Concluding thoughts

How do I feel about the final and the outcome of the voting? It was an exciting final and there were both surprises and disappointments.
I was not surprised that Azerbaijdjan won the contest. It is a casual song that appeals to most people, that is, a typical Eurovision song. I think it's a nice song and I like it a lot although it wasn't one of my absolute favorites. Azerbaijdjan has worked so hard in recent years for winning ESC so I'm glad on their behalf for their success this year and I congratulate them to the victory.

Italy being the runner-up was the big surprise for me. I actually thought that the audience would turn this jazz song down but how wrong wasn't I.
I'm not a fan of jazz but nevertheless I sort of like the laid-back style of Italy's song.
The great disappointments were Hungary that ended 22nd and Estland that ended 24th. Hungary¨s song is a very good up-tempo song and it deserved better than this, but I think that Kati's performance wasn't good, her song never really came through.
I like Estland's song a lot, it's musical box style cadences could have been picked from a song by Múm.

However I am glad that my other favorite songs were top-ten: Georgia, Greece, Ireland, Ukraine and Bosnien-Hercegovina.
Almost at least, I had hoped for more when it comes to Ireland. I just can't help loving this crazy song and these insane twins. When Lena won the contest last year with her song that was far from the ordinary type of Eurovision song, I hoped this would open up for songs that dared challenge the mundane music taste of the ESC audience and I was glad to see entries like Ireland, Estland, Georgia, Cyprus and Greece with their own originality, the two latter mixing traditional folk music with modern music styles.
I really wished Ireland to be the winner this year to continue last year's change of trend with Lena and Satellite as the winner, but it was a setback since the winning song is a traditional ESC-song. I hope this won't prevent next years participants from coming up with innovative songs.

I like Bosnien-Hercegovina's song because it is such a feel-good-song that makes me so glad when I listen to it.
I have rather recently added Ukraine to my favorites, since this power ballad was growing for each listening and Mika is singing very good, no false singing. And I could never resist the angelic themes.

It was very exciting that my own country was fighting for the victory until the end and it isn't too bad that Eric finally ended up as 3rd best. I'm sorry to say that I don't like the song, it isn't my cup of tea but Eric is singing good and has charisma and he performed well.
Now we all will look forward to next year's competition with songs to love and to hate. Meanwhile I will listen to all my favorites from ESC 2011 that already are downloaded to my iPod.