I'm happy for Conchita and Austria, of course. Brave "girl".
Music-wise, my favourite was the Netherlands, but I don't know if it was their merit or the merit goes to the genre they played. I find it difficult to resist to bluegrass. I also liked Norway, and a little less - Sweden. Armenia was not that bad either.
Hungary did OK, Iceland and Finland too. Lots of songs started kind of well, you'd think - oh, a nice tune here...only to blow it a bit later, with the refrain. In this regard, they all seemed similar.
Frankly, I never really expected to listen to the greatest music, it's EV after all...so that's why I'm only disappointed when things go really bad. This time around was kind of OK/fun, given the type of contest. The organisers were cool.

And here's the winner. I agree with those who said she could sing, and the look was kind of cool too. Not to mention the scene/artistic name...Conchita Wurst. That made me giggle a bit. But I liked her/him.

It wasn't only about the music was it?
The lovely girls from Russia and their song had nothing to do with the "booing" did they?
And even though Conchita could sing and had a beautiful song, there was far more to her victory than just the song.

It seems that a statement was made.
We seem to have entered a phase where we're swiftly erasing borders between genders, countries, colors and religions.
These are definitely interesting times.

Yes. Looking at the pattern of the votes, countries gave (high) vote either for their direct neighbours or for countries that have closer political relations (geopolitical block) with them...My guess

Ι watched it on BBC, but only during votes counting. I never miss the votes, but I never watch the songs either.

The comments of the Englishmen were really bitter about countries voting for each other.
I think this should be used by the Scottish independence side for the upcoming referendum. If Scotland participated separately, both countries could have each other's 12 points for granted every year.

(just kidding, right?)

That's because you're a jealous lot.

Why would this surprise you. They most likely have similar tastes in music, culture and the like so voting for each other is pretty normal. Its one reason the island called the UK does so poor because they keep making such a fuss about not wanting to part of europe or the EU and complaining when people from those countries take their supposed jobs.

It's never only about music in this contest. And it's not the first time when a person like Conchita wins this contest and that type of statement was done with various other occasions quite a while ago. I think people just appreciate more things that are different, bolder, strange if you want. Like the Lordi (Finnish hard rock band) a few years ago.
As for the borders, let's not get carried away. it's a contest, everybody can participate, not only European countries. In a few years will see China, I'm sure about that.

So 36 of 37 countries gave their votes in English. Only one country used their native tongue - not hard to guess: France. And they came last...

What was with the commentators on SRF1? Talking over performances, making Scooby Doo noises, whistling over the Swiss performance, etc.

Didn't come as a surprise, they never really recovered from Waterloo, not at Brighton either.

On a serious note I think it originated in France, hence the reason they spoke their native language. Albeit they used to speak english as well when giving the results if my memory serves me correctly.

Oh, and Conchita is a guy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conchita_Wurst

... and there was me thinking Kenny Everett was dead and buried...

That was hard to notice...

My thoughts on last night's entertainment overlapping with another thread on regional accents. I've heard all the arguments about English being the universal language, but it drives me a bit mad how almost all the performers "need" to sing an English text. Although it wasn't one of my favourite performances I found the entry from Montenegro to be one of the more compelling - he was "feeling" the emotions of the song alot more than some of the others.

My daughter goes to summer events in Sweden called Popkollo, sponsored by the Girls Rock Alliance, and she is always surprised how hesitant the participants are to write songs that are not in English. Than again, Petra Marklund, aka September, became popular when singing in English and then reverted to performing in native tongue.

Just imagine the possibilities.
Soon, I will be able tell anyone that I'm the new king of Britain. They will have to address me as "Your Royal Highness" and never speak before being asked to do so. Come to think of it, I felt royal ever since I can remember, perhaps I was just born in a wrong body. Consider this my coming out!

...maybe I could also get a cozy chair in Buckingham and a royal salary. That would be sweet.

That's been going on for years.

Probably thought it was Jeux sans Frontiers.

this is probably true to a certain extent, but in the end I believe the song and the show that wins is the most liked on average...I mean even Germany and Russia won once or twice (joke)

Stance1: Eurovision is a political show and points reflect political love affairs.
Fact1: Germany and Poland gave high points to each other.

Stance2: Eurovision is not about music but about cultural closeness.
Fact2: Cross-gender LGBT front figure wins.

Conclusion: I am glad Eurovision is a political show.

Quod erat demonstrandum.

But I still think the language doesn't change anything. If Corean pop, Tokio Hotel or Aznavour could sell world wide, English can't be a condition to success. In high School, we had to make copies of Vysotsky's songs for half of the school even if we only were 20 in Russian class. Everybody loved Vysotsky without language understanding whatsoever. They just wanted to know what it was about.

Take it from a non-English foreigner: We don't listen to the lyrics in English and when we do, we only understand what is explained by comments in the media, which can be done with lyrics in any language.

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Es wird nichts ausgelassen, um mich hier herauszuekeln. Ein Lehrbuch. False accusations and attacks continue. There is no stopping righteous people when they are wrong.

My problem is that even if I hear the lyrics, I do not really listen to what a song is about....so if someone says "great song" unless I liked the actual music I'm clueless. Rap is lost on me

Strange times.. I'm quite looking forward to the moment the hype calms down.