I Am A Swede

Sshh, don't let anyone hear you say that! Nowadays it seems like many people take differing opinions as a personal insult.

I'm very well aware of who Madison Cawthorn is and what he's done, and you can think whatever you want of him and call him whatever you want. I just feel that referring to him in a derogatory way as a Miss plays upon the sterotype of gay men being feminine, which isn't true. And it also implies, to me at least, that being feminine is a negative trait, which again isn't true. That's all. I'm sure there are other ways to show disdain for someone than falling back on old stereotypes.

Maybe it's just me, but referring to a man as Miss, while talking about homophobia, doesn't really feel ok to be perfectly honest.

I loved The Powers That Be! Such a contrast seeing John Forsythe in a comedic role when I had up till then only seen him as Blake Carrington. It had a spectacular cast for such a short-running show: John Forsythe, Holland Taylor, David Hyde Pierce, Valerie Mahaffey, Peter MacNicol, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Robin Bartlett, Eve Gordon and Elizabeth Berridge.

Remembering Donna Summer on this day, 10 years since she left us.

She was also the mother of actress Gaynor Faye, who has starred in both Coronation Street and Emmerdale.

The final result, with total score (jury+televoting) Country Total points Jury Tele 1 Ukraine 631 192 439 2 United Kingdom 466 283 183 3 Spain 459 231 228 4 Sweden 438 258 180 5 Serbia 312 87 225 6 Italy 268 158 110 7 Moldova 253 14 239 8 Greece 215 158 57 9 Portugal 207 171 36 10 Norway 182 36 146 11 Netherlands 171 129 42 12 Poland 151 46 105 13 Estonia 141 43 98 14 Lithuania 128 35 93 15 Australia 125 123 2 16 Azerbaijan 106 103 3 17 Switzerland 78 78 0 18 Romania 65 12 53 19 Belgium 64 59 5 20 Armenia 61 40 21 21 Finland 38 12 26 22 Czech Republic 38 33 5 23 Iceland 20 10 10 24 France 17 9 8 25 Germany 6 0 6 Some very noticeable discrepancies between the juries and the public: Moldova, Australia, Azerbaijan, Serbia, Norway, Poland and the Netherlands. Not to mention Switzerland who got the dreaded nul points from the public.

And just like predicted.... the televotes went in favour of the Ukraine. Not at all surprising, but still slightly disappointing. There's no doubt in my mind that they got a lot of sympathy votes they wouldn't have received under normal circumstances.

I recognize Scott Baio, Kevin Sorbo and Ricky Schroder, but who's the fourth one?

One song that really has grown on me is the Netherlands. A powerful ballad without the vocal gymnastics that other countries indulge in, and I love that it's performed in Dutch.

After everything she has gone through this is really not something she needed.

Gigliola Cinquetti!! She looks fantastic for a 74-year old, and ""Non ho l'età" is still an amazing song. The line-up this year was actually pretty decent. Most of the songs were actually quite good. But I still rank Switzerland, Poland and Azerbaijan at the bottom, and would gladly have replaced any of them with Ireland.

I really hope that everyone can look past what's happening in the Ukraine right now (as horrible as it is), and not let that influence how they vote. But I think it's an obvious risk that Ukraine will get lots and lots of sympathy votes and storm to victory.