Athens 2006
Well its sunday afternoon in Kyiv after a great night last night.

Well done to Greece for winning for the first time after trying for 31 years to do it. It was a great performance
and I was well happy with the result. Greece was the big favourite for the last few months and was the first prediction
for winner that I gave on my first live link up on Forth2's Darren and Diane's lunchtime show, so well done me.
Also in my final shake up for the 24 places I placed Greece 2nd and Malta 3rd so I was pretty close.
My dark horse predictions included Israel and Latvia who placed 4th and 5th respectfully. The only one I didnt call
was 3rd placed Romania , who as we heard just before the final, won the Semi so this is no surprise really. I had placed them 8th.

I entered a top 10 sweepstake at dinner just before the show which included Keith.
I placed Norway 1st (they finished 9th), Greece 2nd (1st), Moldova 3rd(6th), Malta 4th(2nd), Switzerland 5th (8th)
Hungary 6th(12th), Spain 7th(21st), Israel 8th (4th), Denmark 9th (10th) and Bosnia 10th (14th).
So I didnt win the sweepstake due mainly to a bad prediction on Spain though it was the best big four finish if thats
anything to be proud of this year. So I got 7 of the top 10 countries right though not in the right placing.

It was a wonderful show this year and I detected very few actual bad performances. Javine seemed to me to put in a great
performance , her best including all her rehearsals, but it was to no avail. Countries are just not voting for the UK
these days. This morning I thought of a plan for the BBC to adopt next year. It was noted that Greece (from Sweden),
Switzerland( from Estonia) and France (from Israel) got votes based on their artist coming from another country.

The best places to pick up neighbourly voting is from the Scandic block or the Balkan block.
Also a solo female singer singing a strong ballad will do well. So if the BBC chose a known Swedish singer such as
Shirley Clamp or a known Croatian singer such as Doris or Danijela and gave a really stong ballad then we would do much better.
Its either that or a top rated female pop singer from the UK or Australia (Kylie).
So come on BBC pull your socks up and give us a potential winner.
Having said all that I am really sorry for Javine because I dont think her or the song deserved bottom 3.
That sort of result does have the potential to put off other established artists in the UK pop scene from even
contemplating participation in the future, which is a real shame.

Some useful or useless statistics from last nights results.

It took Greece 31 years from their first entry in 1974 to win.

Its the 4th year in a row that a female solo artist has won(statistically the best formula for success).

The big 4 are the bottom 4( and in the order that I would have placed them).

The only country to vote for the 1st and 2nd placed countries, Greece and Malta, by giving 12 and 10 points was the UK!!

This is the 11th year in a row that we have had a successive different country win( The last time a country won for the
2nd year running was Ireland in 1994).

This is the 5th year in a row we have had a new winning country(i.e. a country that has never won before)

Malta finished a strong 2nd but only got one douze points from Russia !!!

So to my top 24 prediction from yesterday afternoon.
How did I fare? Was I badly out or quite close with my predictions? Heres how it looked.

1.Norway -9
2.Greece -1
3.Malta -1
4.Moldova -2
5.Switzerland -3
6.Hungary -6
7.Spain -14
8.Romania -5
9.Croatia -2
10.Israel -6
11.Sweden -8
12.Bosnia & Herzegovina -2
13.Serbia & Montenegro -6
14.Russia -1
15.United Kingdom -7
16.Turkey -3
17.Latvia -12
18.France -5
19.Albania -3
20.Cyprus -2
21.Denmark -11
22.Ukraine -2
23.FYR Macedonia -6
24.Germany Spot on

Overall I think I did not too bad with 12 countries within 3 places from their finishing spot and including
one country Germany at the bottom spot on. I should have put money on that one!!!

I attended the Winners press conference briefly and it was pretty standard stuff. I bailed out early
as I was totally knackerd after a previous 3 late nighters in a row. I even ditched the idea of going
to the after show party at Arena(Euroclub). Now I am refreshed and bright as a button.

I have had a great time here in Kyiv, attending the 50th Eurovision and writing up these reports.
Also my live link with Forth2 was a lovely bonus. 4 times before the Final and another link this afternoon
on Forth1 on Darren Adam's new sunday show which is on between 1 and 4 pm. I will be on at 3.30pm.
Also I should be back on monday with Diane and Darren at 2.10pm and maybe even tuesday as well.
Many thanks to Keith for allowing me the chance to write on his blog for him and Peter for also being there
to bounce ideas off. We have all got on well between shows and rehearsals and created a very happy team.
I sure hope we can team up again next year for Athens in May 2006.

Andrew xx