Graham Norton: Eurovision will be ‘quite straight’ this year

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Graham Norton has predicted that the Eurovision Song Contest will be “straight” this year.

The TV host – who has commentated on the Eurovision Grand Final since 2009 – made the prediction to the Radio Times, following the victory of drag artist Conchita Wurst last year.

He predicted that the show – which will be held in Vienna on May 23 – will not be a camp spectacular in 2015.

Speaking to the Radio Times, Norton said: “It’ll be interesting this year ā€“ I think it’s going to be quite a straight contest.

“Austria are taking it quite seriously, they’re delighted to have it. And there are lots and lots of ballads this year. There arenā€™t that many upbeat songs.”

He added: “Conchita was really special, that night was just great.

“Weā€™ll see if that can be replicated this year, I doubt it can be because it was just ā€“ I don’t know, it’s stupid, it’s a singing competition, who actually cares?

“On the night it was sort of moving and lovely.”

He also joked that his facial hair was a tribute to the bearded drag diva, saying: “Itā€™s my tribute to Conchita.”

He added: “Basically I’m very lazy so I never shave unless I have to. There wasn’t any posh dinner or any reason to shave so after about three weeks I had sort of a beard ā€“ so I went to a beard shop and they cut it into a beard shape, and now it’s a beard.

“My beard apparently does have it’s own Twitter account,” he added. “I don’t think it has said a lot.”

The Eurovision semi-finals are set to be held on May 19 and 21, with Great British Bake-Off judge Mel Giedroyc joining Scott Mills for the commentary.

The UK’s entry, Electro Velvet’s ‘Still In Love With You’, has previously been compared to a vintage waffle ad.