Last night, London's Retro Bar played host to a preview of the 2005 Eurovision Song Contest semi-final. The crowds were jammed in and the windows had to be opened for fans to hear from outside the venue as Eurovision fever takes the United Kingdom by storm. With 'juries' voting in the usual manner, Iceland topped the poll ahead of Hungary in second place and Belarus 3rd.
With only two events left before this years Eurovision Song contest, the event was used to show the videos of the 25 Eurovision Song Contest semi-finalists on a big screen. 25 'juries' were selected and each jury presented its scores with the same scoring system used in the real contest.
Iceland, already stretching into a huge lead on our own esctoday Big Poll, topped yet another poll, winning 186 points from the 25 juries. Hungary finished second with 161 points, ahead of Belarus (130 points), Romania (129 points) and Slovenia (97 points). Pre-contest favourites Switzerland and Netherlands finished 6th and 7th, with Denmark, Austria and Monaco (the host's favourite) making up the top ten.
Next month's event, to be held on Thursday 12th May, will preview the fourteen finalists together with the top ten from last night's result. The full result from the event is shown below.
1 ICELAND 186
2 HUNGARY 161
3 BELARUS 130
4 ROMANIA 129
5 SLOVENIA 97
6 NETHERLANDS 85
7 SWITZERLAND 80
8 DENMARK 69
9 AUSTRIA 64
10 MONACO 60
11 LITHUANIA 55
12 LATVIA 54
13 NORWAY 53
14 ISRAEL 52
15 POLAND 41
16 ESTONIA 32
16 CROATIA 32
18 IRELAND 18
19 PORTUGAL 16
20 FINLAND 12
21 MOLDOVA 10
22 BELGIUM 8
23 MACEDONIA 4
24 ANDORRA 2
25 BULGARIA 0
Retro Bar, located at 2 George Court (off of The Strand) in the heart of London's West End, hosts Eurovision Douze Points on the second Thursday of every month. The bar and its landlady, Wendy, are amongst the most Eurovision-friendly in London.
Eurovision Douze Points is now in its seventh year and is always a great night for fans of the Eurovision Song Contest with music from the current and past contest, quiz questions and a mini vote with videos of five entries from the past to vote on. If you're in London on the second Thursday of the month, make sure you don't miss Eurovision Douze Points .
