Or, "I expect that one out of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th or 5th in the betting will win"

Well, next season, I expect the Premier League title to be back in either Manchester or London.

What does the UK get from being a part of this?

Will the people ever get their say on whether the UK should remain in Eurovision?

Will we see a winner as good as 2012?

Well it won't be BT that's for sure.

Deffo Greece for me

Listening to the chorus of the Finland song i am sure she is singing, " i'll f ook you".

I dont know whether to vote for Belarus' legs or Norways Ass







Song wise i quite liked Malta and Denmark

Who let Bonnie near the Vodka?

Iceland was my favourite tonight.

Bombed. BOO.

Winning favourite. I move into a modest profit.


Woot woot! What a tip. Narrowly beaten by the red hot favourite, and a big pickup for me.


Ukraine finishes 3rd - a bit more for the pot.

Not the funniest ever contest. Not enough weird and wacky. But overall a good laugh, and Bonnie actually made a good fist of it. Still a poor song choice, but a whole lot better than she was on Graham Norton. And all contributions to the Aardvark finances gratefully received. 1st, 2nd and 3rd backed.

You did well in your forecasting Aardvark.

Personally I liked Norway's effort, it was just that bit different from the formulaic Denmark offering, which I was disappointed to see win.
Bookies favourite and all that.

The neighbour voting got on my manboobs again.

Was surprised Ireland came last.
What's your take on that?

I just thought it was a very weak song. I am a little surprised it came last but it was a poor effort.

Anyway the substantial majority of the voting is NOT bloc votes,under the system, OK you can give 12 to your neighbour but you HAVe to give plenty of points away to many other countries. And if Ireland's song had been any good, then it would have got more than 1 point from the UK, which is hardly known for bias against them.

I don't disagree that there is some bloc voting that they are unable to get rid of, but actually Ireland is a case in point. What they have done well in the past is strong, sickly-schmaltzy nostalgia and when they did, they won. More than once. Dana. Johnny Logan. So this goes back to my original point - come out with the right song, and you'll get enough votes to win, bloc voting or not. Ireland have in fact won it more times than anyone else.

I think Ireland used to know how to do it, but have lost their mojo. I mean, Jedward, ffs. yes, they did relatively "well", but never a hope in hell of winning it.

Finally, Eurovision wins are often derivative; songwriters watch, listen and steal. If you listen to it again, would you agree that the winning song is more Irish than the Irish entry? The winning writers presumably got that throwing in some Celtic themes would be popular, and so threw plenty of them in to what was almost a Eurovision by numbers effort; not great, but effective enough (just) in the absence of any good opposition entries.

The break up of the Soviet and Balkan states have sadly meant the need for semi-finals, which means only half a dozen nations know they're going to be in the final no matter what rubbish they send.

So there's less room for lunacy than there was in the days of the Irish sending puppets. The Russians knew they could get away with it with the grannies last year, they still get enough votes from the old Soviet bloc. Sadly, not enough nations are wary of Montenegro, so this year's dubstep astronauts didn't make it to the main event.

Had a couple of quid on Azerbaijan at 25-1. Disappointed they didn't win it! Thought the song (coupled with the 'man in a glass box' routine) was better than Denmark's effort. Can't say I've ever really liked a Eurovision song enough to listen to it more than once but Euphoria was a brilliant winner last year.

Still can't beat ABBA or Lordi for me.

The Irish - after many years of pi$$ing the contest - have realised that it costs a fortune to stage the following year.....cash they no longer have - so they have, for the last few years, gone down the 'pile of pap' route, in the hope that no one will vote for 'em.......last year the genius of employing Jedward to vocalise almost back-fired on them, but they've obviously got the formula sorted this time round!!

And that's another thing i don't understand - the "it costs a fortune to stage". Well, if you haven't staged it before, and you haven't got anywhere, then maybe yes, up to a point. But if you have staged it then stage it again in the same place using the same kit. Tell your creative director" and just go with that. There is no law that says you have to spend a euro more than you want to, is there?

Exactly, nobody enters a song hoping to lose.
Otherwise why enter a song?

Have you ever watched Father Ted ?

What he said!!

No.
Besides that's fictional.

As is the concept of Eurovision being a genuine musical popularity contest!!

That was not the point being made though was it?

Er, except that is exactly what it is. A number of songs are entered and the winner is decided on the basis of which of the songs entered is the most popular amongst those voting.

How is that anything other than a genuine musical popularity contest?

Anyway, some things never change. For example, back in the day, we had a guy called Malcolm Roberts, look up his spot in a Brazil contest in 1969 and imagine him stepping out and doing that performance in the Eurovision. It would bring the house down and win every day of the week, UK entry or not. The code you need to find it on that popular video site is
MALCOLM ROBERTS. SINGING LOVE IS ALL AT THE FIC BRAZIL 1969