Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag and smile, smile, smile. Forget the worst recession since the South Sea Bubble, dust off that cracked glitter ball and drag out those tarnished bacofoil hot pants. It’s time to get crushed by the sequined juggernaut that is the Eurovision Song Contest, the rightful heir to the fall of Communism. This year, the travelling freak show has pitched the big top in Malmö (pronounced Malmurrrr), Sweden. Expect high camp, a blizzard of glitzy ticker tape and enough dry ice to halt global warming. Expect virginal visions in white, gay-bar strippers, fake blonds where collars and cuffs don’t match, notes as flat as the Fens and tunes once heard, never remembered. Don’t expect ABBA. The land of the midnight sun and real blonds is throwing an enormous street party like a UEFA cup final but without the drunken thuggery. The annual warble-fest costs so much to stage it attracts its very own IMF bail-out. Let’s hope nobody votes for the unkindly named PIGS (Blighty might be joining that popular club any day now). Winning will send them over the fiscal cliff.
Turkey has thrown a hissy fit and withdrawn from the competition. TRT (the Turkish broadcaster) does not like changes to the voting rules in recent years (50/50 between the public and a panel of music experts) which it claims disadvantages the Turkish entry by reducing the influence of the Turkish diaspora across Europe. That’s the point, silly. TRT also objects to the automatic qualification of songs from the so-called ‘Big Five’ broadcasters (the BBC among them) that pay the lion’s share of the costs. If TRT wants a free ride to the final, it’ll have to sign a much bigger cheque. After all, he who pays the piper calls the tune. To top it all, TRT got its pantaloons in a twist over a lesbian kiss live on stage. At the semis, Finland’s Krista Siegfrid landed a sloppy smacker on the lips of one of her backing dancers. Krista doesn’t actually drink from the furry cup in her day job, she just objects to the Finnish Parliament’s refusal to vote on marriage equality. Her song ‘Marry Me’ is through to the final where she’s threatening to repeat the tonsil-tickling outrage. Whether Krista has qualified because she kissed to be clever or despite of it is anyone’s guess. Overcome with moral indignation and shock, TRT has pulled the show completely. As we all know, watching a bit of girl-on-girl action turns you lesbian and there are no lesbians in Turkey, the land where men are men and goats are nervous.
Britain’s entry is an old-school power ballad sung by the gravelly-voiced Welsh chanteuse of yesteryear, Bonnie Tyler, she whose heart was totally eclipsed in ’83 after she got lost in France in ’77. The song’s not half bad (and half good either) but it hardly matters. We could put up Sooty for all the difference it would make. Mark my words. It’ll be a heartache for Bonnie. She’ll need more than a hero to fight the rising odds against a rout by the former Warsaw Pact. Well, I suppose it serves us right for Iraq. Poor old Auntie Beeb keeps wheeling out the golden oldies with their careers behind them, presumably because no-one with a career in front of them would touch Eurovision; it’s the kiss of death. Despite the parochial politics and regional gerrymandering, we’ll be waving our little union flags, raising a glass of bubbly to the campest show on Earth and hoping against hope that we don’t come last.
Here’s Bonnie at full gritty throttle:
Jeeezus wept Jack! I came out her to get away from all this culture stuff – I’m thinking of cancelling my subscription!
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Oh go on. Give in to it. You know you want to 😉
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Brilliant post – every point a hit, a palpable hit!
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I’m giggling myself silly. Why does everything need to become so complicated?
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Why make things simple when complex will do? 😉
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We didn’t come last! 🙂
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True, but somehow, I don’t feel good about that 🙂
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Husband and I watched this year and found it amusing, confusing, enthusing. His favorite part was the rising floor platform which made several contestants 20 feet tall. The dresses! The dancers! The songs! (Okay, they were beyond cheesy.) Sometimes you just sit back and enjoy the ride. Well done, 19th place isn’t last. There’s always next year…
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True. I feel for the Irish. Their song was okay and they didn’t invade Iraq.
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I know the Welsh can sing better than that ! I think they look around for the worst singer/song available and stick it in. Turkey did the same with Davos, they often throw a hissy fit, but I dread to think what their entry would be like so better off not joining in. Congrates to Denmark, believe they came 1st.
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They did and it was the best song on the night.
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Noooooooooooo, husband, Russia was far better – and The Netherlands. Actually, they all seemed okay after that champagne…
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Teo was glued to the screen as usual – I went to bed early in protest (as usual ) I think Cliff Richard ruined Eurovision for me in the 70s with that knee-knocking dance. I’ve never been able to watch it since.
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You don’t know what you’re missing (or perhaps you do! ;-))
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