I had a lot of ideas for my second article -- media coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a new bill before the U.S. Congress aimed at restricting visa applications for those born in 'rogue' countries, airport security since September 11 -- but after last Saturday, it could only be the Eurovision Song Contest. This is an event virtually unknown in the United States, but one widely watched by people across Western and Eastern Europe. I first heard about it when I was 13 or 14, when my cousin Mikaela (who grew up in Finland) eagerly shared her collection of Eurovision albums with me one summer. This year, however, was the first time I ever witnessed the Song Contest live and, I must admit, I have become an instant fan.
The Eurovision Song Contest has been held ever year since 1956, although participant countries and rules have changed over the years. Most notably, the participant list has expanded to include distinctly non-European countries -- like Israel and Morocco -- as well as countries belonging to the former Soviet bloc. Such expansion has entailed cutting down the list of songs qualifying for the contest: the countries that do the worst each year are not allowed to come back the next! Contestants also used to have to sing in their national language, but nowadays they can choose to sing in whatever language they like, most often English.
Europeans have a paradoxical relationship to the Eurovision Contest: many snicker at it, but they almost all tune in faithfully, or at least read about it in the papers. In Iceland, I am told, no one can be found in the streets on Eurovision night -- even though Iceland is one of those countries that often has to sit out. The contestants are not in bad company, however. In 1974 the then little known group ABBA won with their song
Waterloo -- a song which subsequently launched their international music careers. Other later famous singers, such as Julio Iglesias and Celine Dion, also got their start with Eurovision. All bounds were broken, however, when Israeli transsexual Dana won in 1998.
Which brings me to this year's contest.
Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose. What immediately struck me in watching this year's show was how familiar some of the acts seemed. Austria was represented by a Ricky Martin look-alike, Greece (the land of Plato and Aristotle!) chose a group clad as 80s style robots, and Cyprus sent a band that I can only describe as "Balki meets the Backstreet Boys." At the same time, Sweden chose a trio of black women (band name Afro-Dite) and Slovenia sent three male transvestites dressed in red glittery stewardess costumes. Most contestants sang in English, although interestingly, the ones who elected to sing in their own languages were Francophone countries (France, Switzerland) and countries in Southeastern Europe (Bosnia, FYR Macedonia, Turkey).
When time for the voting came, no holds were barred. The Swedish commentary -- often restrained during other international events -- spared no feelings in evaluating the acts. One commentator, for example, said he felt "physically ill" after having watched the German contribution. When Israel came on, he noted how the group was likely to receive fewer votes than usual, due to the current political situation in the Middle East. After all 24 acts had performed, viewers around Europe were able to call in over a five-minute period to vote for the group they liked best, with the condition that they could not vote for the country from which they were calling. The result of the telephone voting in each country subsequently assigned a range of points for the ten best groups. The Estonian hosts then connected with reporters in each country to get their results. This was like nothing I had ever seen. Both the Estonians and the individual reporters greeted each other with phrases in the other's language (not an easy task, considering the languages involved included Estonian, Serbo-Croatian, Swedish, etc.), and then assigned the points. At first, I was disappointed to see that so many countries gave the highest points to groups from their neighboring countries, but then I began to realize the profound cultural differences that still exist across Europe: the Greeks and Cypriots voted for each other, the Bosnians for the Croatians and Macedonians, the Danes for the Swedes and Finns, etc. In the end, it was extremely interesting to see what very different tastes emerged when you compared the votes across countries.
And, yes, I called in myself. I voted for Turkey, which did not even make the top ten in Sweden, the country where I am living at the moment. The two countries that ended up dueling it out to the end were Malta and Latvia -- not exactly widely known to the outside world as pop music powerhouses -- but with strong performances. If you missed the Song Contest yourself by fault of geography, you can still get a taste of this year's competition by visiting the Eurovision Song Contest webpage at
http://www.eurovision.tv . I especially recommend going to "Contestants" and clicking on the various country names, where you can see pictures of the bands and even catch short music videos. Links not to be missed are those to Cyprus, Russia, and Slovenia. If you get hooked, you can purchase the special Eurovision 2002 CD. But, then again, maybe you just had to be there...
