Lordy, Lordi, Lordi

Europe's grandeur pop spectacle, the Eurovision Song Contest, was surprisingly won on Sunday by Finnish metal band Lordi. The masked monsters' Hard Rock, Hallelujah proved quite a change from the folky pop standards, uptempo dancier efforts and the odd sombre ballad that Eurovision typically showcases. The general consensus is that it was a pretty weak showing, giving the bulk of votes to some more memorable, if not unconventional, contributions. I didn't see any real standout winners like usual. There wasn't even a supremely hot chick to attract votes on her assets alone either (although the Norwegian chick looked like Eliza Dushku, grrrowl).

Finland's rockin' victory was a voter rebellion against the formulaic pop songs - and a great show.

Lithuania's We Are The Winners was the wackiest entry, where six men in suits "soccer chanted" for the crowd to vote for them, because "We are the winners of Eurovision". Extra points for the guy with the glasses going into a Praise You style freak-out dance during the bridge.

There was quite a few styles of music on offer too, including a country track from Germany and an acappella song with semi-beatboxing from the Latvians. The use of metal must be a logical genre to explore in the Euro, following decent scoring (and sounding) performances from Norway's glam rock outfit Wig Wam last year and Turkey's ska band Athena a few years before that.

A Eurovision winner normally has a trick in the performance; Finland just turned it up with the wicked costumes, fireworks and some growling rock. Meanwhile, Russia had a chick emerge from the inside of a piano unexpectedly, Turkey formed a human star and the Armenian dancing girls used belts to try and straight jacket the guy throughout their good performance.

Las Ketchup, of The Ketchup Song fame, were crap for Spain, concentrating on spinning in chairs like in a hair salon more than singing in key. The Maltese guy's eyebrows didn't win favours with anyone, Moldova sounded dreadful, but France get the worst mark from me: once again choosing a ballad, in French, that sucked. Some creativity, or at least something different, might get them somewhere in the top half for once or at least entertain.

There could have been more interplay between the hosts, as often the most entertaining Eurovisions are when the host is comically trying to crack onto the hostess. That was left to the readers of the points, one who had a T-shirt saying "Maria, Marry Me" and the Dutch guy who tried to give his phone number to the Greek male host...who was less than pleased.

Still, Eurovision provided entertainment value as always - even if it tends to be entertainment first, mock the contestants and hosts second, music third.