Katsuya

Samanda were robbed last year. Anyway, this year looks rather awesome. 16 people are going in on the launch night, including (supposedly) a blind guy who Davina is going to walk in to the house.

Alex and Claire are going to be in the final. Methinks it'll go, in order of firing tonight: Helene > Lee > Lucinda.

Challenge TV are showing the international Glads challenge from like, 95. And... MIKE ADAMLE IS HOSTING IT. And commentating too. It's like, torture, but with added Jet. God I loved her.

Sawyer does have a daughter - remember the S3 episode when that chick he scammed AGEEEEEEES ago teamed up with Kate? She said he'd knocked her up... ETA: Also - Jin got off, without a doubt. If you see the explosion, it blows up the deck first - and quite clearly, the very end of the boat doesn't blow up or get engulfed immediately. Jin was at the edge, shouting for the 'copter...

I said that earlier - Phillip and Signature? Puh-lease.

Signature deserve to win, because they were original every time. George is awesome though, and having seen him live (he performs all the time in Manchester City Centre), I can vouch for him being brilliant. Kid deserves it too.

I still say Johto had some of the better fire-types; Typhlosion is a bad-ass, and Houndoom is also pretty strong - when you look at R/B/G/Y, you have Charizard, who ends up being pretty weak thanks to his Flying type, and then they're all pretty weak bar maybe Magmar (who's boosted thanks to Magmortar being introduced). Hoenn was just embarassing, thanks to Blaziken's poor type, Numel & Camerupt being weak to just about everything, and Torkoal being slow as fuck. Sinnoh was just as bad - Heatran's strong(er) thanks to the Steel type that cuts the Water weakness slightly...

Hmmmm...why is it it Diamond/Pearl/Platinum...when Gold/Silver/Platinum goes a lot better? Diamond/Pearl/Crystal would have made more sense, too...weird. Anyway, surely the G/S remake isn't that far off? It's like, the forgotten Pokemon generation after all...

One of the best races ever, with the worst possible result. Finish should easily have been Kubica/Sutil/Webber, for the sheer fact that they were by far the best racers out there. Sutil proved that he deserved to be in a top team today; if Raikkonen doesn't get at least a 5 place grid penalty then the sport is a shambles, frankly. Lewis got ridiculously lucky, Kovaleinen royally fucked up at the end, Massa went off TWICE, Alonso's move on Heidfeld was ridiculous (and ruined Heidfeld's chances, given that Nick always does well in the wet / in SC conditions)...it wasn't a good day for the "good" racers, essentially. Saying that, the podium had arguably the three best drivers in the sport today on it (with Kimi in there with them, of course). Hopefully Canada will be good for a nice little shocker as it always gives us - I'm gonna call it and say Kubica bounces back from last year and *finally* gets the overdue first victory.

I think originally she was deemed the "favourite" because she'd won it before in 1999. She didn't look as plastic then, but...yeh. The song itself wasn't that bad, but it suffered from the fact you couldn't hear any of it. Dustin came 15th out of 19 songs in his Semi-Final. Surprise? No.

Latvia weren't bottom - they hung around mid-table the entire night. As an aside, Charlotte Perelli (the Swedish "favourite") was saved from being eliminated by the televote on Thursday in the Semi-Final by the Jury.

I enjoyed this Eurovision much more than last year's in fact - the songs at least, were much better. Amazingly though, for the first time ever...I got annoyed at Wogan. He was so fucking self-righteous when he was ripping apart the Bosnian and Azerbaijan entries (both of which I thought were very good in their own special way) that he sounded like a little kid. Did Russia deserve to win? No - Molitva was in fact a much better song then most people gave it credit for last year, but "Believe", while slightly catchy, didn't deserve to win Eurovision. Here's a question though: would people have bitched and moaned about the Eastern Bloc had the Ukraine won? That was probably one of the top 3 songs of the entire competition, after all, and yet Ukraine got a lot of votes from Eastern countries. Furthermore, yes the Eastern Bloc "dominated", but they sent good songs - that crap from Portugal, Spain, France, Germany etc. all deserved to be at the bottom, after all. Greece, a Western Country, meanwhile, came third and led for half of the voting, yet everyone tries to ignore that fact to whine some more about the east. I do, however, think the EBU is aware of the problem, as shown by the "neighbour-blocking" they employed in the Semi Finals. As an aside, Russia actually came THIRD in their Semi Final, about 30 points behind Secret Combination and 4 points behind "Qele Qele" - which, as another side, actually got the most 12 points of the final (8, compared to 7 for Russia, another slight dispelling of Wogan's claim that "they agreed it was Russia's turn to win"). I'm going to go out on a limb and think that next year they very well might have a Western Semi Final and an Eastern Semi Final, then limit the televoting to only countries who qualified to the final (that way you have somewhat of an equal divide). Either way, it was a brilliant night, and anyone who says differently deserves to be shot.

Eurovision party, bitches. I'll be back later.

Apparently, everything is shaping up right now for the Russian guy to win it, which is fucking annoying because it's a shit song, worse than Molitva, and he can't sing.

It's so shit it'll still be embarassing as hell.

Verka slaps you in the face for that.

Full Listing for tomorrow night: Romania - Nico & Vlad "Pe-o Margine de Lume" Albania - Olta Boka "Zemrem E Lame Peng" Germany - No Angels "Disappear" Armenia - Sirusho "Qele Qele" Bosnia & Herzegovina - Laka "Pokusaj" Israel - Boaz "The Fire In Your Eyes" Croatia - Kraljevi Ulice & 75 Cents "Romanca" Poland - Isis Gee "For Life" Iceland - Euroband "This Is My Life" Turkey - Mor ve Otesi "Deli" Portugal - Vania Fernandes "Senhora do Mar" Latvia - Pirates of The Sea "Wolves of the Sea" Denmark - Simon Mathew "All Night Long" Georgia - Diana Gurtskaya "Peace Will Come" France - Sebastien Tellier "Divine" Azerbaijan - Elnur and Sanir "Day After Day" Greece - Kalomira "Secret Combination" Russia - Dima Bilan "Believe" Norway - Maria Haukass Storeng "Hold On Be Strong" So, who do I think is gonna win? It's a tough one - I think ones in with a real shot are Greece (it's a very catchy song, and it's in a strong position), Russia (Eastern Bloc + it's second to last), Ukraine & Sweden (both uber divas, and have either the Eastern / Scandinavian and Western bloc vote), Finland (an outsider, but ya never know) or Latvia (because they're fucking awesome).

FUCK Yes Latvia got through. I'm gonna call it now and say they're surprise winners. Charlotte Perelli was shit tonight, surprisingly... ETA: The female announcer's voice is the same as Roz from Monsters Inc., BTW

There were people...on stage...dressed as pirates...singing an enjoyable Europop song...WTF!?

They draw a number out of a bag, I believe.

Since I'm so delicious, I'm going to put all the performances that made it in to the final in this, with the YouTube links, in the order that they'll perform. Romania - Nico & Vlad "Pe-o Margine de Lume" Position Not Yet Filled Germany - No Angels "Disappear" Armenia - Sirusho "Qele Qele" Bosnia & Herzegovina - Laka "Pokusaj" Israel - Boaz "The Fire In Your Eyes" Position Not Yet Filled Poland - Isis Gee "For Life" Position Not Yet Filled Position Not Yet Filled Position Not Yet Filled Position Not Yet Filled Position Not Yet Filled Position Not Yet Filled Position Not Yet Filled Position Not Yet Filled France - Sebastien Tellier "Divine" Azerbaijan - Elnur and Sanir "Day After Day" Greece - Kalomira "Secret Combination" Russia - Dima Bilan "Believe" Norway - Maria Haukass Storeng "Hold On Be Strong"

Even though I don't have the game, Vladivostok FM immediately wins because A: It's got Ruslana as the DJ, and B: Wild Dances in on the station, apparently. Loverz.

Here's a question - which Eurovision winner do you think was the best ever? Eurovision winners (part 1 is on the list on the left) IMO, my top five would be: 5 - Hard Rock Hallelujah 4 - Wild Dances 3 - Making Your Mind Up (for the sheer cheese factor) 2 - Waterloo 1 - Love Shine a Light

...that was awesome. In the shittest way possible, but still. Azerbaijan has been the best so far. ETA: Oh holyfuckshit Bosnia.

Semi-Final 1 is on. Estonia put on the most horrific performance I've ever seen in Eurovision history, and they got booed. Moldova had some weird old woman with a teddy bear.