The EBJ Eurovision Excellence Awards 2011: PART 2
Here’s Volume II of the EBJEEA’s (say that three times fast!). You know the drill by now, but I just want to clear up one teensy thing before we begin: I could have had 10 or 15 nominees for each category, but as to not overwhelm you all I narrowed them down to no more than 5. So whilst I acknowledge how well Denmark used the stage, for example, in my opinion, there were other countries who used it better. Rest assured that I commend every country for its efforts in every field this year!
And here’s some more proof of that:
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THE PERFORMANCES |
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| AWARD | NOMINEES | WINNER |
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Best prop |
Armenia, Sweden, Ukraine |
Ukraine: This country definitely has talent, as UGT winner Kseniya Simonova proved with her unusual artistry. The best use of sand since the Moose’s Magic variety came out! |
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Most unnecessary/irrelevant prop |
Moldova, Portugal, Turkey |
Moldova: The girl on the unicycle was strange enough, but what was with the monocle? |
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Best use of the stage |
Azerbaijan, Cyprus, Serbia |
Cyprus: They took the leaning even further than Sakis Rouvas, and used the catwalk stage to their advantage. |
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Best use of the LCD’s |
Albania, Finland, France, Serbia |
Finland: An almost-to-scale Earth wasn’t as fancy as some of the others, but it sure made an impact. |
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Biggest surprise |
Cyprus, Germany, Italy, Switzerland |
Germany: I had no idea how this one would work live…but in the end it was amazing!Lena’s smoky performance turned the arena into a quirky basement club (in a good way!) |
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Biggest letdown |
Estonia, France, Poland |
France: His debut performance of Sognu in France took my breath away, but on the night the vocals just missed the mark. |
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The entry that had it all |
Georgia, Germany, Sweden, Russia |
Sweden: Yes, I have given Sweden a large amount of awards, but I’m doing for a reason. Slick choreography? Check. Smashing glass? Check. Money note? Check And so it goes. |
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The Bums-OFF-Seats Award for raising the roof |
Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Sweden |
Sweden: Not even the home country taking to the stage lifted the noise level to this extent. |
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THE RESULTS |
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| AWARD | NOMINEES | WINNER |
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The country that amazingly failed to qualify from the semis |
Armenia, Norway, Turkey |
Turkey: A great live band, with a great rock anthem, from Turkey…fromTURKEY! How did they get left behind? |
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Most deserved placing in the final |
Germany, Sweden |
Sweden: Bronze was the most suitable substance for Popular to go home with. |
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Least deserved placing in the final |
Austria, Hungary, Switzerland |
Switzerland: Granted, there isn’t any song I would have wanted to come last. But I truly think this charming, sunny effort deserved better. |
Once again, I’d love to hear your thoughts on today’s post…is there something you particularly agreed with, or not? Do you have a category that you think I should introduce in 2012, or for JESC in December? Anything!
More later this week…including my mum’s verdict on the 2011 album! It’ll be more interesting than it sounds, I promise!
PS – Speaking of JESC…just when you thought Eurovision was done for 2011, its younger sibling kicks into gear with its first song chosen! And it seems the trend of artists coming back for another go is rubbing off on mini-ESC. Katya Ryabova, who represented Russia in 2009 coming joint 2nd, won this year’s preselection last night with a song that I’m a little bit in love with, Kak Romeo I Dzhulyetta (a.k.a. Like Romeo and Juliet). If you haven’t heard it yet, give it a spin and see what you think (www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ck-vW7Z4hg)
eurovisionbyjaz.com 
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