Well it’s that time of year again were Europe come together to share their love of music in the Eurovision Song Contest.
Eurovision 2014 did not disappoint as everyone seemed to pull out all the stops with many weird and wonderful entries. Circle pianos, trampolines and milk churning all took centre stage as Copenhagen hosted the words biggest singing contest. The host country did a wonderful job and had an adrenaline packed opening show with speed boats, skydivers, street runners and fireworks. The same cannot be said for their actual hosts though as the trio crashed and burned on stage more than once. Johan Philip’s obsession with China failed to make the audience laugh and his mid show piece left most of the audience feeling like they had been mentally mugged. Nikolaj Koppel managed to make us fall asleep and Lise Rønne apparently spent most of her time stalking the contestants as she knew more about their eating habits and family than they did!
Urkraine kicked off the show with Tick Tock and it was baffling to say the least. The beautiful Mariya Yaremchuk put on an amazing performance but she was upstaged by a random guy running on a massive hamster wheel behind her. The show continued with this theme of weirdness as Belarus sang about their obsession with cheesecake, Poland seemed to be make an X rated movie with a half-dressed milk maid and France called out for help as they couldn’t grow a mustache. It was nice to see Jedward still have a job though as it looked like they were the stylists for both France and Belarus.
We are very proud of Eurovision and our European neighbours this year as we all took a massive step forward to acceptance with Austria’s bearded drag queen taking the top prize. Conchita Wurst looked stunning and sang her way into to everyone hearts with the song ‘Rise like a Phoenix’. Now dubbed the darling of Eurovision, Conchita made an emotional acceptance speech, dedicating it to “everyone who believes in a future of peace and freedom. You know who you are, we are unity and we are unstoppable!”
Not all entries felt the love this year though as Russia was repeatedly booed during their performance and the results. We felt sorry for The Tolmachevy Sisters but the twins stood their ground as they sang ‘shine’ on top of a massive see saw. (Yes you read that right, only at Eurovision.) However it wasn’t enough to win over their booing, European neighbours as the thrill of winning the big points from several countries diminished over time.
Our very own molly came in 17th out of 26 contestants which is up two places from last year’s entry Bonnie Tyler. Our girl performed very well but she wasn’t memorable enough to win herself a position on the top side of the board. There were so many amazing entries this year and we were pleasantly surprised. Our top three Favourites of this year Eurovision were Iceland’s boy band Pollapönk with ‘No prejudice’, The Common Linnets singing ‘Calm before the storm’ for The Netherlands and Malta’s Firelight singing ‘Coming Home’. No one however could take the spotlight of this year’s winner Conchita, who topped the table with points 290, a full 52 points ahead of second place winners, The Netherlands, with 238.
See below for the full list of results:
1) Austria: Conchita Wurst, Rise Like a Phoenix – 290 points
2) The Netherlands: The Common Linnets, Calm After The Storm – 238 points
3) Sweden: Sanna Nielsen, Undo – 218 points
4) Armenia: Aram MP3, Not Alone – 174 points
5) Hungary: Andras Kallay-Saunders, Running – 143 points
6) Ukraine: Mariya Yaremchuk, Tick – Tock – 113 points
7) Russia: Tolmachevy Sisters, Shine – 89 points
8) Norway: Carl Espen, Silent Storm – 88 points
9) Denmark: Basim, Cliche Love Song – 74 points
10) Spain: Ruth Lorenzo, Dancing In the Rain – 74 points
11) Finland: Softengine, Something Better – 72 points
12) Romania: Paula Seling & OVI, Miracle – 72 points
13) Switzerland: Sebalter, Hunter Of Stars – 64 points
14) Poland: Donatan & Cleo, My Slowianie – We Are Slavic – 62 points
15) Iceland: Pollaponk, No Prejudice – 58 points
16) Belarus: Teo, Cheesecake – 43 points
17) United Kingdom: Molly Smitten-Downes, Children of the Universe – 40 points
18) Germany: Elaiza, Is it Right – 39 points
19) Montenegro: Sergej Cetkovic, Moj Svijet – 37 points
20) Greece: Freaky Fortune feat. RiskyKidd, Rise Up – 35 points
21) Italy: Emma, La Mia Citta – 33 points
22) Azerbaijan: Dilara Kazimova, Start a Fire – 33 points
23) Malta: Firelight, Coming Home – 32 points
24) San Marino: Valentina Monetta, Maybe (Forse) – 14 points
25) Slovenia: Tinkara Kovac – 9 points
26) France: TWIN TWIN, Moustache – 2 points
Tell us what you thought of the Eurovision song contest this year @HerCampussCCCU