Douzepoints

Hello & welcome to a celebration of the finest pan--European annual musical jamboree known to man, the Eurovision Song Contest. 2009 saw us finally in the warm, yet potentially fatal, embrace of the Great Russian bear. In the most one-sided contest since Stephen Fry took part in the annual "Dyslexic Wordsearcher of the Year" competition, Norway's Alexander Rybak surprised no-one by winning, albeit with a momentous 387 points total. Moscow put more LED screens on the stage than is in Rupert Murdoch's office, as well as a few floating polythene swimming pools.

Although the two semi final approach of 2008 barely survived it's first incarnation, the West (ably led by the political machinations of the Beeb) won through, and so 2009 saw a return to the Jury system, at least for 50% of each national vote. As a result 2009 saw a definite swing to the West and North, with only a couple of Eastern nations breaking through to feature in the shake-up.
2009 will be remembered (by me at least) as the year of Blue, Viking related success, and fantastic staging. The money spent was there for all to see even if it did result in a power outage in Archangel. While Norway was a worthy victor, it was smashing to see Iceland gain the runner up spot, followed by an equally deserving Azerbaijan. Next came ever presents Turkey, followed by Jade. 5th was a cracking final position for the UK, regardless of what the ho-hum British media might have since said. I don't think Norway will be able to fund a show that gets close to this year for pure spectacle, so we may finally see a long awaited shift of focus towards the song quality rather than the over-hyped visuals (see Estonia v Ukraine for evidence of this). A quick mention to Norton, who dispelled my fears with a genuinely excitable performance, and he managed to mostly keep his acid tongue in check. 7/10. You can see the overall results here. 2008 Douzepoints awards ceremony can be found here (2009 to be published following the event now) A preview of the 2009 acts can be found here Moscow 2009 Preview Player at the official website. And not being afraid to flog a dead horse, you can still see a thankfully brief account of my 2007 visit on the Blog & pics.

The big wedge concentrates on the real stars of the show, our plucky entrants. Whether they went through a grueling four month pre-selection or were phoned up and begged to sing, they will all be here. But if you're after a British educational perspective, then there's always info on each country involved too. Just click on a country below. What with handy ideas to throw your very own special Eurovision Party, general bookie Odds for the contest, and the never-popular Predictions section, then there really is no reason to shop around for your ESC related nonsense. Please feel free to give your Feedback, but remember I have been known to burst into tears if comments are too harsh. There are many excellent Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) websites out there (please see Links), and they are all extremely good in their own way. But I reckon many of them just didn't grasp the real attraction of the contest, namely the ridiculous, cheesy, fun of it all. So amaze your relatives, astound your colleagues, and lose your friends with www.douzepoints.com

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