Eurovision Wrong Contest
Another Eurovision song contest ends in controversy as the UK are awarded a paltry 14 points placing them in joint bottom position alongside Germany and the Russian entry, a painful, derivative dirge entitled ‘Believe’, won with 272 points.
People are asking whether the contest is really about the songs or are people voting for reasons other than the quality of the compositions? Eastern European countries appear to take the competition immensely seriously but then they go and vote based upon apparent cultural links or familiarity with the performer, not on the quality of the songs, which appeared to mainly consist of teutonic marching music or cringe-worthy ballads.
Viewed as a whole, the 2008 European Song Contest, hosted in Belgrade Arena, was a fantastic TV spectacle but the music was, for the most part, absolutely chronic. There were several alleged ‘joke’ entries, like the Bosnian-Herzegovinan involving a washing line and people knitting, which were simply not funny. Or did I miss something.
Terry Wogan accurately summed it up when he said that this is no longer a music contest. Perhaps 2009 will be the year in which the traditional Eurovision countries follow Austria and pull out of the contest altogether, please.
Big Al wrote,
You are dead right. The quality of the songs, whilst never having been great, has taken a downturn since so many eastern European countries have joined the EU. Teutonic marching music and painfully dreary ballads sung in languages only understood by a tiny minority of Eurpeans. Then the judges give their votes to friends and not to the best song. Its all over for the Eurovision
Link | June 4th, 2008 at 3:15 pm
Caiti, Australia wrote,
Are you kidding? Bosnia and Herzegovina were the only remotely interesting performance on the night… (except maybe for Russia because he managed to work in EVGENI PLUSHENKO!!) I thought 2007 was AMAZING! France was full of character, Sweden was full of character, the Ukraine was brilliant… and should have won. I say it’s not enough to just have a pop song winning Eurovision… Pop can make it anywhere… Bring on the eccentric…
P.S. Yes there’s contraversy surrounding the Big 4 never getting anywhere… But really, it’s probably just because they never enter a half decent song.
Link | October 12th, 2008 at 1:20 pm