I have to confess my only Eurovision exposure comes from this Slate piece and that one episode of Father Ted (My lovely horse!), but, you know. Timo, hook us up with the local Flickr streams!
Registered: Mar 1999
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"I'm no good at judging the size of crowds Ted, but I'd say there's about seventeen million of them out there."
Registered: Mar 1999
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For some reason, I actually wrote down comments for every single entry. I had a vague idea about putting them on my blog, but then realised that I don't have one. Tsk. The best band won, though.
I feel sorry for Johnny, though. It's a harsh girl that dumps you due to your inability to twist.
-------------------- Yes, you're despicable, and... and picable... and... and you're definitely, definitely despicable. How a person can get so despicable in one lifetime is beyond me. It isn't as though I haven't met a lot of people. Goodness knows it isn't that. It isn't just that... it isn't... it's... it's despicable.
Registered: Mar 1999
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Unfortunately, some of my other favorites and those of my friends at our "Eurovision" party fared much worse.
Our top contenders were Sweden, Denmark, Great-Britain, Finland, Norway, Greece and of course our very own Texas Lightning for Germany.
But thanks to the infamous "political voting" (neighboring countries mostly in eastern Europe and the Balkans giving each other top scores no matter what the quality of their songs is actually like) almost all of the aforementioned countries ranked in the lower half of the final scoreboard. Sad really. I think they should return to panel voting like in the olden days.
Anyways, at least we have a worthy winner with Lordi's powerful rock anthem.
-------------------- Lister: Don't give me the "Star Trek" crap! It's too early in the morning. - Red Dwarf "The Last Day"
Registered: Nov 1999
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Okay, all I can gather from the Eurovision website is that it's a song contest. Someone care to clue me in to if there's something more to this than that?
Registered: Jul 2002
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You think the Balkan voting in the final was bad, just remember that the favourite (Belgium) didn't even get to the final thanks to all the ex-Russian countries voting for each other.
Ex oppressed bastards. Spoiling it for the rest of us.
Glad to see our entry did better than last years (I think the UK came 19th out of 24 this time as opposed to last in 2005. thank you blair.), even if it was shit. Finaly the Brittish are willing to accept we'll never win again and should give up trying.
Oh, and BJ, it's not in America, so that's why you won't have heard of it before.
-------------------- I have plenty of experience in biology. I bought a Tamagotchi in 1998... And... it's still alive.
Registered: Apr 2005
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In a way, I'm glad Finland won, if only for how it will shake up the business, put question signs in the heads of all those schlager gurus and put the final nail in the coffin for the "nude shocks", as miniskirts and push-up bras obviously no longer work as well for stealing votes.
But we swedes were plenty surprised that we only came 5th, since we had a lot of expectations riding on our entry. It seemed she had strained her vocal cords too much in the semis. And the music blared out much of the song. In fact, I noticed that with many entries, perhaps those Athens sound engineers were drunk on set, screwing up the levels.
Cool that you others also notice the ex-soviet nations' voting traditions, ahem.
One day after five Finns in monster masks edged out a Russian heartthrob at Europe's largest and most-watched pop music contest, some Russians complained Sunday that the vote was skewed against their country.
-------------------- "The French have a saying: 'mise en place'—keep everything in its fucking place!"
Registered: Jun 2000
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quote:Originally posted by The Ginger Beacon: Oh, and BJ, it's not in America, so that's why you won't have heard of it before.
DUH! I could figure that much out for myself. I was merely asking for more info about it. All I got from the website was that it's a song competition, but nothing about how they various songs get into the competition, why there's only one from each country, etc. etc. etc.....
Registered: Jul 2002
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Because that's the way it works. It's a competition to see which country comes up with the best song. That's like asking why, say, the World Cup only features one team from each country.
As for how each song gets in, I believe each country holds their own competitons first.
Actually, perhaps you should just read about it yourself, so I don't have to.
Registered: Mar 1999
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quote:Originally posted by Nim: In a way, I'm glad Finland won, if only for how it will shake up the business, put question signs in the heads of all those schlager gurus and put the final nail in the coffin for the "nude shocks", as miniskirts and push-up bras obviously no longer work as well for stealing votes.
Speak for yourself!
I did notice a serious deteriation between her semi and her final performance, which was a shame, because I liked the song - very Eurovisiony. My big upset of the night was the Ukraine not doing better (see above).
As for those who don't know, Eurovision is a pan European song contest that has been going on anualy for 50 years.
Each country that enters submits a single song (usualy decided by a competition in their country), which go through to the next stage.
At the main event (the Final), these are all performed live on the night. The competition is usualy (but not always - some have declined) held in the country of the act that won the previous year.
After all of the songs have been performed, a pan-European phone vote takes place, with the viewers (lots of millions of them) voting for their favourite act (although often countries vote for their neighbours, such as with the Balkan states this year). You can't vote for your own country's act.
At the end a representitive from each countries broadcasting coroporation returns the results of their phone vote, and the scores are added up on a giant interactive scoreboard as each vote is returned (to the cheers and anguish of those watching). Only ten countries are given points - the one with the highest number of votes gets 12 points, the next 10 points and then the next 8 get 8,7,6,5,4,3,2 or 1 points according to how the vote went.
The winner then gets a trophy and sings their song again.
Then there is a party.
In the early years of Eurovision, a jury from each country decided where the votes were going. Also, there has now been a new application system - the top 10 from the previous year go though automaticaly, as do the UK, France, Spain and Germany irrespective of place (they all put the most money in). The rest fight it out in a playoff-the semifinal (usualy held two days before the final, and also decided by a pan european phone vote), from which another 10 go through. The results of the semifinal have no bearing on the scores achieved in the final.
The competition os known for the cheesines of acts, which are usualy pop music. There is often some sort of gimmick. Abba won it in Brighton. Lots of people watch it and get drunk. The presenters (always a bloke and a woman) will always try to sing and flirt with each other. Thats all I can be bothered to write. If you want to know more move to Europe.
-------------------- I have plenty of experience in biology. I bought a Tamagotchi in 1998... And... it's still alive.
Registered: Apr 2005
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Yes, once a year is quite enough, but it is fun to do something of it, get a bunch of friends together, food and drink and dip, voting and arguing, brawling and scuffling, usually everyone vs me. God I love a good song contest.
Carrot lantern:
quote:There is often some sort of gimmick
Yes, maybe I've shown this before, but this was a swedish entry that almost got to the top to represent Sweden, I wish they'd have won;
Note the bridge of the nose of the backup dancer girl...
Registered: Aug 1999
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-------------------- I have plenty of experience in biology. I bought a Tamagotchi in 1998... And... it's still alive.
Registered: Apr 2005
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It's partially obscured but both her dancer girls had bajoran ridges, it was very nice.
Coincidentally, we also have one two-girl band that is named "Sarek" (brilliantly cute swedish folk music in a dance pace, only band to have �ulled it off) and a techno-pop group called "Spock". The "Spock"-guys dress in blue science officer tunics when performing. But to be fair, Sarek actually is a national park in Lapland, which the girls in the band are from.
Oh god, I ended in a preposition, yet again!
Registered: Aug 1999
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