I'm American; I'm glad to see that there's a party at the Danish Embassy this year because hopefully I can go as I wrap up my last finals before I graduate university.
For those of you who don't know what it's about, Eurovision is an annual contest that's taken place since 1956 (one of the longest-running television programs in the world) that is basically Europe's equivalent of the American Super Bowl and Canada's Hockey Night in Canada where members of the EBU duke it out by seeing who has the best song.
Past participants have been a motley mixture of serious and wacky. Eurovision's official Youtube has a bunch. Some highlights -
2014: Conchita Wurst represents Austria this year with "Rise Like a Phoenix". Conchita Wurst is the drag alter ego of Tom Neuwirth and has a beard.
2013: Cezar Ouatu represented Romania with "It's My Life". He was appropriately nicknamed the Sparkling Gay Dubstep Vampire for his presence at Eurovision (it is very popular with the LGBT community), his sparkliness, his dark clothes, and the dubstep part of the song.
2012: Buranovskiye Babushki represented Russia with "Party for Everybody". Buranovskiye Babushki are a bunch of grandmothers from Udmurtia. They sang in Udmurt, which is a language related to Hungarian and Finnish .
2010: SunStroke Project and Olia Tira represented Moldova with "Run Away". This act birthed Epic Sax Guy.
2009: Noa and Mira represented Israel with "There Must Be Another Way". It was a trilingual song in Hebrew, Arabic, and English which was both lauded and criticized in Israel for attempting to bring the Israel-Palestine conflict to the Eurovision stage.
2006: Lordi represented Finland with "Hard Rock Hallelujah". This was the year of the Rockening, as heavy metal made its first Eurovision win.
1998: Dana International represented Israel with "Diva". Dana International was Eurovision's first, and to date only, MTF transgender performer. She also won.
1988: Celine Dion represented Switzerland with "Ne Partez Pas Sans Moi". Yes, that Celine Dion. This is how her career got started.
1980, 1987: Johnny Logan represents Ireland with "What's Another Year" and "Hold Me Now", respectively. He is the only act to win Eurovision more than once.
1974: ABBA represents Sweden with "Waterloo". Also, yes, that ABBA. This is how their career got started.
Eurovision is popular outside of Europe; Australia sends people there every year and this year one of their musical acts, Jessica Mauboy, is singing in the second semifinal.
There are a ton of places to watch it if you look - it's on May 6, 8, and 10.
large sigh On paper, the Eurovision Contest could be a great place to celebrate music from all the countries we have. Sounds great, right? Everyone gets to show their best artist with an original song to represent their country. Musical Olympics. Great! Except that it's not, mostly because of two obvious problems with voting: 1) people vote for countries they like out of solidarity, not just based on music (the Belgians vote mostly for us, and we Dutch return the favor) or 2) the weirdest / novelty / whichever artist played right before the voting wins. Good music hasn't won in decades, and because of that, lots of good artists don't want their names attached to it. Also, most of the Eastern European countries are just terrible. And we only won once. And this year we have some kind of mediocre-country song representing us, which is not the best we have to offer, not by a long shot. On the other hand, Twitter is hilarious if you follow funny people while watching it. Great trashtalk.
I am trying to imagine a show where every state in the United States somehow picks a band to represent them and they all go sing in front of millions. It would be the most craptacular clusterfuck in the history of music. You guys have mentos-ness. It makes it hilarious. I mean, "dutch country." That's almost as good as "Texas Taiko." The vintage '92 Anton Corbijn cinematography is just icing on the cake. And as an honest-to-god American who grew up among cows and whose middle name really is Waylon, I am allowed to mock freely.
The best way to imagine the kind of song that will win is to imagine the entire Eurovision audience as a scene from Grease, and then imagine the kind of song that will get every single person standing up, doing dance routines/swaying in (imagined) "solidarity" with all other nations. Crack that shit and you have a winner every time.
This year's Tipped To Win: (this woman makes me question my sexual orientation as a straight woman) (yes, they made a song about child abuse into a popular dance song) ("We couldn't find a rhyming dictionary") Bonus: (HARMONY) (SCOOBA DOOBA DOP DOP DEE DEE DAI)
On the other hand, at least in my perspective as someone whose country can't send a song (I guess that's why?), this just makes it a lot more fun. I actually think it's more fun to watch the worse the music is. You're from the Netherlands? Yeah, The Common Linnets aren't even fun. You know who's fun? And widely panned? Pollaponk from Iceland. Their movie is great. HARMONY!!!!Except that it's not, mostly because of two obvious problems with voting: 1) people vote for countries they like out of solidarity, not just based on music (the Belgians vote mostly for us, and we Dutch return the favor) or 2) the weirdest / novelty / whichever artist played right before the voting wins. Good music hasn't won in decades, and because of that, lots of good artists don't want their names attached to it. Also, most of the Eastern European countries are just terrible.
ZOMG. This is like a Trey Parker & Matt Stone parody of Gay American Idol. This is the most amazing thing I have seen today. And then I clicked your link and found Poland. HOLY SHIT POLISH MUSICAL RAP THEATRE This is a weird al song, not a national contest thing. It has to be. The overproduction is a thing of beauty. I love how I have no idea what the hell they're saying but I can tell beyond a reasonable doubt that it really doesn't matter. _____________________________________________________________________________ Brief aside: I've worked X-Factor. I've worked The Voice. I paid for college mixing bands in clubs. And this shit is fucking spectacular. I mean... ...no, hang on. 2006, bitches. For real. 2006. Y'all cheered on GWAR suits singing Turbo-era Judas Priest in a Nirvana video. In 2006. I understand Mentos ads now. I get it. Badging this shit. I want, like, an official Hubski Eurovision Watching Party. This is... amazing. I mean, Maltese synth-folk. Malta gets an entry. There are more people in my zip code than there are in Malta.2013: Cezar Ouatu represented Romania with "It's My Life". He was appropriately nicknamed the Sparkling Gay Dubstep Vampire for his presence at Eurovision (it is very popular with the LGBT community), his sparkliness, his dark clothes, and the dubstep part of the song.
2012: Buranovskiye Babushki represented Russia with "Party for Everybody". Buranovskiye Babushki are a bunch of grandmothers from Udmurtia. They sang in Udmurt, which is a language related to Hungarian and Finnish .
So the thing about the Polish song is that it's a parody of national stereotypes, particularly about Polish women. It's one of my favorites.And in the video there is no subtext / If you don’t believe, visit the countryside
I used to really enjoy it, but the UK entries are just so shit (and deliberately so). It's so obvious what makes a winning song: Katrina and the Waves' Love Shine a Light was just a classic, classic example. I believe it's still the most successful win ever (in terms of the margin it won by). Yet year after year we pump out dross. I don't think people realise that Eurovision requires two things: (1) cheese, (2) good cheese
Well, I did say 'serious', not 'good'. :P Armenia and Sweden are tipped to win, but my favorites are Latvia and Iceland, mostly because they're clearly having fun with it. Bad songs are the whole point of the contest and nobody should take it seriously.