Eurovision final, finally

Sorry for the lack of Eurovision commentary on the Big Night. I spent all of yesterday trying to figure out a knotty PHP problem, and I was brain-dead by the time the Contest rolled around. Struck snarkless. Anyway, yes, they won, and a lot of people are ticked off, and calling them Orcs or Klingons, as if that were a bad thing. And calling for the return of jury-voting - apparently there is such a thing as too much democracy. Also, haters? Such a thing as too much spare time. Go do something useful.

For me, the bottom line is that Finland has been coming to the ESC for 44 years, and um, have tended not to do very, er, well. A lot of other countries flounced out, with less provocation, but Finland stuck it out, and I'm really glad they finally won. Also pleased that the sillyfun entries like Lithuania and Finland got so many votes, because maybe people are figuring out that you can love something and still laugh about it.

So here's the final ranking, with links to the performances, where the folks at YouTube were able to oblige. Well, that was the original plan, but I got bored after awhile. So here are the ones I thought you should see for one reason or another, and that I could find on YouTube. The ones in boldface qualified for the contest next year; the others will have to compete for the ten open places.

1. Finland (w00t!)
2. Russia (ew)
3. Bosnia & Herzegovina
4. Romania
5. Sweden
6. Lithuania
7. Ukraine
8. Armenia
9. Greece
10. Ireland
11. Turkey
12. FYR Macedonia
13. Croatia
14. Norway
15. Germany
16. Latvia
17. Switzerland
18. Denmark
19. United Kingdom
20. Moldova
21. Spain
22. France
23. Israel
24. Malta

And here's the freaky Polish thing with the epaulets.