| Eurovision Song Contest News - 2009 Moscow, Russia 

Jonathan Hendrickx

Jonathan Hendrickx: My Memoirs (expected in stores by 2020)

Chapter One:
I am Jonathan Hendrickx, born in a small village in the north of Flanders (the Dutch speaking part of Belgium), a long, long time ago, when animals could still speak and there wasn't something as electricity.
In my daily life (well, not that I have a real life, but anyway) I teach Dutch, history and also English in a secondary school in my hometown Turnhout, coincidentally also in the north of Flanders.

I have had a very... warm youth, raised by two caring parents, only disturbed by an annoying elder sister and an even more annoying younger brother. When I reached the age of 16, I went to school in Sint-victor Hoger Instituut Turnhout (shortly S.H.I.T.), when suddenly, an angel came to me and said: 'From now on, you must love, adore, live for the Eurovision Song Contest'. I didn't believe in angels or fairies, but...

(More in 'Jonathan Hendrickx, My memoirs, as earlier said expected in stores by 2020. You can pre-order the book at my official website: www.ilovejonathan.com)


For those who can't wait to hear MY humble opinion, here are my votes for the last Eurovision years:

2000 Despite other peoples meanings, I find this a very strong year.
United Kingdom 1 point (still deserved to do a bit better)
Norway 2 points (keeps in my head for days now)
Austria 3 points (see Finland)
Netherlands 4 points (Over-the-top performance)
Finland 5 points (Way UNDERRATED!)
Iceland 6 points (Gotta love it!)
Latvia 7 points (The song became a huge hit in Belgium!)
Denmark 8 points (still a deserved winner)
Estonia 10 points (love the lyrics!)
RUSSIA 12 POINTS!!! (AMAZING!!!!!)
Sorry to leave out: Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey
Our entry SUCKED !!!

2001 A very, very weak year, bad show, few songs I liked. A year that made me think 'televoters, were you all blind, drunk or both?' Still, a couple of memorable songs for me:
Malta 1 point (had to give someone 1 not?)
Denmark 2 points (catchy, but not good enough. Overrated)
Estonia 3 points (camp song, but I can understand in some, freaky way why it won. Don't ask me what!)
Iceland 4 points (I must be one of the only persons in the WORLD who likes this, but I do!)
Netherlands 5 points (UNDERRATED!!!!!!! How is it possible that Estonia and Denmark finished above this beautiful song??)
France 6 points (I like it, but not that much as others)
Germany 7 points (lovely!)
Slovenia 8 points (so underrated!!)
Sweden 10 points (What would a good Eurovision be without some Swedish Europop ??)
GREECE 12 points (Just wow, nothing more!)
Sorry to leave out: Spain, Croatia (good song, bad performance)
NOT sorry to leave out: all the rest.

2002 Also a very strong year IMO, many songs I liked, exciting voting !
Denmark 1 point (UNDERRATED!!!!!!!!!!)
Israel 2 points (can't believe this didn't finish in the Top10!)
Croatia 3 points (good song)
Austria 4 points (criminally underrated, though I loved it when we gave it our 5 points )
Sweden 5 points (Such a pity they ended only 8th! )
Malta 6 points (Soooo cute )
Latvia 7 points (Deserved winner, because of the eyecatching performance! I voted for it!)
United Kingdom 8 points (until now their last Top3 placing, but SO deserved!)
Estonia 10 points (I Sahlene!!!)
FRANCE 12 points (Can't say anything negative about it!)
Sorry to leave out: Switzerland, Belgium, Cyprus
NOT sorry to leave out: Slovenia, Greece, Finland, Lithuania

2003: A very memorable year, both positive (we ended 2nd ) and negative (we ended 2nd )
United Kingdom 1 point: (didn't deserve 'nul points' at all!)
Russia 2 points (nice song, disappointing performance, I didn't hope them to come on stage naked LOL)
Ireland 3 points (reminds me of another song, can't say which one!)
Sweden 4 points (Europop once again!)
Norway 5 points (such a cute and handsome boy eh... I mean song )
Netherlands 6 points (typical Eurovision-song, underrated IMO)
Spain 7 points (rather disappointing performance, still very strong song)
Belgium 8 points (magical, so beautiful. One of our best entries ever)
Turkey 10 points (may sound weird from a Belgian, but I can't stop loving this and Sertab!!)
ICELAND 12 points (one of my all-time favs!)
Sorry to leave out: Romania, Germany, Greece, Latvia, Portugal
NOT sorry to leave out: Austria, Poland, Ukraine, Cyprus, Israel

2004 Not that outstanding or special; weak songs, horrible scoreboard (the beginning of the end for the room of spokespersons) and hosts who were a bit too... old?
Norway 1 point (SO underrated !!!)
Croatia 2 points (average)
Serbia-Montenegro 3 points (what is that special about it?)
Turkey 4 points (though I give it 'only' 4, I think this should have done a bit better!)
Ukraine 5 points (not that bad, not amazing either...)
Greece 6 points (Shake, Shake, Shake, Shake, Shake, mi amor )
Albania 7 points (very good debut !!)
Belgium 8 points (no, not because it's my country, I just love the song!)
Cyprus 10 points (beautiful, so young and so talented at the same time )
SWEDEN 12 points (we only gave it 2 But I love it!)
Sorry to leave out: no one, actually...
NOT sorry to leave out: all the rest

2005 Despite the hosts that reminded me a little bit of the 1991-duo, it was a great production IMO. Beautiful stage and scoreboard, and (in the first half) a very, very, close voting )
Denmark 1 point (well, overrated, but I couldn't find anyone else to give 1 point )
Croatia 2 points (nice song, I hated it when I first heard it, but now I really like it )
United Kingdom 3 points (OMG this was underrated )
Serbia-Montenegro 4 points (very good song, better than their IMO overrated 2004 song)
Latvia 5 points (this wouldn't have been a bad winner either)
Hungary 6 points (NOX all the way )
Romania 7 points (this could have done for Romania!)
Greece 8 points (love this, very deserved winner, LOVED it when Belgium gave it 12 and Turkey "only" 10 )
Malta 10 points (the best one of all 3 of her songs)
ISRAEL 12 points (Shiri I YOU !!!! This song is so beautiful and touching, esp. the live Hebrew-English version !)
Sorry to leave out: Monaco, Slovenia, Iceland, Netherlands How is it possible that these countries didn't qualify ????????? For the rest: Switzerland, Russia, France and Bosnia-Herzegovina;
NOT sorry to leave out: Norway, Turkey, FYR Macedonia, Germany

2006 This opinion is (besides the scoreboard and the too old hosts) identically to the opinion of 2004.
FYR Macedonia 1 point (keeps in your head, doesn't it?)
Norway 2 points (UNDERRATED !!! )
Ukraine 3 points (so catchy )
Lithuania 4 points (love this )
Russia 5 points (waaay better than 'Believe'...)
Finland 6 points (I actually don't like it, don't get why I give it 6 myself LOL )
Romania 7 points (Really a good song !)
Bosnia-Herzegovina 8 points (beautiful Balcan-ballad !!!)
Greece 10 points (I love Anna Vissi too !!!)
SWEDEN 12 points (CAROLA CAROLA CAROLA )
Sorry to leave out: Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia (why oh why didn't these countries qualify? ) For the rest: Armenia, Germany, Ireland
NOT sorry to leave out: Croatia, United Kingdom, Latvia, Israel (was THIS what we got right after the great Shiri Maymon ???)

2007 Strong year, many good songs, nice hosts, small stage and such a TINY scoreboard !! I had to zoom in to read all the scores !)
Russia 1 point (could do well in the international charts, the song has potention)
Germany 2 points (see Finland)
FYR Macedonia 3 points (my fav entry from FYR Macedonia!! Go Karolina !)
Bulgaria 4 points (the only... Oh, you know it by now )
Moldova 5 points (the only Moldovian entry I actually like !)
Finland 6 points (WAAAY underrated! I voted for this !)
Belarus 7 points (the only Belarussian entry I actually like !)
Serbia 8 points (very touching ballad, I was so happy when this won)
Georgia 10 points (AWESOME debut !!! Sopho looked gorgeous!)
HUNGARY 12 points (I can't tell you why I love it, the song has a very special and personal meaning to me)
Sorry to leave out: NETHERLANDS and CYPRUS-->My two 2007 top-favourites!! Iceland and Norway Further: Latvia and Turkey.
NOT sorry to leave out: Armenia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Israel, Malta, Romania, Switzerland

2008 I can hardly say anything negative about this very, very strong year!
Romania 1 point (beautiful ballad, WE WANT ITALY BACK AT EUROVISION !!!!!)
Georgia 2 points (bit ironic title for what happended later that year in Georgia, but still a strong song)
Denmark 3 points (Does this remind you too of Sesame Street?)
Armenia 4 points (The vocals weren't good, but the song is )
Norway 5 points (very stylish song and performance; Maria and her dancers looked really hot on stage !)
Greece 6 points (Very good song, comes right from MTV)
Sweden 7 points (Poor Charlotte So underrated !)
Portugal 8 points (Wow.. This makes me speechless !)
Iceland 10 points (Europop )
Ukraine 12 points (I didn't like it, but that performance must have been the best one EVER in ESC!!)
Sorry to leave out: Montenegro, Netherlands, Switzerland For the rest, United Kingdom, Poland, Albania and also the Turkish song was okay
NOT sorry to leave out: Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Finland, France, IRELAND, Latvia, Lithuania, Russia, San Marino, Spain.

*PLEASE NOTE*: Hungary and Slovenia were my favourites of 2008, but 'Candlelight' sucked and the 'revamped' Slovenian song sucked too...

My 2009 results will be given after I've seen the live performances! Good luck to everyone!


1 point
2 points
3 points
4 points
5 points
6 points
7 points
8 points
10 points
12 points
Sorry to leave out:
NOT sorry to leave out: