Picture- Eurovision World 2018

Last night was truly something else, maybe not the best Eurovision I’ve watched but it did give us some moments that will live on in my heart until next year. Some highlights, (as told through my live facebook updates) included:

  • Ukraine’s entire performance: “Is this weird Dracula?”
  • Slovenia, fine maybe not the best song but: “F**K ME UP SLOVENIA IS SO WOW”
  • Estonia giving us a decent pop song made 100 times better with opera: “Last year we were given the gift of yodeling NOW OPERA” (throw-back to Romania last year)
  • Norway’s “That’s How You Write a Song”, advice they obviously didn’t follow: “And you’re watching Disney Channel”
  • The gift that Serbia gave the world: “Who is the old man and can I adopt him?”
  • Czech Republic’s strange song about god knows what but my only response to everything they did: “DAB MY SWEET SON DAB”
  • Whatever Australia tried to give to the world: “Australia- off brand Shakira- tesco value Shakira”
  • Israel: “*vague noises*”
Picture- Jewish News 2018

At the end of the night, I think we were all resigned to the fact that Israel or Cyprus was going to win. Both were good songs and they gave good performances but personally I’ve never really cared about the ultimate winner. Yes, I’m passionate about the competition but Eurovision is an excuse to get together with a bunch of friends and celebrate music. It’s not always good, however it’s something people have poured their hearts and souls into which I have to respect. Music will always be subjective, something I hated (Germany’s song for example) someone else is going to love. But Eurovision in particular is more than a song competition, it was created to bring together Europe through music. We needed Eurovision more than ever this year, an excuse to forget about our troubles and connect over song. Even though this wasn’t my favorite year of the competition, it succeeded in bringing people together over strange pop music; providing us all an excuse to take a break from revising, surround ourselves with people we love and sing along to some truly fantastic songs. Eurovision 2018 was a success and I for one am looking forward to next year’s event.