2010: An Overview
"SHARE THE MOMENT" IN OSLO, NORWAY
After the extravagance of the Moscow show, and with Europe in the middle of a financial crisis, the Norwegian broadcaster promised to put on a more modest contest. They proved you didn't need tons of money to make a good show. Just clever graphics, good hosts and the some of the highest quality songs yet. This contest saw a big change for the voting, starting this year the phone lines opened at the beginning of the show. Hoping this would help songs that perform in the first half, Eurovision was trying to make the contest as fair as possible.
The semi-finals were the simplest and most straight forward yet. The hosts got straight to the point and the songs went by faster than ever. The draw for the semi-finals is done at random, and this process led to many of the ballads being performed in tandem. This caused what Graham Norton called "Ballad Fatigue" and, sadly, many of the better ballads got knocked out.
Because Norway didn't quite have the same money Russia did, the opening in Oslo wasn't exactly the giant extravaganza that Moscow gave us. Instead, the Norwegian broadcaster relied on an interesting graphic concept to impress Europe. Small spheres representing Eurovision memories flowing like a river through Eurovision history were shown superimposed over the audience. The Postcards continued this idea with the orbs appearing over the crowd in the shape of the upcoming country before showing a crowd of support in their capital and then revealing the artists backstage. Simple but effective, the special effects were all it took to make this Eurovision stand out.
The stage this year wasn't nearly quite as amazing as they had been in previous years. The Norwegians were able to use simple lighting techniques using colors and flashing lights to create patterns and effects in the background. There was little to distract from the songs other than the individual song's gimmicks. Though, really, most of the gimmicks were clustered to the beginning of the show. The last songs in the competition were a parade of simple but effective performances. With everything in Olso being so simple, I didn't expect much from the interval act. But where the Norwegians really brought their game was with their interval act. Back in 2010, flash mobs were still relevant and the show in Oslo presented one of the most awe inspiring ever. The flash mob included the live Eurovision audience in the stadium before going to live and pre-recorded performances around Europe. All to a dance created specifically for a new song performed by Norwegian artist Madcon. It sounds hokey but it really turned out really, really well.
The leader during the voting took awhile to emerge. For most of the voting it was just between Germany and Turkey with Belgium closely behind. Two of the biggest favorites of the year, Azerbaijan and Iceland, weren't doing very well at all. Though Azerbaijan were at least on the left side of the leaderboard, poor Iceland barely broke into the top twenty. Even though the voting was very random from country to country, eventually Germany couldn't be caught. It was the first win for the country as a unified nation, it's last win as West Germany in 1982. The win of a one of the Big Four meant that political voting seemed to have finally been quelled. This would also bring the end of the Big Four, because next year another major European country would finally rejoin the contest.
The Picks of 2010
2010: The Best (Estonia)
2010: The Worst (Belarus)
2010: The Guilty (Iceland)
2010: The Weird (Moldova)
2010: The Hilarious (Spain)
2010: The Honorable (Serbia)
2010: The Winner (Germany)
Semi-Final One Song Recap May 25, 2010:
Semi-Final Two Song Recap May 27, 2010:
Grand Final Song Recap May 29, 2010: