Somehow, a Eurovision Song Contest Semifinal just seems so… wrong. It keeps at least some of the really truly awful acts out of the final, which is contrary to the spirit of the whole thing; if not the spirit as intended by the contest’s creators, then at least the spirit as experienced by the majority of viewers, who let’s face it, are tuning in to see a musical trainwreck.
On the other hand, not having a semi-final means either eliminating countries based on last year’s scores, which proved to be unpopular, or ending up some day with a six-hour-long show that even the most die-hard kitsch fans would find difficult to watch.
Anyway. 25 entries tonight, the top 10 go to the final. Norway’s entry is the inimitable Wig Wam. At least we hope no one is trying to imitable them. They’re apparently favored to go through, because they’re one of the few acts you’ll remember after seeing 25 three-minute performances… Anyway, for all I know they’ll crash and burn, but if they do, they will do it memorably
Don’t know if I’ll watch, though… how 'bout the rest of you? Watching tonight or waiting for the final?
Eurovision was always my absolute favorite show when I was living in Europe!
Kitsch times a million! Some of those acts were so bad they were fantastic! I would gather some friends at home, we would sit back and drink beer and just laugh until we cried. I will still never forget that entry from Finland singing about the dangers of a nuclear bomb with the chorus, “boom boom boom”…
Eurovision was the gateway for ABBA and even Celine Dion won one year singing a song for Switzerland…but more often than not, it was, as you described, a trainwreck of untalent all happily prancing on stage. Sadly, it has gotten more professional over the years and you don’t get the high class kitsch of yore.
I so wish I could see it tonight! It is not on American television…does anyone know if there is a live, internet broadcast?!
I am at work (1:00 PM) when it begins, so have to quickly figure out if I can save the live stream to a disk in the background. (If anybody knows how to do this so I can quietly download here at work, I would appreciate it.)
But if nothing else, I can at least watch the finals this Saturday!
And to anybody who has never seen this show, think American Idol, but with each country sending their contestant and the entire show done in one night, with instant voting and results after they have all performed!
Ah yes, the infamous mr. Kojo, one of seven (?) Finnish acts which have received zero points over the years… This year, Finland decided to ditch the idea of a Finnish singer performing their song. Instead, Norwegian Geir Rönning will perform the song “Why?”, which is incidentally what people have been asking for years after Finland’s performance. (No, I’m not really expecting us to win. Why do you ask?)
I was watching a program on the Swedish SVT channel. It had videos of all the different entries, with running commentary by five Nordic celebrities. Every year, there’s a common element to many songs, mostly because people listen to what won the previous year and then try to recreate it for the next year. (Finland’s problem is partly that we always seem to try to recreate the winning formula of two years ago, which is of course totally passé by now. ) It seems this year’s theme is drums. My god, about half of the entries have this ethnic drum-thing going on in the background! At least something like Wig Wam stands out in the crowd… Although, if they win, I think I’ll have to stop listening to the radio for a year.
Why am I writing here? I don’t even like the Eurovision song contest! It’s so kitschy and…lame… and…aargh. Inexplicably mesmerizing.
) It seems this year’s theme is drums. My god, about half of the entries have this ethnic drum-thing going on in the background! At least something like Wig Wam stands out in the crowd… Although, if they win, I think I’ll have to stop listening to the radio for a year. 