[Raleigh]

Ooooh I've watched it too! And yeah it was one of the best shows I've ever seen. Most of the songs were just awesome and rather spectacular and Kiev was absolutely beautiful.

I must disagree with some of your points though. Greece did an explosive performance. She really did deserve it especially since she worked so hard and toured around all of Europe or almost. She since her voice is powerful and she can actually dance unlike most singers who had to rely on the backup dancers and danced really horribly in my opinion. But she managed to dance and sing with style. And her song is rather catchy! I loved this song from the first time I heard it.

Also you should hear the song without backing vocals and see how her vocals are powerful even without them. I think she really deserved it. Greece has been working really hard in these last four years and they deserved to win even if my country ended up second to them.

And Moldova..LOL I found their debut quite original even if they were a crazy lot. The song was sooo catchy. I thought the band were acting like idiots but the song had this unique taste which made this song a favourite around a lot of people. And they didn't have any women flashing around unlike many songs.

Israel was okay.. though I did not understand a single word out of her Engrish she tried to put in and I don't think she was anything that special even if yeah she had a good voice. I prefered Malta's ballad and Latvia's slow song. Both were so simple without any glam or any low cut dresses like Israel did to try and impress people. I might be biased since I am Maltese but I think Chiara's ballad was the best. Her voice is so smooth and she did all the work.. the lyrics, the composition. And everyone was clapping through the whole show. AND I could understand what she was saying. Latvia's song was quite a good song too. Their lyrics are absolutely beautiful and totally not cliche and it's so sweet when they sing and use sign language.

Another good performance was of Romania. It was really really awesome how they mixed traditional music with modern music making it flow smoothly. Luminita performed an awesome performance too. She has this powerful voice and the band rocked. She deserved her position. And Croatia also performed really well. It's quite powerful with drums and backpipes and this guy has a rather gorgeous voice which fits with the song even if he sings in his language but it's too passionate to pass. It's one of those songs which you can feel emotion in the person.

Some bad performances were Spain - for obvious reasons, Turkey, Germany, Russia, Serbia & Montenegro and Macedonia. Mediocre won't describe these songs but anyhow.

I think Javine's song wasn't so bad but I think she panicked in the performance since her voice wasn't that good. And the dancing wasn't that special. If she did better she might have scored more. Same goes to France.

Some interesting songs were from Ukraine (very brave to introduce a rap song) and Norway with rock. Vanilla Ninjas were quite good too. Maybe it wouldn't be so annoying if she didn't repeat "Cool Vibes" all over and over but this song was awesome. It was a very very good rock song. The girls looked good with style without looking trashy and could really sing and play instruments. Quite a good performance indeed.

I think this year in fact was one of the fairest voting I've seen in the years I've followed the Eurovision. It was expected Scandinavia to vote each other so yeah... no use to complain about it since they've always done it. Neighbours always vote their neighbours even if it is something unfair. Our country has suffered from it too since we almost always bring up high quality music as we take it very very seriously.

Last year also Ruslana was a great singer and did an excellent performance. So I do think she deserved it too even if her English is errr...awful. I did not like when Latvia won since it was obviously since her neighbours voted for her and Malta's song - Ira Losco sang in it and had a much much better song than hers. I also really was annoyed at that transsexual in 1998 won since the song was a total rubbish but ah well.. the contest is more like a gamble. You can never know who will win so you just have to try your best - and hope you score well.