Eurovision Song Contest - 2009.

The Eurovision song Contest is an annual televised event which has occurred annually since 1956 The main aim is for each participating country to submit a song which is performed live on the night and is voted for by viewers and panels of judges. Here in the UK, the contest has become rather an object of ridicule after 'political' voting in recent years has created groups of nations voting for each other irrespective of the quality of the song or performance. But some very notable successes have come out of the contest, most famously Abba who represented Sweden in 1974 and then went on to become a multi million record selling group.

Many participating countries enter a song performed by a famous singer from that country. for the UK, it is usually a complete unknown act which sings a song picked by TV viewers earlier in the year.This year the UK's song was written by Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber who is a respected and internationally known composer (responsible for composing the music for many stage shows such as Phantom Of The Opera,Joseph,Cats....etc). Jade was a performer chosen by TV voters in January and sang 'It's My Time'...the song was voted 5th out of the 25 finalists (42 countries entered the contest ..the number reduced by running two semifinal contests earlier in the week)The winning country then has to host the show the following year. since they won it last year, Russia broardcast this years show form the Olympic Stadium in Moscow.

Each year, two dear friends of ours who live across the road from us hold a party to celebrate the national day of Norway (where they lived for many many years) people from my neighbourhood gather to celebrate and also watch the Eurovision show and try to pick the winner...it's usually accompanied by much good food and drink...and what makes it all the more special is the nationalities of those who attend, the majority from neighbouring houses on our avenue....amongst those there I can identify British,German,Norwegian,Italian,Turkish and Americans there last night.....to make it all the more special for my friends...the Norwegian entry won the contest..A great evening was had by all and my very warm and respectful thanks go to Andrew and Jane for hosting the evening!

*I have removed the photos from this post I suspect their format was going some way to causing the whole blog to look 'odd' on some people's machines.If you want to see the original photo's, you'll have to see my albums on 'Facebook'..