Eurovision is a sorely overlooked spectacle in the West. This ancient festival, bestowed upon the inhabitants on the other side of the pond, has been celebrated for over 60 years (1956, for specificity.) Eurovision is a song competition, much in the same vein as American Idol, minus the Americanness of it all as well as the Idolization. Add a generous shot of Botox to the equation, a long sniff of poppers, and a fistful of glitter to the eyes, and that’s roughly the construct of Eurovision.
It works a bit like this: Around this time of year, each participating country has a mini-competition during which five or six mini-acts perform their two or three minute song to the crowds. The songs are usually pop songs, power-pop songs, power-pop ballads, or power-pop-rock songs. Except when Finland won two years ago for that faux-death metal song. Some countries like to be cheeky every year and release songs that boast about their country winning in advance. This almost never works.
Anywho, one person is selected as the country’s representative and in May, all of the country’s representatives sing their songs through the semi-finals and finals rounds. Many famous acts have represented their countries throughout the years, like ABBA for “Waterloo”.
There are five countries exempt from the semi-finals (U.K., France, Spain, Germany, and the last year’s winner) who get to pass straight to the final round automatically. This is, of course, due to Communism and money laundering.
Watch this completely non-dated video of ABBA performing their hit live on Eurovision!!
Now during the show, viewers from each country are allowed to vote for any country but their own, making the competition deliciously political. Last year’s winner was the dyke-a-licious Marija Serifovic from Serbia. This year, there’s been a record number of 43 countries who have announced their entrance into the competetion for the title this year.
Thanks to a post on the MuzicMatters Forum, I was able to compile most of the entries into this year’s competition. I’ve put the songs together into one .rar file, so please download the entire collection and listen to them all! I will upload my thoughts on each song later on in the week.
Stellar.