Apricot Stone

Definitely my favourite song from tonight's Eurovision Song Contest - Armenia's glorification of its national fruit: "Apricot Stone", complete with giant apricot stone on set. Utterly Eurovisional, unlike the winning song by Germany, which was already a recording hit across Europe before the show. O well ...

Eyes Beware!

Here it is, the German entry for Eurovision, in the live version. Note the silver trousers, paired with the 1940's cigarette girl outfits, swing music and, not shown by the cameras until the end, Dita von Teese with a whip. We didn't know where to look!

Bunnies and Puppies and All Things Fluffy

And the winner of this year's Eurovision Song Contest is Norway, with their cute little boy singing while half-decent gymnasts tumble around him. There appeared to be 3 main types of songs this year: ones that tried to include elements of their country's ethnicity in their costumes/songs; ones with gymnastic routines that may or may not interpret the song; and, as my roomie pointed out, Shakira lookalikes. I was most stunned by the German silver lame trousers, and least impressed by the ones I cannot remember. Thanks to CKC for IMing with me during the contest so I did not have to go it alone. Next year in Norway!

A Taste of Eurovision

Yes it is almost that time again. Eurovision buffs are already debating the merit (or lack of) the first ten finalists selected this week. Here are some clips of the contenders, courtesy of the BBC.

Peace in Our Time?

Most of my American friends are blissfully unaware of the magnificent kitsch that is the Eurovision Song Contest. I have blogged about it before, and now it is again that time. Above is a photo of the Arabi-Israeli singer Mira Awad, who is co-representing Israel this year with Achinoam Nini (aka Noa). The BBC reported:

"The story began several months ago when Achinoam Nini, known as "Noa" - a Jewish-Israeli singer - was asked to represent Israel for the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow this May. Noa, a long-time peace activist, insisted that her old friend and co-performer Awad should also be involved. For Mira, it was a golden opportunity. "I believe that by representing this country I am nailing to the wall my existence here," she told me. She sees it as a way to make Israel's Arabs more visible. "I am here, I am not moving when its tough," she says."

Awad was already known to Israelis as a star of the comedy 'Arab Labour' (Avodah Aravit), and wrote the duet that was voted for by the public. However, this happened around the same time as the recent events in Gaza, and the Arab community decided that she was being used for Israeli propaganda purposes.

"Against this background of polarisation, Mira has had to defend her decision to sing under Israel's banner in Eurovision. Yet ... the articulate actress was confident and robust about what she stands for. "It's not so easy to banish me," she says. "This whole operation in Gaza was such a painful time, I am still Palestinian and I will always be Palestinian." But she says she's not representing Israel in spite of these beliefs - she's doing so because of them. "We do not have equal rights yet, but the way to get our equal rights will not be by boycotting the country that we live in," she argues."

If only there were more like this woman, from both polarities.

eurovision voting 2

serbia seem to be running away with this, and the uk still have nool pwun. the radio is now playing the most successful song from eurovision that never won. it is from 1958 and it is called 'volare'!

the announcer ken bruce is languidly complaining about the bloc voting, and has suggested that it may be time to separate the contest into east and west europe. i wonder which group will accept israel? the uk still at the bottom with zilch.

the next song by a eurovision loser is 'sam' by olivia newton-john. is it cool yet to have loved her forever? probably never :-) not only did i buy the album of xanadu, but auntie d has a copy as well. she does not remember how or why! anyway, onj lost to abba in 1974 so that's not so embarrassing. the uk still has a score of zero.

great excitement - the uk got 7 points. they did get them from ireland. i'm a bit disappointed, though, that they broke their duck. then malta voted the uk the best with 12!

we are near the end of the voting. three countries to go. who shall it be?!

with one country left, the winners are serbia. how boring. i wanted the ukraine to win
i think they finished 3rd. no, in fact they came in second!


goodnight from helsinki

eurovision voting

i am listening online to bbc radio 2 and the call-in votes are finished, so it only remains for the best bit of the whole experience - the scores. the finnish hosts are trying to be cute in the green room. they are doing it in english, but that doesn't seem to help. "we are ready. is the ebu ready?" the uk host says wryly, "we are more than ready." now they are talking finnish. now they have finished. ouch, i am sorry.

42 countries will be voting, so it may take a little time.

montenegro vote first. serbia 12, macedonia 10 or dix points. looks like east and west europe are voting for themselves. belarus gave ukraine 10 and russia 12 and the audience is booing.

here comes a western european vote from austria. hmmmm - they went for serbia as the best. poor old uk getting a few points but not many. actually, so far they have none at all! the radio guys are going to leave the voting for a bit and i don't blame them. they are playing non-eurovision songs by former eurovision losers - first up is julio iglesias with 'begin the beguine' and it is time for me to go and look in the fridge and think about some dinner!

eurovision tomorrow night!

how am i going to follow the competition? i am hoping to find it on the radio via the computer. will the ukrainian teevee come up tops? will scooch from the uk be the most embarrassing? the excitement is palpable (hey, i am sitting in a pile of boxes rescued from the supermarket crusher that need to be taped together. the most thrilling moment of the day is figuring out what to do with the books that are odd sizes!).

meanwhile, the times whets our appetites with the top ten funniest eurovision moments. pardon me while i go check it out.

back. i don't care what anyone says i still love lulu. this was the eurovision with which i grew up. it's not quite the same these days.

here is the 1984 winner. do not ask me what it means. just enjoy the pure clean fun :-)

finally for tonight, a recent winner for israel - dana international with 'diva'