Why Oslo was priceless

And so the Eurovision glitterball has been packed away for another year.
But we can be grateful to the Norwegians, who were charming hosts, for dragging the songfest kicking and screaming into the 21st century and investing it with gentle humour. There were no endless shots extolling the virtues of their country (remember the travelogue that was Athens 2006?), folk dancing or trolls (apart from some of those performing).
For the interval we got a flashmob dance filmed around cities of Europe - and performed live in the hall by the 18,000 audience, plus between-act postcards featuring fans of all the nations - that made it an inclusive and very contemporary show. Which helped bring about a cool and modern winner in German Lena's Satellite. A great result for the contest.
Not so good for the UK, of course, whose last place was widely predicted the whole week thanks to a song that was definitely from the 20th century. That said, all credit to performer Josh who, for a relatively inexperienced singer in an intimidating arena, handled himself with charm and professionalism the whole week - even after the contest. What a trouper.
Pete Waterman expressed surprise at the size and media circus of the whole shebang. He might have considered that - or even watched previous winners - before he pulled the desperately tired That Sounds Good To Me from the back of his sock drawer.
So what will the BBC do next year? Probably more of same. We can only hope they'll pull their finger out. The rest of Europe expects something that reflects our world-beating pop music. That's why they won't vote for our sub-standard, old-fashioned entries - it has nothing to do with so-called political voting, as the German win proved.
Still, even the UK finishing at the bottom of the board again cannot dim the great memories of Oslo: the Georgian party at the fabulous new opera house, walking up the pink carpet to the welcome party at City Hall like it was the Oscars, and chatting to one half of Bobbysocks (Hanne) while queuing for a small £8 glass of wine during the final. No, we won't forget the exhorbitant Olso prices either - but Tak Norge all the same!