Eurovision 2014: The Wiener takes it all – RESULTS!

WOW! Eurovision tries its best to stay as non-political and neutral as possible, but there can be no doubt that tonight’s events furthered the cause of acceptance and celebration of all sorts of people and styles. This feeling was summarised in the winner’s speech, delivered by Austrian drag act Conchita Wurst in what will surely be one of the milestone moments in the contest.

So now the confetti is settling, let’s take a moment to look at how the results panned out!

Remember, for reviews of ALL the competing entries in the 2014 contest, as well as coverage of all the national finals and all sorts of other news, please visit my Copenhagen 2014 Hub by clicking the link, or the “Copenhagen 2014″ menu on the top banner, or the “#Joinus” crystal on the left-hand bar.

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Türkvizyon 2013: Eskişehir – And the winner is…

Some months ago, details began to emerge about a new song contest, one that would span two dozen Turkic-speaking countries across Eastern Europe and Asia. Eurovision fans raised eyebrows, especially given the falling-out between the EBU and Turkish broadcaster TRT over Eurovision’s rules. But I think there is plenty of room for two contests, especially at this time of the year.

Attempts had been made, as I wrote about, to launch this contest in earlier years, but this year it seems everyone got their act together, with Western Turkish university town Eskişehir acting as the host of the 2013 Türkvizyon song contest.

24 entries came from many European and Asian countries, as well as autonomous regions of larger countries and members of the Russian Federation. So we saw Northern Cyprus in the mix, the Crimea (a region of Ukraine), and all manner of places even a hardened Geography geek like me had never heard of.

On Thursday, 24 were reduced to 12 in a semi-final, and they fought it out to win last night. So what did I make of the finalists?

Hungary’s Got Talent! I mean erm…

Well the much-lauded Great British Public have done something right for a change, voting Hungarian shadow-theatre act Attraction as the winners of Britain’s Got Talent. I suppose I thought there might be a bit of negativity towards them as a foreign act, but seeing Psy performing a Korean-language interval act after selling a million downloads, I guess things are changing finally!

While I thought Attraction’s act in the grand final was pretty shameless, brazenly after the patriotism vote, I’m sure their hearts are in the right place. Personally I think they deserved to win purely on the strength of their other two performances (see below) that told heartbreaking stories simply and effectively. I’m glad BGT has managed to find something as special as that.

I mean they picked a performing dog last year, how much more end-of-the-pier could it have got?

Eurovision 2013: Great Danish Victory & Final Results

So there we have it, the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest is over, and the winner – as predicted by the bookies – was Denmark’s entry by Emmelie de Forest with “Only Teardrops”. Those expecting a runaway victory were in for a shock though, as a landslide wasn’t forthcoming.

Before I start – a massive thanks to everyone who has been reading my Eurovision coverage. Over 5,000 views in one day is almost double my personal best, and I am so happy and shocked that this has happened (even if you were probably just googling Farid’s nipples!). I’m not done with ESC2013 yet, so stay tuned and bookmark this blog if you enjoy it!

Before we chew over the stats, let’s have a look at those final rankings:

Belgrade calling – ESC 2013 Serbia pre-selection (Beosong)

Just a small one tonight as I’m totally knackered. But let’s not take this likely, Serbia have quickly established themselves as one of the present-day Eurovision titans.

After the breakup of Yugoslavia, Serbia & Montenegro was one nation, and they debuted at Eurovision in 2004. Debuting with a 2nd place finish and following with a top 10 finish in 2005, the nation pulled out of the 2006 contest after controversy over the national final. A few months later, the country split into … Serbia and Montenegro (surprise!) and both debuted in the 2007 contest.

However it’s quite apparent which country was more tuned into the European listener, and Serbia’s debut “Molitva” turned out to be a surprise winner. They’ve put in creditable performances since, very narrowly missing out on a 100% qualification record, but finished 3rd last year thanks to 2008 contest host Željko Joksimović, a force behind many Serbian entries in some form or another. No sign of him this year, as 15 hopefuls were whittled down to a final 5. A televote decided the winner.