Music Night
Last night was the Eurovision Song Contest. I had never really heard of it until I moved here, twenty-five years ago. It was set in motion ten years after the Second World War, in 1955. It was seen as a way to promote unity in the incipient European Union. Since then it has grown outside the boundaries of the Union, and of Europe itself. Now it includes participation from countries such as Armenia, Azerbaizhan, Turkey, and Israel. And this year it had Australia as a special guest.
There are so many countries now (originally seven) that there are two nights of semi-finals before the final, always on a Saturday night and always in May. This year the final tally was twenty-seven participants. The quality of the songs is debatable. This year to me they seemed weak. Other years they have had quality, and in still other years the Contest was used to poke fun at itself with entries that had no other description apart from freakier than freaky. Spain has won a few times, but over forty years ago. One year it won with a song called "La, La, La." Indeed, that was all the words there was to the song. I suppose they had a melody and couldn't think up appropriate lyrics. Since an entry can't be solely instrumental, they just stuck la la la in there as vocals. Some singers' fame has begun with winning the Contest, such as ABBA in 1974 with "Waterloo." Julio Iglesias, as well, though he didn't win. Céline Dionne became known after she sang for Switzerland in 1988.
The songs are voted for partly by national juries and partly by spectators calling or sending text messages. And there we come to the politics of the matter. Depending on the tensions between countries and the neighboring rivalries or friendliness, you can practically predict what country others are going to vote for. And if you understand the European situation in any given year, you can also understand the booing or applause when each vote is awarded to a specific country. Of course, that also means that the best song isn't always the most voted song.
At any rate, last night at least, there was something different to watch on television. Even though the quality was much the same. Lower case.
There are so many countries now (originally seven) that there are two nights of semi-finals before the final, always on a Saturday night and always in May. This year the final tally was twenty-seven participants. The quality of the songs is debatable. This year to me they seemed weak. Other years they have had quality, and in still other years the Contest was used to poke fun at itself with entries that had no other description apart from freakier than freaky. Spain has won a few times, but over forty years ago. One year it won with a song called "La, La, La." Indeed, that was all the words there was to the song. I suppose they had a melody and couldn't think up appropriate lyrics. Since an entry can't be solely instrumental, they just stuck la la la in there as vocals. Some singers' fame has begun with winning the Contest, such as ABBA in 1974 with "Waterloo." Julio Iglesias, as well, though he didn't win. Céline Dionne became known after she sang for Switzerland in 1988.
The songs are voted for partly by national juries and partly by spectators calling or sending text messages. And there we come to the politics of the matter. Depending on the tensions between countries and the neighboring rivalries or friendliness, you can practically predict what country others are going to vote for. And if you understand the European situation in any given year, you can also understand the booing or applause when each vote is awarded to a specific country. Of course, that also means that the best song isn't always the most voted song.
At any rate, last night at least, there was something different to watch on television. Even though the quality was much the same. Lower case.
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