Eurovision 2010

A quick search of this blog will reveal how I enjoy and lok forward to the Eurovision each year. I don't watch for lasting appeal of the songs - it is rare that I actually remember the songs even on the next day to be honest. I enjoy it because it is a song contest that stretches across Europe and it brings a small glimpse of different national costumes and cultures in the 3 minute country portraits before every song entry. I liked it as a child because the UK or Great Britain actually used to win it sometimes when I was young. Lulu won it in 1969 with a song titled Boom-Bang-A-Bang (believe it or not I don't think it was about sex), but I was too young to remember being less than a year old at the time. Abba won it with "Waterloo" in 1974, it was a win for Sweden but Abba would have been a class above the competition in any year. Brotherhood of Man had a song "Save All Your Kisses For Me" that I think was a Eurovision winner from 1976, it was a ridiculously popular song on the radio I remember as a child. I also remember the skirt ripping-off antics of Bucks Fizz from 1981 when they sang "Making Your Mind Up", another ridiculously popular song. The last time the UK won was when Katrina And The Waves sang "Love Shine A Light", a hideous song in my opinion but most of our entries have been even worse ever since. I couldn't believe it in 2006 when Finland won for the first time in the history of Eurovision with Lordi singing a metal song "Hard Rock Halleluja".
The songs are all song first and then there is an intermission before the voting begins. As a child the voting was the most interesting part. An illuminated scoreboard had lights and scores. Each country was telephoned and a local TV presenter read out their votes, scoring a series of votes across all the countries who they wanted to vote for. As more countries have joined the contest across Europe (with things like the break up of the Soviet Union too), the contest has got larger and the voting more predictable, or should I say political, as each country awards most points to its closest neighbours: statistical analysis of this bloc voting has been studied and the figures suggest it is a real problem: Eastern, Scandinavia, Balkan and Baltic bloc voting are the worst offenders. It means that countries who spread their votes fairly on just the quality of song and performance often end up very low down the scoreboard (that's if any country actually does this).
When things go wrong it is quite funny too. Like when communication breaks down - less likely now we have better telecomunications but I remember phone lines being a problem when I was a child. Or when the computer scoreboard crashed as I seem to remember it doing one year - again less likely. No, these days the amusement is more likely to come from a country with a song and performance that is idiosyncratic: chosen by the public in that country to represent them. We have had some real howlers - especially from Germany: those crazy freaks!
So anyway, here is a link for you to find out more and I hope the UK does well!