Eurovision 2019 - Grand Final Part 2

Shalom, and welcome back everyone, to the second part of my review of the 2019 Eurovision song contest, held in Tel, Aviv, Israel. As you'll remember from part one, me and James reviewed each of the 26 songs in the final, and today I will be reviewing the rest of the show.

In our last post, the voting lines had opened, and we now get the first of our recaps this evening, in case you've still not made up your mind about who you should vote for. Everyone waves and smiles at the camera, trying to attract your attention and votes except Iceland & Spain. Hatari give us a look that dares us to vote for them, while Spain just show us thier flag on the floor. Hardly inspires us to vote.

Apparently if you vote via the app, you get a video from the participant you voted for gives you a thank you message. I doubt Michael Rice even bothered recording one.

We now get an interval act that seems to include Assi. I'm initially thinking this will be dreadful, and I'm begging him not to sing. But thankfully, Conchita Wurst comes to the stage. Instead, we get one of the most incredible interval acts since Riverdance, where previous entrants sing each others songs, putting thier own take on it. Conchita sings "Hero's" the winning song for Sweden in 2015, while the singer Mans (Who seems to get dragged out for every contest recently) watches. Its a fun and deep interpretation. Next up, Mans sins "Fuego" by Eleni Foureira, who was runner up in 2018. It's a really stripped back performance that is actually quite good. Then Queen Eleni takes to the stage to perform "Dancing Lasha Tumbai" while Verka watches on. You'll remember the song came second in 2017 and has become something of a legend in Eurovision. This is an incredible performances, and Eleni performs to the max, giving a dance break that almost rivals "Fuego". Cant this get any better? Verka then performs "Toy" and its just perfect. It was like the song was written for Verka. I also can't take my eyes of Verka's wife absolutely giving it her all at the sound board at the back.

And then, we reach an even higher height. Gali Atari, who won Eurovision 1979 with the song Hallelujah, who comes on to perform. Its a beautiful song, and she performs beautifully. And then one by one, our singers come back on stage and join in, while the background displays the gyroscope thing that was onstage when Gali won in 1979. It's a fantastic ending to an outstanding interval act, which will no doubt go down in Eurovision history as one of the greatest. 

We get another reminder of the evenings performances, before we chat to Assi in the green room with a curious looking Madonna. Assi claims Madonna is his future wife. She doesn't come across as particularly interesting in this interview. She gives the pageant answer of "You're all winners". Yes, but thats not what we are here for, we are here to see what Europe thought was the best. She also says to "Never underestimate the power of music". Thats very true, but by extension, the following performance she's gives is testament to also understanding that the power of music can show you up, and it certainly does for Madonna. A once iconic, trail blazer is a shadow of her former self. But we don't get to see that just yet, instead we get to hear from the Idan Raichel Project. Its a very good performance of "Boee (Come with me)" Its got a real Israeli musical flavour, with a  real middle eastern feel to it, yet also feels contemporary to up to date. We should have got them to perform twice and not bothered with Madonna. It's a really fun performance, that gets the audience going again. 

We then go back to Erez, with a very bored looking Quavo. I don't think Americans really understand Eurovision. Quavo says "Madonna is great". What an endorsement. He's' not got much stage presence, and this is a painful interview.  Things get worse, that "world famous" mentalist Lior Suchard is back. I think I'd rather be watching the adverts to be honest. He has with him Tom from Norway, Tamta from Cyprus and Luca from Switzerland to take part in these excruciating shenanigans. I still can't get over how fierce Tamta looks. They each have to thing of something, a song, a year etc. By some sort of coincidence, set up. I don't know, but its the 45th anniversary of Abba singing Waterloo in the contest in 1974. Thank god we got back to Assi and Bar at the main stage. Netta is going to perform her new song "Nana Banana". Its certainly not as good as "Toy" and feels like it is missing something. I doubt this would have won if she had entered the contest with it.

This part of the show feels like it is really dragging. Does anyone else remember the days where Eurovision would have an interval act while we were voting, then another act when the votes were being worked out, and then we would dive straight in and see the votes. The past couple of years feels like this part of the show is now more important than the songs and the voting. Perhaps we need to address this going forward. Netta doesn't do sleepovers. Thanks for that nugget of useful information. It's now time for the third recap of the night. If you haven't voted by now, then there's something wrong with you. 

Finally, we get to the countdown, after Luca gets cut out of his pre vote quick chat. Now, after much hype, we get to see Madonna onstage. It starts dramatic, with some almost Gregorian chanting. And then Madonna started to sing. Eurovision requires all vocals to be performed live, and it seems Madonna could have done with pre recording them. It is embarrassing to see someone like Madonna being past her best. You've got to know when to stop before people stop listening to you. The stripped back remix didnt help either, as it took the emotion out of the song, and Madonna's monotone vocals didnt help with this. We then get a quite frankly weird middle section, with a spoken section while she walks about with women in wedding dresses, gas masks and flower headpieces. 

Quavo then sings (I want to call him Quavers) joins in, but things don't improve much. Her vocals are then distorted by some sort of vocoder, perhaps to disguise how bad the actual vocals are as they wander up the stairs, while two dancer with Israeli and Palestinian flags on thier backs walk up the stairs. It seems like a hollow gesture. The performance finishes with them both falling off the back of the stage, hopefully to never be seen again. The reaction to the performance from the audience is muted, which I think says it all.

The voting is now closing, thank god. This has not been a great past 25 minutes, it's been one miss after another. Up until the end of the Idan Raichel performance, the show was doing very well, it was shaping up to be a really good year. But its really lost its way, and I can't speak for everyone else, but I'm really struggling to remain focussed on it, to the point where I've been looking at Halloween decorations online rather than fully paying attention because I'm so bored. (I'm thinking of getting a Halloween tree, and covering it with coloured ribbons like I do on the stairs in our conservatory for when people come over). And to think, there is still another hour to go.

Gal Gadot now gives us a 3 minute video (I don't know who she is, a Hollywood actress apparently). The video shows off the fun side of Tel Aviv, which I can relate to, its a very fun city with an amazing vibe to it. You'd need more than 3 minutes to experience it, the traffic was awful sometimes, but at least the video is something better than we've been seeing so far in the show.

Now, its time to get things moving, as Erez and Assi are behind a desk on the main stage, which can only mean it's time for the Jury votes (Thank god). We speak to a nervous looing Jan Ola Sand (Doesn't he always look nervous though?). We had a valid vote, and its time to start with the Portuguese Jury, and the first 12 points of the evening are given to The Netherlands!

I'm not going to bore you with all the results, but the highlights include Azerbaijan & San Marino giving thier votes in French for some reason, a hyperactive Emma telling us she is the face and voice of the Dutch vote, former winner Alexander Rybak showing his face after that appalling song last year.  Erez and Assi are not the greatest hosts for the voting, they are making a lot of un-funny quips, as well as talking over each other several times, it's feeling a little chaotic. Rylan gives us the UK jury votes, with 12 going to Tamara from Macedonia who takes the lead. We see our first Eiffel tower of the night, on Italy's spokesperson's arm. They give 12 points to Denmark, and Leonora is as surprised at I am they even receive anything. Assi and Erez also keep pronouncing a lot of the spokespersons names wrong. Did they not rehearse those before hand? Belarus gives Israel's only points, a full 12, which triggers a rapturous response in the arena, but a confused one, as they single handily give points (Aside from one point to Australia) to the countries grouped at the bottom of the table, including a full 5 points for the UK, which seems odd. (It's later confirmed this is wrong, but more on that later). Armenia gives a view of the fantastic dancing fountains in Republic square. Romania gives us some yodelling, and I recognise her instantly from a horrendous entry a couple of years ago. Cyprus is up next, and before he can say who gets the 12 points, the audience announce them for Greece. Very predictable.

We then get to see the full leader board as we are now halfway through the jury vote. Macedonia is in the lead, followed by Sweden and Azerbaijan, with San Marino currently in last. We now go to the Green room, where Lucy is with Tamara, and I just want to say, I think that even though we are only halfway through the Jury vote, I think this is the highest ever score for Macedonia. Whatever happens tonight, she is on track for a good position and Macedonia's highest. 

We return to the jury votes, and We have Australia's spokesperson Electric Fields, who will of course be representing Australia is a few years time, although they may not know it yet. Russia's spends more time trying to steal the limelight by playing the piano than announcing thier 12 points for Azerbaijan, Eric Saade, former eurovision contestant is wearing his PJ'S to present the vote. We get yet another musician, this time is Gus from Greece playing the guitar, no introduction, but Queen Tamta gets her first 12 points.  We see our second Eiffel Tower of the evening when France give thier votes. Previous queen Lea Sirk (with a different coloured hair) present 12 points to Czechia who are doing very well. Israel is last to present thier votes, with previous winner Izhar Cohen announcing the final 12 points for The Netherlands.

We have Sweden in first, closely followed by Macedonia and The Netherlands. Its getting tense, and of course, as everyone says, the televote could change everything. Lucy joins Sweden in the green room, who give us a beautiful acapella rendition of "Too late for love". Assi swaps with Bar to present the televote. We start with the country with the lowest jury vote, and work our way to reveal the televote for current leader Sweden last. We start with Spain, who gets 53 points. Hosts Israel receive 35 points. Other highlights include the UK getting 3 points, perhaps more than what was deserved. San Marino gains a respectable 65, which Serhat doesn't seen happy with. Some countries get shown thier votes, others don't. Its like there's not enough cameramen. Germany gets 0, and Norway smashes into the top 10 with 291 points. Iceland then receive 186 points., and the audience turn on them as they hold Palestinian flags, sensing a riot about to begin, Bar moved on quickly to France, who receive 38 points. The crowd is still not happy, and queen Tamta only scores a disappointing 32 points. Russia takes first position with a good televote score, with Switzerlnd sliding in closely behind. Czechia crashes with a paltry 7 points, which wipes the smiles from Lake Malawi's face. Italy blasts to the front of the pack with 253 points, taking top spot by a large margin of nearly 100 points over Russia. The Netherlands is next to receive thier points, the televote giving them 261 points who now take the lead with a total of 492. Tamara and North Macedonia score a lowly 58 points, which ends thier chances of winning. Its an unfair score, but still cements this are thier best score and position for them they have ever had. And finally, its a two horse race between The Netherlands and Sweden, with John needing 253 points to take the lead from Duncan and The Netherlands. It's incredibly tense, and I have a feeling it's going to happen. Bar finally announces that Sweden scores 93, and while The Netherlands and the arena are celebrating, John sits with a painful look on his face. I feel a little bit sorry for him, this method of dishing out the votes is brutal, and he doesn't appear to be take it very well. 

But it's not enough, and the Netherlands win for the 5th time, and thier first since 1975. And it's well deserved, it was a good song, a great performance and some brilliant staging. And overwhelmed Duncan heads to the Eurovision stage, and he joins our hosts for a few words, before being presented with the trophy and performing a reprise of Arcade. Netta doesn't say much, just announcing she can't wait to see the contest in Amsterdam, she hands the trophy over and randomly vanishes. Duncan dedicated his win to "Music being first". Our hosts wrap up the show, with another shout out to Kan. 

Duncan then performs the winning song Arcade, and you can hear the emotion in his voice as he hears the crowd singing back with him, as the golden confetti streams down round him, he's then joined by the Dutch delegation who join him on stage, we get some fantastic shots of the audience joining in. And with that, the 2019 contest finishes on a really high and positive note. 

Join me in the Eurovision recap post coming soon, where we will take a closer look at some of the results from contest and discuss closer some of the events that took place. But until then, Layla Tov Europe!