Congratulations to Greece - winners of the Eurovision Song Contest 2005!!

The winners this year are Greece, with 230 votes. Next year Athens!

Most of the songs this year were reasonably good (alright,OK, more or less), but I'm afraid there were a few 'duds' too, in my opinion, some because the song was poor, but quite a few because the voices of the performers were just not good enough (too many 'off' notes and weedy voices) - for example, Albania and Russia. The points awarded to each entry were as follows, in the order in which the songs were performed:
1. Hungary - 97
2. UK - 18
3. Malta - 192 (2nd)
4. Romania - 158 (3rd)
5. Norway - 125
6. Turkey - 92
7. Moldova - 148
8. Albania - 53
9. Cyprus - 46
10. Spain - 28
11. Israel - 154
12. Serbia & Montenegro - 137
13. Denmark - 125
14. Sweden - 30
15. FYR Macedonia - 52
16. Ukraine - 30
17. Germany - 4
18. Croatia - 115
19. Greece - 230 (WINNER!)
20. Russia - 57
21. Bosnia & Herzegovina - 79
22. Switzerland - 128
23. Latvia - 153
24. France - 11

Here is a still image taken from my video recording of the final moments of the voting:

The final results this evening

In the voting - Belarus gives 12 points to, guess who? Russia, of course! Iceland? Naturally, it's Norway! Estonia couldn't give 12 to Lithuania, because they weren't in the final, but of course Latvia got 10. Surprise, surprise - Andorra's 12 points go to Spain! Cyprus outdid itself with its voting - of course, Greece got 12, and Malta and the UK were remembered, too, so was Latvia - with its 1 vote (tactical, or what?). Etc, etc - you know the kind of thing! Of course, it was left to Ireland to take the UK (or, according to Stuart! - 'England') off its status as the last remaining holder of the coveted prize for Nul Points - they kindly gave us 8 points; Begorra!

I didn't think the British song was very good, and the performance this evening was very weak - so the low level of votes is perfectly justified. However, I do feel that both the French and German efforts were very harshly treated. I thought that the German song, in particular, was pretty good. At least no-one was left this year with 'nul points', though.

Now for the most important part of the evening - which of the male and female singers were the cutest and prettiest! In the female section, I think the French lady was 'mignone', the German singer was a sexy woman with a good voice, the Greek woman was a beautiful and sexy performer, the Romanian lady was a stunner (in a sort of 'Varoomshka' kind of way - do you like the beating with birch twigs before or after?), the Russian was pretty (but with a lousy voice) and the Swiss lady was pretty sexy. As for the males - the really important part for me, you understand, well I don't think there were any 'stunners' this time around, but honourable mentions need to go to Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark (Mr 'square jaw'), FYR Macedonia (a good looking man, together with quite a pretty moman), Latvia (both singers were 'cute', specially one of them), Serbia & Montenegro (all classically handsome men) and finally Sweden (a sexy male with a good voice, too).

In summary, in the 'cattle' stakes it probably has to go to Switzerland for the females - a sexy lady with a good voice. Amongst the men, even though both the Latvians were cute, the Serbia and Montenegro singers, the whole lot of them, were a pretty damn sexy bunch - Mmmmmmm!

Now, if you want to watch any of the songs again, you can do so by clicking any of the links here. The official Eurovision website for 2005 is here; they have quite a lot of detail on each of the entrants.

It was good to see it coming from Ukraine, specially after their Orange Revolution last November, the two lead presenters did a good job, although they were rather over-the-top.

So, next year the final will be in Athens. See you there!

Now, finally, how did I vote? Well, for me the top performers were, on the evening:
- Denmark
- FYR Macedonia
- Greece
- Latvia
- Moldova (not as good as in the semi-final, though)
- Sweden
- Switzerland

I voted, after a lot of thought, for Latvia - they had a nice song, good voices and cute singers. After them would have been Switzerland, then possibly Moldova (but they didn't perform well this evening). Then, for me, it was a toss-up between the others I mention above, although the Danish effort was probably top amongst the second-rankers.

However, the voters from around the European Broadcast Union countries saw it a little differently and gave the victory to Greece - not my first choice, but it was certainly a very creditable effort, so I don't begrudge them their victory in any way. Well done!