Loreen has won the Eurovison 2012 contest with her dance hit, “Euphoria.” Congratulations to her and to Sweden. This was a much better performance than the semi-finals. She moved and sang with confidence, and overall looked like a winner.
I was able to watch the grand finale in my hotel room, as long as I didn’t use full screen on my computer. Not too happy about that, but very happy that I was able to watch the show live. Thanks to Eurovision.tv for making that possible.
Actually, one benefit to watching on the smaller view screen was that I could simultaneously read the Twitter feed on the side. There were lots of funny comments. Some of the funniest had to do with financial crisis. One person tweeted, “The loser has to pay Greece’s way home.” Another tweeted, “Want to piss off Angela Merkel? Vote for Greece. They’ll have a huge party and Germany will have to pay the bill.” And another tweeted, “Ireland sent Jedward so they wouldn’t win and have to foot the bill for hosting next year’s Eurovision.”
It was interesting to see the voting process. Each of the 42 participating countries had a representative announce their top 10 and points would be tallied on a board. It’s a little confusing because the highest score is 12. The points go 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10 and 12. For whatever reason, they give first place 12 points and second place 10 points. Still confused? It’s explained here.
Most countries favored their neighbors. For example, Greece and Cyprus gave each other 12 points. Turkey and Azerbaijan also exchanged the 12 point love. Norway, Denmark, Finland and Iceland all gave their 12 points to Sweden. Maybe it was so they could party in Stockholm next year.
Russia came in second place, but Loreen beat the Babushki by more than 100 points, so it was pretty much a landslide. Third place went to Serbia, fourth, to Azerbaijan and fifth, to Albania. Some of my favorites scored quite low, in particular the United Kingdom, France and Denmark. Norway had the lowest score, which surprised me. I thought Tooji’s performance deserved better than that.
Here are the scoreboards for the semi-finals and the finale, showing how each country voted.
I really enjoyed the experience watching Eurovision. I learned about other countries that had previously been obscure to me and I heard some really great music. There were also some not-so-great moments of performance, but so it goes. What appeals to one culture won’t necessarily appeal to another. Then there are those songs that can crossover and find a wide, appreciative audience. Congratulations to Loreen for singing such a song.
See you next year in Sweden!
Lori Writer 
Loreen just nailed it! She was amazing. I had already lost some of the interest to her after the mediocre performance in semifinal.
The voting order was arranged strangely so the nordic and western countries gave the votes last and changed the order a bit, although Sweden kept collecting points from every country all through the voting. She didn’t break the points record, but got close. I was happy to see Estonia climb up to 6th from very low starting points. Surprises , lots of surprises. Like France.. position 22 even she was so good, maybe the song was a bit boring. Italy was in the same category (in my head) but placed 9th. Iceland, Norway and Denmark … oh wow ! 🙂
I’m not sure if Azerbaijan got so high points because hosting… the song was not that strong. Serbia is always a strong one. Third this year and we all know Zeljko from so many past years so maybe he gets points as people feel they know him. Maybe we should send Lordi again next year. Although that idea didn’t work for Ireland whose position dropped massively from last year.
So see you in Sweden next year in May 🙂
I think Azerbaijan got some host love, since the song was nice, but not special. Serbia wasn’t my favorite, but he had a very nice voice and was a consistent performer, so I don’t begrudge him his high score. Albania, on the other hand… she was screaming into the microphone. Plus that dreadlock stuck to her chest was skeeving me out. It made my chest itch! 🙂 How did she 5th place and France, who looked beautiful and gave a great performance, get 22nd?
Greece and Cyprus cracked me up. It’s like they coordinated everything. “You’re sending a pretty, leggy brunette who sings a fun dance song? Ok, we will, too! 12 points to us. Opah!”
Please don’t send Lordi again. Don’t you have a singing Santa you can send? 😛
See you in Sweden!