Dima Bilan wins Eurovision

I was wrong in underestimating the song and the efforts Dima made in order to win. The song is not bad and Dima did deserve to win, in my opinion for not winning with Never Let You Go, which is was my favourite. Russia hosting the Eurovision is another opportunity to ignate democratisation in the country and kind of gives Eurovision certain relevance (who would care if it was held in some traditional European place?). This year’s Eurovision was special due to where it was held and the possible impact it has on Serbia, which until recently was not so eager to join the EU.

I did not vote for Dima Bilan, as I thought the song was a little average. I do like his music and him, I have seen him in concert twice (once in Estonia and once in London at World Music Awards 2006). My votes went to France and Ukraine. Sébastien Tellier was a nice discovery for me and I am looking forward to hearing his new album Sexuality.

This year’s Eurovision Song Contest had a lot of good songs (I counted ca 10 I liked and the voting showed that more or less the same 10 songs were universally liked). Therefore there is no need to talk about geographic voting. The result was pretty universal, the only thing I would change is to have pan-European votes, where every vote counts the same (not voting by country). This would mix up the contest and make it a real song contest for European people, not nations.