Not a lot for Charlotte…

So, that’s that then!

What a great night.  The atmosphere in the Beograd arena was electric.  I think the variety of songs was extremely interesting, and everyone gave a great performance.

Given that I am the kiss of death when it comes to predicting winners I was hoping that Charlotte would have done better for Sweden – but hey, I guess it was just a bit too old-school schlager music, and I’m showing my age! At least she got one of the biggest audience reactions in the arena – she looked chuffed… but must be disappointed to finish that low down in the rankings.

As we’d expected, but didn’t want, Dima Bilan came through to take the title this year, so we’re off to Moscow next year.  I don’t mind the song, but I just can’t stand watching it – since when is a bloomin’ skater pivotal to a song contest? Hey ho.

The mood in the arena was very flat during the scoring – more excitement when Russia was given low marks – and it would have been great to have had a really close vote. In the end, after a good challenge from Ukraine (second place for the second year running) and Greece (which finished higher than I thought it would), Russia walked it and it was almost anti-climactic.

I received a lot of texts last night – and I’m getting to the stage that it’s so expensive that I couldn’t reply to them all.  That said, Ellen did say that Wogan was going mad!  It’s not like he doesn’t to that EVERY year… might be enough to make him quit?

To round off the night, and my first Eurovision adventure, we had tickets to the after show party, but like some of the others that we have been to in the Sava centre, the venue lacks atmosphere, and there were too many pouting people at it last night.  As Karen and Milija had early flights we stayed for a while and the slipped away. I got to bed at 3.20am (normal time for me on Eurovision night) and I’ve had about 5 hours sleep… gotta get organised, do my packing, tidy the apartment and head home.

Thanks for reading about my adventures in Belgrade for the last 8 days… I’ve had a blast, and I hope you’ve perhaps got a bit more out of your own Eurovision experience this year after tracking my movements in Serbia.

So, that’ll be Belgrade then…

 Phil.