What I'm Listening To: Eurovision 2014

Last Saturday the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest aired it's live finale and crowned a winner. For those of you who don't know, Eurovision is a yearly European wide song competition in which each country chooses a musical act to represent their country and the European public can vote via phone, text or app to narrow down and select a competition winner. The competition has been around since 1956 and has helped launch the careers of such acts as ABBA and Celine Dion, and while there are still some great musicians who enter, the show is also known for it's more bazaar performers (ahem Jedward).

Anyways, before the show even started there was buzz around Austria's contestant, Conchita Wurst, who is a drag performer who sings dressed as a woman with a beard. There was also buzz about whether the Russia/Ukraine conflict would effect the way some countries voted during Eurovision.
In the end, Conchita took home the prize and although there were boos from the Danish audience every-time Russia gained a voting point, the political conflict didn't seem to effect how the countries voted for the most part.

Here are some of the best/worst acts from the show:

• The winner: 

Conchita Wurst (Austria)- Rise Like a Phoenix

• This sounds like the next James Bond song.

• Best dance song that almost won: 

András Kállay-Saunders (Hungary)- Running

• Best break-up song: 

Sanna Nielsen (Sweden)- Undo

• Best duo: 

The Common Linnets (The Netherlands)- Calm After the Storm

• Worst use of gratuitous milk maid boobs:

 Donatan & Cleo (Poland)- My Słowianie (We Are Slavic )

• This group was definitely after the boob-lover vote!

• Best unappreciated band: 

TWIN TWIN (France): Moustache

• This is the band that I voted for because this was the only song that made me want to get off of my couch and dance! Apparently the rest of Europe disagreed because they barely got a point.

• Best act from the UK: 

Molly- Children of the Universe

• After the UK put up 2 of their oldest performers in years past (Bonnie Tyler and Engelbert Humperdink) with little success (Tyler was 19th, Humperdink was 25th), the UK took a different approach, which seemed like a good idea, by asking lesser known acts to audition before selecting Molly. But even with the younger singer and a better song, the UK still ended up in 17th place. 

Did you watch the Eurovision song contest? Where did you watch it? Who was your favorite/ least favorite act? Let me know in the comments below.