Brisbane’s most dedicated Eurovision fanatics filed excitedly into Dendy’s Portside Cinemas on Sunday night (24 May), grabbing a drink and amping up for a screening of the Eurovision Song Contest’s grand finale.
Music lovers all over the world watched as the event passed yet another anniversary, inviting none other than Australia’s Guy Sebastian to compete as a wildcard entry in their 60th year.
Australia's Guy SebastionThe finale aired live in Australia in the very early hours of Sunday morning, but the screening in Brisbane meant those who wanted to celebrate the finale at a more acceptable time of the day were able to do so. Dendy Cinema provided fans with double-sided paddles with thumbs up and thumbs down on each side. This gave us all the opportunity to show what we thought of each of the 27 finalist countries.
Russia's Polina GagarinaAustralia is known for being extremely patriotic, and having an Australian competitor in such a huge contest meant we were able to show that off to the world. The finale (aired on SBS) went for a solid four hours, with each song going for three minutes. The cinema remained enthusiastic and energetic from start to finish, with crowd favourites being Latvia, Italy, Belgium, Sweden and of course, Australia. Each song was completely different from its predecessor, providing us all with laughter, dancing, tears and emotions aplenty.
The voting process at the tail-end of the evening was tedious, hilarious and strange all at once. Different parts of the world joined the crowd at Eurovision via video stream, as they read out their votes. The countries shifted up and down on the leaderboard as more votes were counted, with every vote for Australia being celebrated with cheers and applause from the Dendy audience. To make it fair, of course, the countries weren’t able to vote for themselves. This made the competition unbiased, and put in place the theme for the year: 'building bridges'.
Finally, it came to a point where calculations confirmed Sweden to be the sure-fire winner, leading in first place by over 60 points. Last year’s winner Conchita Wurst handed her title, and trophy, over to Måns Zelmerlöw from Sweden as he took to the stage to perform his winning song 'Heroes' one last time.
Congratulations to the countries that competed in this year’s Eurovision, especially Sweden, and of course our own Guy Sebastian. A fabulous, colourful and fun show, which brought countries together and gave us all a reason to celebrate.
Four out of five Australian flags!
