What on Earth is this? Why does the Austrian entry sound like Eläkeläiset mixed with Andrew W.K.? Mind you, it’s my favourite this far. Sorry Ceder, Turkey didn’t even register on my radar but I’m a bit worried you could recognize the winner beforehand.

A bunch of incoherent babble follows: Was Germany’s song really called Let’s Get Happy? And are my ears fooling me or did the scary Paula Koivuniemi/Laura Voutilainen hybrid of a woman just sing Let’s be happy and let’s be gay? I can’t hide from you / Then I’d die for you is a nice couplet, courtesy of Greece.

Holy shit some of these people are out of tune.

I’m guessing Norway will win, but my personal favourite is still the outrageous mess that was the Austrian entry.

Apropos, the BBC version of the Eurovision song contest differs quite a lot from the Yle one. Too bad I forgot to buy a video tape so I can’t share the experience with my fellow Finns, especially the one waving the ”Terveisiä mammalle”-placard in the front row.

The commentator is a fellow by the name of Kerry Wogan and his job, it would seem, is simply to take the piss on everybody and everything. A welcome return of the wonderbra, Who writes these?, She’s Kylie in dreadlocks, really, You’re not gonna remember anything tomorrow, I think Tom Jones and the writers of Sex Bomb could sue here, Any sight of a drink?, This is knockabout comedy by their standards, I don’t know about you but I would’ve preferred the commercials, Yes yes, let’s move on, There’s only two more to go, be a good sport, I know you’ve had a few, It’s been so long you’ve forgotten some of these songs, haven’t you?, Every year I sit hear and wonder: what are they doing? are but few selected quotes from him. And when they announced that next year there’ll be two competitions, the guy went mental. What? Don’t do it!. That’s okay, you’re fired he quipped to the Bosnia & Herzegovinan presenter who messed up her votes. But ultimately things turned sour as he revealed his normal uppity ”everyone speaks English” attitude when the nice Latvian lady presenter mumbled some English words and started making fun of her. Bad boy!

Apparently the contest is a huge in gay circles here and big parties are being held all around the country. I think this also helps to explain why countries like Germany, Austria and UK always send such campy contestants. My next objective shall be to see how the Germans treat this great competition.

Wonderful!