Comments on: The Eurovision

By: Patrick Nielsen Hayden

Patrick Nielsen Hayden — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

“Countries with no muscial tradition worth speaking of, such as Britain”

I’m working hard to fathom in what sense this could be true. My guess is that it’s the “hoping to get a rise out of somebody” sense.

(I have indeed watched a Eurovision Song Contest, in 1999. Words failed me.)

By: Kieran Healy

Kieran Healy — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

I’m working hard to fathom in what sense this could be true. My guess is that it’s the “hoping to get a rise out of somebody” sense.

Well, maybe

By: Chris Bertram

Chris Bertram — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

“The only exceptions to this rule are ABBA, who won in 1974 with Waterloo and Celine Dion, who was imported from Quebec by the Swiss in the 1980s.”

Not really. I can think of 2 others, both called Dana. The first Irish one had a memorable song “All Kinds of Everything” with highly parodyable lyrics; the second – Dana International – is an Israeli transexual and hence a source of shame to many of her compatriots.

And no, I can’t bear to watch.

By: Kieran Healy

Kieran Healy — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Oh yeah, Dana. And now she’s an MEP, of course.

By: David Weman

David Weman — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Oh, the IRISH Dana. I nearly fell off my chair.

By: Keith

Keith — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

And Nana Mouskouri went from Eurovision to the European Parliament, too. Dana, Nana – something fishy going on there.

And the nonentity thing only works recently. Sandy Shaw, Brotherhood of Man, Bucks Fizz, and Cliff Richard all had post-Eurovision careers.

By: Matt

Matt — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

A factor in the disappearance of nonsense choruses was a rule change: performers used to have to sing in their native language but now everyone can use English.

Another recent change is that some countries have abolished the anonymous juries and introduced phone voting. I’m not sure what effect this has had on the backscratching and backstabbing.

By: Keith

Keith — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

And for anyone who was watching, the Austrian entry was everything that is good about Eurovision. Hilarious, and totally tongue in cheek. I’m still laughing.

By: Charlie Stross

Charlie Stross — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

As a point of note, it’s gone over to telephone voting throughout Europe—you can vote for any country except your own, so no more weird politically gerrymandered votes.

It is, truly, the height of kitsch. Strongly recommended for all Eurotrash fans. (Hey, does Eurotrash make it onto US network TV?)

By: Glenn K

Glenn K — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

You’ve got to see how the UK is described on the Eurovision web page—it’s hilarious:

“The United Kingdom is an excellent union of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The English Channel and the Straits of Dover separate England from France. To the West there are the Atlantic Ocean and the Irish Sea, to the North – the North Sea. Great Britain is home to 59,247,000 people. It is often said that London, the capital city of the UK, is a place of endless fog. The fog has been described in countless books and films, but the people of Britain themselves say that its all a myth.”

http://www.eurovision.tv/public/participants/23548.html