I'd heard of this annual TV song contest that pits musical acts from European countries against each other, but missed it last year because I was out of town. However, I met up with friends last night and they informed me that they were headed home to watch. I had to join. For Americans, it's probably easiest to imagine this like American Idol, but there were 25 performances - and no commercial breaks. (Thank you, state-funded television.) These 25 are weeded down from more in a preliminary audition round, and it begs the question of what the performances were like that didn't get chosen.
After all the performances, there is a 15-minute break when people across Europe are calling and texting like mad, then voting ends, and a representative calls in to the show, is standing in front of a beautiful nighttime panorama in their capital. They make cheesy jokes, say their most sincere praises for the host city's show (this time it was in Russia, because Russia won last year), and then they tell how their country voted. Countries can't vote for themselves, so it's interesting to see old allegiances and feuds played out in the form of voting in a reality TV talent show (i.e. many Turkish people have emigrated to Germany, so it was no surprise that Germany's votes went to the Turkish performance). The big surprise of the night, however, was the Norwegian performance, which swept the competition. Final results:
Norway: 387
Iceland: 206
Azerbaijan: 197
Other awesome performances were done by Greece and Sweden.
1 comment:
So I just found your blog. And I love you. And it's gross that you clip your nails above a restaurant...and I want to see your cheesy commercial. Whenever I see a bad commercial I think of your commercial ideas. Anyway, hooray for blogging. Hooray for good writing.
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