T h e E u r o v i s i o n a r y

For the second year running I was in bits at the end of the voting as the result was announced!  Tears of joy were pouring down my face and I was hoarse from screaming. STOCKHOLM 2016! No more words from me tonight... apart from YAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!! Photo: Lilian Brunell PS - Congratulations to the lovely Graeme Hawley (who once came to our preview party dressed as Joan Franka, replete with Indian headdress) for this morning correctly predicting the Top 4 in the right order (Sweden, Russia, Italy and then Belgium).

OK, so the great day is finally upon us!  More about that in a wee bit, but first another country... Yesterday, Andrew and myself had a day out of the Eurovision bubble and went off to Bratislava, the capital city of neighbouring Slovakia.  It is only a 50 minute train ride away and for 16 Euros return it would have been churlish not to. It was gorgeous!  Although the rain had started and it was very dull and overcast we still had a lovely time wandering around the little pretty streets. Last night Simon arrived very late on, and today we have been out doing bus tours in the torrential rain.  I can't remember ever having been so wet!!!  It really is POURING down here today - and hasn't stopped once in the past 20 hours or so. Si got his first taste of authentic Wiener Schnitzel... ...and then we went to the impressive Cathedral to pray for Saint Måns of Sverige to be victorious (even though Italy is still my favourite...just!). So ...

Well, who'd have thunk it?  Me at a high-brow classical music concert! But that's exactly what I did last night as I went along to an evening of Mozart played by the Vienna Symphony Orchestra in their fabulous Concert Hall. It was all very glam, and there was me in my jeans and Converse trainers sitting in the second row trying the blend in. The place itself was stunning and very opulent... And what's more, I really enjoyed the music! This morning I met up with my friend Howard and we did the traditional Café und Kuchen.  Yum! Then I went into town to see the Italian boys do a signing in a big music store.  Sadly we weren't allowed time to take a selfie, as there were around 400 folk in the queue waiting, but I did get my copy of thier Grande Amore EP signed and was able to wish them Good Luck for Saturday night. And now onto my predictions for tonight.  These are the 10 songs I think will go through, but being a far stronger Semi this one is mu...

Well, that was an interesting result in last night's semi final.  I managed to predict 8 of our finalists correctly, missing out on Albania and Hungary.  Both of those are fine songs, but I would much rather have seen Denmark and Moldova take those places.  Just before I went into the hall I bumped into my all-time favourite Eurovision artist, the Goddess of Swedish song, Sanna Nielssen. Sanna, who represented Sweden last year and finished third, is here as one of the commentators for Sweden this year after presenting Melodifestivalen.  This fabulous lady's career is going from strength to strength and I'm so pleased for her. The atmosphere in the Wiener Stadthalle was amazing! I loved Conchita's opening (ooh-er) and I thought the show flowed well.  The best reactions in the hall were for Belgium, Greece and Russia - and the absolute biggest reaction came for our fabulous diva from Serbia, Boyana.  The place went mental as she performed what eff...

Lordy Lordy!  It's been a hectic couple of days since I last posted, but I wanted to bring you all up to date with the latest Tales From The Vienna Woods, and to give you some predictions before tonight's first Semi Final. But back to Sunday... All of the 7 pre-qualifiers for the final performed.  Italy and Australia were both superb.  France was simply STUNNING, and is coming in fast with the bookies, so if you want a wee outsider bet, get money on that.  Germany was great, Austria was competent and then the UK rehearsed... Oh Dear!  Alex and Bianca sang it well, but the staging is messy (2 boy dancer/singers and 2 girls doing the same).  It just didn't seem to gel well, and the backing seems to have changed, with then singing "Let's Dance" over the top of the Charlestony bits, thereby making them all but disappear.  Thankfully they have a second big rehearsal tomorrow - let's hope for some changes... © EBU The opening of the Euroclub hap...

This! Italy sounding very VERY strong!  And it's my fave!  Woo Hoo!

As you'll see from the title of this post, I FINALLY (after 26 years) got an invite to the annual Nordic Party!  More of that in a bit, but after a bit of a to-do at 4am yesterday (when the prat who was selling me his ticket for the final decided he was coming after all and messaged me to tell me I'd need to source another one.  How very rude!).  However, all was well by mid-morning when our lovely friends Astrid and Guri from Norway (who can't come over) arranged for us to have their full ticket packages!  Fab!!! So that means that instead of standing for all three shows we'll be sitting in the middle of the Norwegian fans!  Hoorah!  For the next 8 days Simon and I are officially #teamnorway! But back to the rehearsals and yesterday we had a full run through of Semi 1.  Most of the performances were unchanged from the first run through, so rather than wax lyrical about the veritable merits or otherwise of who's in and who's going home I'll jus...

So, a little earlier this evening this happened... This is Måns Zelmerlöw, who is singing for Sweden.  Although I only have him in second place behind Italy in my ranking this is the person I'm expecting to be holding the winner's trophy at the end of next Saturday night. I've been a big fan for the past eight years, and to finally get a chance for a quick snap, and to shake his hand, meant the world to me! There is also the added bonus of him being gorgeous... Anyway, in other news today Azerjibin was fabulous: © EBU The Israeli boy shuffeled around the stage with a stoop so pronounced he looked like he was auditioning for a part in The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Slovenia (a big fave) was underwhelming. And plucky little Maria from Iceland gave a super performance of her fab entry "Unbroken" (even if she did look like a 9 year-old going to a birthday party!). So, in summation, Sweden and any other perm of 9 from the other 16 songs to...

I'll just leave this here... #stockholm2016

Oh Dear. It was all going so well during days one and two, and we had some great performances from the Semi 1 artists.  Then we got the first half of Semi 2 rehearsing yesterday and it was all a bit, well, lacklustre. I had huge expectations for my Lithuania who are in my Top 3 this year.  They looked good, but the performance just seemed drowned on that stage.  I really hope they are better in the next run though, because at the moment I would put their qualification as being on a "shoogly peg"! Probably the strongest performance of the day came from Norway's Mørland and Deborah Scarlet (whose real name is Joanna, apparently - who knew?).  I've never been a huge fan of their moody, downbeat piece, but it worked well yesterday and they two of them were just lovely in their press conference. The personalities of the day were of course Vaćlav and Marta from the newly returned Czech Republic.  They laughed and joked thier way through a great press con...