This year’s Eurovision song contest is being held this weekend. Here are the best sites on the annual cheesefest
Imogen Tilden
Friday May 24, 2002
These days Europe has embraced the euro, the common market, regulation-sized fruit and veg and Big Brother. So do we still need tomorrow night’s Eurovision song contest to bring us together?
The concepts of Europe and nationality celebrated in the annual songfest have always been somewhat hazy. In 1978, Morocco (as in Morocca, Africa) joined in, while this year, Estonia’s entry is sung by a Swedish-Greek chanteuse. Nana Maskouri did the honours for Luxembourg in 1963, Celine Dion (from Quebec) sung - and won - for Switzerland in 1988, and in 1996, the UK’s entry, Oooh Aaah Just a Little Bit was sung by Aussie Gina G.
But let’s not split hairs. Or linger on the recent relaxing of the language rules that mean that participants no longer need to sing in their native language. The Eurovision song contest has been celebrating Europe’s musical diversity, the spirit of friendly competition and Terry Wogan’s genial broadcasting manner since 1956, when it was established to to promote peace and harmony in a Europe still recovering from the second world war.
This year’s musical extravaganza takes place in Tallinn, capital city of last year’s winner, Estonia. Tanel Padar and Dave Benton had the new country’s first ever win with the song Everybody. It was also the first time a black artist has won. Not that Benton is Estonian. His wife is, but he hails from South America.
This year we can look forward to a transvestite trio, Sestre, representing Slovakia (“a land of music and good people, and the only country with ‘love’ in its name”), a Russian boy band called Prime Minister, and Jessica Garlick representing the UK, proving all those of us who thought there was no life after Pop Idol wrong.
So who is tipped this year? Germany, Malta, and Spain are reckoned to be contendors. Ireland, who aren’t competing, hold the record for the most wins, with seven successes. Johnny Logan is also the only artist to win the contest three times.
The UK has come second 15 times, and first, five. Those five winners are the barefoot Sandie Shaw with Puppet on a String in 1967, Lulu singing Boom Bang A Bang in 1969, Brotherhood of Man’s Save all your kisses for me in 1976, Bucks Fizz’s Making Your Mind Up in 1981, and Love Shine a Light, by Katrina and the Waves in 1997. We wuz robbed in 1968 when Cliff Richard, singing Congratulations, lost narrowly to the Spanish entry, called La La La. But we wuz compromised the following year when Lulu had to share her victory with three other countries - equal points meant four winners. The voting system was changed the next year.
Other notable winners include, of course, Abba, a Swedish group singing in English about the defeat of a French demagogue. And then there’s Dana International, an Israeli transsexual, who sang the aptly named Diva in 1998. A couple of years later, Israel did what many had wanted to do to Dana International, and disowned its official entry. The Tel Aviv group Ping-Pong, had angered Israelis by waving plastic Syrian flags during a rehearsal of their entry, Same-ach (Happy).
So how do you win? Analysts reckon that judges have short memories, and the later you perform the better. Six winners have performed last, while on 13 occasions the winners have performed within the last three songs. The odds are stacked against those who are on second, fourth, seventh, 16th, 21st, 23rd and 25th - no-one singing in these positions has ever won. (The UK are on second this year). The odds are also stacked against Finland and Portugal, who’ve both competed in 36 competitions but have never made it into the top three. Nor have Cyprus or Croatia (after 19, and nine, attempts each).
**10. Along with the cheesy disco music, garish clothes and dodgy accents, another of the competition’s most entertaining elements is watching the voting patterns. But if you’ve really got nothing better to do, you can try and figure out what will happen tomorrow night according to the previous 20 years of voting. I’ll go out on a limb here and predict that Greece will vote for Cyprus and award “nul points” to Turkey, who will return the favour and boycott both Greece and Cyprus; Balkan countries will vote for other Balkan countries, and likewise we might well see a bit of neighbourly back-scratching among Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Iceland. The UK, of course, will refuse to stoop to such blatant displays of favouritism, and will vote for anyone except Germany. Happy viewing.
**
Haven't heard the songs yet, but I hope Austria does better than last time.
“WatCh youR tHoughtS; they become words. WatCh youR wOrdS; they become actions. WatCh youR aCtiOns; they become habits. WatCh youR hAbiTs; they become character. WatCh youR chaRactEr; it becomes your dEsTinY."
[quote]
Originally posted by SADI:
**Ali for Austria its Manuel Ortega with the titel 'Say A Word'. We should be happy if in all we get douze points.
If you want a good laught, just turn off the volume of the tv and watch the commentary in radia Ö3. **
[/quote]
Well analyst say he will make it to 12 place, but sorry I forgot you don't rely on stats.
“WatCh youR tHoughtS; they become words. WatCh youR wOrdS; they become actions. WatCh youR aCtiOns; they become habits. WatCh youR hAbiTs; they become character. WatCh youR chaRactEr; it becomes your dEsTinY."
[quote]
Originally posted by Mr Xtreme: This thing is still running?
[/quote]
Who is representing UK?
I guess I'm asking the wrong one.
“WatCh youR tHoughtS; they become words. WatCh youR wOrdS; they become actions. WatCh youR aCtiOns; they become habits. WatCh youR hAbiTs; they become character. WatCh youR chaRactEr; it becomes your dEsTinY."
[quote]
Originally posted by SADI:
** At the beginning of week the analyst said it was gonna be sunny and hot today, but it was raining.
**
[/quote]
Anaylsts and weather forecast?
News to me.
Btw raining? I was out side for 3 hours and couldn't recognize any rain drop falling on me.
“WatCh youR tHoughtS; they become words. WatCh youR wOrdS; they become actions. WatCh youR aCtiOns; they become habits. WatCh youR hAbiTs; they become character. WatCh youR chaRactEr; it becomes your dEsTinY."
[quote]
Originally posted by Ali_R:
** Anaylsts and weather forecast?
News to me.
Btw raining? I was out side for 3 hours and couldn't recognize any rain drop falling on me.
**
[/quote]
Gosh Ali, I was sitting beside the window in my office and it rained like for 15-20 minutes around noon, didn't you notice the dark clouds?
[quote]
Originally posted by SADI:
** Gosh Ali, I was sitting beside the window in my office and it rained like for 15-20 minutes around noon, didn't you notice the dark clouds?
**
[/quote]
Dark clouds = Rain?
I'm afraid no rain drop was visible in the 20. nor in the 21. district today.
“WatCh youR tHoughtS; they become words. WatCh youR wOrdS; they become actions. WatCh youR aCtiOns; they become habits. WatCh youR hAbiTs; they become character. WatCh youR chaRactEr; it becomes your dEsTinY."
I hope Austria's Manuel Ortega will end up last with 0 points. I can't stand this guy and neither do I like his song "Say a Word". Stermann & Grissemann would have been embarassing for Austria, but at least they are funny and would definitely have performed better than Ortega.
Don't know about the other countries, but the German and the Swedish song are supposed to be quite good.
Umer, the Pakistani Brain of Austria
[This message has been edited by Umer (edited May 25, 2002).]
I personally think that the song from Manuel Ortega for Austria is not so bad, but still I don't want 0 points for Austria, anything in the middle will be fine. Stermann & Grissemann were the one I was talking about who make fun, in the radio during the contest of the image of all this contest and everything which goes around when the time comes from each country to give points. As for germany I DO NOT like the song at all. Her song is without any substance, yeah the song that came after her song and did not make it to the contest is a striker and has made it till the top ten in the charts, one of the singers is a turkish person. As for Sweden I have not heard the song yet, but they do send good ones.
I just saw those boyband from what was it…Cyprus…They were soo funny!
Anywayz…I liked the Austrain song but the guy repeated this one sentence too much…cant remember what it was..!
ANyhow uptill now England has made a good impression!
“WatCh youR tHoughtS; they become words. WatCh youR wOrdS; they become actions. WatCh youR aCtiOns; they become habits. WatCh youR hAbiTs; they become character. WatCh youR chaRactEr; it becomes your dEsTinY."