Eurovision Song Contest: Live Blogging.
As we have promised, tonight is the night when Europe is united for a strange cultural 50-year-old phenomenon, known as Eurovision Song Contest (ESC), held in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, that orange country, or the O.C.
In place of introduction
This is the contest of the best of the worst, really, that has no equivalent in the U.S. I have tried explaining the contest to an American who had never been to Europe, only to hear her say, “It’s like the American Idol.” Kinda. It’s been around for 50 years and was created for a specific purpose: to bring the continent together, a sentiment strong in Europe after World War II. Most participants have been largely unknown. Most winners have been largely unknown after the contest. Except it launched the careers of ABBA in 1974 and the Canadian import who sang for Switzerland, Celine Deon, in 1988.
In his book “The United States of Europe,” T.R. Reid points to the ESC as the tie that binds Europe.
Q“It’s the crap, it is totally crap, you know, but I love it,” Reid, begins his explanation of European love-affair with Eurovision to his presumably American audience with a quote from a Slav Gregor. “I mean, this is rubbish — seeess eess roobeesh — but I cannot miss it. Every year, I never miss it. That’s why we are all here tonight, you know because we all love how strange it is, how crazy. Everybody loves Eurovision. Everybody my age, but not just my age! Everybody loves, because it is totally crap!”
Stefan Geens presents, perhaps, a typical view of Eurovision that is shared by all Americans, no doubt.
Q If you live in Europe, then, you have to develop a coping mechanism. And the best way to cope is not to cower, but to stare the beast in the eyes, and then give it a big wet sloppy kiss on the mouth. This is what we were doing Saturday night, addled by fine wines, which made it easier to leave one’s ironic detachment at the door (there were children there, after all).
He also posted some fun lyrics that often make me smile. For example, Swedish entry to the 2003 ESC had these words:
QI can be the one you love forever, I can be the dream of your heart. … You can turn the winter into summer, oh yeah You can be me my wonder every day. Everytime I see you I just want to hold you, I wish you felt the same way that I do.
Stalker.
I dug out in my archives and found this entry from that same year. I didn’t like the German group’s lyrics.
Regardless of its content, however, the contest is a symbol of united Europe. It has also been used in research studies, such as this. Based on the past voting data, the researchers concluded that:
QDespite the British tendency to feel distant from Europe, our analysis shows that the U.K. is remarkably compatible, or ‘in tune’, with other European countries. Equally surprising is our finding that some other core countries, most notably France, are significantly ‘out of tune’ with the rest of Europe.
Regardless of the fact that it is a pan-European pageant of kitsch, bad taste and third-rate lounge acts, it has existed for 50 years.
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