GENERAL THOUGHTS:
Still not the strongest Contest ever, but, on consideration, some surprisingly good things start to happen when it comes to participation and selection of songs. OTOH, an ungodly amount of gimmick entries - if one wins, it might cemment ESC's slow death as a gimmick contest. If they all fail - maybe it's return to SONG contest again. After all, I can see positive effects of last year's Molitva win - more and more actually SUNG entries, with more intricate/inventive melodies and non-nonsensical lyrics.
Unfortunately, still not many sing in native languages, which results in a cacophony of butchered English and ill-fitting translated lyrics.
The pan-European notion that Italy should return is reflected not only by the surprise entry from the tiny San Marino, which was thought to try to collect the votes that usually went to San Remo (Italian preselection) winners (but somehow chose a very un-Italian entry), but also two other songs, not only in Italian, but very "Italian" in taste.
MY FAVOURITES (in no particular order):
1. Norway - simple, but strong (Storeng?) song you wouldn't guess as an Eurovision entry when heard on the radio + superb performance by Maria Haukaas (one of the world's few TV talent contenst winners who can actually sing well, the other is Kurt Nilsen, also from Norway)
2. Sweden - Charlotte Perrelli is back with vengeance! The 1999 winner won Melodifestivalen easily with another ultra-stereotypical schlager - but you have to admit it's good, even if you have to turn a blind ear to the cheesy verses. SAAB should use it in their commercials, much like the 2006 winner. Note: MF was rather weak this year, even with two of four former Swedish ESC winners competing... I'd rather Charlotte won with that:
http://pl.youtube.com/watch?v=k32EQBzKZpE
3. Hungary - a wonderfully addictive simple yet lush ballad which sounded divine in Hungarian and got killed by translation to English. Hungary lost their chance of emerging as a black horse of sophisticated music after last year's Magdi's blues by forcing Csezy to go English, but I will still love the original.
4. Andorra - guilty pleasure with a typical disco schlock from the very talented Gisela. I could even forgive her for singing only a line in Catalan (I would do away with the line anyway), because the melody is perfectly written - IMHO even better than Charlotte's. PS. Do you know Charlotte is rendered "harlot" in Swedish?
5. Romania - Margerine Yum Yum! Great voices (especially Nicoleta's) in a song so Italian you can almost forget it's half in Romanian. Italy should be proud of such superb mockery of their music! I love Italian ballads and this one has little you can complain about, if you forget the backing singers performing Kegel exercises on stage in Bucharest...
BACKUP JURY WILD CARD:
6. Poland - yup, I'd like to vote myself please. We finally got a decent entry, even if it took convincing an American she's actually Polish and fitting her with a porcelain equestrian smile and ungodly amounts of fake tan. The talented Tamara wrote herself a really enjoyable song, which is perhaps a little stretch on her vocals - but it is such a nice challenge for her to take.
HONORABLE MENTIONS:
7. Turkey - No, not that one. The rimi-rimi-ley country had a penchant for experimenting with musical styles, and this year's rock, but not heavy-metal, styled entry definitely came out well. I can't wait to see how it does in the voting.
8. Switzerland - The other Italian entry. Paolo wrote a really good song, even if the old-fashioned stereotype feel is strong. Very good performance, pity nobody votes Switzerland anyway (but kudos for singing in what is actual their native language after a string of hopeless English-singing imports). PS. Just saw Paolo's final performance with crazy dancers. Insane! Too bad he can't take them all to Belgrade.
9. Germany - but not for their winner song, but for Carolin Fortenbacher's near miss (by 0.5% votes) with Hinterm Ozean, which will probably become an Eurovision classic nonetheless.