The FINAL Düsseldorf in Rewind: My favourites, then and now
Is anybody else completely shocked that Eurovision 2012 is almost upon us? I literally feel like Düsseldorf was a few months ago, when it fact it has been just about a whole year (which is good and scary…Hooray, it’s ESC o’ clock! But where the heck have the last twelve months gone?). In fact, its been an almost-whole year in which I still haven’t come to terms with, not so much Azerbaijan, but Running Scared itself, winning the contest. This year the field has proven just as strong as that of 2011, with any number of countries having the potential to succeed Ell & Nikki on their turf. That means it could be another edition where an under-the-radar entry gets lots of 7s and 8s and 10s and ends up on top, which could be a cause of celebration (if it’s, say, Estonia) or another shocker (if it’s, say, Belgium. HA. HA.).
Anyway, I guess what I’m trying to say is that years go fast, Eurovision can be surprising, and blah blah blah.
A lot can change in a year, too. For those of us who keep listening to the songs after the contest (if you don’t, you know, that’s fine. SHAME ON YOU! Totally fine) that includes our opinions of them, and that’s what this final DIR post aims to prove. The difference between 2 or 3 listens of a song, and 20 or 30, is huge. There are some songs that begin to drive you crazy even though you liked them in the beginning, and others that you really get into after the event.
This is what my top 10, I’m-waving-a-flag-for-you song list looked like just before the contest last year:
- United Kingdom I Can
- Bosnia & Herzegovina Love in Rewind
- Sweden Popular
- Iceland Coming Home
- Cyprus San Angelos S’agapisa
- Ukraine Angel
- Latvia Angel in Disguise
- Italy Madness of Love
- Norway Haba Haba
- Slovakia I’m Still Alive
"We're number one, we're Jaz's number one! The only number one she'll ever haaaaaaaaave!! Right? RIGHT??"
One year on, these are my 2011 favourites:
- Sweden Popular
- Bosnia & Herzegovina Love in Rewind
- Cyprus San Angelos S’agapisa
- United Kingdom I Can
- Ukraine Angel
- Hungary What About My Dreams?
- Slovenia No One
- Italy Madness of Love
- Norway Haba Haba
- Iceland Coming Home
"I'M the new numero uno? Smashing...."
Okay, so 8/10 countries are the same, and 3/10 have stayed exactly were they were – but you can’t say I haven’t changed my mind at all. Now is the time for you to chip in with your two cents. How have your opinions of the 2011 entries changed over the last year? Which songs that you formerly disliked are you now into, and vice versa? Is your favourite of the 43 still the same? I’d love to hear your answers to these questions!
For the record, I’m backing Spain, Norway and Estonia in 2012. Remind me to check back on this in April 2013 by which time I’ll be obsessed with San Marino, Georgia and Montenegro.*
* That is, if Hell has frozen over and pigs have learnt to fly by then.
NEXT TIME: Get ready to argue with me to the death, because it’s time for my 2012 reviews! First on the alphabetical-except-for-the-Big-6 list? Albania, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia & Herzegovina and Bulgaria.
eurovisionbyjaz.com 
5 Responses to “The FINAL Düsseldorf in Rewind: My favourites, then and now”
My rankings change all the time too – like others have said. This year I keep changing my mind, but that usually comes after attending the Eurovision in Concert pre-show in Amsterdam. I like Slovenia, Spain, Estonia, Russia, Sweden and Romania, oh and Ireland.
Last year I loved UK, Sweden…. but then post contest I loved Austria and Israel.
LikeLike
The change of mind post-EIC really shows how live performances can affect attitudes towards songs I guess! A prime example would be Alyosha, whose song pre-Eurovision was generally described as ‘blehhhgsjKSLDD,SDHFHhffpjjfjoasjehhh’ or something like that. But when she came out on stage she blew everyone away. It’s always interesting to see what happens when the song becomes the song-and-show.
Slovenia, Spain, Estonia, Sweden, and Romania I agree with. Russia not so much…
LikeLike
My rankings change ALL the time…like last year for example, from the moment I posted my rankings video to the “flag waving” moment they had totally changed. Russia was one of my big favorites at the end and I was waving a big Russian flag during the show, but in the pre-show rankings that I posted (and I didn’t even finish ranking them) Russia was like 18-ish xD
Anyway….
Pre-show rankings (posted somewhere in my blog in late March) I deleted my rankings video so I can’t remember my 2 pointer xD
10 Cyprus
9 Can’t remember xD
8 UK
7 Switzerland
6 Norway
5 Iceland
4 Hungary
3 Poland
2 Netherlands
1 Bosnia
Right now:
10 Switzerland
9 Hungary
8France
7 Denmark
6 Slovenia
5 Iceland
4 Greece
3 Cyprus
2 Russia
1 Bosnia
And it keeps changing all the time..I’m just… pretty bad at ranking songs xD Can’t wait for your reviews btw 😀
LikeLike
Yours changed quite a bit too!! I’d love to see someone who hadn’t changed at all.
I agree about the changing ALL. THE. TIME. It’s like, by the time you get to the end of ranking you could do it again and it would be different.
Go Bosnia!! That song will still rule in ten years.
The Netherlands totally disappeared there…did it get boring for you?? It did for me. Although I preferred it in the original Dutch. I would probably have listened to it more in Dutch.
And you probably aren’t bad at ranking. It’s hard when there’s 40+ to put in order!
LikeLike
I really doubt there’s someone whose rankings didn’t change at all after the show xD The Netherlands, well I still like the song a lot (always preferred the Dutch version) but idk, it kind of lost that something that made me love it after the show..so yeah, you could say it got boring…
LikeLike