2007: An Overview
A "TRUE FANTASY" IN HELSINKI, FINLAND
With Lordi's hard rock win the year before, the 2007 contest was the year of rock, pyrotechnics and humor! The Finns, not to be out done by Greece the year before, put on a huge show with bigger production than ever. The stage was a technological wonder and each performance was highlighted by the extravagance of their backdrop. While Greece set the standard for show openings before it, Finland would create a new standard for staging and production.
During the semi-final, it became apparent that the Eastern European countries had taken over. Czechia, Georgia, Montenegro and Serbia will all making their debut, with Hungary and Austria returning from a year off from the contest. This influx of countries meant the semi-final had the largest amount of songs, 28. After all the performances and the voting was through, not a single Western country made it through to the final.The hosts of the 2007 contest were the most professional I'd seen yet. Their humor translated well enough and they didn't seem to distract too much from the show. They were just there to move things along and present some information although Mikko did get a little carried away by the tension while revealing the results during the semi-final. The postcards shown in between songs were also the best yet, showcasing humorous little stories about life in Finland. With a hard rock opener, they didn't quite reach the same epic proportions the Grecian contest had pulled off but it was sufficient. Finland was merely proving it's reputation as the land of ice, rock and metal.
This year had a lot of average rock and pop songs and each performance seemed to include fire or some kind of explosion. The stage was magnificent and the graphics the best yet, so the use of so much firepower seemed unnecessary but whatever, if that's what Finland does, that's what Finland does. This year also had a large amount of songs in native languages and quite a few in multiple languages. After all the performances had finished, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Armenian, Italian, Spanish, Russian, French, Romanian, German, Macedonian, Serbian, Slovene and Ukrainian could all be heard. Not including the Finnish spoken by the hosts from time to time. It was one of the most multilingual Eurovisions I'd seen yet. With all the entries over, it was time for Finland to present a little something about their country. What followed was an interval act that was absolutely insane. A man pops out of a bubble and then sticks a fluorescent light down his mouth as the Finnish metal band Apocalyptica rock out on cellos! It's like a freaking PG version of Metalocalypse!
As it was the year before, the voting seemed to occur based on cultural connections. The Former USSR States, The Baltic Countries and the Balkan Peninsula all shared votes with each other along border lines. I was in Poland at the time and by casting my votes for Russia and Ukraine, I wasn't exactly helping curb the trend. When the Serbian song took a clear lead, Terry Wogan complained about the Bloc Voting being the only reason Serbia was winning. However, the song was of such high quality and the performance was so well done that the debut country was getting high votes from almost every country. Ukraine was barely a close second and it was certain that Serbia had won three quarters through the voting. Then it just became a waiting game, to get through all the other votes so Marija could return to the stage and sing her heart out as the new winner of the Eurovision Song Contest.
Picks of 2007
2007: The Best (Georgia)
2007: The Worst (Poland)
2007: The Guilty (Belarus)
2007: The Weird (Ukraine)
2007: The Hilarious (Switzerland)
2007: The Honorable (Russia)
2007: The Winner (Serbia)
Semi-Final Song Recap May 10, 2007:
Grand Final Song Recap May 12, 2007: