Norway’s ‘Fairytale’ Win

The news of Norway winning the Eurovision Song Contest may have been overshadowed by reports of Russian police breaking up an unsanctioned gay pride march and arresting 30 people, but nearly half of the country’s 4.8 million population watched Alexander Rybak claim victory in Moscow May 16.

“You can’t deny that the politics has been very up-front this year,” said BBC broadcaster Paddy O’Connell as Norway, which famously scored “nul points” in the 1978 contest, began a celebration that lasted through the next day’s Constitution Day national holiday.

Rybak, who wrote the gypsy violin pop song “Fairytale” and performed it in Moscow Olimpiysky Arena May 16, took a record 387 points, smashing the record for the number of points gained by a song and the winning victory margin.

“It’s a great holiday and I should say that it will be particularly pleasant for me now to visit Moscow next Tuesday,” said Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, while NRK – the national broadcast network – began working out where the 2010 contest will be held.

The favourite is the new, 700 million Norwegian krones ($102 million), 23,000-capacity Telenor Arena on the western edge of Oslo at Fornebu.

“I think we have a good chance but we’ve not been contacted by NRK yet,” said Telenor event manager Jørgen Roll, who combines the post with heading Oslo’s Norwegian Wood festival.

This year’s competition was decided partly by a panel of judges and partly by telephone voting from the participating countries, an attempt to reduce the “political block-voting” that marred the contest when fans voted for their friendly neighbours’ entries, leading to suspicions of regional cabals.

The contest has long been perceived as politically influenced, where judges and televoters allocate points based on their nation’s relationship to the other countries, rather than on the musical merits of the songs.

There were no complaints about Norway’s victory because it was the bookies’ favourite and many critics agreed it was the best song, apart from a blog entry on U.K. newspaper The Guardian’s Web site that had repercussions in the Scandinavian press.

Armenian broadcaster APT accused the broadcaster of neighbouring country Azerbaijan of manipulating the voting by obscuring the screen when the Armenian tele-voting number was shown. Political relations between the two countries have been tense for more than 20 years.

APT launched an official complaint to the European Broadcasting Union, claiming a severe violation of the contest rules. The EBU says it won’t comment on the story as it’s still investigating if the rules have been breached.

As in 2008, Azerbaijan gave no points to Armenia. Armenia gave one point to Azerbaijan, which eventually came third with 207 points.

Romania’s performance sparked speculation that its foxy lead singer could have been lip-syncing, but her team insisted the lone figure seen warbling away in the shadows was a backing singer.

The speculation was fuelled when Norton revealed the competition rules state all performers must be present on stage, but they say nothing about whether others could mime.

Reducing the chances of political block-voting didn’t cut down the political opportunism, with many countries using Eurovision to score points in other disputes.

Georgia originally announced it would withdraw from the contest to protest Russian foreign policies and last year’s war in South Ossetia, but later announced it had changed its mind, apparently inspired by its win at the 2008 Junior Eurovision Song Contest and the 12 points Russia gave it in that contest.

A month ago it was out again, this time because the EBU banned its entry choice – “Don’t Wanna Put In” by Stephane & 3G – because it contained political references critical of Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

One of Russia’s judges reportedly withdrew after being seen dining with Rybak before the contest. Philip Kirkorov, who represented Russia in the 1995 contest and co-wrote the Belarusian entry in 2007, told the U.K.’s Times he had to stand down because his impartiality had been compromised.

Reports that Moscow would ban the gay rights march had the Dutch threatening to pull out, although the impact of that protest was nullified by The Netherlands entry failing to pass the semi-finals held in the four days leading up to the big night.

The U.K.’s Daily Mail repeated a story it ran some weeks ago claiming thousands of stray dogs were being rounded up and executed as part of a plan to clean up Moscow before it hosted the contest.

It said animal activists alleged that dogcatchers were being urged to poison or beat animals to death to clear them from the Russian capital.

A blog entry on MediaGuardian.co.uk prompted a minor diplomatic spat with the Norwegian media because it said Norway had no chance of winning.

“This is the favourite, apparently … umm, sorry? It’s like a stage school performance of Fiddler On the Roof. Fairytale my ass,” was blogger Heidi Stephens’ less than favourable opinion.

“It’s s****, but a winner anyway,” said the headline on top-selling tabloid VG.

Another Norwegian tabloid, Dagbladet, lifted the blog comment and ran a “Fairytale my ass” headline, which may have caused some linguistic eyebrow-raising in Scandinavia.

In Sweden, popular evening paper Aftonbladet said: “The Guardian is, maybe not unexpectedly, less enthusiastic on behalf of the winner from the land of Vikings, which will probably always be mostly known for getting ‘nil points’ in Great Britain.”

The U.K. paper has apologized, while pointing out it was meant to be a humorous blog entry and not representative of the paper’s own views.

Stephens’ blog also said Andrew Lloyd Webber, who co-wrote the British entry “It’s My Time” and played the piano accompaniment in the final, looked like “Dobby the House Elf,” a character from the “Harry Potter” novels.

The U.K. entry came fifth, with Lloyd Webber saying the country can finally “hold its head high” after years of disappointing results.

Last year’s U.K. hopeful, Andy Abraham, finished joint last. The last time the U.K. won the competition was in 1997 when Katrina & The Waves took it in Dublin with “Love Shine A Light.”

Rybak, an ethnic Belorussian who grew up outside Oslo, was mobbed by almost 3,000 fans after touching down at the city’s Gardemoen airport.

Norwegian broadcaster NRK, whose coverage was the most-watched television show in the country’s history, will hope to do as well when Oslo hosts next year’s event.
“Fairytale” is already is topping download charts across Europe. It sits top of the iTunes music charts in most European countries.

The first six in the Eurovision final were Norway (387 points), Iceland (218), Azerbaijan (207), Turkey (177), United Kingdom (173) and Estonia (129).

Marilyn Manson ex-wife Dita Von Teese was reportedly fuming when her star turn in the competition failed to impress the judges or voters.

The burlesque beauty, who performed with Germany’s Alex Swings Oscar Sings, finished 20th place out of the 25 countries.