13/5 2007

Date: 2008-11-02 11:52:02 Created: null

Eurovision excesses

Unexpectedly, I watched both the semifinal and the final of this year's Eurovision Song Contest. Less surprisingly I had a good time watching (except being so darn tired while watching the semifinal of course).

Sweden's The Ark made a performance dampened by sound problems, but I really don't think that mattered. We ended up in place 18 or something like that, with a few supportive points from our neighbors but very little else.

Eastern Europe dominated, and quite rightly so. Not only did more eastern nations qualify, they also turned in most of the good songs. France had a really nice song, and I Sweden had a solid tune too, but apart from that? Great Britain and Ireland were embarassing and dangerously plain (were there sedatives involved?) respectively, Spain sent a forgettable boyband (with a Swedish-written song) and Germany for some reason felt like it would have been better in a different language.

But when it came to energy and feelings straight from the heart (and the vocal chords) nobody could touch Marija Serifovic from Serbia.

And if you decided to go in the direction of light-heartedness, glam and or pure craziness ... well, congratulations, you just got ran over by the Ukrainian juggernaut.

I don't quite grasp why it ended up in the top instead of the bottom, but it didn't take long before I was overwhelmed and became an enjoyer. I think Ola Salo (of The Ark) is right when he says there's intelligence behind that song and appearance ... I'll need to read up on that.

I also have some kind of soft spot for Moldova's anger. It felt like a great boss showdown song for a game or movie (right up there with First person singular, although in a more traditional style).

The real excesses

Of course, part of the entertainment after an event like this is seeing what ways our tabloids chose to mak themselves look like fools. Let's sum up:

• Of course, it's a scandal that Sweden placed so low.
• They grasped every last straw to make The Ark sound angry and disappointed. Interestingly, no non-tabloid newspaper described the band as angry or disappointed, and even in the tabloids some positive words slipped through.
• The dominance of eastern Europe is dangerous for the whole competition and the big four countries (who are always qualified because they contribute so much money to the broadcasting union) are threatening to pull out. Seriously, if people in the big four countries gave a damn I don't think there'd be much of a "problem". Yes, it feels a bit odd when all the countries in the Balkans give eachother the highest scores. But frankly I'm glad they had the taste not to vote on Great Britain or some other plain contribution from "the west". What would happen if they dropped out anyway? There'd be a smaller budget and somewhat better songs on average? Sounds like something we could alla live with.
• Oh, and Expressen managed to spot some of the serbs making a supposedly (I mean, what do we know? We Swedes are almost afraid of our own flag outside a sporting event.) nationalistic hand guesture after winning. They made sure to enlarge the image and dig up an expert to assure us what an affront this is to bosnians and other victims of the Serbs during the war. You know something is serious when it's picked up by one tabloid but not the other, right? Right ...

Besides, those people who talk about reforming the voting system based on population or some such thing: are they sure it would matter much? It's not as if eastern Europe shrinks in significance that way. Russia has 106 million people, almost 1/8 of the total population of Europe, and Ukraine another 50 million. Would the 73 million Turks vote right? Or, for that matter, the 83 million Germans?

Sorry complainers, I'm afraid you'll never get a voting system that votes right.