Eurovision 2014 - 06/08/10 May 2014

Don't think Sunday night is a go-er. The Grand Final finishes at gone midnight in most of Europe. Not great on a school night.

It was supposedly capable of being reactive - http://www.mediatecgroup.com/products-and-services/display/interactive-led-floor

Lots of technical / behind the scenes / how it's done info in this video - http://youtu.be/PLOBJgw8wxQ

Again, I was just going by what was said by the production designer in this video (starts talking about their use of smart glass, talks about the reactive stage floor screen at 3m14s:



Thanks for the answer regarding the lighting - would explain why it was only to the sides, as the central part of the screen otherwise would've looked terrible on-screen.

It struck me this year how little of the contest is now delivered in anything other than English. There were one or two songs in languages other than English, but apart from the French jury all of the spokespersons (I think) spoke in English and virtually all of the presenters' links were English too. The French translations of the votes were (I think) a little vague here and there too. And hardly any Danish (at all?) spoken by the presenters. Now I know it's a global audience and they want to make it as understandable as possible throughout but I used to like the French and host language stuff being interspersed into the programme. However French is still supposed to be an official language of the EBU but I wouldn't be surprised if this requirement was dropped in the next few years.

That's the whole point of having individual commentators for each member station - so as to translate the contest and 'describe the scene' as Katy Boyle used to say

I think it adds to the atmosphere of the show to have it presented in both English and French.

Absolutely, the whole thing merging into English with no references to the different broadcasters (and of course without the orchestra, the conductors etc) is in danger of homogenising the contest into any old entertainment show. Talking of the broadcasters was there any reference to DR in the titles ('DR Presents' etc...)? There's no space on the Eurovision Ident anymore for the host broadcaster, so in recent years they used to superimpose their logo over the titles (in the way the BBC and SVT do on most of their programmes). It's also a shame we don't see the spokespersons full screen any more along with the broadcaster's logo. I know, I know, I'm probably old fashioned and someone will say that the vast majority of the viewing public don't appreciate/care/understand but there we are.

Interestingly, nobody has won singing in French since Celine Dion in 1988.

and the first (well actually the second) thing Celine sang when she appeared at the following year's contest was in English...

Conchita will appear on this weeks Graham Norton show.

http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2014-05-13/eurovision-champ-conchita-wurst-to-appear-on-the-graham-norton-show

That must have been a quick booking.
Graham went a little quiet at the end of the contest, just making short comments on the winner and Molly then announcing team and signing off. I believed he liked the winner, but was unhappy with the UK's result, Russia being booed and perhaps the way the voting was done.

He will have something to say on Friday night.

I believe he was probably drunk.

One thing which was nice about the end was despite the overrun they let the winners performance play out in full and then the credits followed afterwards - much better than just rolling the credits over the performance.

I thought that both the production of the event and Graham did the right things especially at the end. It made the climax of the programme all about the song.
Plus it meant that we got another chance to hear the great theme music.