When asked, I always say I’m a fan of Eurovision – but what I really mean is I’m a fan of everything that goes with Eurovision. Picking a team, dressing up, getting drunk, tweeting along with the internet – it’s like being in on a big private joke!
https://twitter.com/SincerelyTumblr/status/602236489028669441
I’m not particularly engaged/interested in the music – some songs are great, most are forgettable, and some are laughably, cringe-inducingly bad. But therein lies the fun! So this year my friends and I had a live-tweet Eurovision party, complete with snacks from participating countries (spain – salsa; france – bread and cheese; russia – vodka). As one tweeter put it, Eurovision is one of like the top five things Twitter was invented for, and this year Twitter did not fail to disappoint.
just in case you were wondering what eurovision is pic.twitter.com/wFAcyY351P
— christine (@robbiesus) May 23, 2015
Note to Americans, UK Twitter will go really weird for a few hours. Bear with us #Eurovision2015
— Philippa Willitts: Freelance Writer & Proofreader (@PhilippaWrites) May 23, 2015
After the excellent news of Ireland passing the same-sex marriage law earlier in the day (what a great day for gays!), Kirsty was certain that they had the competition in the bag. Except… they didn’t quality this year. 🙁
"I reckon Ireland will win tonight" – @MsKirstyFace
…who's going to tell her?— Cath Elms (@catherineelms) May 23, 2015
As the show began and we inspected our scorecards, a heated discussion took place as to whether it’s ok for non-European countries to be in Eurovision:
"I'm anti-Israel – not in a political sense, in a eurovision sense" – @richendaleonard #eurovision
— Cath Elms (@catherineelms) May 23, 2015
But of course there were other controversial interlopers this year.
TONIGHT THE WHOLE OF EUROPE UNITES pic.twitter.com/72mfXHyFYZ
— petra (@yeezy4presidcnt) May 23, 2015
A few songs in, we were greeted with the UK’s tragic entry (Electro Velvet – Still in Love with You). This drew criticism from the group, as we noticed that the lyrics were a bit creepy and possessive.
https://twitter.com/catherineelms/status/602197836697055233
https://twitter.com/GoggleboxQuotes/status/602206570013970433
Bad job, UK. It was no 2007 Ukraine.
Annual reminder to vote for the 2007 Ukrainian entry. #Eurovision http://t.co/mO2XOKl4cm
— WaterstonesTCR (@WaterstonesTCR) May 23, 2015
Though personally, I don’t think anyone will ever beat Finland in 2006:
There was a surprise entry from Lithuania with 2 same-sex kisses live on stage! I can’t remember anything about the song, but we all cheered at the kissing.
#LTU lady singer is wearing some kind of pantomime bird dress and they just had a m/m f/f and m/f kiss on stage at the same time o/
— Tori Truslow (@toritruslow) May 23, 2015
No more straight kissing. All of us were immediately disgusted. More girl-on-girl, please! #Eurovision2015
— Katy Lees (@IAmKatyLees) May 23, 2015
Next, a creepy entry from Norway:
WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO NORWAY??!!! #Eurovision2015 pic.twitter.com/GinGvZ4HRj
— BuzzFeed UK (@BuzzFeedUK) May 23, 2015
"I TORE OUT SOMEONE'S LUNGS WITH A MEAT HOOK" – Norway, going 200% too intense. #Eurovision2015
— Andrew Reid (@mygoditsraining) May 23, 2015
Then, our favourite of the night, Serbia.
Oh Serbia. We were so certain that you were going to win.
Fat Positive gay anthem club ballad with flags and a costume change. can't go wrong. #Serbia
— Sez (@wordgeeksez) May 23, 2015
"Costume change! This worked really well for Bucks Fizz, that's all I'm saying." – @MsKirstyFace #srb #eurovision
— Cath Elms (@catherineelms) May 23, 2015
The first half ended with what turned out to be the winning song, Heroes by Måns Zelmerlöw (Sweden). It was a good song with the best staging of the night, though a lot of people were tweeting about how homophobic Måns was following his comments about gay sex being unnatural.
https://twitter.com/catherineelms/status/602202755999084544
I later discovered that he apologised extensively for his comments, and in a winners press conference he addressed the controversy, and thanked his gay fans for looking past his comments.
Next: Australia. She doesn’t even go here.
https://twitter.com/sheikyerbouti_/status/602204250882605056
To be fair, it was a good song – although much more serious than we were expecting, like they were really trying to win. Who does that?
"Where's the digereedoos?"
"Where's Crocodile Dundee?!"
"That's not a knife!"#aus #Eurovision2015— Cath Elms (@catherineelms) May 23, 2015
We've gotta ALL vote Australia because a) it's a good song; b) to cause the organisers a headache. #Eurovision
— Monika MumontheBrink (@mumonthebrink) May 23, 2015
It all went a bit downhill after that, with the second half dominated by ballads and boring songs.
Powering through #eurovision pic.twitter.com/1LadyMUtaU
— Emma Charleston (@undividual) May 23, 2015
europe everytime there's a ballad pic.twitter.com/R0LfsAzH25
— pati (@alIisonjanney) May 21, 2015
Poland had a disabled singer which is really badass in terms of representation, but the song was dull, and sadly they did really badly in the votes.
Boring section of the evening #Eurovision #aze #hun #GEo
— Cath Elms (@catherineelms) May 23, 2015
We're nearly on the last leg now guys #eurovision pic.twitter.com/skOTW5bOPX
— Emma Charleston (@undividual) May 23, 2015
"Looks like he drew that moustache on" – @eve_moriarty #mne #Eurovision
— Cath Elms (@catherineelms) May 23, 2015
I loved Latvia’s entry (Aminata – Love Injected). It was one of the only entries this year that I’ve listened to since the show. Wailing lady singer with a prominent piano accompaniment – what more could I want?
And with that it was all over! We agreed that it was a decent year, but not as strong as previous years.
Now for the results.
"I'm more sober this year than last year, because last year I voted 60 times!" – @eve_moriarty #Eurovision
— Cath Elms (@catherineelms) May 23, 2015
It immediately became apparent that the UK’s score wasn’t going to hit double figures.
"We got 1 point from Ireland, we're fucked!" – @MsKirstyFace #Eurovision
— Cath Elms (@catherineelms) May 23, 2015
No points from Australia?! "We colonised you for nothing!" #eurovision
— Cath Elms (@catherineelms) May 23, 2015
"You know it's bad when Russia beats you in a popularity contest" – @richendaleonard #rus #eurovision
— Cath Elms (@catherineelms) May 23, 2015
And we were devastated that our favourites (Serbia, Latvia, Belgium) were snubbed, while a homophobia country like Russia was close to winning.
she's gonna be crying on the other side of her face! – @MsKirstyFace
— eve moriarty's inner saboteur (@eve_moriarty) May 23, 2015
https://twitter.com/thelindsayellis/status/602234726687059968
In the end, we were ok with Sweden winning – we had to concede that it was pretty good.
[…] to a party – completed! My friend Evey’s Eurovision party/tweet-a-thon back in May, which was so much fun! I’ve been to a few parties since, […]
[…] is Twitter at its finest! I could fill an entire blog post with my favourite tweets from the night (and have done so, in what was an overly self-indulgent move, even for me), but decided to restrain myself and choose […]