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Sunday, May 30, 2010

Eurovision Song Contest-2010


Eurovision Song Contest in all its Glory!

Apparently, I together with 174,999,999 other people, watched the finals of the Eurovisión Song Contest. In my opinion, we could do without the contest part and just stay with the joyous festival of music that it is. I must admit I thought that it was a contest that pit member European states against one another, but then Russia and Israel showed up, so clearly others are allowed to compete.

My choices for the songs most appealing to me were song numbers 8, Serbia-Milan Stankovic-“Ovo Je Balkan”; 11, Greece-Giorgos Alkavos & Friends-“Opa!”; 18, France-Jessy Matador-“Allez Olla Olè.” 19-Romania-Paula Seling & Ovc-“Playing with Fire;” and 25-Denmark-Chanée & N’evergreen-“In a Moment like this.”

The country that went on to win by a very large margin was Germany. They were only half way through their song when I said No! Lena, the lead singer seemed to be performing a karaoke song, and even she said that being declared the winner by such a large margin was unreal, and completely unexpected. I think 175,000,000 people agreed with her. So why did Germany win?

The whole thing is a truly wonderful event, and long may it last. It is an opportunity for each country to showcase its talent without some nasty person saying depressing things about the performer. Talent is encouraged, and you know that you have to be good before placing yourself alongside so much competition.

We had 25 songs, plus Spain performed its piece twice because someone crashed the stage and caused a distraction on their first presentation. My natural inclination was to support Spain, and their piece, “Something small” was well presented, with a lovely montage of visual effects by dancers, and the music was superb. It was very pleasant, but it did not move the audience in the sense of the competition. But, a superb effort!

While results were being tabulated the show featured a dance piece that brought in shots of people dancing in the street and in their homes from all over Europe. A fabulous celebration of unity that made me feel so good. The news that we usually get from around Europe is a salad of troubles, but this showed solidarity of joy. It was at that point that the program could have ended, and we would have had a perfect evening of entertainment.

But then came the voting. Those of us at home could vote by calling in our choices at a cost. I imagine that the money earned from that source went to offset part of the 32 million euro cost of the program. I’m not certain what effect those calls had on the final result, (if any) or who comprised the voting bloc that gave 8, 10, and 12 points to each country.

In watching the results of the voting it quickly became obvious that points were going to countries for reasons other than the quality of their artist’s performances. One after another countries gave their 12 points to Germany. There was no way that it deserved the degree of support that it received, and it became an embarrassment.

England found itself in last place, as usual, with only 10 points, but that was not deserved either in my view. Israel should have had that honour, but they were 14th.. There was also the usual round of one country giving its 12 points to its neighbour. i.e. Portugal gave Spain its 12 points, and that was the only 12 points that Spain got. However, Spain did not give its 12 points to Portugal, as that would have been hard to justify.

I have to give appropriate plaudits to the producers of the event. Slick, in the very best sense of the word; superbly professional, with behind the scenes coordination that must have been military precision-like. That group were the real stars of the show, yet they won’t get any prizes, or the recognition they deserve. However, they may get paid.

I thoroughly enjoyed the evening, notwithstanding the fact that I am at odds over the voting. So why did Germany win with 246 points and the runner-up had only 170? The answer might be that the winner gets stuck with hosting the next year’s event, and paying for it. So, poor Germany is probably the victim of a conspiracy rather than the prestigious winner of the event. In a sense, first place is the winner of a Poison Chalice. How so many countries got together to enter into this conspiracy is not known.

Probably by Twitter would be a good guess.

Copyright © 2010 Eugene Carmichael