# Explain the Eurovision Song Competition to me **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 24, 2019, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-eurovision-song-competition-to-me/832998 "2019-04-24T16:05:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2019, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-eurovision-song-competition-to-me/832998/41 "2019-04-26T05:59:38Z")
> [@Treppenwitz](#): > > - > - incidentally, _Poupée de cire, poupée de son_ (Wax puppet, bran puppet; ie wax head and body stuffed with bran) can be translated another way, as _Son_ also means Sound. So you could loosely translate it as _Wax puppet, singing puppet_. > Given what followed, I’m happy to rule out coincidence. Serge all over - a genius but a bit of a bastard. It’s a interesting lead-in to another phenomenon: how one year’s winner influences future entries. Two years later, the BBC’s first ever win was, guess what, “Puppet on a String”, and I well remember the writers explaining at the time how they’d studied the structures and component features of previous winners to come up with a winning formula. So it was that after years of few or no points for wistful ballads about lonely herring-gutters, Norway won by jumping on the Boom-Banga-La-La bandwagon. You can still see some reflections of the previous year’s perceived trend, but it doesn’t really work now it’s all so multifarious and unpredictable (God alone knows where last year’s winner came from). (PS: Gainsbourg - it wasn’t long after that that came, if I may use the word, Je T’Aime Moi Non Plus with Jane Birkin - whom he at least married: though that would hardly have been a Eurovision contender!) ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2019, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-eurovision-song-competition-to-me/832998/42 "2019-04-26T06:18:05Z")
> [@Treppenwitz](#): > > Oooooh Goody - I’ve been looking for the opportunity to mention the story of **France Gall** , from - uh - France, \*\*who represented Luxembourg in the 1965 contest, and won with the song _Poupée de cire, poupée de son_, \*_written by Serge Gainsbourg_. Teaming Gainsbourg with a pretty and naive 16 year old blond was never going to end well. > > After her victory she recorded an album under Serge’s guidance, which included the song _Les Sucettes_, which he wrote for her. Sucettes = lolipops - so it’s a song about a young girl liking lolipops. _Sucette_ comes from the verb _Sucer_, to suck. Yep, that’s where we’re heading. **_Double entendre_ warning.** > > [This](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_sucettes) is the Wiki article on the song. > > I’m not sure, these days, that you could call [this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-iysdFu_TQ) NSFW, but you may embarrass yourself by falling off your chair laughing. > > Hijack over, and I will now return you to the original thread. > > j > > - > - incidentally, _Poupée de cire, poupée de son_ (Wax puppet, bran puppet; ie wax head and body stuffed with bran) can be translated another way, as _Son_ also means Sound. So you could loosely translate it as _Wax puppet, singing puppet_. Given what followed, I’m happy to rule out coincidence. Serge all over - a genius but a bit of a bastard. the youtube comments say the girl didnt know what the song was actually about … ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2019, 9:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-eurovision-song-competition-to-me/832998/43 "2019-04-26T09:53:14Z")
> [@Treppenwitz](#): > > After her victory she recorded an album under Serge’s guidance, which included the song _Les Sucettes_, which he wrote for her. Sucettes = lolipops - so it’s a song about a young girl liking lolipops. _Sucette_ comes from the verb _Sucer_, to suck. Yep, that’s where we’re heading. **_Double entendre_ warning.** Way off topic, but not the only person pushing the envelope in that regard: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/AxOXTeKIKsg/maxresdefault.jpg "Cadbury's Flake 30sec TV Commercial from the 1960's") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxOXTeKIKsg) (And if I’m not mistaken that voiceover is Judi Dench) Now, back to Eurovision. Here are the bookies’ odds on this year’s runners and riders: > **[Odds Eurovision Song Contest 2024](https://eurovisionworld.com/odds/eurovision)** > > Who will win the Eurovision Song Contest 2024? Bookmakers have predicted Switzerland with best odds ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2019, 9:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-eurovision-song-competition-to-me/832998/44 "2019-04-26T09:57:41Z")
Forgot to add, these are the actual songs this year: > **[Eurovision 2023: Songs & Videos](https://eurovisionworld.com/eurovision/songs-videos)** > > All the songs and videos for the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 in Liverpool. The participating countries and national selections of songs and artists. Videos will be available here when qualified for Liverpool 2023 ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2019, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-eurovision-song-competition-to-me/832998/45 "2019-04-26T11:32:08Z")
Hi, I’m **Gyrate** and I’m a huge Eurovision fan. Admittedly I enjoy it because the friends and relations and I (online or at home) spend the evening exchanging snarky comments about the acts, the presenters, the various country reps and the whole long kitschy evening, but still: it’s great fun. Which reminds me: I see Verka Serduchka will be performing as part of the interval show this year. [BEST EUROVISION ACT EVER](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfjHJneVonE). > [@Alessan](#): > > The Swiss brought her in as a ringer. > > (To be fair, this was in 1988, before anyone had heard of her outside the Francosphere). Likewise, Katrina Leskanich (of Katrina and the Waves) is American, but still represented the UK (and won) in 1997. There’s a lot of this going on. Nobody seems too bothered by it really. > [@Meurglys](#): > > I was going to say this about Wogan. His smirking style did the competition no favours in being taken at all seriously in the UK. Wogan was great but by the end of his run Wogan wasn’t even bothering to conceal his contempt for the event nor his increasing state of inebriation throughout the evenings. Norton is a much better host (although part of me would love to see Harry Hill host it one year, just for the commentary). ---
**Author:** ![Sparky812](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Sparky812](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sparky812)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2019, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-eurovision-song-competition-to-me/832998/46 "2019-04-26T12:21:25Z")
> [@PatrickLondon](#): > > (PS: Gainsbourg - it wasn’t long after that that came, if I may use the word, Je T’Aime Moi Non Plus with Jane Birkin - whom he at least married: though that would hardly have been a Eurovision contender!) Gainsbourg was a disgusting little turd who exploited women for his own perverted pleasure. He wallowed in how he could manipulate young girls through their innocence and naivety including his own 13 year-old daughter with the song “Lemon Incest”. Warning [the video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LE06lqT0Y2g) is creepy and pervy. He groomed France Gall from when she was 15-16 years old so she trusted him and his songs. FTR, he and Birkin were never married. ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2019, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-eurovision-song-competition-to-me/832998/47 "2019-04-26T13:07:20Z")
> [@Sparky812](#): > > Gainsbourg …groomed France Gall from when she was 15-16 years old so she trusted him and his songs. So far as I am aware, he did not “groom” Gall in (what we could call these days) the normal sense/use of the word. He certainly exploited her naiveté and innocence in the cause of his own “art”. He may have made her a laughing stock and probably did her harm, career-wise, but that’s a different matter. As I noted above, Serge was a genius but a bit of a bastard. j ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2019, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-eurovision-song-competition-to-me/832998/48 "2019-04-26T13:09:51Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > Norton is a much better host (although part of me would love to see Harry Hill host it one year, just for the commentary). Ooooooooh - _please!_ j ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2019, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-eurovision-song-competition-to-me/832998/49 "2019-04-26T13:37:48Z")
Time again to bring out one of my favorite comic novels, [_Clovenhoof and the Trump of Doom_](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N1U4MXO/ref=kinw_myk_ro_title). It is October, 2016 and only two events predicted by Nostradamus have yet to happen for the End of the World as We Know It to take place. One is the election of Donald J. Trump and the other Brexit. Clovenhoof, Satan condemned to a life in Birmingham, West Midlands, is dispatched to the US to stop the former and the Archangel Michael (ditto) is tasked with the latter. He decides that an entry in Eurovision with a song pleading the UK to remain is the best way so he gathers an… eclectic group of artists to write and perform it in the control room of the [LHC](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_Hadron_Collider) (long story). For me, the funniest bit was several chickens who escape their cages (they couldn’t find any doves) make it into the collider ring and are instantly accelerated on a sub-light but still very fast trip around the ring. They return a few minutes later defeathered and roasted by air friction. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2019, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-eurovision-song-competition-to-me/832998/50 "2019-04-26T13:49:38Z")
> [@DesertDog](#): > > For me, the funniest bit was several chickens who escape their cages (they couldn’t find any doves) make it into the collider ring and are instantly accelerated on a sub-light but still very fast trip around the ring. They return a few minutes later defeathered and roasted by air friction. Now you’ve done it. Molvania or someone is bound to put that in their stage act. ---
**Author:** ![Mesquite-oh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a183cd/32.png) [@Mesquite-oh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mesquite-oh)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2019, 7:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-eurovision-song-competition-to-me/832998/51 "2019-04-30T07:32:32Z")
Oh my eyes! Over the past few days of watching Eurovision videos, I have seen some both amazing and disturbing things. I think that I am ready for this year’s competition. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2019, 9:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-eurovision-song-competition-to-me/832998/52 "2019-04-30T09:31:51Z")
> [@Sparky812](#): > > Gainsbourg was a disgusting little turd who exploited women for his own perverted pleasure. He wallowed in how he could manipulate young girls through their innocence and naivety including his own 13 year-old daughter with the song “Lemon Incest”. Warning [the video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LE06lqT0Y2g) is creepy and pervy. > > He groomed France Gall from when she was 15-16 years old so she trusted him and his songs. He didn’t “groom” France Gall. This word would be understood by the reader has meaning something entirely different from what happened. He wrote for her a song that had a double meaning that was obvious for most of the public, but that she was too naive to understand. The song was a massive success, and she sang it everywhere, only realizing what it meant long after, and she was outraged and felt betrayed. Note also that nobody else explained it to her. In particular not her parents who were in charge of her career. Gainsbourg enjoyed greatly provocation, but although I could be mistaken, despite the large number of lovers he had, I don’t think, although I could be mistaken, that he has ever been accused, or even suspected, of being involved with underage girls. ETA : after checking, this didn’t happen when Gall was 15-16, either, but when she was 19. ---
**Author:** ![Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/les_espaces_du_sommeil/32/308_2.png) [@Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Les_Espaces_Du_Sommeil)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2019, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-eurovision-song-competition-to-me/832998/53 "2019-05-01T11:14:22Z")
> [@clairobscur](#): > > He didn’t “groom” France Gall. This word would be understood by the reader has meaning something entirely different from what happened. > > He wrote for her a song that had a double meaning that was obvious for most of the public, but that she was too naive to understand. The song was a massive success, and she sang it everywhere, only realizing what it meant long after, and she was outraged and felt betrayed. > > Note also that nobody else explained it to her. In particular not her parents who were in charge of her career. > > Gainsbourg enjoyed greatly provocation, but although I could be mistaken, despite the large number of lovers he had, I don’t think, although I could be mistaken, that he has ever been accused, or even suspected, of being involved with underage girls. > ETA : after checking, this didn’t happen when Gall was 15-16, either, but when she was 19. I mostly agree with you here, but it’s undeniable that _Lemon Incest_, sung with his own daughter, is at best in very poor taste and at worst frankly disturbing - cheap pun in French notwithstanding. Plus, he lifted the melody from one **Chopin** ’s _Études_ :dubious:. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2019, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-eurovision-song-competition-to-me/832998/54 "2019-05-09T07:17:10Z")
Eurovision now has a rather more old-school singing competition: [Eurovision Choir](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurovision_Choir) [Video clips](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cui51ZbK5Ss) ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2019, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-eurovision-song-competition-to-me/832998/55 "2019-05-09T07:54:35Z")
> [@Treppenwitz](#): > > So far as I am aware, he did not “groom” Gall in (what we could call these days) the normal sense/use of the word. He certainly exploited her naiveté and innocence in the cause of his own “art”. He may have made her a laughing stock and probably did her harm, career-wise, but that’s a different matter. As I noted above, Serge was a genius but a bit of a bastard. > > j according to wikipedia he was only one of 2 people shed work with …[France Gall - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/France_Gall) ---
**Author:** ![plankter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ba0ec/32.png) [@plankter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plankter)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2019, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-eurovision-song-competition-to-me/832998/56 "2019-05-10T02:05:17Z")
> [@DesertDog](#): > > Time again to bring out one of my favorite comic novels, [_Clovenhoof and the Trump of Doom_](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N1U4MXO/ref=kinw_myk_ro_title). You might also like Catherynne M. Valente’s 2019 novel **Space Opera**. World-ending stakes here as well, but the song competition is galaxy-wide. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-eurovision-song-competition-to-me/832998.md?page=2)