Liam Rudden: Eurovision in Oslo will be a sober affair

Published on Friday 28 May 2010 10:06

NOKS! I've a wallet full of them. From what I hear, I'll need all my Norwegian kroner for my day trip to Oslo for the final of the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest – apparently, a pint in the Norwegian capital costs a sobering £8.

Still, there's nothing I like more at this time of year than a good old Eurovision party – dry or not. I blame Dana. When she won for Ireland with All Kinds Of Everything in 1970, my Dublin-born mammy ensured that the Eurovision Song Contest became an annual event in the Rudden household.

Good old Katy Boyle, whose 84th birthday coincides with the final tomorrow, would do the honours back then - according to Wikipedia, Lady Saunders, as she is now known, is an agony aunt for the monthly magazine Dogs Today. Later, Terry Wogan made the job his own, becoming the first Irish British face of Eurovision.

Indeed, there's something about the Irish and Eurovision that seem destined to go together. However, while Graham Norton may have replaced Wogan last year (don't get me started on that piece of casting) I have to be honest, it's Paddy O'Connell (he's actually English despite the name), BBC3 presenter of the semi-finals, who makes me laugh the most.

Bizarrely, while the commentary has become as much part of the annual broadcast as the songs themselves, mainly thanks to Wogan, nothing could be further from the truth in the hall on the night.

As an audience member, there is no commentary, just the comedy double-act chosen by the host nation to front the occasion. That said, what you lose in one-liners you gain in insight. When TV directors cut away from the live action to play each individual country's 'electronic postcard,' all hell breaks loose on stage, as I discovered in Helsinki in 2007.

In the 30 seconds or so that it takes to play the pre-recorded inserts, an army of stage hands and technicians swarm the stage to ensure that by the time the cameras refocus their attention on the action in the arena, any trace of the previous act has been obliterated.

Eurovision has changed beyond recognition since the 2000-seat Usher Hall hosted it in 1972 – tomorrow's extrava-ganza takes place in the 23,000-capacity Telenor Arena.

But one thing that hasn't changed is the fact that throughout the city there will be numerous Eurovision parties. Wherever you are, have a good one... whether Josh wins or not.

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