How can you not love this, every year I sit down with family and friends, some wine and a voting sheet and every year I am surprised, entertained and by the end just a little drunk.
There has been a lot of talk in western Europe about the domination of eastern Europe. There is no denying that the former Soviet Union and Yugoslavia do have a numbers advantage, but that does not mean they will always win. To win the Eurovision Song Contest your song has to be popular with many more countries.
Of course there will be national pride and if your country takes it seriously then you will be disappointed that you did not win or make the all important top ten. Usually you will like one song more than the others and you will want it to win, this is the beauty of the competition especially one that encompasses such a diverse demographic as Europe, we all have different opinions, I for one thought our UK entry to be truly awful. So no national pride there then! Before the contest my favourite entry was from France, unfortunately they did not perform very well, which was a shame. On the night there were a number of entries that I liked, Sweden, Latvia, Russia, Ukraine, Spain, Bosnia and Serbia, so quite a mix. Going back to my point that any potential winner has to be popular across the board, the eventual winner Serbia received a top three vote from Austria, Finland, France, Germany, Malta, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the Netherlands, point proved I think. I did see a web site that had taken all of the eastern European votes out, Serbia still won.
So when you start to bemoan the fate of the contest and the perceived way it is going, remember that it is just a bit of fun, yes it's great when your country or your favourite song wins, but there are 500 million people out there voting and we all like different things. Sit back enjoy and don't take it too seriously, you never know next year it might be your turn and think how excited you'll be then.
