Eurovision Song Contest/Recap/Eurovision 2010

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


The 2010 Eurovision Song Contest took place in Oslo, Norway, thanks to the "Fairytale" ending in Moscow for one Alexander Rybak. 39 countries competed in the competition, which saw a German victory for Lena and her song "Satellite" (which was a major favorite going in);becoming Germany's first win as a unified nation, and the first win for a "big four" country since 1997.

Its format remained similar to the year prior, but now with the top 10 scoring entries in each semi-final qualifying for the Saturday final as decided by a split viewer/jury vote (last year, 9 were determined by viewer votes, along with a wildcard from the jury), and votes in the finals being a 50/50 split between jury votes and viewer votes as last year. However, this year, viewers could also cast their votes throughout the performances instead of waiting for the performances to conclude, a sight which would surely make Ryan Seacrest go crazy (given how [[Catch Phrase Lines open at the end of the show.

This edition provides examples of

  • Ambiguous Gender: Milan Stanković (Serbia)
  • Obvious Rule Patch: The semi-final voting adopted the same 50/50 voting formula the finals began to use the year prior, and dumped the jury wildcard.
    • Fans speculated that the runner-up Turkey could get a berth in the 2011 final since Germany already had one for being in the big four. Instead, they just got Italy to return.
  • Protest Song: Get around the catchy refrain and sparkle shorts, and you'll realize the Lithuanian entry "Eastern European Funk" discusses Western Europe allegedly not treating Eastern Europe equally.
  • Suspiciously Similar Song: Many fans suggested "It's All About You" was a Jimmy Hart Version of "Keeps Getting Better", and "In a Moment Like This" (Denmark) sounded like The Police's "Every Breath You Take"
  • Watch It for the Meme: Moldova's entry "Run Away", just for a certain sax solo.