Click
the pictures above for a review of the 70s, 80s, 90s and the
10s....
From
2000, the invited/balloted audience idea became a thing of the
past. Swedish Television (SVT) opened up the Contest to
the biggest live audience yet when they decided to host the Contest in the
Globe Arena in Stockholm. Tickets must have been fairly easy to come by as I ended up
with 6. Off to Stockholm we went and had a great
time. What a wonderful city and what a welcoming nationality. This was a
huge arena, by Eurovision standards and we were laden with flags and
smiles and ready to party.
The
Friday night rehearsal was becoming a bit of a tradition (and is to this
day) – it’s the time when I take in all the songs with their fairly
even production standard (compared to national final differences) and in
the agreed order of presentation, with whatever effects were
being
used.
After the rehearsal I touted Denmark, to many of my friend’s
disgust. Oops! I also thought Latvia and Estonia were in with a shout. A
great show and a good solid winner. We were staying in Scandinavia! Not a great result for
the UK, but we will play that
song again!
In
2000, SVT (on request) sent me the
international feed (without commentary) video, which I treasured. I could
watch the Contest over and over without hearing any BBC commentary – heaven! It
also includes the quiet time before the show when the Mexican Waves start
and final technical checks are made (*). That exciting time that anyone
who has attended a Contest will have experienced. Can any fan really
explain that moment when the Eurovision Anthem rings out at the start of
the Final each year? Its like our very own National Anthem, no?
(*)
you can now see that on Youtube, minus the Mexican waves ;-)
In
2001, we were heading for Denmark . DR chose the Parken
Stadium for the Contest and this seemed exciting as it was going to be the
biggest arena yet for a Eurovision Song Contest – something like 38,000
in the venue for the final. Sadly, this turned out to be my least
favourite Eurovision journey. I had already been very disappointed with
the famous Copenhagen Mermaid, although I do remember a fun evening at
Nyhavn, which is indeed lovely. At the Contest, it is the only time that I
have ever been refused to take a camera into the arena and was directed
(by very sullen security) to leave it in a plastic bag at coat check. It
is also the only time I have known alcohol to be served during the show
and indeed the only time I have had beer spilled over me from the seats
behind, by people getting more and more drunk as the show went on. The
presenters’ persistence in rhyming everything was really weird, people
were chattering throughout and on the whole I did not enjoy the
experience. Something I did enjoy was Estonia pipping Denmark tovictory – a win
that Friday’s rehearsal had hinted at for me, again much to friend’s
disbelief. Haha. The whole experience was not positive, but I retrieved my
camera and wondered if I’d make it to Estonia
in 2002, or if they would even be able to host it there? 2001 could have
brought a halt to my annual obsession, but I wasn’t that deflated after
all….
2002
and another year without accreditation, but a very new destination that
was not be missed. Tallinn was our target and
Mr Cross and I managed to get tickets for the final (and the obligatory
Friday rehearsal), so off we flew, via Helsinki …. Tallinn really restored my
faith in the Contest…. a great venue, a proud nation, a beautiful city
and a country reveling in its international spotlight. Estonia was the first
eastern country to win the Contest and how proud they were of that. Europe was opening up and
we were delighted to spend some time in the Estonian capital. A Large
screen had been erected in the Town Hall Square (Raekoja plats )
and we went flag shopping in Stockmann, where you could also buy
Eurovision chocolate – something that should be obligatory! We made some
new contacts on this trip too, both on the flight (Andrew and David –
don’t forget the bag left on the plane) and while shopping in the city
(Mark and Judith, fellow flag buyers!). The sun was shining, the food and
drink was perfect and the Contest was shaping up to be a good one. At the
Friday rehearsal, I felt that Latvia ’s Marie N could
win it (although I wasn’t so keen on the revamped version of the song),
but also had special hopes for the UK ’s Welsh singer
(Jessica Garlick) and Spain ’s Rosa .
2002 -
A proud Welshman in Tallinn
We
had great seats inside the catwalk area for the final. Looking across the
catwalk, we saw Silvi Vrait, Maarja-Liis Ilus and Koit Toome and for the
first time I was spotted in the audience back home during a few of the
songs and falling off my chair at the end when Marie N won – result.
2002 - Spanish
friends, Andrew C, Andrew B and David, Tallinn main Square, Helsinki
Steps, On Stage, Latvia wins!
A
day trip to Helsinki on the Sunday by
hydrofoil was exciting, even if I did leave my passport in the Hotel and
had to run back for it. Helsinki did feel closed
though – eerily quiet streets and very few people anywhere. We
thoroughly enjoyed it though and figuring we were unlikely to visit Helsinki for Eurovision
anytime soon, this trip felt compulsory! I was also pretty mesmerised by
the fact that this trip to Estonia was the first time I had ever set foot
on old USSR territory, brought home by the fact that some of the port
structures had been created for the Moscow Olympics of 1980 when yachting
was held in Tallinn. I still think of Tallinn ’s old town as
one of the most unique and special places that I have visited with
Eurovision.
So to Latvia in 2003.
Air Baltic helped us get to Riga and I
think we must have had the nearest hotel (Tia?) to a venue that I have
ever stayed in, literally just around the corner from the Skonto Stadium
and with its own lift guard. Riga was an
impressive city but somehow felt more ‘Soviet’ than neighbouring Tallinn had. Maybe
it was all the soldiers in evidence guarding memorials or maybe it was the
solemn OccupationMuseum we
visited… but anyway, we still had a great time and let’s not forget
the Panorama bar with its amazing views over the city.
I
have to say that the Eurovision long weekend was working fine and I
didn’t miss the frenetic experience of accreditation and a week of
rushing from rehearsals to press conferences to receptions to parties. It
had become a great fun weekend with good friends and I loved it. I had
taken a Union Jack flag to the Contest since 2000 and a Welsh one since
2002. However in 2003, as soon as Jemini started to sing, I quietly
dropped the flag on the floor. I could not believe how bad it sounded. A
Spanish lady turned around and asked how we had selected it. This wasn’t
going to end well….. My unusual favourite that year was Bosnia and
Herzegovina , but their static
performance of a very upbeat song ruined their chances I thought. At the
Rehearsal on the Friday night I had come away thinking it would either be Poland or Turkey , but could either
of them really win? Sertab Erener really shone through at the final and we
were getting excited that it could be in Turkey next year. It was
close though, as we know, but Turkey ended up a very
popular winner and potentially a very popular destination in 2004.
2003
- Sights, no sounds
Wow,
2004 and we were heading east again, but this time to the south. Istanbul was too good a
destination to miss and even though we did not have accreditation, Douwe
and I decided to make a week of it and experience the City. We travelled
with our partners and had a great week seeing the sights and savouring the
atmosphere. We arrived and despite the totally crazy taxi ride in to the
city (I have never seen one taxi drive shake hands with another, as the 2
taxis are moving along the road – and not slowly!), we arrived in one
piece and were ready for anything. Istanbul has to be one of
the most special cities on the planet and I would go back anytime. As for
the Contest, the arena was a crazy taxi ride away and of course we had a
Semi Final to enjoy for the first time too. A whole new feeling of ‘will
my favourites make the final’ was experienced on Semi Final night and on
the whole they did. Only once since the semi finals were introduced have I
picked more than 7 of the actual finalists, but there have not been many
occasions where I haven disappointed, although in 2004 I had expected
Slovenia to make the final and I was a little disappointed for Andorra’s
first attempt and Monaco’s return.
In
the final, I expected it to be Greece , Belgium or maybe Ukraine , although I did
think that Ukraine was too new to the
Contest for people to appreciate them musically. I was happy to share my
Welsh flag with Europe too, having a
Welshman representing the UK in the guise of
James Fox, but I was sure we wouldn’t be in the top 10 though. I was
right about that and not too far off with the winner. A Ukrainian win in Turkey . Crikey we could
be going even further east! It was nice though that the Contest was
staying in southern Europe and I will always carry special memories from
this time in Istanbul – the museums, the palaces, the mosques, the
Bosphorus, bumping into Ramon at the Blue Mosque and Linda Martin at the
arena (memory tests of 1992!)…
Could
I keep going with this? Was I getting too old for it? I couldn’t tell if
it was becoming even more of an obsession, or maybe an obligation, or
perhaps just a joy….!
2004 - Istanbul, Linda Martin, Ramon
and the Arena
A
year later and it was proving very difficult to get tickets for Kyiv (the
correct/new spelling for Kiev !). A year after
their orange revolution and shrouded in some secrecy, the contest was
being planned with Presidential/government involvement. I wondered if the
British Queen or Prime Minister would show the slightest interest if the
contest was to come to the UK again. Hmmmm…..
The usual channels for buying tickets
picked totally fruitless, for the first time ever. It was strange and we
felt remote from it. A lot of the web site detail was only in Ukrainian
and the purchase process took me around in loops, or just failed. It
seemed we wouldn’t be going and I began to feel that maybe NTU (Ukraine
TV) were aiming to have a
more partisan audience, rather than selling the majority of tickets
internationally. I don’t know if that was the case, but it was
frustrating not to acquire tickets through the normal channels. So, I had
the idea of contacting Mr Stockselius, executive supervisor of the Contest
at that time, to find out what was going on and to tactfully put my point
across about the frustrating ticket situation. To my amazement, I received
a reply in which Mr Stockselius agreed with my ‘plight’ and copied in
the organising management at NTU. I wasn’t sure where this would go, but
out of the blue I then received an email from NTU asking me how many
tickets I would like and apologising for the problems I had encountered. I
asked for 4 for the final and the semi final and duly received all the
relevant papers for signing and returning. Separately we were able to
source tickets for the obligatory Friday rehearsal, so all of a sudden I
was off, with David and the 2 Andrews, to Kyiv! Amazing!
Oh
Vienna! We flew via Vienna and had the most
pointless mad dash through an airport that I have ever known. Our incoming
flight was delayed, but we were told they would hold our connection. We
already had a boarding pass for the second flight, with a gate number. We
landed in Vienna and discovering that the gate for the next flight was
right across the other side of the airport, ran like idiots through the
terminal, queue jumping a long passport check queue for the area the
flight was going from (to some disgusted looks) and finally made it to the
gate, only to find that there was no flight going from there. A quick
check of a departures board showed that the departure had changed to a
different gate, way back over on the side of the airport we had just run
from. Dash number 2 was even more embarrassing as we had to push back
passed the passport queue that we’d already jumped going in the opposite
direction. Pretty exhausted we finally made the correct gate and boarded
just in time. It was only when we boarded that we realised that this was
the exact same plane that we’d flown in to Vienna on! Grrrrrrrrrrrr!
Funny now looking back but at the time, we were a little frayed.
We
landed in Kyiv and the Ukrainian government had suspended visas for
Eurovision, which a great gesture and speeded up the arrivals process.
David had booked us an apartment (I use the term loosely) close to Maidan Square , but it was to
prove to be a fantastic location. To get there, a pickup had been arranged
and the four of us were led from the Terminal towards a row of vehicles,
including some Russian style Limousines. Sadly, our lift was via a Lada
that had seen better days and our driver didn’t speak a lot of English.
We were stuffed into that car, which had to be stopped a couple of times
so the driver could add water to the radiator and careered into the city,
with the driver seemingly cursing the odd oligarch as we drove. We did
think we’d have to push it at one point, but let’s leave that story
for Belgrade.
I
was a long way from that 11 year old lad in Cardiff now. The eastern
extremes of Europe in a city with an
amazing history and a recently revamped national pride. It felt good to be
here and even better when we realised that our ‘apartment’ was
brilliantly located. One of the main roads leading to the Maidan Square was practically
outside the building, with the Square itself a few hundred metres away.
The Olympic Hall was a 20 to 30 minute walk in the other direction and
this key road was festooned for Eurovision with a non-stop party
atmosphere. The songs of Eurovision 2005 rang out across Maidan Square , all the locals
were so friendly and keen to know where we were from, the beer was so
cheap, as was the Krug champagne and David and Andrew took a shine to
Ukrainian Caviar too, but that was not for me. I remember some grand
restaurants, some very hot days and some very very rainy nights. We’d
heard rumours that the Ukrainians were ‘bombing’ the clouds at night
to force it to rain so that the day times were dry and sunny. If it was
true, it worked, as we never saw rain in daylight!
now looking back but at the time, we were a little frayed.
The
tickets were handed over at the venue through a very small opening in an
opaque window which looked into a very dark office. A quick check revealed
that all the tickets were there, so we could finally relax and enjoy the
experience. We had arrived the day of the semi final and had had a very
early start in London . We hadn’t
really thought this through, as the Semi Final started really late ( 11pm ?) and the Semi
Final with 25 songs seemed to go on forever. I think this was the first
time ever that I have felt the slightest bit bored at a Eurovision, as
well as being rather tired. I was disappointed for the Netherlands and Iceland this year, but on
the whole those that made the final were about right. Sadly
Monaco and Andorra couldn’t make the
final again…. A shame.
So
along came the final and a very different audience. In front of us was a
Ukrainian gentleman of advancing years who recognised (much to my delight)
my Welsh flag… an educated man for sure! Behind us was someone who we
decided was an Oligarch with a gaggle of beauties which didn’t quite
seem right. They didn’t hang around for the voting, so they must have
had somewhere more important to be. All told, this was an enjoyable final
that I thought would be won by Malta , Romania or Latvia . I had not rated Greece at all and it is
only in more recent years where I can see that the performance really did
stand out. After all the years of wanting to see Greece at the top, I
hadn’t seen the reality of it coming, lol. Wow, Athens in 2006? As if to
emphasise the point, we stumbled across a concert on the Sunday which
Helena Paparizou took part in and then again on the Monday we bumped into
her at the Airport. Great that Eurovision was staying south again! More
Ukrainian beer, a more straight forward return journey and Eurovision was
tucked away again until it was time for sunny Greece . Ellada, horo tou
fotos…!
2005 - The lovely Jude and Mandy,
David Elder, John O'Connor, Helena Paparizou and views of Kyiv
2006
- Olympic Venue for Eurovision
Athens it was and after
viewing the fantastic Olympics there in 2004,
it
was great to hear that they had selected one of their Olympic venues for
Eurovision 2006. It was also a nice thought that the sun would be joining
us and a good deal of time was spent in the bars and tavernas and
restaurants of Athens – well it was
outside most of the time. A great venue, with a view of the Acropolis had
been arranged for the fans and fantastic transport links took us from the
city to the Olympic park for the Semi Final, our Friday rehearsal and the
Final itself. At the Semi Final we saw the first huge non-qualifier
surprise in the guise of Belgium ’s Kate Ryan. A
huge fan favourite before the Contest and seen as a potential winner of
the whole thing. Everyone was amazed that it did not make the final and it
remains a big favourite for the fans, including me. There was a feeling
that the Semi Final was not enough on its own and that a wider selection
process was needed. The Semi Final was also becoming a huge show of its
own, which was great, but with only 10 spots available for the final, it
was becoming very difficult for some countries to even get close to
qualifying.
At
the final, Romania and Sweden were my big
favourites to win, but Europe was in for a
monstrous surprise….. We’d enjoyed the show, but the Greeks had not
allowed for anyone other than those sitting directly in front of the main
screens, to be able to see the actual voting! As a result we joined many
others in the corner ramparts of the venue so that we could see the voting
screens.
As
it became clear that Finland was going to win,
we all lamented the number of times that we’d wanted them to do well and
hadn’t. Yet here, today, we were seeing the most Un-Eurovision winner of
the Contest ever, walk away with it. Perhaps this would be a new chapter
for the Contest, perhaps it was Rock’s turn to have a few years in the
limelight. As usual though, you cannot change the result, however much you
might like to and we left the arena a little flat and more than a little
surprised that we would be experiencing Eurovision in Finland after all! I
do wonder what Katri Helena, Ami Aspelund, Monica Aspelund, Fredi and
CatCat really made of Lordi and their unorthodox Eurovision style…. Had
Eurovision been hijacked by the rock fraternity? Haha… one thing was
sure, there was very little point in trying to predict the winner now, but
we would all still try to!
After
a fleeting visit in 2002, I wasn’t expecting too much from Helsinki
2007, but I was very pleasantly surprised but a vibrant fun sunny city in
the north! Trams took us around the city and the ‘Eurovision Express’
train took us from the central station to the Arena. We had a couple of
2006 flashbacks in Helsinki; the first being a surprising encounter with
Dima Bilan, who was being interviewed in the street and a very enjoyable
club audience with Mihai Traistariu from Romania. Both artists were in Finland to support their 2007
representatives and let’s face it, any publicity is good publicity.
Tornero!
No
huge surprises at the Semi Final, but most people seemed to think that Andorra would make the final for
the first time with their McFly style entry ‘Salvem el mon’. Sadly
that was not to be, but they only missed out by 11 points coming 12th
in the Semi Final. Evridiki was back for Cyprus, but amazingly also did
not make the final. Could we be in for another surprise this year? Well, I
certainly was! Belarus was my Number 1 this
year, but I also especially liked Spain, Greece, Turkey and Russia. We arrived at the final
to find some people in our seats, which just happened to be outside Mr
Wogan’s commentary box! The seat-stealers were Hanna Pakarinen fans with
huge placards and facemasks. It took some official convincing for them to
move into their correct seats, right in front of ours. We had to ask them
to keep the placards down for some of the time, as we couldn’t see a
damn thing! We also had to look at the Hanna masks which they wore on the
back of their heads for the whole show. We enjoyed the show regardless and
I was convinced that Ukraine or Belarus would win.As it turned out, the song that I placed 39th out of 42
won the Contest. I was more than a little shocked and hadn’t seen it
coming at all. Maybe I’d lost my predictive powers, or lucky guessing
ability? Ah well, it was only Eurovision…. The winner was though, a song
I just couldn’t listen to ….until a 3 minute dance mix became
available – and that I do really like! ‘Molitva’ seemed to be a
popular winner though, but I’d wanted to see some smiling Eurovision
faces from Serbia and had been disappointed by yet another similarly-style
ballad, which I found rather dreary. The very undreary Verka Seduchka
finished 2nd though and Ukraine was certainly proving to
be a power to be reckoned with, in Eurovision terms. The results accepted,
we headed home again.
2007 - Flying The Flags
2008 -
Belgrade
I
took a little more convincing than usual to go to Serbia, for all sorts of
reasons, but I found myself on a flight from LondonCityAirport with David and Andrew in
May 2008 heading to Belgrade via Zürich. For the
first time since 1996, I had also managed to acquire Accreditation for the
event, so some back-stage style access was likely this year, although I
was not sure what I’d do with it.
My little website, which you are
visiting now, had been running since 2001, providing a web resource for
the OGAE Contests, especially SECOND CHANCE. I had started to develop a
Eurovision angle to the site though, including national final results,
polls, pictures, videos and results. This gained me PF accreditation for
Belgrade and I was ready to see
what that meant in this new age of Semi Finals and hi-tech press centres.
This was a far cry from the tents and flint walled spaces of 1993.
We
had booked a lovely little hotel in Zemun just outside the main city and
cheap cab rides took us in to Belgrade for sightseeing and
Eurovision. We also met some delightful Russian girls at our Hotel who
were in Belgrade to visit friends and as
Dima Bilan fans… As it turned out, we’d be seeing them again in 2009,
but we didn’t know that then!
2008
was the first year that Eurovision would have 2 Semi Finals before the
Grand Final. Eurovision was now 3 nights – fantastic! With the
obligatory Friday rehearsal, that meant at least 4 nights of our stay
would be at the Venue. Having said that, a package of tickets had to be
bought which included every rehearsal of every show. I received a huge
amount of tickets before we left for Serbia, but it would be almost
impossible to use them all. Once there, cabs were the easiest way to get
around town as venues were quite spread around the centre. There was on
occasion that we had to leave a broken down cab that we were in and walk
though!
We
decided to visit the ‘House of Flowers’ – the mausoleum of the
former Yugoslavia’s leader Josip Broz
Tito. This was a man who was synonymous with Yugoslavia when I was growing up and
a visit to the place of his memory seemed appropriate. We were quite
surprised how run down the place looked and it felt a little forgotten,
but time had moved on and Yugoslavia no longer existed. In
Eurovision terms, that still felt strange, but we had become used now to
the newly independent nations that brought new and fresh ideas to
Eurovision with their own identities.
2008 -
Belgrade
Another
encounter with a former Eurovision performer was on the cards in Belgrade, a Brazilian moment. The
unforgettable Baby Doll had matured into a classier act and gave us
renditions of her songs old and new. This included a strange performance
of Donny Osmond’s ‘Puppy Love’, which sadly sounded more like
‘Poopy Love’ which gave us a smile or two and something to remember!
We did also make it to a rooftop Scandinavian promotion where all of the
Scandi-artists from Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Iceland appeared for photos and
promotion. Perfect!
OK,
at both Semi Finals, the supposed random announcements of the qualifiers
felt a little strange as the final envelope at both Semi Finals contained
huge fan favourite songs from Norway and Portugal (and my top 2!). It made
it exciting, if more than a little tense. The big surprise came from Semi
Final 2 though when both Switzerland (my 3rd
favourite!) failed to make the final. Could we be in for another big
surprise? Ukraine had sent another strong
entry too, with Ani Lorak’s ‘Shady Lady’ having a great chance to
win it again for them. But all of these and more were blown away by Russia! Dima Bilan’s second
attempt at Eurovision brought Russia a first victory. Having
laughed in 1994 at whether we would ever get to Russia for Eurovision, now it
looked like we would.
So,
we were now in the realms of 2 Eurovision Semi Finals, which meant up to a
week in the ContestCity. The total die-hard fans
who could afford the time and expense now spent 2 weeks on the Contest.
This would never be feasible for me and remembering how frantic some of
the 90s Eurovision weeks had been, I wasn’t sure I could keep that up
for 2 weeks anyway! I’m a die-hard fan myself, but my perspective was a
little different now… everything in moderation… well, maybe.
2009
came along and rumours were rife, would it be
Moscow or St Petersburg?
Moscow was selected and I could
not have been more excited. Eurovision has taken me to some amazing
places, many of which I would not otherwise have been to… Tallinn, Kyiv, Istanbul, Riga, Millstreet (haha)….
But this year I would get to go to one City that had long been on my
wish-list. Growing up in the UK in the 70s and 80s, Moscow was a place to be revered
and mistrusted, but in this modern and more open World, new generations
were making huge differences to those attitudes. I was really looking
forward to this trip. We’d booked in the Cosmos, a huge 1980 Olympics
Hotel, which may not have been updated much since. I flew to Moscow via Vienna, where I met Douwe who
had flown from Brussels. No Vienna airport dash this time, but an easy flight out east to
Russia. Sadly, Russia hadn’t relaxed visa
rules like the Ukrainians did, and a visit to the Russian Passport Agency
in London a few weeks earlier had
been my first taste of something that was to come at the hotel. From the
moment we landed in Moscow, to the moment I sat on my hotel bed for the first time took
us almost 4 hours. This was partly due to us not expecting the Moscow metro to be totally
un-international (and realising that my knowledge of Russian only covered
certain letters when written as capitals), but also to a mix-up at
Reception and a very surly receptionist (I swear she had never smiled in
her life) who did not have me registered. ‘No Room’ I was told and my
passport was hurled back at me. It took almost an hour to get the
situation resolved, but finally we were given a key (still no smile) and proceeded to Floor
21 … There was a dire need for Customer Service Training at the Cosmos
Reception! Certain artists were staying at the Hotel too, like Adok Zoli
from Hungary (who eat a lot of eggs
for breakfast – and I mean A LOT) plus Susanne from Andorra, who we bumped into on
the 21st floor….
Despite
this frustrating introduction to the City, Moscow will go down as the best
Contest yet for this 11 year old lad from Cardiff. So far away from home, in
a World that I could not have dreamt of back in 1974 – I was on a real
high. I can remember standing in Red Square and saying to myself – is this really happening?! I was
fascinated by the grandeur and history of Moscow and enjoyed the tourist
access to the Kremlin like an eager schoolboy. What a privilege this was.
Eurovision in Moscow. Amazing!
Another
privilege was the Press Accreditation access, allowing press centre
access, artist interviews and press conferences. A special moment occurred
at a Moscow Hotel where we met the incomparable Patricia Kaas, who was
representing France this year. A City Tour by
bus also showed us more of the delights of Moscow, old and new. I liked
this place!
At
the Contest Semi Finals, it was only really Hungary that I felt should have
made the final over some of those that did. No big surprises this year and
the final should prove to be a great show. The Semi Final presenters had
been a little annoying however, so we hoped the final presenters,
including Eurovision 2000’s Alsou, would be better. The venue was
amazing and the 18000 strong audience was very enthusiastic! We watched
the Friday rehearsal towards the back of the Arena and I was convinced
that it would be Norway or Sweden on the night. However, I
couldn’t quite work out why Sweden’s ‘La Voix’ was
sounding so empty compared to the amazing full sound at the Swedish
final… The day of the final came and I was given revised tickets for the
Final for Douwe and myself. I was told they were better seats at the front
of a block and to enjoy them. Huge huge thanks to my friend Vlad for them!
I hadn’t worked out how the seating blocks were laid out, so imagine my
surprise when we walked through the arena and showed the tickets to an
usher. When she said to us ‘Go straight to stage’, I felt a little
numb… Really? Yes, really – we were in the very front row for this
Eurovision final. I looked behind at 18000 people behind us and I could
have kissed Vlad, if he had been around! Wow!
The
show, at this angle, with no flags or people infront, was a very new and
fantastically enjoyable experience. It almost felt like a private show
haha. The show goes by so quickly when you are there, wherever you are sat
and this was no exception. I wondered, with such prominent seats, whether
we had been spotted on TV back home. Little did I know what was coming…
For
once, the BBC was sending a big name to
Eurovision – Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber of musicals fame. Jade Ewen would
sing his song ‘Its My Time’ and I felt we would get the best position
we had for years, but could we win? Hmmmm…
Jade
came on stage and the song started. She got whacked by a violin bow as she
walked down the ‘prop’ stairs and belted out the UK song, Yes we’d do OK
with this I thought. At the end of the song I jumped up cheering with my UK flag, as you do (unless
is Jemini). Out of the corner of my eye I could see a camera man with a
shoulder-mounted TV camera. Before I knew it, he was right in front of us,
or the camera was, so I kept cheering, smiling and moving the flag. It was
all over so fast, I was a bit bemused. Then I felt my phone buzz in my
pocket. I looked at my phone and something I’ve never seen before
happened… dozens of text messages starting scrolling up the screen. It
appeared that the shoulder camera moment had gone out to Europe. How funny. What I
didn’t realise is that I’d find out that more people watched the
Contest than I realised (I also came home to a screen capture image on my
office door at work asking if I had been in Moscow at the weekend – now
everyone knew where I’d been!).
Well,
the Contest was a runaway for Norway and what a popular win it
was – and the highest scoring win ever! Rybak’s ‘Fairytale’ went
huge in the hall and I will never forget that night for as long as I live.
A one-off for sure and something I will always treasure. A great
after-show party followed and we went out into the Moscow morning at around 6am to a waiting bus that
took us back to our hotel. It was like a Fairytale! Thank you Moscow!
Thank you Noughties! A whole decade of not missing 1 Contest, wow!
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