10May
So, back to 2005, and the Ukrainian installment of the Eurovision Song Contest. Two years on, it's clear that this wasn't one of the most memorable contests, and we'd be hard-pushed to hum more than a few of the tunes. Not that we could have hummed Touch my fire
(Javine, UK) or Nobody hurt no-one
(Natalia Podolskaya, Russia) even while the song was playing. The hosts sent a politically-correct song supporting their new president Yuschenko, while Turkey sent an infectious ethnic beat. Switzerland stole Vanilla Ninja from Estonia, Norway had the hard-rocking Wig Wam, and Moldova's debut entry was a drum-bashing granny.
Greece won the contest, and won it by a surprisingly large distance. Helena Paparizou performed a song that did nothing for us at the time, and that we still think is amongst the weakest winners of recent years. It's to Malta that we turn for the Song of the Contest, and to a familiar name. Chiara had already secured third place in 1998, just a handful of points behind the winning Israeli entry. Though she was all alone and almost motionless on stage, it felt as though the Maltese performer was filling the arena with her rich vocals. We didn't much like the sound of the winning song My number one
; we're loving Angel
's instead.
