Young Fogey: It isn’t pseudo-Irish Celto-pop, its as balkan as eurovisually possible. I blame the pentatonic scale for the similarity, although a common Indoeuropean musical root is possible. Even more probable is that the Ancient Irish snuck in to the peninsula and stole the music from the unsuspecting peoples of the Balkans.

I did notice the very obviously Serbian presenter in Stockholm with some glee.

If you speak Turkish you got to hear some pretty awful attempts at Turkish through the night as well! There was one presenter who did speak a little bit of proper Turkish, but can’t remember which now.

I was suprised by that as well. Then again, Croatia gave Serbia and Montenegro twelve points, so it looks as if the ancient ethnic hatreds just ain’t what they used to be. (Dragan Antulov suggests that political differences were over-ridden by mutual love of turbofolk.)

Does anyone know if Kosovo participated in the Serbia and Montenegro televote? It might explain how Albania managed to pick up eight votes from their sworn enemies.

And, while we’re on the subject of Brotherhood and Unity, did anyone else notice the Swedish results announcer (with a distinctly ex-Yugoslav name) who said ‘Srbija i Crna Gora’ before remembering that he was supposed to be speaking English?

(I admit, we were wondering if there’d be a Janet Jackson-style “wardrobe malfunction” at some point. But no — phew, what a relief.)

Mrs. T, the Bosnians were a great steaming pile of cheese served with cheese sauce and grated cheese on top. Even for Eurovision, it was bit much of the old coagulated dairy product. Or so it seemed to me.

The Albanian gal suffered from not speaking a single word of English. In the Green Room interview, she had her translator sitting next to her. (And it was fun to see the panic on the face of the woman with the microphone when she suddenly realized that /this girl doesn’t understand English/! It was a very short interview…)

The Irish entry was indeed pretty awful. What was wrong with that poor kid?

Doug M.

I can’t believe the Belgians were being touted at pre-tournament favourites - what a shit song! The Maltese at least provided us with some comedy value and the Greek and French entries sounded like transplants from 1976.

The Irish entry was undoubtedly the worst. I usually vote for the Irish song on patriotic grounds (along with the rest of Northern Ireland’s Catholic population), Eurovision being like a football match where if you’re an NI Taig (or a Macedonian Albanian, or Estonian Russian) you can score a goal for your own team. But this year I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. We didn’t deserve the 7 points we got. I eventually voted for Turkey after a long internal struggle with Germany.

Any other UK residents now also feel Terry Wogan has long past his sell by date? His inaccurate political references (yeah, the Albanians voted for Serbia because of they’re such great friends!) and snide attitudes to Eastern Europe should be dumped. And he’s a bore.

And glittery stuff, Doug; let us not forget the glittery stuff. Our eastern friends certainly didn’t; Misses Poland and Romania were liberally slathered and if I don’t remember it from the others, it’s probably because I didn’t look hard enough.

Hard luck for the Turks, whom I quite liked. Their problem, I think, is that they were far too good for the venue. I mean, they sucked, of course; they sucked impressively. But by Eurovision standards they were pretty much Mozart and the Pixies rolled up into one, weren’t they?

– The big disappointment in our household was Serbia. They fielded an excellent band that chose to dumb itself down for the competition, and still came in second. We were rooting for them.

(The girl who announced the point awards from Belgrade appeared to be intoxicated to the point of dropping the microphone… yet another reason to have given it to the Serbs. Oh, well.)

The other one we wish had won: Turkey. Turks doing ska, complete with red hair and peace signs… they /deserved/ to win.

Greece? Ghastly even by the standards of the event. “First my backup singers will pull of their dresses to reveal sequined bikinis. Then they’ll pull of my shirt, to reveal my hairlessly buffed and waxed chest!” Something for everyone!

One to grow on: Albania. She could actually sing, sort of, and would probably have been a contender if she’d had a decent outfit. It looked like her grandmother whipped up that dress on her kitchen table. “Here, little one, I made this from the flag that flew over Skanderbeg’s tomb…”

Most unfairly neglected act: Poland. Come on, people. You had half a dozen Poles doing reggae, behind a lead singer whose dress consisted of electrical tape and gauze. Eurosong at its purest, and they should have gotten ’12s’ all over.

Ah, well. Next year.

Doug M.