We are the winners…of Eurovision

Ok, so not really, but we did come in third and this is the chorus of what may be my all time favorite Eurovision song. This came from a group of Lithuanian entertainers (including one of the all-time best Lithuanian pop music artist, a journalist, and a famous Lithuanian violinist) who all came together to perform at Eurovision. They call themselves LT United and had me laughing harder than any Eurovision act yet. I was disappointed that they only finished 6th, but at least they did make it to the top ten, which means that they automatically qualify for next year.

Now, Bosnia did amazingly well! I, along with the rest of the Former Yugoslavia, was very excited about the performance of Hari Mata Hari which earned Bosnia a solid 229 points, putting them in THIRD place!! Only 32 of the 38 countries did not give Bosnia any points, and 8 countries, including Monaco, gave us 12 points!

If you do not know about Eurovision or how it works, you should know that it is one of the highlights of my year. European countries compete to be among the 24 which are in the final Eurovision contest. Eurovision gave the group ABBA the worldwide exposure they needed to achieve the great fame that their name still carries. A little known fact is that ABBA beat Olivia Newton John, Britain’s representative, in doing so. Celine Dione and Dino Merlin (for those of us in Bosnia) are among the many others who have participated in Eurovision during the 51 years of its existence.

(If you already know the scoring process, you can skip this paragraph) As far as how the actual competition is conducted: 24 countries all give their performance, and then Europe is given the opportunity to vote by phone (like in American Idol, I believe). After that it’s kind of like the Electoral College. Depending on the number of votes received, the top ten countries in each voting country is allotted 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, or 12 points. For example, Bosnia was given 7 points from Romania, 1 point from Spain, 8 points from Norway, and so on. In the end, whichever performance has the greatest number of points wins.

Hope that wasn’t too boring or confusing. I’m not good at explaining stuff like this. Onto some of the more interesting stuff. LeAnne hosted our Eurovision party this year (like last year). Lina, Rusty, Larissa, and Scott joined us. If you were not invited, don’t feel bad, it all came together last minute = ) We had lots of fun and ate lots of food and made fun of lots of the performers.

The band Lordi, from Finland won. They were quite the unique performance, with their monster masks, axe microphones, demon wings and pyrotechnics. The title of their song was “Hard Rock Hallelujah.” Feel free to make your own assessments.

Russia came in second with their “heartthrob” pop icon (according the CNN.com) and the scary white person who came out of the grand piano. It was a horrible song. He had a mullet, and had no business coming in second.

And as I already said, Bosnia came in the third. This is the best Bosnia has ever done in the contest, and as far as any former Yugoslav republic has ever done, falls only behind “Lane Moje,” the song Serbia sent two years ago that finished second.

This was my Eurovision recap. Sorry it was long. Sorry if I gave away facts no one wanted to know. And sorry if I maybe got a detail wrong somewhere, although I don’t think I did. If you’re wondering about the pictures, the top right is LT United from Lithuania, the middle left is Hari Mata Hari from Bosnia, and the lower right is Lordi from Findland. For more information check out http://www.eurovision.tv/

I love Eurovision!!!!!!!!!!!!!