Song 8, Estonia.

That's how far I got into the 2011 Eurovision song contest final before uttering the immortal phrase; "I need a drink."

I needn't have bothered though because the standard of this years contest was actually quite high. As always with Eurovision most of it was sugary pop but this year even the sugary pop was very polished and there was precious little politics. France even went with a bit of opera. Fair point it was opera-lite but it certainly raised the cultural standard of the evening. I'm surprised that Lena didn't do better for Germany and I think the entries from Iceland and Georgia could actually get played on the radio here in the UK with a little bit of work.

The politics came thundering back in the voting though as Azerbaijan ran away with it and will host the contest in 2012. The first thing they've got going for them is that they are Europe's doorway to Iran and the second thing is that they've basically got the same flag design as the Libyan rebels only with slightly different colours. So the political panels were voting for Azerbaijan in order to show their support for the Libyan rebels.

In a similar vein Manchester City today beat Stoke in the English FA Cup final. Stoke apparently had a terrible preparation for the game with a road accident outside their hotel meaning they only arrived at the ground 45 minutes before kick off.