Well, the Eurovision Song Contest… whoops sorry! I mean the Eastern Eurovision Song Contest is over and it was a bust! I think Western Europe took a wrong turn somewhere and ended up at the wrong contest. Clearly we weren’t wanted there.

OK in all seriousness…

The first couple of hours were great with the performances. All my favs did an excellent job, especially Sweden. Charlotte did amazing! The singing was on and the energy was great! Much better than at the semi-final! I ended up voting for the UK and Norway, my two favorites other than Charlotte. But then the results came. And I just deflated. It was more than just disappointing. Well, here is how all my favs placed.

Ukraine - 3
Norway - 5
Turkey- 7
Iceland - 14
Sweden - 18
UK - 25

ARGH! Kudos that Norway made it so high. She was my absolute favorite for the night. Such a great song. A real song. Something you could easily hear on the radio and buy on a CD. That is rare in Eurovision. So it’s great that she got so high. But let me be a bit cynical and say I think the only reason she did so well was because she was the last to perform and fresh in everyone’s minds. Because, obviously, having a great song, singing well and performing well is not actually what people want.

Instead, Russia won. Russia. Russia. Which their cheap-sounding song and ridiculous ice skater. I keep going over and over and over in my head HOW they could have won. Was it because of the ice skater? Must be. Because the song was boring. And the singing? Terrible! The guy could barely even pronounce the words, and he sang in that awful vibrato the whole time. I just wanted to smack him. I never ever thought he’d win. He song is, at most, entirely forgettable.

Ah but he won, and no amount of complaining will change that.

And Sweden came in so low! Which I really don’t understand. For the first time, I really had faith in Sweden’s song. For the first time I really believed Sweden would do well. Last year, when Sweden sent The Ark, I laughed when we got low points because we deserved it. The Ark! PLEASE! But not this year. I was utterly shocked. I was convinced we’d make it to the top 5, if not win the whole damn thing. But maybe it’s too “old fashioned” a song, and people don’t want that anymore. In that case, maybe we should have gone with BWO as was my first choice.

Well anyway, if there was ever a high point, it was when Björn Gustafsson presented the Swedish voting results. He sat there and blatantly mocked all those countries who choose presenters who can’t speak a word of English but pretend they can. For the record, of course he has no problem with English. He’s Swedish for goodness sakes! I don’t know if any of the other countries understood that he was joking. But that’s the fun of it! It was the good hard laugh I needed by that time of the evening.

12 points to Björn Gustafsson!

HEJA CHARLOTTE PERRELLI!!!!

Huge day! Huge week! Tonight is finally Eurovision! And I’m more excited this year than ever before. Probably because I watched Melodifestivalen all the way through, which I posted about 2 months ago. And also because it’s going to be quite a competition this year! And for the first time Since I’ve lived here, Sweden’s entry is AWESOME!

This week has been Eurovision week. The rules were changed a bit this year, and I think it worked out for the best. It used to be that, in addition to the 4 countries who are automatically allowed to participate (because they sponsor most of it: UK, Germany, France and Spain), the top 10 winners from the year before were in, and then there was a semi final to choose the other 10. this year only the four main countries and last year’s winning country are automatically in. Everyone else had to enter a semi final. 38 countries! And those semi finals were held on Tuesday and Thursday this week.

I was only half interested in the first semi final because Sweden was not in it, and we weren’t allowed to vote for that one. And I was so happy that Ireland’s entry never made it. I mean, come on, sending a TURKEY PUPPET to sing a song about how Eurovision sucks? Why would you insult us Eurovision fans like that? Did you actually think anyone would vote for you when you were practically flipping the bird (pun intended) to all of us? I know you were trying to be clever, but you failed. I particularly enjoyed how everyone boo-ed you afterwards.

But the second semi-final was pure EXCITEMENT! First of all, it’s obvious that the countries stepped it up this year. I think the quality of the show was way up. A lot of the Eastern European countries didn’t do their typical thing. Especially Turkey! The entered one of their biggest Rock Bands. And it was real rock! Really great!

Anyway, of course Sweden made it through to the final! People really do seem to love the Swedish entry! And so do I!

HEJA CHARLOTTE PERRELLI!!!! Video –> here.

So we’re all set for tonight! I’ve bought nachos and all sorts of dip which will go well with our Coronas and lime. I’ve made sure my mobile is charged so I can vote. I haven’t decided who I’m going to vote for yet. You’re not allowed to vote for your own country, so unfortunately I’ll only be voting for Charlotte in my heart. I really love Norway and Iceland‘s entries. I like Ukraine’s entry, even though she did STEAL Charlotte’s dress. I also like Turkey’s entry, the rock band. But I’m really leaning towards the UK. Usually, they really send in awful stuff. But this year I really like their song.

In any case it’s going to be a tough competition! I’m just so excited! I’m going to be so sad when it’s over! But hopefully Charlotte will win, Eurovision will come to Sweden next year, and I’ll definitely go to that!

Btw, if this interests you at all, and you’re not in Europe, you can watch the show live here.

Of Song Contests…
So! Tonight is Melodifestivalen! For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, which is most of you, I’ll try to explain it as simply as possible.

For over 50 years the countries of Europe (started with some. now it’s most countries) have taken part in a song contest called the Eurovision Song Contest. Each country sends an artist or group of theirs to sing a song. It’s a big show that happens every year in May. People watch and vote for who they want to win (can’t vote for own country). The winning country gets to host the following year’s events. Lather Rinse Repeat.

Some countries see it all as a big joke. Some countries take it very seriously. Sweden is one of these countries. In order to choose who is going to represtn Sweden, we have Melodifestivalen, the contest to choose who will win. Melodifestivalen goes on for 6 Saturdays in Feb and March. Four weeks are spent choosing who will go to the final, and who will go to a “second chance” semi-final. The 5th week is the semi final. The sixth week is the final. And that final is TONIGHT. And it’s a huge thing!

Now, I enjoy Melodifestival and Eurovision because they are fun to watch. The music is mostly based on a style called “schlager.” It’s not really anything anyone living outside of Europe could imagine. But it’s just exciting to watch and I’m a HUGE Melodifestivalen/Eurovision fanatic.

Tonight I will be voting for who I want to represent Sweden. I’m voting for two out of the 10 finalists. BWO, who’ve I’ve drawn in the illustration above. From left to right, Marina Schiptjenko, Martin Rolinski, and Alexander Bard who’s holding a laptop (electro pop stuff). I’m also voting for Charlotte Perrelli. I really like both songs and wouldn’t mind if either won. But I’m leaning more towards BWO (video here) even though I think Perrelli (video here) will win. And then maybe, for once, I could be proud of what Sweden sends to Eurovision!

The only thing that sucks is that when tonight is over, it’s still 2 months until Eurovision. GAH!

UPDATE – This is a spoiler, Leslie: Charlotte Perrelli won!!! SHE WON!!!!! HURRAH! I really wanted BWO to win, but she was my 2nd choice! I REALLY hope Sweden will qualify for Eurovision now! We must! The song is GOOD!

Of Web Habits…

I’ve been reworking my web habits lately. When I started my comic, which is going really well I might add, I decided I needed to rethink my web-related hobbies and get my priorities straight. A lot of the things I was doing weren’t making me happy any more. And my web stuff is my hobby, and hobbies should make people happy. So I shut down a lot of my websites and basically only have this one left. I also stepped back from the web design. It’s a big part of me and it’s something I’ve worked for so many years on, but working with it at the school just burned me out. I need to shake all that off and start fresh, but not without taking a break.

So, the comic is going great and it makes me really happy. Really happy. Because of this, I’ve really decided to put as much energy as possible into it. Closing all my websites helped. Now I’m reanalyzing how I “waste my time” on the web. I use Facebook and am pretty into it. But I’m now allowing it to be my only time waster online. I’ve left some community sites and forums that do me absolutely no good. Today I left a big one which has been a bit of a crutch for me since moving to Sweden. It’s a bit sad to leave it but freeing at the same time.

So illoluv has become my main focus. And I’m excited about it. My comic is taking up a lot of my creativity, and I end up drawing only for that. I need to draw other things. But that’s the purpose of this blog. To illustrate every post in some way. Whether it be for Illustration Friday, or just to illustrate what I write.

It’s a new “me” on the web and I feel really good about it. Because if I don’t make myself be productive in some way often, I start to feel like a big ‘ole NOTHING.