The 51st Eurovision Song Contest

Finland's Lordi lords it in Athens!

Bright lights, colourful costumes, long legged girls, men in frocks, monster rockers, robots, rappers and fireworks! The 51st Eurovision Song Contest got off to a flying start at the magnificent Olympic Stadium in Athens, Greece when co-presenters Maria Menounos and Sakis Rouas floated down to the stage suspended on wire.

The evening promised to be as entertaining as ever, with Terry Wogan’s tongue-in-cheek commentary adding a light hearted feel as the show kicked off to a lively start with Switzerland’s Six4One who wouldn’t have looked out of place in a West End show.

Moldavia (lots of costume changes) and Israel (the first of many to be dressed all in white), were followed by Cosmos for Latvia, an unusual sextet (not counting the 7th member who was a robot puppet!) singing a cappella with no musical instruments whatsoever. Different to say the least!

Norway’s Christine Guldbransen sang sweetly and looked like an angel, followed by up-tempo Spain and Malta (“if there’s a prize for eyebrows this is it” quipped Terry!)

Who would have thought Germany would come up with a country song – the band were called Texas Lightning and the American influence was strong.  Denmark’s young lady singer, Sidsel Semmane, revived the Twist and this was followed by Russia’s entry – singer Dima Bilan is already a huge success in Eastern Europe and was greeted by strong cheers from the audience. Theatrically clever choreography featured a dancer appearing out of a piano, scattering rose petals as Dima serenaded her.

Elena Risteska sang Ninanajna for FYR Macedonia, followed by a young Wayne Sleep look-a-like representing Romania, a catchy beat, excellent voice and nice choreography.

Unlucky for some but certainly not for Bosnia & Herzegovina was the thirteenth entry, Leyla – a hauntingly beautiful musical arrangement sung in style by “Nightingale of Sarajevo” Hari Mata Hari.  Lithuania then performed a strange chant that would have been better suited to a football stadium – “We are the winners – we ARE, we ARE” – a rather scary looking group of men in dark suits.

The UK's own Daz Sampson and his girls gave an excellent performance of Teenage Life – faultless in their delivery and very entertaining. Greece’s vocalist Anni Vissi offered a dramatic performance and then it was the turn of Lordi for Finland. “What do you call this? You’ve got to give them some marks for trying!” commented Terry. The scary rock band were dressed in monster costumes complete with bat wings and red eyes.

Tina Karol was voted best female artist of her home country last month and performed confidently for the Ukraine. France (nice cello and a slightly off-key singer) and Croatia (lots of dancing) preceded the beautiful voice of Ireland’s Brian Kennedy. The song was, however, perhaps a little old hat.

Sweden’s Carola sang Invincible with strong vocals, the song being reminiscent of 80’s pop music. She was followed by Turkey’s tattooed blonde singer, Sibel Tuzun performing Superstar and looking a little like Gwen Stefani. Finally Armenia’s Andre finished the night singing Without Your Love.

As the votes poured in there were few surprises. The UK received 25 votes and the winners all the way were the monster rockers from Finland with 292 votes. Lordi made his first video in 1994 when he was a student in a film school and he describes himself as "the monster of monsters in a heavy rock band, performing melodic 80's hard rock". The band accepted their award and repeated their earlier performance, Lordi’s deep gravely voice ringing out across the stadium.

So next year Finland will host the Eurovision Song Contest. “Oh good!” joked Terry “We’re back in the cold again”!