Three male hosts

Oleksandr Skichko, Volodymyr Ostapchuk and Timur Miroshnychenko will be happy about the invention of “copy & paste” when it comes to their names. Otherwise, it quickly became clear that they are not a copy & paste of any other years’ presenters, but are actually distinct enough. Not only are they the first presenters team at Eurovision ever to consist of three men, but their hosting style is also a welcome refreshment: Their foreign language skills might not be perfect, but they do shine with their natural, down-to-earth charm.

image: Andres Putting (EBU)

The closest examples to which it’s only obvious to compare them with are the hosts of 2005, when Eurovision was held in Kyiv for the first time, and last year’s hosts. Our handsome threesome gladly didn’t take exalting Maria Efrosinina and undercooled Pavlo Shylko as prototypes for their presentation. And on the other side, they gladly lack the overly polished Swedish standards. And so, we got a natural, charismatic, pleasant trio as our hosts this year.

Blackbird won’t sing

Oh, Finland. “Blackbird” wasn’t just one of the overall favourites of the fan community, but it was also my clear personal favourite last night. I always knew there’d be a chance of it not qualifying, but I guess it’s still the shock of the night that Finland is out. Was it too depressing? Was Europe still busy ROFLing at Montenegro’s entry? Was the “quality vote” focusing on Portugal? The detailed results will give us more hints on what happened, as soon as they are known.

image: Andres Putting (EBU)

For now it’s clear that Finland missing the final isn’t Finland’s failure, but Europe’s. And so, this fate of Blackbird goes down in history as one of the biggest injustices at Eurovision ever, and joins both clubs: The one of the underrated musical gems such as Hungary 1995 (Új név a régi ház falán), and the one of the failing fan favourites such as Netherlands 2010 (Ik ben verliefd (Sha-la-lie)), which instantly became a timeless classic at Eurovision parties.

Live performance of a musical instrument

It’s sad but true, the Eurovision rules don’t allow instruments being played live as part of the entry’s presentation on stage, so the surprise of the night was an actual musical instrument being played, live, at Eurovision (!), even if only in the greenroom. It was none less than Epic Sax Guy, who gave a performance of his legendary saxophone riff from Sunstroke Project’s 2010 entry “Run Away“.

https://youtu.be/i9WzHtsJbIs?t=52s