14:18 (Felix)

Happy Eurovision! The most important day in the year has arrived, and for many of us it begins quite late, as last night’s party at the Euro Fan Café ended quite late as well.

We have spent 2 great weeks in Malmö that are now slowly coming to an end, so give me the time to bring a few things to the digital paper:

SVT has come up with an amazing show, with probably the best and most lovable postcards we have ever seen. I am very glad that – in this case – the artist is brought back into the spotlight. I am not too fond of the interval acts, but that doesn’t affect my thoughts, that this is – by far – the best Eurovision, that Swedes have ever hosted. Forgotten is the disastrously dull hosting of Malmö 1992, the cold and try-hard-modern show of 2000, the already-then-oldfashioned 1985 and the – admittedly funny – quite unprofessional contest of 1975. Swedish humour has never worked very well with the wider European audience, and this year won’t see a big change, I guess.

The things that remain to be criticized are the new draw rules and the relocation of the press into the Euroclub in the first 4 days. Otherwise, SVT has done a good job, and especially the lovely staff deserve a very warm round of applause.

Tonight we’ll see 26 songs that already are winners (apart from the UK and France, sorry, but it’s like that!), of which only 10 can get into the Top 10, and only one can win. In about 10 hours, there will be disappointment, conspiracy theories, mourning about the winning song and/or the next host, and in 24 hours there will be the infamous PED going around. “I told you so!” and “What the f… happened!?!?” will be the most heard sentences again.

But let’s not focus on the day after, let’s put the show back into the spotlight: I hope you enjoy the show as much as I will. I’ll now head off to the Eurovision Village to spend parts of my last Eurovision day here in town, and tonight, I won’t be blogging during the show. However, feel free to join our chat for all the fun, I am sure it won’t exactly feel like a ghost town.

Once again, Happy Eurovision everyone!

14:35 (Felix)

My prediction for tonight (in no particular order – the three most likely potential winners are highlighted):

Top 10:

Denmark
Azerbaijan
Hungary
Georgia
Greece
Moldova
Iceland
Romania
Germany
Netherlands

Bottom 3:

Spain
Lithuania
Sweden

17:30 (Martin)

I too wandered into town, quickly checking out the Village before settling down on Stortorget with a coffee and an ice cream. The fans most obviously in attendance, at least based on the presence of flags, shirts, feather boas etc., are those from Ireland, the UK, the Netherlands, Sweden (of course), Norway, and even France.

Now it’s time to settle back for some important preparations:

…and give you my predictions for the big night! So here goes:

Top 10:
Denmark
Greece
Italy
Azerbaijan
Iceland
Germany
Russia
Georgia
Romania
Moldova

Bottom 3:
Spain
Belarus
Belgium

Enjoy the show everybody!

17:50 (Danny)

I had a VERY chilled day after partying till 5am in Euro Fan Cafe where we saw live performances by Eddie Razaz who treated us to his Melodifestivalen entry Alibi as well as a few other tracks.

Next up was the last ever performance of Stockholm Syndrome (formerly known as Love Generation) as a trio as Melanie was leaving. They performed a full half hour set including both of their Melodifestivalen entries Dance Alone and Just A Little Bit as well as a few of their other singles, and they totally ROCKED the place!

Finally it was time for the big reunion of Pay TV, who reformed especially for the show! We got both of their MF hits too – Trendy Discotheque and Refrain Refrain, so we were definitely spoiled last night!

Then it was time for more dancing with no less than FOUR rooms open – including one outside! Another fabulous night!

Just over three hours to go until the live show, the big event of the year and it’s also time for me to give my prediction – this is TOUGH!

Top 10:

Denmark
Greece
Norway
Azerbaijan
Russia
Germany
Italy
The Netherlands
Georgia
Hungary

Bottom 3:

Spain
Lithuania
Belgium

I’ll no doubt be TOTALLY wrong though! Right, off to get myself ready for the party to begin! Enjoy the show wherever you are! 🙂

18:09 (Felix)

I just came back from a final trip from the press centre to Malmö Downtown. The Ogae poll looked like this, the last time I checked it:

[singlepic id=4919 w=500 float=none]

Finally, I spent some minutes at the Eurovision Village, which felt like a weird mix of gay pride, family fair and a football bar. As I didn’t spot any familiar Eurovision fan face, I decided to leave the crowds again, but you can tell, that this city is breathing Eurovision on this sunny day. It’s in the air, everywhere, and even the guy from the reception was humming Ljubav e svuda when I went to pay for my hotel room. Even though it’s out.

[singlepic id=4921 w=500 float=none]

It’s this bitter sweet day that you anticipate for a year, and then there’s this big boom and the Eurovision clock is reset to 0. It’s the moment to say goodbye to a lot of dear friends (at least until the next Eurovision, mostly), and saying goodbye to the little details of the host city that you will probably never see again.

One last impression from downtown… the Dutch fans dressed as storks, as already mentioned in the Tuesday Show:

[singlepic id=4920 w=500 float=none]

and now… enjoy the show and may the best song win!