Dave Gee: Life from Right Field

Controversial heavy metal band Lordi were the suprise winners in this year's Eurovision Song Contest, held in Athens on Saturday night. The shock rockers, who perform in latex masks and monster costumes, won the long running European song contest with their entry "Hard Rock Hallelujah".

Lordi's win is the first for long suffering Finland (after 44 attempts), and means next year's Eurovision contest will be staged in Helsinki.

The result was a surprise for many fans, although it wasn't the first upset of the week... Pre-contest favourites, Kate Ryan's Je T'adore failed to even make it through last week's semi-final.

Pop songs still performed well, with Dima Bilan coming second for Russia with Never Let You Go, and Carola coming fifth for Sweden with Invincible (in her 3rd Eurovision contest... failing to repeat her 1991 win, but a big improvement on last year's Tom Jones-lite entry, which gave Sweden the embarrassment of being relegated for the first time). Meanwhile Daz Simpson only managed to score a 19th place for the UK with his rap-pop track Teenage Life.

Lithuania managed to finish 6th with LT United's awful We Are The Winners... an amateurish little ditty where the band proclaim themselves the winners of Eurovision. They didn't win, but didn't do too bad either, considering few were picking them to even qualify for the final.

2006 winners Lordi are now planning to release their song all over Europe (including a UK release), along with some promotional concerts and tours... I won't link to their song, as I think it's pretty awful really!

Instead, check out Iceland's amusing entry... Ms Silvia Night (a fictional Icelandic star of stage, screen and music, and apparently a character on a top rating tv show over there). Her song Congratulations and performance was apparently meant as a joke, but the rest of Europe didn't get it... Ms Night being booed during the Eurovision semi-final, and failing to qualify for the final.



In the Britney-esque song, Ms Knight declares how her amazing abilities will herald Iceland's first Eurovision win... "I'm Silvia Night and I'm shining so bright, Eurovision nation, Your dream's coming true, You've been waiting forever for me to save you!"

However her behaviour before, during, and after the contest have drawn criticism from Eurovison Song Contest organisers, the Media, and those from her home country. She was warned by officials for using the "f" word in her song. She also swore on tv when describing the Swedish and Dutch entries, and had her bodyguard eject a journalist from a press conference for looking at her the wrong way. (Both actions were later described as "media stunts", with the "journalist" apparently a fellow actress).

(Even one of Silvia Night's biggest fansites has shut up shop, after declaring her "embarrassment for our country").

And here's her post semi-final antics... (Warning: Some language may disturb the more sensitive of you out there... ;-)




* DotEurovision: Silvia Night told to Mind Her Eurovision Language
* Life Style Extra: Oh Lordi! Rockers take Eurovision
* M&C: Finns hope to cash in on Lordi's surprise victory
* Mirror.co.uk: 20 Finns about the World's Strangest Little Nation