Eurovision Song Contest 2009

I caught the Eurovision Song Contest again this year. My personal favourite, from Estonia, came sixth:



More generally, in spite of the rule changes, voting patterns were much as before, with widely shared support of the top songs, strong votes for neighbouring countries, and predictable asymmetric votes, such as the usual immigrant-driven votes for Turkey, and a strong Russian vote for a French singer already popular there. Nobody is ever going to stop expatriates, with tears in their eyes, voting over and over again for their mother- or father-land.

And, as always, Eurovision offers a fascinating window into what Europe is thinking and feeling. Which includes some rather strange things. Still, I'm always happy to be a European for the night.

An Easter Hymn

I've been practising this on the guitar. A little later, perhaps, but at least I'll know it for next year:

Now the green blade rises from the buried grain,
Wheat that in the dark earth many years has lain;
Love lives again, that with the dead has been:
Love is come again, like wheat that springs up green.

In the grave they laid Him, Love Whom we had slain,
Thinking that He’d never wake to life again,
Laid in the earth like grain that sleeps unseen:
Love is come again, like wheat that springs up green.

Up He sprang at Easter, like the risen grain,
He that for three days in the grave had lain;
Up from the dead my risen Lord is seen:
Love is come again, like wheat that springs up green.

When our hearts are saddened, grieving or in pain,
By Your touch You call us back to life again;
Fields of our hearts that dead and bare have been:
Love is come again, like wheat that springs up green.