The Island

Eurovision, I don’t love you anymore, goodbye

Maria Ivanova — Sun, 15 May 2011 09:37:44 +0000

Azerbaijan! Italy! Sweden! Ukraine! Denmark! Aaaaand you lost me at Azerbaijan. No, seriously, every other song of the top 10 has little to none artistic value whatsoever.
Congratulations to everybody and see you in Baku? Not interested.
And don’t get me started on whether there was bribery involved and if the result was fixed.
Let’s look at these two curious facts: 1) San Marino gave 10 points to Azerbaijan, 2) San Marino has some 31 thou people total. I can’t see the connection, can you?
I bet my 31 smses for Finland would have made a huge difference there unlike here in Ukraine were we did not even give Finland one point.
But let’s continue about fair victory of Azerbaijan. Malta loved Azeri entry so much they gave them 12 points! In unrelated news Maltese population is 400 thou people.
Ukraine and Russia giving Azerbaijan respective 10 and 12 points did so out of utter love for the song, don’t you think? How hard do you think it is to bribe in these two countries? Extremely difficult, almost impossible, I’d say.
And then those rumours that Israel complained to EBU about approaches from Azerbaijan about the possibility of fixing the result in that country? You think those rumours are true? Oh, sure they aren’t, EBU would open a public investigation immideately, issue a warning to Azeri, and possibly disqualify them if that proved to be true! That’s right! Because no one wants to have a party thrown for them next year, all expenses covered, everything done and ready to go without the need to tightly control the organization process and worry whether the show will be organized properly. Nah, who would want that?
And Dima Bilan won in 2008 just because he has huge public support and is such a talented, clean guy, whose eyes were full of tears while he performed his heart breaking Believe and not, never, glassy because of the drug use.
Top 10 of 2011 is hugely disappointing to me. I wouldn’t mind if the results list would be reversed, you know: 1. Switzerland, 2. Estonia, 3. Spain, 4. Hungary, 5. Finland, 6. Iceland, 7. Lithuania, 8. Austria, 9. Romania, 10. Russia, 11. France, 12. Serbia, 13. Slovenia, 14. Moldova, 15. UK, 16. Germany, 17. Georgia, 18. Ireland, 19. Greece, 20. Bosnia and Herzegovina, 21. Denmark, 22. Ukraine, 23. Sweden, 24. Italy, 25. Azerbaijan. And I’m not even kidding. I won’t be completely, blissfully happy with that order but I wouldn’t change much even if I could.
And come on, when results are as frustrating one just has no desire to continue. Now I understand Western countries that are uninterested in Eurovision – who would want to be brought down every time? Feels like millions of people have this absolutely disasterous taste in music and you don’t want to have anything in common with them.
I can’t get over shallow Swedish song getting to #3 – he wants to be popular as if that’s the way to honour, as if that’s the true value everyone should aim to obtain. As for hysterical Ukranian singing… Guys, I AM Ukranian myself but this cannot change the fact that it has zero artistic value for me.
I agree Italian entry has loads of artistic value and I suspect Italy was the winner according to the jury vote as only Italy climbed significantly up the scoreboard by the end of the show. So only there was suspence and we know voting announcing order was decided based on the jury vote.
Denmark is not that bad, it’s that songs like that usually do bad in Eurovision, so that was unexpected.
Ireland getting to number 8 is higher than I’d prefer because it’s another tasteless entry along with Bosnia and Herzegovina and Greece. Seriously, what was artistic value in those? Can you tell me? I’ll listen willfully, I promise not to interrupt.
And now the outsiders – Russia was the best performance of the night – relaxed, put together, entertaining, perfect vocals.
Austria could even have been the winner of the night with those amazing vocals and beautiful, powerful performance.
Serbia was wonderful, simply wonderful. And looking at the scoreboard I feel how all Europe agrees with me… NOT.
And then Finland. It was a wonderful, beutiful song worth every cent I spent on it with this great message of need to care about our planet. Yeah, no one cares about our planet. Thanks for reminding me.
Not sure if I’ll change my mind in 10 months when Eurovision hype hits the esc interested web again but at this point I don’t see myself returning to being interested in this competition, reading about all the entries and being interested in even watching it. I feel like this is something I don’t need in my life. Eurovision, I don’t love you anymore, goodbye.

Blind Item Time

Maria Ivanova — Sat, 14 May 2011 10:31:41 +0000

I am so fond of celebrity blind items – I can’t even tell you how much. What can I say? I love dirt. And finally I’ve got some dirt for you from my very own sources! Oh yeah. It’s European dirt though – Eurovision Song Contest 2011 participants related.

Tonight Eurovision Song Contest 2011 final takes place in Dusseldorf and I can tell you that there’s one or two participants to walk tonight’s stage who have a severe personality disorder. You feel it already?

It’s narcissistic personality disorder but don’t go all ‘oh, *every* artist to walk any stage has that’ because you are so wrong here – most artists may have narcissistic personalities but what I’m talking about is a personality disorder and that’s fucked up, people.

Our disorderly participant or two look perfectly sweet and unbelievably nice, even if a bit out of this world, but they are dependent on narcissistic supply they get in form of public admiration, adulation and any kind of attention at all. Once that supply stops they will most definitely try to get it back using any means they can think of, and, knowing what NPD really is in all its ugliness, we are talking public suicide as a place they can get someday.

Let’s hope their handlers realize something’s up soon enough to get the participant or two in question to therapy. Though, knowing this will cut their income supply we don’t expect handlers to be willing to admit anything’s wrong until it’s too late.

Look at the boy who went out in the world to save our planet

Maria Ivanova — Fri, 13 May 2011 09:14:22 +0000

VOTING FOR FINLAND IN EUROVISION THIS YEAR IS BASICALLY CHARITY

The name’s Oscar Paradise. A student from Finland. Wrote the song in a hurry and recorded it in his parent’s basement to enter Finnish national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest 2011. Surprisingly, he won the competition and is representing Finland in Eurovision 2011. And is making Finland PROUD.

The shirt he is wearing is made from recycled materials. His budget for the competition is around 300 EUR and he did not know he had this amazing planet in the background until the first rehearsal. His guitar is old and he did not want any show. He just wants people to hear him say:

I’m going out in the world to save our planet

And I ain’t comin back until she’s saved

I’ll walk my way to see the King and parliament

If they don’t help I’ll do it by myself.

Europe, you can vote for this this Saturday – May 14th, 2011. Can you imagine if a song with a message like that won Eurovision? CAN YOU IMAGINE? This will be a whole new level for Eurovision. This will be a whole new meaning to the word combination Eurovision SONG Contest. If this SONG wins, I will believe that Eurovision is TRULY about the song. (And yes, he is among favourites, so it’ not a dumb hope.)

one to remember

Maria Ivanova — Thu, 05 May 2011 07:29:50 +0000

can I please just quote The Blemish here as I want to keep this quote somewhere to come back to it when I feel sad for someone filthy rich and overwhelmingly successful: You start to feel sad for the two but then you realize he’s a famous movie star and she’s a supermodel and realize they don’t need your pity.

Kelly Brook chanelling Megan Fox?

Maria Ivanova — Thu, 05 May 2011 07:22:42 +0000

Kelly Brook in Esquire is wearing a bikini, pulls on it and does that thing with her tongue in almost exact same way as Megan Fox did for GQ years ago. look, Kelly Brook is basically a mix of this and this Megan Fox pictures. I have a feeling this is even the same bikini top only in different colour. jeez. those pictures were sexy, weren’t they?

Ginnifer Goodwin looks good once again

Maria Ivanova — Wed, 04 May 2011 18:12:04 +0000

fierce shoes, great clutch, tasteful dress, fab hairstyle

MET Ball 2011 last post: Chrisina Ricci. OH YEAH. don’t know why but this blew me out of my chair

Maria Ivanova — Tue, 03 May 2011 08:38:27 +0000

wow, just WOW. the dress is BIG, it’s impressive, it’s a statement, it’s a great styling and great posing and excellent tailoring. love it. love it. love it. even though I bet I saw smth very similar but less grandiose on Christina before.

Diane Krueger never disappoints. MET Ball 2011

Maria Ivanova — Tue, 03 May 2011 08:36:19 +0000

for me, Diane Krueger is always an interesting thing to watch – love her weird (to me) fashion sense, her unusual (to me) face, she has this something that attracts me to her. maybe her outfit is not that cool and does not impress that much after all the dresses but it’s still very, very good. thank you, Diane

Salma Hayek – best of nudes at MET Ball (not what you might think)

Maria Ivanova — Tue, 03 May 2011 08:23:22 +0000

Salma Hayek wore best of nude coloured dresses that evening. still boring. but it’s the best, I have to give it to her.

HAHAHA Taylor Swift looks bad!

Maria Ivanova — Tue, 03 May 2011 08:21:49 +0000

sorry for overcompensating but I just have to vent. HAHAHA, Taylor Swift looked bad at 2011 MET Ball – HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. look at this ugly dress. now check out the freaky makeup. and please give me a minute to stare at her face and then look at my most recent photoshoot pictures and see once again how my face and her face are so alike and I am so much more beautiful. thank you. I needed this.