The Eurovision Song Contest
May. 31st, 2010 01:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lupestripeDespite the inevitable cynicism it generates, to me it's one of the greatest nights of the year. Cheesy crap songs, political voting and Europe combining as one - yep, it has pretty much everything. It's the perfect excuse to have a good time and despite what people say, the incredulity of the political voting IS one of the reasons Eurovision is so watchable. Sadly, now it's half phone vote and half jury, the influence of political voting has diminished in recent years. In some respects, Eurovision is one of the biggest adverts against democracy.
Anyway, the first thing to say is that I loved the flash mob stuff. People across 49 countries doing the same dance at the same time was nothing short of remarkable and gave me such a warm feeling of togetherness and unity. The way it was orchestrated was fantastic and I was open-mouthed in adoration throughout it. Truly wonderful. I also had a game of spot the street as for many capital cities they went to (Vilnius, Dublin, Helsinki, Ljubljana) I had actually been to the specific street they were dancing in, which was a little weird.
To all those who expressed their love of my Twitter posts, thank you. I hadn't intended on tweeting my thoughts during the contest - it just happened. I may do something more in-depth next year, I don't know but it was pleasing to hear I made people laugh.
I hosted a small Eurovision gathering at my house and it's fair to say that we all had a lot of fun. It was a shame that Wolfie's train back from Manchester was delayed due to some drunken moron putting his fist through a window, causing him to miss all but the voting, but that's the most fun anyway. We shared Pringles (now cringingly called Pringooooooals ahead of the World Cup), a Heineken keg (most wonderful, even though we had to wait for Wolfie to work out how to open it) and pizza (donner meat nom nom). We also relentlessly took the piss out of all the acts.
And what did I think of the acts? I think that Germany's song, like Norway's last year, was insipid and a nothing affair. I can't believe it won. I voted (for the first time ever) for Turkey and Bosnia and was delighted to hear Graham Norton's voice at the other end of the phone. Both the Turkish and Bosnian entries were rock songs and Turkey had angle grinding robots FTW! I also liked the Icelandic song even though it wasn't really my style of music and the French song, although universally terrible, is the only one that is stuck in my head now. Israel disappointed, but I did like the gravitas and power the song possessed. And the UK, by far one of the worst songs of the night, finished where it deserved to. We have such a rich musical heritage, I can't believe we submit such tripe year after year.
Anyway, Germany will be funding Europe once again as the contest moves to the German lands next year. I am already looking forward to next year's event :-)
Anyway, the first thing to say is that I loved the flash mob stuff. People across 49 countries doing the same dance at the same time was nothing short of remarkable and gave me such a warm feeling of togetherness and unity. The way it was orchestrated was fantastic and I was open-mouthed in adoration throughout it. Truly wonderful. I also had a game of spot the street as for many capital cities they went to (Vilnius, Dublin, Helsinki, Ljubljana) I had actually been to the specific street they were dancing in, which was a little weird.
To all those who expressed their love of my Twitter posts, thank you. I hadn't intended on tweeting my thoughts during the contest - it just happened. I may do something more in-depth next year, I don't know but it was pleasing to hear I made people laugh.
I hosted a small Eurovision gathering at my house and it's fair to say that we all had a lot of fun. It was a shame that Wolfie's train back from Manchester was delayed due to some drunken moron putting his fist through a window, causing him to miss all but the voting, but that's the most fun anyway. We shared Pringles (now cringingly called Pringooooooals ahead of the World Cup), a Heineken keg (most wonderful, even though we had to wait for Wolfie to work out how to open it) and pizza (donner meat nom nom). We also relentlessly took the piss out of all the acts.
And what did I think of the acts? I think that Germany's song, like Norway's last year, was insipid and a nothing affair. I can't believe it won. I voted (for the first time ever) for Turkey and Bosnia and was delighted to hear Graham Norton's voice at the other end of the phone. Both the Turkish and Bosnian entries were rock songs and Turkey had angle grinding robots FTW! I also liked the Icelandic song even though it wasn't really my style of music and the French song, although universally terrible, is the only one that is stuck in my head now. Israel disappointed, but I did like the gravitas and power the song possessed. And the UK, by far one of the worst songs of the night, finished where it deserved to. We have such a rich musical heritage, I can't believe we submit such tripe year after year.
Anyway, Germany will be funding Europe once again as the contest moves to the German lands next year. I am already looking forward to next year's event :-)
