Eurovision 2009

Saturday Verena and I hosted a Eurovision party. Now, I've watched some 3 Eurovisions now, meeting my first in Greece some 8 years ago. It is still something I utterly fail to understand. Well, maybe that's overstatement, but really... It's a massively hyped European song contest - each country has one entry with which they compete to make it to the final -- the big Eurovision night. The country that won the preceding year hosts the next context - this year Russia spent some absurd €3mil or so hosting. The UK came in dead last in 2008 (and they have a reputation for mocking the whole proceedings), so this year they took it seriously with Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber writing a power ballad and hosting a whole competition to find the right singer - and they took a respectable 5th having convinced Europe they were actually serious this year (their 2007 essentially British Airways song didn't really win much popularity either!). Voting is by phone-in, and a country cannot vote for itself, so generally countries vote for their neighbors.

The best that can be said for Eurovision is a) it provides high comedy value and b) it launched Abba and Riverdance -- the latter wasn't even an official part of the competition, it was an intermission act when Ireland was hosting... Better on the comedy level, really!

This year Nina and Vicki whipped up scorecards for us (it can be hard to remember 25 separate bizarre acts), Verena made a European-Union flag cake, and I emptied the furnature out of our living room to host the party. At one point we had 27 people crammed into that poor room. Impressive, but a ton of fun! I just focused on inviting people I knew, while Verena focused on inviting people from as many European countries as she could find to represent. Ahh, the unifying power of Eurovision! (Last little factoid, apparently it was started post-war to bring together the various countries but also to provide a place for non-violent competition. There you go.)

Jeremiah, Melanie, Matt, Alissa and Kathleen on one side - Kathleen showing off her scorecard.

Tucked in the opposite corner, Ross, Nina, Vicki and Ryan.

The "rest" of the room...

Taking the cake to Verena - this picture is crazy: I am innocently showing off the cake, stabbing Brendan in the neck, AND growing a third hand from my waist. Nifty.

Verena, heading in to cut her cake.

A glimpse into the room from across the hall... Do you like the flags banner? 32feet worth of bunting with 27 European flags. Oh yeah, we do parties right....... ahem....

Is it really wise to enter into there? Actually, this being toward the end, there was more room in the middle than there had been at the beginning...

The run-away winner, Norway, with their cute but fake-violin-playing lead singer and crazy push-up-doing back-up dancers (highest score ever, though). I have to admit, I was rooting for Ukraine... It was the sheer randomness of their half-dressed centurion backup dancers in hamster wheels that won me... For sheer pop-power, Azerbaijan takes the cake, I think. Malta had one of the only singers who could actually sing, but Kurt--from Malta--noted that she was not your typical-tinsy-pop-star by saying "it'll all be over when the fat lady sings". Oh, and I nearly forgot Germany, featuring the most startling silver trousers on the swing-singing-singer and a stripper-who-was-not-allowed-to-strip-in-the-final-contest backup dancer. Genius.

There, your cultural education is complete.

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How could I have forgotten Greece, my initial country of choice to support?!?!?! I think after their 2002 entry, they've won my undying support... or something...