For the first time in the 25 years of my Eurovision watching life I’ve managed to guess what entry would win! Overall it is a rather difficult task, even for the most seasoned Eurovision expert (there actually exists such experts!) to pin this down. In particular after the expansion of Europe and the genres and the fact that viewers around and beyond Europe are involved directly by voting, which makes it many factors at work. Cultural relations and flirtations aside you never know what artistic trend or even deviation from a trend might tickle the fancies of the countries in this cultural melting-pot a particular year. Even when there is also a jury involved (this year the jury was reintroduced after decade of absence, in order to balance the bias of televoting. Keep in mind that the jury itself was accused of political flirtation during the cold-war era and therefore dismantled and replaced by direct public voting!). Sometimes they go for the most obvious choice, sometimes for the craziest. This year however I managed to pick the German entry as the winner, based on mainly two reasons; the rest in the line-up were incredibly terrible and the German song, being up-to-date with current POP trend coming from UK, had already found its way to other countries in Europe via commercial radios. So it had more or less secured its place in the hearts and minds of many, plus that the young and cute Lena’s off-beat charm and peculiar vocal style did its trick, despite one of the most boring stage performances ever. This was by the way perhaps the most boring Eurovision set-ups and stage-designs in history, not to mention stiff and ill-mannered hosting! So me picking the least crappy entry in the crappiest contest ever might not be that much of a trick, but considering that its a contest in which the crappiest actually could win (and have in the past) its something of an achievement for me!
