OPA!
Now Playing: Elena Paparizou - MY NUMBER ONE
It's a sad thing that I missed the Eurovision this year. For anyone reading this who doesn't know what the Eurovision is, a) shame on you, and b) it's a now 50 year old song competition staged every year.

Ireland are the undisputed champions of Eurovision, having won it more than anyone else (including a stint in the 90s where we won it 4 times in 5 years...) The way it works is that the country who wins one year hosts the contest the following year. It's all very exciting, particularly the voting, which takes place after a (usually locally-flavoured) interval act that follows the performances of all the songs. Interval acts that stand out include the original Riverdance (yes! Eurovision spawned Riverdance!!) and Israeli transsexual Dana International performing the Hebrew Sabbath Prayer as a techno dance number....

Ireland's entry this year was awful, by the sound of it, and so we were booted out in the preliminaries (there are now so many countries in Europe that they have to have preliminaries to avoid an endless contest). Greece have been gearing up to win it for years, and this year, THEY DID IT. Elena Paparizou is just fabulous, and I'm so happy she won. Opa!

In a hilarious aside, the official cd includes a bonus track - the Australian entry. Australia were disqualified from the competition, on the grounds that they are not a European country....