Moscow 09 in Review: The Hosts

It is not often the hosts from the Semi Finals have everyone talking - but it's safe to assume it's never going to be good when they do. Alsou and Ivan Urgant did a great job at the Final - polished, well-dressed, nothing silly. As Graham Norton said before they appeared on stage: "Unfortunately... they're quite good."

This was in contrast was the first Semi - hosted by model Natalia Vodyanova and journalist Andrey Malakhov. Natalia has not presented on TV before, which means throwing her before 30 million viewers with a week's training was a bit optimistic. Making her speak in French was inviting disaster. Clearly upset by her stumble on the French introduction when we next meet Natalia she's quite bubbly, the time after that she is clearly swaying (nice job Andrey, trying to make it look like you were both dancing side to side) and from there on she was a Whoo! girl punching her mike in the air and making some weird, substance affected comments. Like:

• "I don't push buttons on the catwalk, I push buttons off the catwalk"
• "Where are your buttons, Andrey?"
• "In the end, I am a lady"
• "Oh my god" (noteable for the number of times she yelled this out), and,
• "Stick with Andrey, he knows how to party" (so that's where you got the stuff!)

Andrey displayed clearly that workplace and sexual harrassment laws have yet to arrive at Russian TV networks (a bit like Ch 9!) by attempting to mount Natalia throughout the night. His most priceless contribution for the night was on Israel making it to the Final:
"The most political correct song of the Contest"