Last night, the recording for Eurovision’s Greatest Hits took place at the 4,000-capacity Hammersmith Apollo theatre in London, with the show itself scheduled to be shown in the various broadcasting countries from this Friday.

Like all good ESC sites, escgo! was in attendance – and while we don’t want to spoil the treats that await you in the TV show, these are some of the things that stuck in our memory:

1. Lys Assia was in attendance, though she wasn’t wheeled out on stage; instead, you’ll see Graham “surprising” her in the audience with a gift from the BBC. Over in our section of the crowd, the far more exciting news was that Valentina Monetta was sitting two rows behind us.
2. Nicole still remembers some of the alternative-language versions of “Ein bisschen Frieden”, and not necessarily the ones you’d expect! (She also had to be gently dragged from the stage after milking her applause a bit too long.)
3. It takes approximately 45 seconds for the smell of Lordi‘s on-stage pyrotechnics to reach the seats at the back of the Hammersmith Apollo.
4. Speaking of pyro, if you’re going to surround Conchita with a circle of fire, you might want to make sure that it doesn’t start burning before the song even begins!
5. Rosa definitely prefers singing the Spanish ESC classics to her own 2002 entry.
6. The show will be punctuated with the usual montages of clips from past ESCs, some of which got a bigger response from the crowd than others – surprisingly so, in many cases!
7. Electro Velvet warmed up the audience with the first live performance of “Still In Love With You”, the UK’s entry for ESC 2015. From where we were sitting, it seemed like the duo were struggling with their breathing during some of the longer phrases – and the backing vocalists and dancers came to far more than six people, so we still don’t have any real insight into how they’ll stage the song in Vienna – but the BBC will apparently be making the performance available on its “red button” feature later this week, so at least we will get to see it properly filmed and produced.
8. Some Eurovision fans will boo the very mention of “Russia”, even in a non-competitive environment. Don’t be misled by the reports suggesting Dima Bilan himself was the target of the booing – it was the country more generally (whereas Dima himself received a more ambivalent response), and we’re curious to see how the BBC manages to edit it out of the broadcast.
9. During the week of ESC 2000, you could get odds of 100/1 for the Olsen Brothers to win. Last night, 4,000 fans swayed and sang along to “Fly On The Wings Of Love” in full voice. Eurovision gamblers, take note – sometimes the odds do lie!
10. And most notably of all: The BBC really wants to host the Eurovision Song Contest proper. This was a spectacularly staged show considering the size of the venue (indeed, if anything it shows that ESC could still be held in a theatre rather than an arena, although it’s hard to imagine that ever happening again), and in the unlikely event that the UK – or Australia? – wins in Vienna, a British-hosted ESC 2016 would be quite the event. We wouldn’t be at all surprised if Graham Norton and Petra Mede were chosen to host it…

That’s enough teasing for now – time to stock up on popcorn and wine for the TV broadcast of Eurovision’s Greatest Hits. Enjoy!