42 national spokespersons had announced the televoting results first, and the hosts had announced the jury totals last, click the following link:
Alternative Voting Presentation
votes in 2003, 
