Five weird moments that make Eurovision the spectacular we love
Lordi are one Eurovision's most memorable acts. Picture: Mick Hutson/Redferns
The world of Eurovision is one that is weird and wonderful, filled with singing turkeys, vampires, men in tin suits, and Russian bakers - which is exactly why we love it so.
Over the past 65 years, the competition has broadcast over 1,500 songs from some 50 different countries, yet there are a few that will forever be ingrained in public memory.
Here are some of the most questionable yet memorable Eurovision moments that we still can’t tear our eyes away from.
Even though 15 years have passed, we still can’t quite get the tune of Lithuania’s 2006 entry out of our heads.
LT United, the country’s foremost middle-aged boyband, certainly came onto the stage with a victor's mentality, shouting their song We are the Winners with the conviction of the biggest football fans who ever lived.
They came sixth, yet their chant lives on in sidelines across the continent.
That same year, Finland also made headlines with their entry, Hard Rock Hallelujah by Lordi.
The band set a new record, winning the competition by a landslide. However, it was their intricate costumes that struck the strongest chord.
The demon suits, while unsettling, may be the most memorable to ever grace the Eurovision stage.
Latvia took some inspiration from for their 2008 entry Wolves of the Sea, sung by the eye-patch clad Pirates of the Sea.
Their chances sank at 12th place.
Ukraine certainly didn’t in 2007, where Andriy Danylko performed as drag queen Verka Serduchka and cranked up the heat - quite literally for himself - with the song Dancing Lasha Tumbai.
The stage glistened in a flurry of futuristic silver as Serduchka seemed to belt out every language from English to Russian.
The act came in second, to the shock of some viewers and the delight of others.
As one Australian fan wrote online: “If you want to show a non-Eurovision fan what Eurovision is all about, this is the go-to performance...Do I have it on my playlist? No! Do I watch the performance every time it pops up on Youtube? Absolutely.”
Yes, we have to keep talking about it. Because the moment Ireland sent Dustin, as iconic as he is, to the Eurovision stage in 2008, was the moment we became as memorable for the most contest winners as for a singing turkey.
It was our fault. We laughed, we voted, we sent a puppet to Belgrade to represent our country on an international stage.
To be fair to Dustin, he had three hits on the Irish charts in the lead up to 2008, but none of that mattered to the Eurovision audience, who didn’t vote him past the semi-final.
Now, we have to live with the fact that Dustin the Turkey, which one online publication felt the need to point out is not “indigenous to Ireland”, features on pretty much every list of weird Eurovision moments out there.
And yes, everyone saw John Morrison crouching behind Dustin, not at all hidden by his black cloak.
Far from singing turkeys Johnny Logan was raised.
