Eurovision

Part of the purpose of this blog is to teach my American friends about life in Europe. So here's something I came upon this week. My Austrian friend Sonja introduced me to the hilarity that is called Eurovision (www.eurovision.tv). It's an annual singing contest in which all the European countries (except a few that opt out because it's retarded) compete.

This is how it works: each country has a singer/group represent them and sing a song. Most of which are in English. Most of which are really gay. Then at the end, people get on their cellphones and vote for the acts. You cannot vote for the country you're in (so I can't vote for UK). Then each country "calls in" and submits their votes. Each country gives 12, 10, 8, and 7-1 votes. At the end, the votes are tallied and the one with the most votes wins.

It's like American Idol meets the World Cup meets the E.U. It's hilarious because in the end, it's not really a singing contest, but really more of political contest. You watch the votes and realize that they're not voting for the best song, but voting for their neighboring countries, allies, where huge immigrant communities are from, etc.

This year's winner was SERBIA, with this entry:


It was TERRIBLE! But you have to realize that Serbia is strategically located around lots of little Eastern European countries and therefore, had a geographical edge. All it's former Yugoslavian and USSR country buddies came in and voted for them.

My personal favorite was UKRAINE:

Ukraine got 2nd place. :D I voted for them on my cellphone. You have to check this out. They're fantastic.

Another great one from ESPANA:

Ricky Martin x4!

I learned a lot from watching Eurovision. You find out about all these little Eastern European countries you've never heard of like FYR (Former Yugoslavian Republic of) Macedonia and Lithuania. This year was dominated by the Eastern European countries, primarily because there's so many little countries over there that have the equivalent votes. Also, all of them being former USSR countries, they tend to vote for each other.

Poor United Kingdom did not fare well in this competition. Their entry Scooch was not that bad (relatively):


But they scored second worst, just above Ireland. Only two countries gave us any points: Ireland gave us 7 (since their our neighbors) and Malta (WTF is Malta?) gave us 12. Messed up thing was that we didn't have Ireland any points. Oh shit, the IRA is going to bomb us any minute now! Also, Israel (don't ask how Israel is European) didn't give us any points! I think it's time to withdraw the troops, mate!

Hope you enjoy watching the clips.