We need to talk Eurovision. If you have not sat through a Eurovision contest with a group of Europeans, you have only lived a half-life, my friend. And by that I mean that you have avoided something that would have inevitably dragged down the quality of your life, so good for you.
Eurovision is a music contest, in which every European country (and, inexplicably, many definitely non-European countries. Israel? Azerbaijan? Sorry y'all, the credited response is ASIA) sends a musician/treacly ballad singer to compete with the other countries. Votes are cast through phone lines in a 15-minute period at the end of the show, and you aren't allowed to vote for your own country. It's like American Idol with a passport and truckloads of trashy Europop. And no Simon Cowell (by the way, I hear American Idol is still on TV even though Simon Cowell left. How can this be, America? This does not compute. He was the one and only star of that show.)
Eurovision has been going on every year for fifty-ish years, and it's a Very Big Deal. It draws 120 million viewers, which is 10 million more than the Super Bowl record. Seriously. Every year, Europeans gather together in their homes to watch this strange spectacle made of equal parts trashiness, campiness, and mediocrity.
If you ever watch Eurovision though (despite my warnings) you should be prepared for the side sport: the Super Bowl's time-honored sister activity is eating buffalo wings, and Eurovision's is complaining about the fairness of the votes. Everyone votes for their neighbors, or so the saying goes. English speakers vote for English speakers, Ukrainians vote for fellow Eastern Europeans, the Portuguese vote for the Spanish and the Spanish for the Portuguese. Complaints abound. Everyone thinks that everyone else is voting against their act because of political reasons, but everybody's song looked equally awful to me. As an outsider with no skin in the game, I claim neutrality - everyone was equally embarrassing. Voting for political reasons or because you simply like the inhabitants of a certain country over another feels like a perfectly reasonable option to me when there is nothing else to distinguish by.
Anyway, if you have watched Eurovision and you think it's amazing, feel free to tell me in the comments. I thought it was amazing...ly funny. In a ridiculous sort of way.
Not that I didn't enjoy myself, that is.
I experienced Eurovision for the first time this year. I watched with a Spanish guy and two Brits (Scot & English, but for Eurovision purposes they set aside their Braveheart-y differences) and they explained the entire process to me. I LOVED it. Such horribly self-indulgent pop culture should be experienced by everybody!
ReplyDeleteI even took it upon myself to aprovechar my Spanish vote and sent off a text in favor of the babushkas. Party for everybody dance.
Yes, why didn't they win?!?
DeleteI laughed so hard when the Portuguese gave their 12 to the Spaniards. Totally predictable. I was very angry that Bangs won (or Fringe if we're being British). Noooooooooooooooo.
Local TV is the best! We watched Australian Idol when we were in Australia and it was a lot of fun. I'd never watch American Idol in the US but watching foreign TV feels educational somehow. Although Eurovision looks intense; that is a lot of songs to sit through.
ReplyDeleteOh my, it is such an amazing spectacle, isn't it? I watched it with two Australians in Stockholm. And you should have heard the people outside singing the winning song on the streets that night. And now, of course, the song is being played everywhere. So the contest is over, but Eurovision lives on in Sweden. Oh my.
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