Eurovision

Estonia and The Netherlands both out. meh. I didn't see the semifinals and haven't been paying attention to what the songs were like but from what I gather of Estonia's song, it deserved to be left for carrion.

Everyone seems to be complaining of a bloc-voting, which... well, in some ways is true. I think it also has to do with certain types of songs being more popular in certain areas (nordic people not understanding the beauty of the ululation of one of the Balkan entries and the balkans not getting the Nordc guttural growls... and everyone being mystified by the German polka-entry... or whatever).

My theory is that this bloc-voting only comes to play when there aren't any truly original songs.. like the Ukrainian one a few years ago (yes, gimmicky and a bit Xena-ish with drums, fire and lots of leather) which had this very primal feel to it. And then the Finnish horror-metal entry that actually had very sweet lyrics and a catchy tune. For the Finnish one you should take into account that in my memory they have only once finished higher than 5th from the back and that was when they won.

Usually the 0-countries, or OK very low point countries, are Britain (I don't even wonder with their teenpop entries of late), Finland (the year before they won they entered with a middle-aged Finn performing a tango... in Finnish... *shudder*) and very often Germany.

There are of course songs for which I don't get why they don't get any votes. Like the Netherlands song last year. I tought it was quite strong, if a bit overblown. But still, good. And it didn't place high enough to be straight in the finals this year... and there are songs for which I don't understand why they do get votes. Like any Turkish or Israeli song (ok, so I do know why, there are millions of Turkish immigrants all dispersed in Europe, and the Jewish have a strong community feeling as well) or like the song that won last year. Personally I thought it was very bland. There was no originality to it and the singer wasn't good and overall I didn't like it. But EVERYONE voted for it, and then those countries who didn't give any points were later accused of being unfair. Noooo, really? they should have voted for it even if they thought it was horrible? it's called a matter of taste :) Or lack of it, whatever.

meh... I'll try to catch the finals though, it'll at least be a little entertaining.

I do know what's even sillier than Eurovision and it took place some tme ago. It's called - are you ready for it - Eurodancing. Or something like that. That was hilarious, it was like Dancing with the Stars but with country representatives and then two dances for everyone (first a "classical" and second a "national" dance). ah, the polkas and riverdance-like tries... painful





edit: russia won. oh the pain. I think now is a good time for Estonians to take a break from the Eurotivoli for a year... It'll mean one less douze points for Russia, and that's always good.