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Eurovision 2009 - Wrap Up

It was a year for burying hatchets. Time to put the past behind and move on to the future. Several traditional Eurovision nations made gestures towards welcoming Eastern Europe, notably Russia, and in return Russia put on a huge show. Possibly the most extravagant Eurovision to this point, the scale was massive, the stage was massive and the spending was massive.

There were controversies. The Pride march planned for the day of the contest was broken up with several arrests including the organisers. Armenia and Azerbaijan were using the contest to goad each other and Russia itself took the opportunity to go full military build-up in the first semi-final, sending a message to Europe in the form of tanks, jets and Red Army Choirs, while t.A.T.u sang “You’re Not Gonna Get Us”. Maybe those hatchets hadn’t been fully buried after all. Georgia didn’t want to Put In, after the 2008 invasion, so they didn’t and stayed at home.

But despite all those issues, the contest itself passed off peacefully, the only major technical problems being Dima Bilan’s jacket and the size of the flags in the audience. The outcome was one that everyone could love. A song about tradition, about fairy-tales. A song that could be inserted into any European culture’s traditions easily and sung by a man-boy who looked like he’d been magicked out of a fairy-tale himself, Slavic cheekbones and all. Overall, the quality of the songs was high, the number of protest songs was way down.

The EBU had played their part by finally listening to the concerns about voting blocs and re-introducing the juries in the final. It’s doubtful whether that affected the result hugely (although Iceland wouldn’t have been second without them), and it was uncertain if the changes to voting hadn’t just replaced diasporic and neighbour voting with another path for those wanting to ‘fix’ the competition. There was evidence that the voting blocs remained alive and well, just masked by a massive landslide for a popular winner.

Another thing that was masked by the opulence and extravagance of the stage was the financial crisis hitting Europe and the world. Broadcasters were already feeling the pinch and several weren’t certain that they’d make it. LTV in Latvia only confirmed its participation in January 2009 - having withdrawn in December 2008. San Marino pulled out entirely for financial reasons. It was only going to get worse next year - how would Eurovision cope?

In terms of song quality it maintained the quality of 2008. Lots of fans regard 2009 as a minor classic, with a supercharged final and lots of favourites. Having such a stellar winner is certainly a major step up on the previous year. In total there are fifteen songs in the current songfestival.be Top 500 - one fewer than 2008, but way ahead of any other year to this point. Similarly, the level of the national finals was also high, although some countries seemed to take their foot off the gas. Others were happy to step up, Estonia especially marking the changes both in their broadcaster and Eurovision by renaming their final Eesti Laul. I wonder if that will stick?

It was, weirdly, a healing year for Eurovision. In the heart of Moscow and with a state determined to show off and to make veiled threats, somehow Eurovision took the opportunity and learned to accept the reality of the new Europe, just at the time Russia was setting out to turn the clock back to before 1990. Maybe there was no problem with a little bit of neighbour voting. All you had to do was send a really good song and the votes would come.

It’s time to move to Oslo and to see if this unity can hold when the fabric of Europe suffers some instability.

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