Ok, I'm going to cut to the chase and just give my overall thoughts on my favourites, the show and the results.
I sadly missed Ukraine but based on her semifinal performance I would say she'd probably make my Top 10 because of the classic Eurovision-esque vibes I get from it, despite wavy vocals.
Azerbaijan yet again was a major disappointment. I wanted to like it but it just lacks the oomph. Norway nearly landed into this category as well if not for the much stronger song and good staging.
Romania was classic all out Eurovision and I'm always up for some Paula Seling!
Poland's act was definitely worth a "look".
Conchita is an ok winner, I'm not a huge fan of the song but I think her win has more of a point to prove rather than being a winner based solely on music, since there were no frontrunners.
Sweden further made an impact on me, it's rather catchy.
I really wanted to like Germany and Italy more but P!nk lookalike/soundalike just didn't have a good enough song whilst Italy's MV had much more impact.
Whilst I liked Spain I was still waiting for that big impact which I didn't quite get.
Netherlands was definitely my favourite of the night. I'm so happy they did so well having been shunned early on.
Very disappointed for Molly (UK). Her performance was decent, I was expected a bigger vocal impact, but overall it was a solid performance that deserved to be in the Top 10.
My Top 10 prediction after performances were (not in order)
Austria - Expected it to do ok but not that well
Netherlands - Knew that their sudden surge would propel them
Sweden - She was my safe bet to win
Hungary - Whilst I'm still not convinced I knew it would do well
Ukraine - It has the Eurovision glamour to do well
Norway - A soft man-ballad would have to do well
Denmark - It's catchy and a Scandinavian choice so should do well
Spain - Power diva had to make it after a decent performance
United Kingdom - With betting and a decent song I thought it would at least make Top 10
Greece - Greece always do well and it was distinctive so I thought it would do ok.
Other predictions;
Armenia - Thought it would disappoint because of its early billing as the favourite
Romania - Wanted them to do well but had a feeling they would just miss the Top 10
Azerbaijan - Would probably get their worst placement since their inception
So besides the disappointing result for the UK and rather unexpectedly low placement of Greece I did quite well!
The final ranking was rather interesting. At the middle stages it became apparent that there were 5 that stood out being Austria, Netherlands, Sweden, Armenia and Hungary and towards the final stages the Top 3 and finally Austria had pulled away. It's interesting that only 6 countries passed 100 points which seems rather low.
Ukraine came a solid 6th after a tussle with Russia. In general I'm quite happy with the Top 12.
My personal Top 10 would be (in order)
1. Netherlands
2. Sweden
3. Romania
4. UK - Patriotism, but still decent anyway
5. Spain
6. Denmark
7. Norway
8. Ukraine
9. Finland
10. Austria
5 Others
Armenia
Hungary
Greece
Italy
Azerbaijan
And on a side note. Semifinal 1 was won by Netherlands, which is rather interesting with such a strong semifinal with Sweden, HUngary and Armenia in the list. Portugal just missed the Top 10 by 1 point. Estonia also missed out slightly and came 12th.
In Semifinal 2 Austria won by a landslide. Romania came a solid 2nd and then the others were rather spread. There's also a huge part of potential procrastination with the split votes and the individual votes from each country but I'll not go into that for the sake of my own sanity.
Anyway final words, congratulations to Conchita Wurst. It was definitely an interesting Eurovision. See you guys in Vienna next year!
