Intro Post

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Introduction

The first Eurovision contest of the new millennium was the fourth of six (soon to be seven) in Sweden, the second of three in Stockholm, and the first of two in the Globe Arena (now called the Avicii Arena). It featured the biggest in-person audience thus far, a whopping 13,000. From this point onwards, ten to twenty thousand became a typical Eurovision audience size, though Denmark would try outdoing it a year later.

The lineup of participants now featured four countries that would automatically qualify every year to keep the contest afloat: the UK, Germany, Spain, and France. This rule was implemented before the 1999 contest but applied to 2000 onwards. I suspect this was done because the EBU didn’t want to risk France’s relegation, which would have happened in 2000. The Big Four/Five rule was controversial then and it’s just as controversial now. Slovenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Portugal, Poland, and Lithuania were relegated, while Finland, North Macedonia, Romania, and Switzerland returned after missing last year. Russia came back after two years of absence and Latvia made their debut, which bumped up the number of participants to 24.

Latvia made a strong debut with third place, Russia scored their first of four second places, and much to the audience’s surprise, Denmark won for the first time in 37 years with “Fly on the Wings of Love”, sung by the oldest singers to win the contest.

Thanks to a sponsorship by Microsoft, this was the first Eurovision contest broadcast on the Internet, which meant Americans could finally watch Eurovision live without going overseas. (EDIT: Two months later, a friend of mine showed me an RTÉ video that proves Eurovision 1997 was also broadcast online.) Unfortunately, not all viewers got to enjoy the contest in full. The Netherlands cut their broadcast short because of the Enschede fireworks disaster which killed 23 people, then re-broadcast the contest a month later.

I’ve heard that every year when the Eurovision hosts are revealed, some fans scream “can Petra Mede come back instead?” Since I’ve seen snippets of her amazing hosting, I’m having the same thoughts as I sit through the presenters’ cheesy, blatantly scripted gags.* At least I have Terry Wogan with me to snark about them! Well, not literally, because he died in 2016.

* Credit where it’s due, the Swahili part got a laugh out of me.

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Israel: Sameach (שמח)

Artist: PingPong

Language: Hebrew, plus a phrase in English despite their original promise

Key: C major

In November 1999, a draw was held to choose the order of participants in Eurovision 2000. The first spot went to Israel, and so a certain pop quartet signed up for the contest as a joke. Against all odds, they actually were selected! Since they got the honor of opening the first Eurovision of the new millennium, PingPong decided it would be funny if they sent something as controversial as possible.

And so, the first Eurovision entry of the 21st century is forever this purposely bad mess of chaos. The first Eurovision entry with a same-sex kiss is also forever this purposely bad mess of chaos. It’s like a Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff comic in music form. I can respect that PingPong were so dedicated to trolling the audience, but I feel like their song played a big part in the common perception of Eurovision as a shitfest of comically bad music.

What I love about Eurovision is not the over-the-top bizarro joke entries, but the crazy bizarre performances that also happen to be genuinely good songs. Unfortunately, as a composition this song is terrible. It’s just a bunch of repetitive, cheesy Eurodance. Dear god, it’s so repetitive! I will admit it’s funny that the backing dancers dressed up for this contest while PingPong themselves didn’t.

Netherlands: No Goodbyes

Artist: Linda Wagenmakers

Language: English

Key: B♭ major, C major

The gimmicky performance and slow intro can’t disguise the fact that the bulk of the song is more goddamn Eurodance. At least it has an acoustic guitar to spice things up, but the rest of the instruments are thoroughly Eurodance.

United Kingdom: Don’t Play That Song Again

Artist: Nicki French

Language: English

Key: A♭ major, B♭ major

The turn of the millennium must have been a tough time to be a British Eurovision fan. The country’s results would nosedive year by year (except 2002) then crash land with an infamous zero points in 2003.

Despite being the UK’s worst result so far at 16th place, and despite being yet more Eurodance, it’s more enjoyable than the last two. Nicki French is a clearly experienced performer for sure. It’s just that in order to shine among all those other songs in English, the UK had to try harder than it was used to, and I can see why this didn’t attract much attention from televoters. It took over two decades for the UK to finally realize their Eurovision entries had to keep up with the times. At least it’s now gotten through to them, which is more you can say about the two countries still stuck in the past: Ireland and Germany.

Estonia: Once in a Lifetime

Artist: Eda-Ines Etti

Language: English

Key: E♭ major, E major

“Oh hey, you don’t like Eurodance that much?” I can hear Eurovision asking. “Fine, if you insist, here’s early 2000’s radio pop in heavily accented English. I’m sure you’ll like that better.” Actually, I do like this better than all those Eurodance songs. It’s not great at all and the lyrics are janky in a stereotypical Eurovision way, but I can see why it attracted a good amount of televote attention. It achieved fourth place, Estonia’s best result before they won next year.

After the language rule ended, Estonia’s Eurovision style so far seems to be sending decent compositions without caring about the lyrics’ grammatical cohesion. “I can move the mountains higher than high” is an especially weird phrase.

France: On aura le ciel

Artist: Sofia Mestari

Language: French

Key: B major

This scored only five points, one of France’s lowest results so far. Exactly like the British entry, this is OK but not great, not the kind of song that screams “vote for me!”. It’s a fairly comfy radio pop song, the kind I wouldn’t go out of my way to listen to but wouldn’t shut off. The best thing I can say about it is that the playback instruments are convincing, unlike so many other songs in post-orchestra Eurovision.

Romania: The Moon

Artist: Taxi

Language: English, but only for the sake of Eurovision

Key: C major

This song achieved 17th place with 25 points, Romania’s best result to date. At first it seemed like Romania was doomed to score low even after the language rule, but later in the 2000’s their results improved. The country’s highest results are third place in 2005 and 2010.

A then-new band, Taxi’s discography is almost entirely in Romanian, including the original version of this song called “Luna”. They just sang this song in English for the sake of Eurovision and I wish they didn’t. If an artist who normally sings in their native language wants to sing in English for Eurovision, it’s better if they make a whole new song in English. The lead singer clearly doesn’t have much experience singing in English and even if he did, the Romanian version is still much better.

Language aside, this is a nice little mellow rock song spiced up by a bit of pan flute. Not one of my favorites of all time, but I’m happy it’s something different.

Malta: Desire

Artist: Claudette Pace

Language: English, plus two lines in Maltese

Key: G major, A♭ major

Eurovision has completely fucking ruined the word “desire” for me. This song rhymes the word with “fire” in the chorus because of course it does.

This is a fairly nice Caribbean-sounding pop song but nothing that clicks with me. The audience feels differently because you can hear them cheering throughout the song. While it’s nice to hear a bit of Maltese, I don’t like that its only presence is spoken word. It should have been incorporated into the song.

Norway: My Heart Goes Boom

Artist: Charmed, a girlband

Language: English

Key: B major, D♭ major

This is nice and upbeat and the girls are energetic on stage, but it doesn’t reach the threshold of gripping me. Also, it’s way too similar to “Walking on Sunshine” by Katrina and the Waves. A song sounding similar to another song is fine and all, but this is a total ripoff.

Russia: Solo (not to be confused with Poland 2023)

Artist: Alsou Ralifovna Abramova

Language: English

Key: B♭ minor, C minor

A third of the way through the contest, we’ve finally reached the first entry of the 21st century that truly feels competitive. This song represents a turning point in Russia’s Eurovision history: instead of showcasing their own traditional styles of music, they now sent songs designed to appeal to international viewers. Composed by two Americans and sung by a 16-year-old entirely in English, this song takes the punchy 2000’s pop style to maximum levels of catchiness. The chorus is incredibly rousing and infectious, but I’m not feeling the verses quite as much.

Just like the other Eurovision song called “Solo”, the lyrics are about her desire to stay solo after a failed romantic relationship. In her performance, I’m not really sure if Alsou feels the lyrics or even knows what they mean, but she absolutely feels the rhythm of this song, which is the more important part.

I’m not surprised that this song got second place, and I’m even less surprised that the Russian delegation wasn’t happy about the winner. Apparently they petitioned to disqualify Denmark after the show, ostensibly because the Olsen Brothers used a recording during the performance, but I’m sure the real reason is because they badly wanted to win the contest. It’s just like when Switzerland wanted to overturn Sandra Kim’s victory in 1986, but their rationale was that Sandra lied about her age. After the disqualification was rejected, Russia prodded on for later selections and kept their eyes on the prize.

As much bullshit as Russia put the EBU through, they also had some positive influence on the contest’s history. I believe Russia’s competitiveness in Eurovision is what inspired other countries in Eastern Europe to step up their game, as we’ll see in the next few years.

Belgium: Envie de vivre

Artist: Nathalie Sorce

Language: French

Key: A♭ major, D major

This was not a good year for French-language songs: France and Belgium both scored in the bottom two, with five and two points respectively. After 1998, Belgium sent only two songs in French: this one scored last place, and the second one in 2006 failed to reach the grand final. Maybe this is why they’ve maintained a streak of songs entirely in English since 2009.

I’m sure some fans thought this song scored low because Europe doesn’t like French-language music, but that’s not at all true. It scored low because it’s unfocused and not attention-grabbing in the slightest. It doesn’t have a clear personality and just sounds vaguely like disco pop. Somehow this song won the Barbara Dex award this year. I don’t quite see why: her dress looks a little rugged and saggy, but not that bad.

Cyprus: Nómiza (Νόμιζα)

Artist: Voice (Christina Argyri and Alexandros Panayi), both returning from 1995

Language: Greek and Italian

Key: G minor, G♯ minor

Greek and Italian is such a strange language combo, especially considering their phonologies are already fairly similar. This song has a fully Greek version and a fully Italian version, so I guess for some reason the singers decided to mishmash the two? Language combinations work best when the sounds and rhythm of each language contribute something new to the song, but only a small portion of multilingual songs in Eurovision successfully do that. A perfect example as I’ve cited before is “Saudade, saudade” from 2022. On the other hand, this song’s combination of Greek and Italian just feels random. It would have at least made more sense to have the first verse and chorus entirely in one language, then the second verse and chorus entirely in the other.

As for the composition, it’s nice to have some Greek drama in the contest, but it just isn’t the same without the orchestra. Plus, the song remains the same level of dramatic throughout, but it would have been so much better to progressively increase the tension. It’s one of the better songs in this contest, but only because most others blend together.

Iceland: Tell Me!

Artist: August and Telma (Telma Ágústsdóttir, Einar Ágúst Víðisson)

Language: English

Key: D major

I correctly predicted this era of Eurovision would be filled with janky English lyrics. This song has strange rhymes such as “fiction” with “decision”, and “twice” with “compromise”. There are plenty of words that properly rhyme with “fiction” like “prediction”, “contradiction”, or if you want to be extra spicy, “dereliction”. I could list many more words, but you get the point.

Musically, this is a country rock sounding duet. It’s faster than most others but still forgettable. Less inane lyrics wouldn’t have saved it. Let’s just say that if I was watching this contest in 2000, I would have badly wished the orchestra and/or language rule would come back next year. Well, more realistically I would have made baby noises in front of the TV. I would have made especially loud baby noises when I heard the abomination from North Macedonia.

Spain: Colgado de un sueño

Artist: Serafín Zubiri, returning from 1992

Language: Spanish

Key: A minor (verses), C major (chorus), D major (final chorus)

This is a fairly classy piano ballad in the verses, and a fairly decent synth pop song in the chorus. Everything in this contest is “fairly”—fairly good, fairly interesting, fairly annoying. It’s one of the better songs so far, but not something I’d want to come back to.

Denmark: Fly on the Wings of Love (the winner)

Artist: The Olsen Brothers (Jørgen and Niels Olsen), the oldest winners at 47 and 50 years old

Language: English

Key: D major, E major

Over halfway through this contest, we’ve finally reached the first Eurovision song of the 21st century that I can confidently say I like. After all my complaining about radio guitar pop songs, I bet you didn’t expect this one to win my favor, did you?

The difference is, this is actually a good radio guitar pop song. It’s well-composed and well-produced, has a lot of instrumental depth, and makes good authentic use of the sounds of guitars. It’s also got a really good melody, especially in the chorus. Terry Wogan said the singers reminded him of the guys who sang “Rock ‘n Roll Kids” in 1994 and I agree with him. They’re charismatic performers who beam with sincerity and love of music.

As with Sweden’s winner last year, this song won its national final in the singers’ native language, then was changed to English for Eurovision. The Danish version is called “Smuk som et stjerneskud” (beautiful as a shooting star) and its lyrics describe the singers’ love of a woman who only gets more beautiful the older she gets. The text includes the word “måneskin” which is clearly foreshadowing the winner 21 years later. The Olsen Brothers really thought ahead!

Nah for real, this song has a nice romantic sound that suits the Danish language well, but they also did a good job adapting it to English. The English lyrics carry over the general theme, and though they’re a little less explicit about the woman’s beauty increasing with time, it’s still a very sweet song. I also like the visual effects in the background, which show a zoom-out to Earth, the moon, and the planets. Most other songs in this contest only used the background screens for flashy colors.

The Olsen Brothers even recorded a German version, “Weil nur die Liebe zählt” (because only love matters). It doesn’t include the aging beauty theme at all, but the theme of heartfelt long-lasting romance is retained. We’re now at a point where if Eurovision songs get alternate language versions, they’re reasonably faithful to the original ones.

Germany: Wadde hadde dudde da?

Artist: Stefan Raab, an absolute king

Language: German, plus some English phrases that with German grammar sung are

Key: D minor, E♭ minor

I absolutely love the mood whiplash of this coming after “Fly on the Wings of Love”. This is one of the goofiest songs in Eurovision history and as a joke entry it’s rather divisive today, although it earned fifth place in the contest. It got twelve points from their fellow German speakers in Switzerland and Austria, as well as Spain. As with “Guildo hat euch lieb”, also written by Stefan Raab, it’s most positively received by people who can actually speak German, which includes me. I don’t care what anyone says, I think this song is fucking hilarious. I also can’t stay mad at all those funky flamboyant disco chords.

I won’t bore you with explaining all the jokes of this song. Just know that the title is a corruption of “was hast du da?” (or perhaps “was hast du denn da?”), which means “what do you have there?”, and most of the lyrics are tongue twisters expanding on that phrase in a fictional German dialect. Germans do have a sense of humor, it’s just that others don’t always get it.

I should also note that a month or two ago, I watched a YouTube video in German about why Germany has performed so poorly in Eurovision up until 2022, and the person making that video was unable to say “Wadde hadde dudde da?” without laughing. She made a really good point about Germany’s recent Eurovision history: Norddeutscher Rundfunk, the regional broadcaster currently in charge of selecting their entry, is stuck in a rut of thinking radio pop does well at Eurovision, even though in the 2000’s they tended to score high by going out of the box.

Stefan Raab continued to influence Germany’s run in Eurovision till they won in 2010 and hosted the next year. We’ll hear a third composition of Stefan Raab’s in 2004, and that time it won’t be a joke entry.

Switzerland: La vita cos’è?

Artist: Jane Bogaert

Language: Italian

Key: E♭ major (verses), F♯ major (verses)

Switzerland’s dark age in Eurovision was from 1994 to 2004, which mostly coincided with the relegation era. They were relegated in 1995 (which was based on only the 1994 results) and every odd year from 1999 to 2003, because the effects of “Moi, tout simplement” from 1993 scoring third place had worn off. Their zero points in 2004 would give them a wake-up call, but we aren’t there yet.

For now, Switzerland gave us a middling ballad whose singer struggles to hit the low notes in the verses, then gets shouty in the chorus. I don’t think it was designed with her singing voice in mind.

Croatia: Kad zaspu anđeli

Artist: Goran Karan

Language: Serbo-Croatian (Croatian)

Key: E minor

This is so close to being like all those Balkan ballads of the 2000’s that fans love so much! It goes a little too heavy on radio pop-sounding drums, but it’s got a gorgeous guitar and a great style of freeform singing. I also like the song’s use of harmonic minor key. You’re almost there, former Yugoslav countries. You just need to shed those 2000’s pop basslines and then you’re good to go. These countries are soon to become Eurovision power players, but unfortunately, the only other Balkan entry this year is utterly hideous.

Sweden: When Spirits Are Calling My Name

Artist: Roger Pontare, returning from 1994

Language: English plus joiking

Key: G minor, A minor

Now we’ve reached the big fan favorite of Eurovision 2000! You can hear the crowd cheering throughout this performance and I don’t think it’s just because it’s the host entry. It’s a badass dramatic rock song celebrating Sami culture, totally different from anything else this year, or anything else Sweden sent before. Not just that, but Roger Pontare is surrounded by two Native Americans from the northernmost parts of the Americas, and all three are in traditional attire. This song serves as a celebration of indigenous cultures from all over the world, who have similar tragic histories but share a pride in keeping their cultures alive today.

This song won Melodifestivalen in its Swedish version, named “När vindarna viskar mitt namn” (when the winds whisper my name), then was translated to English for Eurovision. I once again prefer the Swedish version, but not as strongly as that of “Take Me to Your Heaven”. Roger Pontare doesn’t seem very experienced singing in English, but the lyrics flow well in both languages.

Sweden, oh Sweden, why can’t you vary your style more? You did so well with “Den vilda” four years ago, and this song which scored seventh place is today a fan favorite. Pretty much all of Sweden’s entries after this are some form of swedo-pop, but I really wish they’d send more cultural songs like these two.

North Macedonia: Sto posto te ljubam (Сто посто те љубам)

Artist: XXL, a girl group who can’t fucking sing

Language: Macedonian, plus thickly accented English at the end

Key: G major

I was originally tempted to just write an “AAAAA! THIS IS COMPLETE TORTURE! MAKE IT STOP!” rant, because I’ve already watched this song’s Eurovision performance and it’s completely horrible and painful in every way. But then when writing this review, I discovered a different live performance of this song (presumably from the national final), and that changed everything.

When you watch a Eurovision performance as disastrous as this, your first thought is probably something like “how the fuck did this get selected for Eurovision?” As it turns out, without all the off key vocals, you’ll discover that this is a perfectly fine 2000’s girl pop song. It’s very cheesy and sugary, sure, but the verses actually have some nice Balkan instrumentation. I’m a sucker for Balkan instrumentation, but I never noticed it in this song because of the godawful live singing. It’s an honest attempt to blend Balkan folk music with accessible 2000’s pop, but the girls butchered it when singing live.

The national final(?) performance had the girls dressed in black, which actually looks kind of nice unlike their skimpy pastel-colored dresses on the Eurovision stage. And of course that performance didn’t switch to English. When the girls sing “I love you one hundred percent, yes I do”, it feels pointless because their gestures already convey the lyrics. I do happen to like when a song’s performance matches the lyrics.

See, this song isn’t all bad when you dig deeper into it. But their live performance should not have awarded them 29 points. They got ten points from Romania and seven from Russia, both of whom used backup juries. It’s reasonable to assume the juries judged this song based on a different performance. Their televote points (ten from Croatia, two from Cyprus) are more baffling, but I guess Croatia was the only other former Yugoslav participant this year.

Finland: A Little Bit

Artist: Nina Åström

Language: English

Key: B♭ major, C major

And just like that, we’re back to bog-standard 2000’s pop with a few voice cracks for good measure. Oh god, and it namedrops place names too, which annoys me even if it’s in English.

I just found out that Finland would have sent freaking Nightwish to Eurovision if the juries in their national final hadn’t tanked them. “Sleepwalker” by Nightwish would have been true to Finland’s musical culture, but instead this song made Finland miss the next year yet again.

Latvia: My Star

Artist: Brainstorm (known locally as Prāta Vētra)

Language: English

Key: F major

Two fun facts about Latvia in Eurovision: They originally wanted to debut in 1999 and changed their mind, and they’re the first to debut not in their native language.

Despite a bumpy Eurovision history with two non-qualification streaks (2009 to 2014, 2017 to present), Latvia has had perfect attendance in Eurovision since 2000. They scored third place this year and won two years later, which prevented them from being relegated pre-2004, and their broadcaster never ran into major controversies with the EBU or financial issues, at least to my knowledge. Compared to other eastern European countries, their native-language representation is meager: they sent one song in Latvian in 2004 and two other entries have a tiny bit of Latvian.

As with Romania, Latvia took the approach of sending one of their big-name bands and translating a native-language song of theirs. The Latvian version is called “Īssavienojums” (a shortcut), which is quite a different title but the lyrics have the same meaning: they’re about hoping that romantic dreams come true. Unsurprisingly, it sounds a lot more natural in Latvian. It’s a nice contemporary indie rock song and good debut for Latvia, but I’m not totally sold on the lead singer’s performance; he sounds wobbly and shaky at times. It definitely benefited from the running order.

Turkey: Yorgunum Anla

Artist: Pınar Ayhan and Grup SOS

Language: Turkish and English

Key: G minor

The postcard for this song features a website run by a Turkish Internet celebrity named Mahir Çağri. I wonder if anyone back then would have expected an Internet celebrity to host the contest 21 years later? Given that Eurovision had already become zany, it surely wasn’t out of the question back then.

I’m grateful that we can still count on Turkey to sound different from everyone else. It sounds just as Turkish as I expected it to, and it’s got an accordion too. Who doesn’t love accordions? I’m glad I like “Dinle” this much, because otherwise I’d be annoyed Turkey kept trying to replicate its success. I wish they kept the song fully in Turkish, but the English sections sound reasonably good.

Ireland: Millennium of Love

Artist: Eamonn Toal

Language: English

Key: A major, B♭ major, B major

“I wouldn’t discount this, because you can never discount the Irish entry.” Are you sure this will always be the case, Terry Wogan? This song did score sixth place, but again I think the running order came to its benefit.

This Irish ballad sounds exactly like a 1990’s winner or runner-up, but we aren’t in the 90’s anymore. Europe’s tastes have evolved. It’s decently composed but at this point very formulaic. As with last year, Irish ballads aren’t the same without the orchestra.

Austria: All to You

Artist: The Rounder Girls

Language: English

Key: B♭ major, B major

If these girls’ sung English sounds native, that’s because only one of them is Austrian. The other two are from London and New York City. It’s pretty good for an upbeat 2000’s pop song, but as with most of this year, not something I’d come back to.

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Who’s my favorite?

This time, I have two strong candidates: Denmark and Sweden. As it so happens, I’ll visit both these countries for the first time in May this year. It’s tempting to choose Sweden’s dramatic fan favorite, but the composition of Denmark, Fly on the Wings of Love clicks with me just a bit more. If you’re surprised that I chose this song, then don’t worry, I am too. Moral of the story: never underestimate the power of middle-aged men on guitars.

• Belgium, 1 (1976)
• Denmark, 2 (1963, 2000)
• Finland, 3 (1968, 1983, 1989)
• France, 3 (1977, 1990, 1991)
• Germany, 4 (1956, 1979, 1982, 1999)
• Iceland, 1 (1992)
• Ireland, 4 (1970, 1980, 1993, 1994)
• Israel, 1 (1987)
• Italy, 1 (1958)
• Luxembourg, 4 (1961, 1965, 1972, 1988)
• Netherlands, 7 (1957, 1959, 1964, 1967, 1969, 1975, 1998)
• Norway, 4 (1960, 1966, 1973, 1995)
• Portugal, 2 (1971, 1984)
• Sweden, 3 (1974, 1985, 1996)
• Switzerland, 1 (1986)
• Turkey, 2 (1978, 1997)
• United Kingdom, 2 (1962, 1981)
• (18 winners)

As a bonus, since I didn’t agree with Belgium getting the Barbara Dex Award, I’ll give the award to the ordinary college student clothes from Israel. It may seem like an avant-garde choice, but if someone came to a job interview dressed like that, you would say they’re dressed poorly, wouldn’t you?

General thoughts:

You know when you hear about a war or mass shooting in the news and think “god, I fucking hate the world”? The interval act this year did the opposite: it made me love the world. Instead of being Sweden-themed, it was a celebration of all the participating countries’ cultures with tons of video footage, starting and ending with a damn good violinist. I think they wanted to do a special interval act for the new millennium.

Many people love the presentation of the contest, but I feel mixed about it. The minimalist scoreboard and sci-fi font are both great, as is the hypnotic opening film. I also really liked the postcards this year and wish Terry Wogan didn’t snark over them so much. The theme of those postcards was that if you look closely enough, you’ll find little bits of every European country in Stockholm. But the presenters came off as overly cheesy and satirical, especially in the commercial break skits. Eurovision can totally make fun of itself sometimes, but I prefer it when the presenters are sincerely joyed to host the contest. Good examples are Åse Kleveland (1986) and pretty much all the Irish presenters.

Although I wish this year’s scoreboard included flags, I really love its minimalist design. It conveys who’s currently voting, who’s already voted, the points given by the current voting country, and who’s in the lead—information that some scoreboards sorely lacked—all through some clever color coding. That’s the best way to do minimalism: show the important stuff and trim out the fat.

It’s too bad the voting sequence was so unexciting: Denmark was in the lead from start to finish. I misheard “FYROM” (spoken as a word) from the Cypriot spokesperson as “Finland” and I’m surprised the hosts didn’t. I did enjoy the Swiss spokesperson speaking fluent Swedish complete with its singsong intonation. I looked her up and learned her mother is Swedish, so that checks out.

This year’s lineup of songs was better than I expected. Though it had some repetitive drivel like 1999, Sweden, Germany, and of course Denmark all gave us gems. Cheesy as it may be, this contest was a major step towards modernizing Eurovision and had a good winner.

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See you next time for the first new winner since Yugoslavia in 1989.

>> 2001: Trying Too Hard to Impress