Party Party! Fab...
Tuesday 20 May 2008
Hola!
Good morning from Belgrade on the day of this year's first Semi Final. Less than 10 hours to go, and it's all getting very exciting, but more of all that later...
You want to hear about the Opening Party, and last night's unbelievably fabulous Icelandic party, don't you?
OK, well, the offical Opening Party took place in the totally glamtastic former Yugoslav Assembly buildings on Sunday evening. Vast cavernous rooms bedecked in the finest communist garb, and hugely ostentatious light fittings illuminated all of the two to three thousand delegates who were given free reign to wander around, chat, mingle, eat little bite sized canopes and drink copius amounts of slivovitz. I should warn you that too many of those can be quite lethal. I had 7. I think 3 is too many...
As per, we did the usual media whoring about - "I just LOVE your song, and you'll definitely qualify". It's OK if you keep your fingers crossed behing your back whilst saying it, apparently...
Had chats with the lovely Morena from Malta (who was not drinking Vodka - the name of her song), Soetkin from Belgium (who looked like a rabbit stuck in the headlights), fabby Vania from Portugal (and we DID mean it when we told her she'll qualify) and loads of others...
Pics attached of those particular guests, along with one of me, Hass, Johnny and Dave (by this stage VERY pissed - you'd never know). Notice Uncle Robin in the background lecturing Gerard Borg. We got his card. It proclaims that he is a "lyricist and concept designer" - ooh, get her!
We fell out of the Assembly buildings around 1am (it had started at 8), and stumbled back to the hotel for some cheese sandwiches and lattes in the bar. Fab!
Last night it was the Icelandic party, and to quote the lovely jolly fat boy from the video, it was indeed "the best EVER!!!" A free bar serving straight whisky from 8 until 1am - what complete fun!
Euroband seemed to sing every Eurovision entry ever in thier hour long live set, and afterwards I went up to meet them and have a wee pic taken.
But WAAAAAAAY more exciting than that was the fact that I got chatting to the jolly fat boy himself from the video (those of you who have not seen it, get onto YouTube now and have a look at this... it's surely the most brilliant preview video of all time! http://youtube.com/watch?v=fQm7dFO4E1Y )
We chatted for ages and I got a great pic with him. What a lovely bloke he was - and very funny. I asked where his feather duster was (in the suitcase apparently).
More cheese sandwiches at 2am in the 8th floor Infinity Terrace Bar of the hotel...
Now, I KNOW you want the indsider goss on who is going through tonight and who is getting on that plane home tomorrow...
Based on audience reaction and general discussion with those in the know (ie us) the following are likely to qualify tonight:
Israel, Azerbaijan, Norway, Poland, Bosnia, Armenia, Netherlands, Romania, Russia and Greece.
Poor Andorra was absolutely diabolical yesterday, and Slovenia wasn't much better. They are two of my fave songs in the whole thing, but I really can't see either go through based on their performances yesterday.
Oh, and get ready for a possible shock winner... by far the hugest reaction yesterday was for Bosnia!!! The performance is truly superb! A washing line, 4 brides doing thier knitting, and the two demented singers. Stark raving bonkers and it just works!
Righto, here's a link to my article which was in today's Scotsman...
http://living.scotsman.com/features/A-throng-for-Europe.4099092.jp
Ciao
Hola!
Good morning from Belgrade on the day of this year's first Semi Final. Less than 10 hours to go, and it's all getting very exciting, but more of all that later...
You want to hear about the Opening Party, and last night's unbelievably fabulous Icelandic party, don't you?
OK, well, the offical Opening Party took place in the totally glamtastic former Yugoslav Assembly buildings on Sunday evening. Vast cavernous rooms bedecked in the finest communist garb, and hugely ostentatious light fittings illuminated all of the two to three thousand delegates who were given free reign to wander around, chat, mingle, eat little bite sized canopes and drink copius amounts of slivovitz. I should warn you that too many of those can be quite lethal. I had 7. I think 3 is too many...
As per, we did the usual media whoring about - "I just LOVE your song, and you'll definitely qualify". It's OK if you keep your fingers crossed behing your back whilst saying it, apparently...
Had chats with the lovely Morena from Malta (who was not drinking Vodka - the name of her song), Soetkin from Belgium (who looked like a rabbit stuck in the headlights), fabby Vania from Portugal (and we DID mean it when we told her she'll qualify) and loads of others...
Pics attached of those particular guests, along with one of me, Hass, Johnny and Dave (by this stage VERY pissed - you'd never know). Notice Uncle Robin in the background lecturing Gerard Borg. We got his card. It proclaims that he is a "lyricist and concept designer" - ooh, get her!We fell out of the Assembly buildings around 1am (it had started at 8), and stumbled back to the hotel for some cheese sandwiches and lattes in the bar. Fab!
Last night it was the Icelandic party, and to quote the lovely jolly fat boy from the video, it was indeed "the best EVER!!!" A free bar serving straight whisky from 8 until 1am - what complete fun!
Euroband seemed to sing every Eurovision entry ever in thier hour long live set, and afterwards I went up to meet them and have a wee pic taken.
But WAAAAAAAY more exciting than that was the fact that I got chatting to the jolly fat boy himself from the video (those of you who have not seen it, get onto YouTube now and have a look at this... it's surely the most brilliant preview video of all time! http://youtube.com/watch?v=fQm7dFO4E1Y )We chatted for ages and I got a great pic with him. What a lovely bloke he was - and very funny. I asked where his feather duster was (in the suitcase apparently).
More cheese sandwiches at 2am in the 8th floor Infinity Terrace Bar of the hotel...
Now, I KNOW you want the indsider goss on who is going through tonight and who is getting on that plane home tomorrow...
Based on audience reaction and general discussion with those in the know (ie us) the following are likely to qualify tonight:
Israel, Azerbaijan, Norway, Poland, Bosnia, Armenia, Netherlands, Romania, Russia and Greece.
Poor Andorra was absolutely diabolical yesterday, and Slovenia wasn't much better. They are two of my fave songs in the whole thing, but I really can't see either go through based on their performances yesterday.
Oh, and get ready for a possible shock winner... by far the hugest reaction yesterday was for Bosnia!!! The performance is truly superb! A washing line, 4 brides doing thier knitting, and the two demented singers. Stark raving bonkers and it just works!
Righto, here's a link to my article which was in today's Scotsman...
http://living.scotsman.com/features/A-throng-for-Europe.4099092.jp
Ciao
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