Details here.

Eurovision! Loved the staging (noticed we had a March of the Athletes this year, #legacy2012) and loved Petra the host but this is actually the first year in ages I’ve not really felt the need to buy the official album, or indeed download a few individual tracks from it. It was a pleasant and largely inoffensive set of songs, but very little pushed my pop buttons. We enjoyed Romania and Norway at our house party last night, but whilst both had a good sound, personally I thought they lacked a killer tune. Interestingly one of my favourites was France’s opener, which was never going to get anywhere. Finland’s seemed to be what the British would think is a good Eurovision song but didn’t really have much killer about it, which then hilariously got no votes from us.

I’m completely baffled as to what everyone saw in the Danish winning entry, we’d have happily accepted pretty much any of the five or six next entries over it. It wasn’t a runaway winner in its semi either, Russia was only 11 votes behind it. Intriguingly we only gave Ireland 6 points in the semi (and only 1pt in the final!) proving that that British sense of fair play is alive and well, or something.

• Scorecard Semi 1
• Scorecard Semi 2
• Scorecard Final

So what next? We’re not one of those tediously earnest types who goes “I think you’ll find there’s no political voting in the Eurovision ACTually,” followed by “If only we put in someone who is internationally well known with a good song we’ll storm it! We could win it every year if we wanted to” when we put in Bonnie Tyler with a song that’s average at best and end up beating Cascada. There is, I have decided, no point trying to second guess the Eurovision Song Contest, other than we should try entering something a little bit poppier than we have done the last few years and enjoy the ride. It remains a good value proposition for the BBC.

That Eurovision anthem is never going to catch on.

Almost five million people watched it in the Netherlands last night, almost a third of all people in the country, and a 65% share of the TV watching viewership on the night. Germany and the UK both had around 8m watching it, but of the
Big Five France and Italy could only manage audiences of around 2m.

Online from 5pm UK time/noon Baltimore time

But the Eurovision Song Contest isn’t the only big event happening this weekend. This weekend in Baltimore, Christian Carrion, Bob Hagh and Cory Anotado will be spending 24 hours recreating classic (admittedly mainly US) gameshows for charity.

Last year this was quite good fun – I didn’t watch all of it but dipped in and out. They’re hoping to raise $5,000 for charity – the American Cancer Society and the Kennedy Krieger Institute so if you enjoy what you see then donate!

Here are all the links you need:

• Official Facebook page
• Official Live Stream
• And you can donate here.

Saturday, 8pm (UK),
BBC1 and Radio 2

It’s time for the UK to believe in Bonnie as the Eurovision Song Contest plays out for the 58th time live from Malmo in Sweden. How will the UK fare (badly probably)? And which country’s results returner’s use of humour will most backfire spectacularly? We’ve got Scott Mills doing ours so it won’t be too embarrassing. Probably.

I believe there might also be some sort of Fifty 50 Show live commentary thing going on – if it’s happening then all the details will be over there.

Join Graham Norton on BBC1 or Ken Bruce on BBC Radio 2 for an evening of songs and inevitably hilarious voting. Bonnie Tyler is singing for the UK as the 15th song of the night. We only caught the last half an hour of the Thursday semi-final so all we know is that if nothing else the Swedes have put on some excellent tension music.

Links!

• Here is the BBC site!
• And here is a link to the official live stream from 8pm UK/9pm Europe – you won’t get the commentary, but you will get to see all the action if you’re outside the EBU.

“Regrettably” I’ll be watching this with chums tonight so won’t be around for it, but I look forward to reading your comments (if you choose to make any!) after. As I said previously, Twitter’s a much better place for this sort of fast moving ephmera these days so it’s no big deal, but if there’s anything you want people to know for posterity then go ahead.

Yes yes, I know it’s Eurovision tonight (and Thursday) (and Saturday) but we live in a FAST MOVING WORLD, so here are some interesting things we’ve gathered today:

• Can you draw? Victory Television are looking for people to draw something for Draw It! The prize is a verbal or written credit. The pilot filmed today, so if you went let us know what you think. I think if it’s an hour it’s dead before it begins, and we hope it places heavy emphasis on comedy.
• SRO Audiences seemed to have turned something up called The Face for Sky Living, which seems to be a modelling version of The Voice, featuring Naomi Campbell as a mentor. I look forward to seeing how the blind auditions pan out for that. Actually it might be more like The X Factor, but that doesn’t allow me to make a clever joke.
• The people behind The Amazing Race and Lord of the Rings are planning a reality game called The Quest for ABC. Details via The Futon Critic, but it sounds Very Much Like The Sort Of Thing We Like, although we’re not massive fans of LOTR, or indeed The Amazing Race these days.
• Whodunnit? starts in the US on June 23rd. I’m looking forward to this, especially if they don’t take it too seriously (the show’s being hosted by the estate’s butler, which is a good sign). Something doesn’t quite add for me about the premise – there’s a murder mystery each week, but one of the contestants is also the murderer but a different murderer murdering the contestants and they’ll be unmasked at the end of the series which sounds a little silly, but I’m hoping I’ve missed some important plot point and that it’s an enjoyable reversioning of Mole-der in Small Town X.
• New episodes of Pointless begin May 27th.
• Finally this Saturday some folks in the US are doing a 24 Hour Game Show Marathon for cancer charities. Last year it was quite good fun, this year they have bigger intentions, and it will all be streamable. If you enjoy it, give generously. And if you want to participate then donate more than $25 now for a chance. The fun begins at noon Baltimore time, which is 5pm UK time.

Tuesday and Thursday 8pm (UK time),
BBC 3

A general post for the Eurovision Semi-Finals this week, as the advent of Twitter has rather made live discussion of them less fun in a place like this – not a complaint, just a comment!

BBC3 will be showing the semi-finals with Scott Mills and Ana Matronic from The Scissor Sisters (who are currently on “indefinite hiatus”, sadly). We in the UK can vote in Tuesday’s heat, but not the Thursday one. Interestingly, Tuesday is the one with Ireland in it, but it’s not Jedward this year so it probably won’t affect the results.

Regrettably work commitments mean I will be missing Tuesday one, and probably a bit of Thursdays as well. As I’ve not followed the Eurovision at all this year really, it should make for a nice surprise come Saturday’s big final.

Here’s a link to the BBC site, as that’s where I’ve nicked the picture from.

If you’re outside of Europe, you can still usually watch! Eurovision.tv usually carries an ungeoblocked stream, and it’s official too. If you’re watching from outside of Europe, do let us know what you think.

Please feel free to leave any Eurovisiony comments here. A separate post will go up for the grand final on Saturday.