Eurovision Song Contest!

[buddhu]

Are you American, Canadian and Australian chiffers familiar with this surreal ritual? The song contest that unleashed Abba on the world...

Do you know who Terry Wogan is?

Basically, dozens of European countries enter a song contest and then a huge, glittery show is put on during which each country votes for the best songs. For some reason, Israel is granted honorary European status and takes part.

Anyway, I was almost tempted to post this in the Political thread due to the bizarre nature of the voting. All the Balkan states vote for each other, all the Scandinavian countries vote for each other. UK and Ireland very often vote for each other etc etc etc. Get the picture?

It is pointless, absolutely pointless. All the songs are crap. So bad that they wouldn't even make the UK pop chart.

The saving grace is Terry Wogan's sublime voice over for the UK broadcast of the show. His good-natured Irish cynicism (accurately predicting who is about to vote for whom) and relentless mockery of the whole farce actually makes it an entertaining evening's viewing.

The world is not only stranger than you imagine, if you've never seen Eurovision then the world is stranger than you *can* imagine.

[waitingame]

All the songs are crap. So bad that they wouldn't even make the UK pop chart.

.

Except that each year at least one does make the UK charts. Not that in any way does that affect its crappiness!!

[The Weekenders]

I thought this was how Riverdance got famous.?

[Jayhawk]

They're not all bad...I'm still humming "My Lovely Horse". Great tune with that one hard part.

Eric

[Cayden]

And wasn't one of these guys from serbia playing a low whistle?







[edited to insert pic]

[amar]

I thought this was how Riverdance got famous.?

that's true, weeks, I think that was back in '93 or '94, obviously the contest took place in ireland, I think it was short 15min intermission. I remember seeing it and thinking it was absolutely amazing....

[Roger O'Keeffe]

Naturally I was supporting the Serbian song on account of the low whistle.

Thought the UK and Cyprus entries were OK, and the Irish song would have been tolerable if they had found someone with a voice to sing it.

Fully endorsed Terry W's comment that the Riverdance people would have reasonable grounds to sue (the interval act was pseudo-Turkish dancing done in pastiche Riverdance style).

Probably wouldn't have watched it only for the fact that it was a way of communing with our daughters in France and Ireland, who had organised "Eurovision parties" and we were texting comments to each other throughout. In some previous years we had skipped the excruciating performances and just watched the voting, but now even the voting isn't fun. But weren't the two presenters something else? They guy looked just like a ventriloquist's dummy!

[Chuck_Clark]

Rather makes me wish US TV wasn't so self-centered. It sounds like a show I'd love to watch. Hardly seems fair, really. Our stuff gets dumped all over the world (often when it sould have been dumped -literally- before it was even shown here). Meanwhile, all we get is the BBC's most boring fare.

[buddhu]

Rather makes me wish US TV wasn't so self-centered. It sounds like a show I'd love to watch. Hardly seems fair, really. Our stuff gets dumped all over the world (often when it sould have been dumped -literally- before it was even shown here). Meanwhile, all we get is the BBC's most boring fare.

Surely not, Chuck. Going by Jayhawk's reference to 'My Lovely Horse' you must get Father Ted over there. One of my favourite comedy shows ever. That alone should compensate for the worst that the BBC can inflict.

[The Weekenders]

When I was in my Brazilian music obsession stage, I was surprised to discover that some of the country's best poets wrote lyrics to popular songs (at least, during the Bossa Nova craze anyway). They have competitions of that sort there, apparently. I kinda wish our pop songs were like that.

In some way, we have a cheezy Eurovision thing going with the American Idol bit. Much less about the music though....

[Chuck_Clark]

In some way, we have a cheezy Eurovision thing going with the American Idol bit. Much less about the music though....

Want an even cheesier knockoff of AI? Try the flawed AI clone on TNN (The Network formerly known as the Nashville Network - same cheez-whiz and packaging, different label). The only thing worse than modern country music is bad amateur singers doing elderly country music. A couple of weeks ago a cowboy-wannabe nasally twanged out "Jambalaya" - I kid you not.

[The Weekenders]

Ha, Chuck, yeah, I avoid that one but have seen the promos. I could almost smell the stench over the tv screen...

[Paul Anderson]

My personal favourite(?) was Dana singing "All Kinds of Everything". Now there's a song that'll make you hyperglycemic. Compared to her, Daniel O'Donnell is another Richard Thompson. I've always regarded the Eurovision song contest the same way Bob Geldof thought of the Irish showband phenomenon (if you have to ask, be thankful you were spared it).

Surely Terry Wogan's not still alive? I remember him when he was touted as the next Eamonn Andrews.

Thanks for the laugh,

Paul

[Wombat]

And wasn't one of these guys from serbia playing a low whistle?







[edited to insert pic]

Funny. When I first saw that, he was holding it at about 45 degrees. It looked a bit like he wasn't sure whether he had a low whistle or a transverse flute and was sorta splitting the difference. Then the camera refused to settle on him. What was also a bit confusing was that an instrument playing what sounded like it might be his part was sounding when he wasn't playing. Well, it all adds to the surreal nature of the occasion.

[Martin Milner]

Who won anyway, and does anybody care? I missed all the songs, caught a little of the politicovoting, and got bored. When I stopped watching the UK had 4 points.