Eurovision 2014: What I thought

 Hello!

Cakes and flags made by my talented brother

 As you will know if you follow this blog or my Facebook page, I am a huge Eurovision fan. It is quite possibly the highlight of my year. I just love the sense of together-ness, of people all over Europe watching and enjoying the same spectacle.

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The host nation:

 One thing I like about Eurovision is learning about the host nation, and in this way I felt slightly let down this year, as I found there wasn't much information about Denmark, or Copenhagen as a city.

 The only thing that had anything to do with Danish culture was the performance of Hans Christian Anderson's The Ugly Duckling in one of the semi-finals. I would have liked more of that sort of thing, especially in the final.

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The hosts:

 I thought the show was well-hosted, though I preferred Petra Mede last year. I think some of the hosts' humour was perhaps lost in translation, as I didn't find some things funny that I think I was supposed to.

 I also didn't really get the continual China references - was that an in-joke of some kind? Overall, though, it was better hosted than a lot of past contests.

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The venue:

 I was amazed when I saw pictures of the venue from the outside - it is a pair of former shipping containers, and looked so different from more glamourous past Eurovision venues. Yet inside, it looked wonderful; I liked the stage design and how it matched the gem theme of the contest.

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The theme:

 When I first encountered the gem theme, I thought it too simple and ordinary. However, it really worked on the night and looked quite arty. The tagline, "#Join us," is too similar to Norway's 2010 slogan, "Share the moment," and I feel that Norway captured the sentiment better with their flashmob. But it is a nice sentiment to have in the first place.

 I could have done without the hash tag, though. Not all of us use Twitter, and those of us who don't can still be part of Eurovision.

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The songs:

 I thought the standard of songs this year was really good - probably the best overall quality across all the songs that I remember seeing at Eurovision. However, for me there were few really excellent songs. I voted for Malta and the Netherlands, my favourites by a long way. 

 I also quite liked Spain's song. But that was it. While many other songs were good, they just didn't blow my mind.

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The winner:

 I like how Conchita's victory was a victory of sorts for equality. Also, Tom, the guy whose character she is, seems really nice in interview. However, I don't really like the song - it just seems to be about three other songs pasted together and generally dull. 

 The ideal situation for me would have been for Conchita to have come second, which would still have made a stir and a statement, and for the Netherlands to have won because they had the better song and it is a song contest at the end of the day.

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 I hope you enjoyed reading my thoughts on the show. Congratulations to Conchita and to Austria, and thank you to everyone who was involved in making Eurovision 2014 such a great success.

 Here's to Eurovision 2015 in Austria!

 Thanks for reading! I have also written an article about Eurovision for my university's student newspaper, if you would like to check it out.

 Liz x

Songs: Coming Home - Firelight - 2014

Calm After the Storm - The Common Linnets- 2014