Welcome to my perfumed garden

Tonight, of course, live from Helsinki. I haven't watched the previews so I'm going in blind here, though hoping for good things from Finland again this year after the magnificent Lordi won it against all the odds last time, but I gather a lot of the best stuff has already been eliminated in the semis in the usual round of partisan voting we've come to expect from Eurovison these days.

Terry Wogan will make it unmissable, as always, but I am starting to tire of the contest itself. It's way, way too big now and the voting's a joke with all of Eastern Europe and the Baltic states forming a self-congratulatory bloc that's made a mockery of the notion that this is a song contest.

I really think the time has come to divide Europe in two, let the Eastern Bloc have its own contest and the rest of us can get back to the glory days when countries like Monaco  would win regularly. I mean Ireland, for god's sake, which won year after year, hardly makes it through the semis now (and, franlkly  when you need to hold a semi-final, there are too many countries competing!). The UK and Germany always get in by default merely because, between us, we're bankroling the darn thing. And the 'new' countries all take it way too seriously for my liking.

Ah, how I ache for Katie Boyle; "La Norge, nul points." That was your catchphrase...

I think my favourite Eurovision song is still  Tu te reconnaîtras... sung by Anne Marie David which won in '73. Luxembourg, douze points.(o:  Closely followed by Monaco's 1971 winner; 'Un banc, un arbre, une rue'  Will there be anything half so good on show tonight? I doubt it ::sigh::

So what's your favourite, Oh Estimable Flist? - Go check out You Tube; it's incredible, they're all up there!