Rise Like a Phoenix…

Well, of course, as soon as I read of the controversy surrounding Conchita Wurst, I couldn’t help but cheer her on in the Eurovision Song Festival. A drag queen, with a beard? It brings back fond memories of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence…

And then when I saw her in the second semi-final, I was even more pleased to realise that not only had she a damn good belter of a song with strong lyrics – Rise Like a Phoenix – but she could deliver it with style and panache.

And now she’s won Eurovision 2014. Well done her!

Martin and I watched the final last Saturday – Eurovision is a guilty pleasure. It is so over-the-top and almost the definition of camp. Every year it has more than its fair share of cringeworthy moments. This year, the French entry scored highly, and I’m still trying to get the image of the butter-churning Polish lady out of my mind.

But there were some good songs. The Dutch entry, although I didn’t much care for it, did far better than we all hoped, coming second. If it hadn’t have been for the phenomenon of Conchita, it would have swept the board.

I see that the UK public displayed their usual good taste by awarding the Polish girls the full douze points. It was only the UK jury voting them down that balanced it out. We Dutch were almost as bad – the public put them in 2nd place, while the jury put them in 25th place.

At least we redeemed ourselves over Conchita – both public and jury placed her in 1st place.

Also, while the Russian jury followed the party line and put Austria in 11th place, the Russian public actually ranked Conchita in 3rd place… We live in interesting times.