Eurovision may have been cancelled this year but you’d hardly know it from today’s radio and telly in the UK. As I tap this out Nicole is on telly singing A Little Peace (Ein bißchen Frieden) – only the umpteenth time I’ve heard it today! Not that I mind, by halfway through I’ll be singing along again.

This evening I’m indulging myself with prosecco and pear juice, they do go together rather well (and if the prosecco is too dry, pear juice is a good antidote). Well, I deserved a treat after all the tidying round and cleaning I did today. Just because I had no one coming round this year didn’t mean I was gonna let standards slip, ok, so they’re not that high anyway but I always have a massive clean round before Eurovision. Right from Graham Norton’s Radio 2 show this morning I’ve been cleaning, singing and dancing, sometimes all at the same time!

Ah, Graham Norton, a worthy successor to Terry Wogan. So it wasn’t officially a competition but I still raised my glass to Sir Tel at the ninth snippet, Sweden’s song, I believe. Why the ninth? Well, when handing over the baton to Graham, Sir Tel advised young Graham to pace himself by not having his first drink of the evening until the ninth song. So, now every year at the ninth, Graham raises a toast to Sir Tel, it’s quite poignant actually. This evening I thought Graham was very sweet and eloquent when the hosts spoke to him, I heartily agreed with him about how great the show was going, an impressive production in these extraordinary circumstances.

Eurovision is feelgood tv (even during the voting) and especially this year with the personal messages from each performer after their song snippet. I’d like to think folk feel a stronger camaraderie with their fellow Europeans after sharing all this music; a celebration of musical differences and similarities, an insight into nations’ souls. The mass love-in of all the performers singing Love Shine A Light was great touch in this time of musicians putting out stuff from their own spaces (often bedrooms, I’ve noticed!)

Mind, we in the UK often wonder why we can’t send a decent song that reflects us now, our songs do tend to be on the naff, dated side. Do other nations feel the same about their entries? Do the Finns, Moldovans or Germans consider their songs reflect them well? My recipe for UK success is Jack Savoretti; my eurika moment came the first time I heard Candlelight, a perfect Eurovision song and a voice to penetrate the hardest of hearts. I’m sure he probably has something that would be perfect – and not written to be a Eurovision song, important methinks.

Tonight we only heard short blasts of each song (blasts almost literally in some cases) so we missed out on costume changes, key changes, great powerful endings from soft beginnings, all staples of Eurovision and it’s associated drinking games. But, going on just the snippets I observed I liked France, Belgium, North Macedonia, Austria and Armenia, with additional mentions for the Italian guy’s voice and the Finnish lad’s blue jacket. Who knows what might have been?!

Tomorrow I intend to look for the ukulele chords for Alexander Rybak’s Fairytale, I rather like it hearing it again today, possibly playable. Today’s find was Boom Bang-a-Bang by Lulu, a couple of tricky chords but I might be able by next May!

Good night, peeps! Stay safe!