If I say that the voting system is utterly ridiculous, I am not telling news to anyone, but it must be mentioned from time to time.

The ESC's task of "building bridges" in the entertainment business has been accomplished long ago, to the extent that we actually miss the waterways. Thus, nationality becomes a playground of nationalism, where an entirely different sort of bridges would be needed badly.

At least the worst case of political boycotting by the juries has been averted, but why run such completely unnecessary risks?! The BBC just told us that the live audience booed at the performance "for Russia", and TV covered that up by canned applause. Wars have started for lesser incidents.

Flag wavers should stick to team sports with (more or less) objective rules, such as football or cricket. Individual athletes cannot reasonably be considered representatives of their political entity, all the less artists and entertainers.

Ethnic cultures would be well worth communicating (not competing against each other) - we saw very little of that.