VENUE Globen Arena, Stockholm		ENTRIES 24
HOSTS Kattis Ahlström Anders Lundin		DEBUTS Latvia

The first contest of the new millennium was a memorable one staged in one of the most Eurovision friendly nations.   A huge stadium with a big screen at the side of the stage for those guys in the bleachers who can't see the stage. Co-presenter Kattis carried on the tradition of Swedish women in leather dresses after Ulrika two years earlier and goofy Anders was, well, goofy....   The pre-contest betting was led by three female sung dance ditties from the Netherlands, UK  and Estonia.  Just a couple of problems:  they were drawn second, third and fourth in the draw order, and, despite the evidence of the previous two contests, there was still a long history of dance/disco falling flat at teh contest.

So it proved as only Estonia of the three mounted a serious challenge.  Out of left field came a winner hardly noticed before the event, but once the performance started a little Euro-magic took over and it instantly looked a winner. "Fly On The Wings Of Love" was the classic case of a performance, just three minutes, changing everything you thought about a song. The lead singers charisma, the laugh, the vocoder bit, the light-pens in the audience, the fireworks, it was a tour-de-force and a popular victory for two old stagers.

The most fascinating thing about Eurovision 2000 was the absolute chasm (we're talking Grand Canyon here) between those countries, mostly in Northern Europe, who are sent poppy, televoter friendly songs in English and those countries sticking with the traditional songs, that may well reflect their culture better, but are not going to vacuum up votes in the age of free-language and televoting. The sophisticated ballad that needs a few listens to kick in (like say France, Switzerland 2000) was being ignored in favour of crowd-pleasing instant catchiness. How the more traditional countries reacted to the challenge would be one of the more interesting aspects of Eurovision in the years to come. 

WINNER: Denmark

FLY ON THE WINGS OF LOVE by Olsen Brothers

Voting

IN THE NEWS THIS WEEK:

An explosion in a fireworks factory in Enschede, Netherlands kills 22 people.

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