Another year, another Eurovision Song Contest.
There were flying dancers, pianos on fire and some serious belting – but one thing was different.
Australia had come to play.
Sending our beloved Guy Sebastian, Australia joined the ranks of the wacky for the first time, and we didn’t do too badly, either.
Placing a historic fifth, Mr Sebastian said it was a lot of pressure.
“There was so much pressure, you know, carrying the weight of Australia,” Sebastian told SBS, “People wearing ‘Team Guy’ T-shirts and paddles, and I just was feeling a lot of pressure … I just really wanted to represent Australia. But last night I just decided to breathe it all out and let it all go and just kind of have fun. That’s why I wrote the song. It’s a song about embracing the moment and not worrying about tomorrow and it’s sort of what we’re doing now.”
Guy might have felt like every eye in the world was on him, but don’t worry, it was just Europe.
America still hasn’t scored an invite.
10th place: Serbia Bojana Stamenov took to the stage to represent Serbia and started the night off with her classic power ballad, Beauty Never Lies. And we mean ‘power’ in more ways than one – Bojana’s powerful pipes and her powerful message: “Finally I can say, I’m different and that’s okay”. Sing it, sister.
9th place: Flanked by two strapping and enthusiastic contemporary dancers, Azerbaijan’s Elnur Huseynov performed his hit Hour of the Wolf, to a cheering crowd. A few earsplitting high notes and weird dance moves probably kept him back from a high spot.
8th place: Latvia Wearing an impressively puffy red gown and some interesting headwear, Latvia’s Aminata belted out a techno-influenced Love Injected. Highlights: her standstill dance moves and catchy tune.
7th place: Norway Clad in white and singing their song A Monster Like Me, Norway put on a good show. Although, lacking pyrotechnics and backup dancers, the performance was a little boring.
6th place: Estonia Just missing out on a top 5 spot, Estonia’s Elina Born & Stig Rästa were the first to break out of the ‘power ballad’ mould, with their funk/blues song, Goodbye To Yesterday. Featuring some tricky guitar work and a solid bass line, the duet was a nice little break.
5th place: Australia Like proud mama hens, we watched our own Guy Sebastian go off to represent Australia for the first time at Eurovision. And disappoint, he did not. The Australian Idol alumni’s performance of his own Tonight’s So Good was toe-tapping and dance-worthy – and for a first timer, he nailed it.
4th place: Belgium: Loïc Nottet’s Rhythm Inside was a cool choice. Going against the grain, the young singer chose a dance-pop tune, and had the dance moves to match. That triple spin was podium worthy by itself.
3rd place: Italy: If you ask us, Italy sending their award-winning Il Volo on stage as their entrant should qualify as cheating. The smooth and not-at-all bad looking trio were as suave as ever, singing opera-pop song, Grande Amore.
2nd place: Russia You know when you can just tell from a picture that someone is singing a power ballad? Yep, us too. Was Polina Gagarina of Russia’s A Million Voices actually Vladimir Putin trying to do some PR damage control? We don’t know. Was Polina’s dress a knock out? Sure was. Her singing wasn’t all that bad, either.
1st place: Sweden Sweden’s all-singing, all-dancing, all-hunky Måns Zelmerlöw’s performance of Heroes (David Bowie’s Heroes not related) took out the top spot – and pretty deservedly, too. The singer, in just a t-shirt and jeans, won the hearts of teenage girls the world over, and – guilty as charged – our’s, too.
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