Blue tried their best...
But we wuz robbed again! Once more, the voting system of the Eurovision Song Contest was exposed as a succession of countries voting for their neighbours rather than for the genuinely decent songs.
Our "house scores" ended up with a top five of UK, Sweden, Ireland, Spain and Serbia. But what actually won? The anti-gay country of Azerbaijan. The song was crap, but got 12 votes from guess where? Russia and Turkey, and ten points from Croatia, Moldova, Romania and Ukraine. Bloc voting? Never!
Admittedly, our beloved Blue boys did very well in comparison to previous years, coming in eleventh with 100 points. At an early stage we were top of the list, which prompted BBC host Graham Norton to ask someone to take a picture! Others in our top five didn't do too badly either - the lovely Eric Saade came in third for Sweden, and the hyperactive twins Jedward came eighth for Ireland.
Our party was a blast, no matter what the scores! Among our guests were "plucky Leif Ericsson", several Gypsies, "La Saraghina", "Josephine Baker", an East German General and "Lozana the lusty Andalusian Woman"... The kitchen table was heaving with the food of all nations (we still have enough various cheeses to stock a shop!), and the booze flowed healthily enough to keep us going long after the disappointing vote 'till the wee small hours.
Once again, a brilliant evening - and despite everything I have no doubt we will be doing it all again this time next year!
Here are some highlights from the Gay World Cup, starting with our "Top Five".
UK:
Sweden:
Ireland:
Spain:
Serbia:
Now the actual winner, Azerbaijan:
And a couple of fave moments:
Funniest moment? When the pretty lead singer of the Denmark entry mouthed "I love you. I want to fuck you." at the camera.
Best surprise? Seeing Raffaella Carra presenting the scores from the Italian jury.
Roll on Eurovision 2012!
Eurovision Song Contest on the BBC