Well, it’s been a long while since I posted – my post-Eurovision hangover (both physical and emotional) somewhat scuppered me writing a post in the week after the Grand Final!

But with Eurovision season firing up again (yes, we’re in for the long haul here at mattloveseurovision.com), what better time to relaunch the site again. I’ve missed doing it, hope you will be glad to see it back!

First a bit of a mop up from the Grand Final. A gathering of some 25 of us got together at Clive and Ade’s for the annual party and once again, I played the part of Katie Boyle and Jan Ole Sand in totting up the scores.  So, who did the Vauxhall votes go to? Well in reverse order, it was as follows:

1 point to The Netherlands (nice looking guy)
2 points to Latvia (nice looking guy)
3 points to Hungary (nice looking guy)
4 points to Lithuania (nice looking guy)
5 points to Israel (out and proud)
6 points to France (nice looking guy)
7 points to Bulgaria (my favourite song – go Poli! Great result for her)
8 points to Spain (surprisingly high placing I thought from the Vauxhall crowd)
10 points to Russia (nice looking guy – detect a theme in the way a bunch of mostly gay men in their 30s to 50s scored?)

and finally the douze points went to…

AUSTRALIA!

I still personally feel that song is a bit overrated but no doubting the power of Dani Im’s voice! I’m pleased Bulgaria was also appreciated by the party goers at least.

Quite a contrast from the actual Eurovision result – the following countries came in the actual top 1o but were missing from ours:

Belgium, Poland, Armenia, Sweden and the winner itself, Ukraine. But 3 of our top 4 were in the actual top 4 so we got most of the top ones right!

Some quick thoughts on the final (very quick as I probably could have written a lot more in the immediate aftermath of the final!)

• Diaspora voting is very much in evidence in the public voting. It’s the only way that can explain why that dreadful song from Poland did so well. Also boosted Lithuania a lot but at least Donny Montell’s song and performance was a bit more uplifting!
• I’m so pleased Poli Genova did so well, it fully deserved to. Bulgaria’s best result ever and I was extra pleased to see that if you added the UK’s jury and televote up, Bulgaria got the most points from us. In the old scoring system they would have got the 12 points from the UK.
• The winner may not have pleased those who prefer a dancey, upbeat number but I am rather pleased it did win, and I did call it for the win prior to the final. And the fact that song in particular denied Russia a win must be a bittersweet feeling for many Ukrainians.
• And finally, the real winner was SVT for putting on a (genuinely) AMAZING show. Slickly produced, amazing sound, lighting, visuals. Fantastic hosts of course, with bags of self-deprecating humour, great ideas. I loved both the Eurovision musical piece they did at the first semi-final, and of course, I have to leave you with the incomparable Love Love Peace Peace, yet another interval triumph by the Swedes.

That’s all for now but I will be posting a lot more regularly from here on in! As ever, comments, questions etc always welcome on my posts.