Congratulations and commiserations

 

Massive congratulations to Måneskin from Italy, who brought victory back to their country for the first time in 31 years.  Whilst the song was never one of my personal favourites, that huge public vote ensured that the win went to the song that resonated most with the viewers - and that's a good thing.  I'll certainly be following the band's career with interest over the coming months to see if they can use their  contest win to propel them into the international act that the clearly want to become.

How brilliant also for the lovely Barbara Pravi to clinch second place.  Her song will always be my most cherished take-away from this year's contest.  She was quite simply magnifique!

We should also recognise the absolutely fantastic job that our Dutch team carried out during what has been an unprecedented time.  To put on a contest of that magnitude, and to have produced such a superb and vibrant set of shows was a brilliant achievement.  They brought Our Contest back - and for that I am so very grateful!  I sincerely hope that The Netherlands get another win fairly soon to allow them to  showcase their talents once more, but this time allowing us all to travel there and enjoy the full Eurovision experience, including Euro Village, Euro Club and all the surrounding events. 

Whilst I feel terribly sorry for poor James Newman I don't accept the poor arguments that I'm seeing banded about social media this morning calling for the UK to withdraw due to the "politics".  Coming last is always disappointing, and to come last with "nul points" is doubly difficult.  But go back to my blog post from a few days ago.  We were ALWAYS going to finish last (or thereabouts) in this line up because the song was simply not strong enough.  In a contest where each jury has to award points to only 10 of 26 songs, the chances of landing outside that top 10 are always going to be high when you have a weak song which just doesn't stand out.  We could have finished 11th of 26 with every jury, and still not have scored a single point.

It's time for the UK to stop crying about political voting bias, and the fact that we are hated because of Brexit, and re-think what it is that makes a successful Eurovision entry in the modern contest.  Bland, radio-friendly, pleasant Radio 2 tracks are simply not working for us.  We need to be edgier, take risks, deliver a song and performance that is going to blow people's socks off, rather than having the audience sit there, gently tapping their feet and thinking "this is nice enough".  I suspect that persuading anyone to take on the "poison chalice" after a stonking defeat like last night's is going to be difficult, but I'm sure there will be someone who is willing to rise to that challenge.

Anyway, there is plenty of time to think about next year.  Let's concentrate on getting life back to a more even keel now.  The summer is coming, life is beginning to #openup again, and - after a long and difficult two years - Eurovision is back.  Bigger, bolder, more colourful and joyous than ever.  

Really, what more could a boy ask for?

Until next year - somewhere in one of my absolute favourite countries - Arrivederci! 

Photo credits: EBU/ Andres Putting/ Thomas Hanses