Eurovision 2006

Last Saturday was the day of the final of Eurovision 2016 from Stockholm. But 10 years ago Eurovision was held in Athens because Greece had won the previous year. After having watched it for many years on TV since my early childhood I thought this was a good opportunity to watch it live. Well, live, in a manner of speaking. Eurovision is not really a "concert". Only the vocals are live. The backing track is in play-back mode of course. There's no orchestra anymore.

Surprisingly enough (or so I thought then) it was so popular that I could not get a ticket fo the final. So I got one for the semi final and a couple for the rehearsals which cost almost nothing. So I went to the semi final rehearsal first and the next day (Thursday) to the proper semi-final. (Back then there was only one semi-final).

Semi Final

Semi Final

Semi Final

Semi Final

Semi Final

Semi Final

Even on that day there was a feeling that Finland would win with the hard rock (sort of) song "Hard Rock Hallelujah" from Lordi. (There had in fact been a hard rock song at the previous year's contest in Kiev which did quite well). Anyway, on the day of that semi final it was the first time that I used my new phone (a SonyEricsson W550) on an event. This could take 1Mpixel photos (!) and even low quality videos (unlike the older one I had used on the Simple Minds gig a month before)
On the day of the rehearsal of the final I decided to hang around outside the arena to see if I could find a ticket for the final proper and luckily enough someone spotted me and offered me one at face value.

Final Rehearsal

Final Rehearsal

So I came back the next day, but this time I brought my first digital camera and my Mini-DV video camera (both new at that time - the digital camera would get damaged six years later by the rain at the legendary Bruce Springsteen concert in Florence) since I had noted that despite the warnings on the tickets nobody was checking for cameras and nobody would stop you from taking pictures of filming. There was a couple in fact on the row in front of me who filmed the whole show. I mean, couldn't they have programmed their video recorder at home and enjoy it live? As for myself, I filmed about an hour of video (one Mini-DV tape) mostly of what was happening outside. Which is why I'm writing a blog post about this. Having not travelled abroad for the last two years while stuck in a low-paying job, and currently stuck in a better paying job that however did not allow for much time off, it was finally nice to meet people from different countries and gathered together on top of that (For some strange reason, the ones I remember most are the Croatians singing their song "Moja Stickla"). 

Final

 

Final

Final

 

Final

In some way meeting all these people made me feel kind of sad for my situation. One week after Eurovision however, I found a really good job which allowed me to start travelling abroad for concerts from 2007. I would never have thought about doing that, what prompted it though was the fact that one month after Eurovision we were expecting The Rolling Stones who never came, due to Keith antics with a coconut tree, so I went to see them in Lyon in 2007.

Final

As for the Eurovision show itself, well it was probably one of the best with what was possibly the best (and not the usual Eurovision style) winner : Hard Rock Hallelujah!