The Eurovision Song Contest 2021 - Grand Finale

Well, that was fun! 

First of all, there were several of us watching it together and everybody came from another country - we had Greece, Spain, Argentina, Morocco, Lebanon and Croatia - for some, it was a very first Eurovision so we had to explain how it works, why things are done the certain way, what it all means and how come non-European countries participate in this gargantuan spectacle. And talking about gargantuan, there as of course food, food, food and drink, drink, drink to such degree that at one point we actually have to move it away because it became too distracting. What was actually the best was that we all came from such different backgrounds that we all had completely different tastes and favourites - and it didn't create any bad blood between us but just a lots of laughter. 

I had in the meantime checked (accidentally!) the contestants from 2020 when Eurovision was cancelled and found out that quite a few artists were exactly the ones chosen to perform this year as well. I still don't understand why they didn't just allow the chosen programme for 2020 to go on as planned this year, instead of going trough another selection and making these artists go with inferior songs. In total, 24 countries decided to send exactly the same performers, just with different songs. I do must say that the hosts really did their best to organise a spectacular show with breathtaking visual designs, dancers, backgrounds, you name it - things were constantly happening above, around, behind and bellow the performers (the floor itself was a part of the light show) so much that occasionally this would almost eclipse the music itself. 

At this point I was familiar with most of the competitors except so called Big Five (Italy, France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom) who have the privilege to skip the competition and go straight into the grand finale. Apparently it has to do with the fact that Eurovision originally started with these countries + they are traditionally the biggest financial backers of the show, but its still highly questionable why they should have any privileged status and it seems that it annoys a lots of people - famously, Turkey pulled out from Eurovision because of this. 

As the performers started rolling in and out of the stage, I wrote down exactly who were my favourites - being oldest in the group, I was all for music, while my younger friends were dazzled by choreography and mini dresses - judging from the music point of view, I was sure that Portugal, Iceland, Belgium and perhaps off-the-wall Ukraine had the best chances to win. My company was all for uptempo party dance numbers like Malta, Moldova, San Marino and Cyprus - in my opinion indistinguishable but hey, I let them enjoy and argue. What was actually a genuinely excellent change of the rules is that for the first time  during the voting the countries did not go trough tiresome each single vote, but only presented whom they give maximum 12 points. (Until now, every single country was counting vote by vote by vote and it took forever). Just when it looked like serious fight between France and Switzerland (neither of whom I cared about), we came to second part of the voting which I wasn't aware of - apparently, there is a official jury that votes from each country but also a public vote. And boy, the public vote matters much, much, more because it can turn everything on its head. For example, out of the blue Ukraine suddenly came to the first place, just to be topped by hard rock Italy and it left previous favourites in the dust (Malta was clearly a sore loser). What was particularly funny is that UK got 0 points from countries jury and from public vote so this must have been really low point for Brits (who always claim as they don't care for Eurovision but participate anyway) - until you realise this is exactly the same spot they already had last time in 2019.