The format of the contest seems to always be changing, but the system now is that there are two semi-finals where half of the contestants are picked to move on to the final. The host country and the "Big Four" countries--Germany, the UK, Spain and France--are automatically finalists. The country that wins the contest gets to host the next year.
I heard a lot about this contest while working at Salolampi (Concordia Language Villages' Finnish camp) because the Finnish band Lordi won with "Hard Rock Hallelujah" in 2006, so Finland hosted Eurovision in 2007. We even had a mock Eurovision night where kids lip-synched to Finnish hits.
Lordi kind of looks like something Kiss had for dinner--three weeks ago.One of my favorite YouTube comedians, "Markku from Finland," had a series about Eurovision in Helsinki. Armed with a press pass and access to the press conferences and rehearsals, he tries to educate the people of the world about Finland. Here's one of his videos:
Most of the songs entered into the contest are mainstream pop or rock songs. Almost all of them are ridiculous (like the one in the previous video), but only some of them are intentionally so. Ireland's entry this year was Dustin the Turkey--a plastic turkey puppet that was wheeled out on a stand and yelled out some lyrics to a techno song while showgirls danced around him. Somehow, Dustin the Turkey did not make it past the semi-finals...
Finland's entry is a satirical metal band, Teräsbetoni. Their song "Missä miehet ratsastaa" ("Where are the manly-men riding?") made it to the finals. Warning: This kind of music may not be good for your health:
Most of the songs are dance songs or pop ballads like Israel's entry for this year. Boaz does not use any gimmicks, unlike the Russian singer who ended his song with one of Russia's olympic ice skaters twirling around him on stage (I'm not kidding about that). This would be my pick if I felt like I had a couple euros to burn on a televote:
I was only able to see the first semi-final round, so I assumed that Austria would have its entry in the second round. Austria, however, as I soon found out, was the only country this year that decided to withdraw its participation. ORF, the Austrian broadcasting company claimed that Eurovision winners are picked more by popularity than by the quality of their song. They specifically cited bloc-voting among Eastern European states.
I agree with the Guardian writer, Caroline Sullivan, who says that Austria's withdrawal from the contest has more to do with their lack of success than any concern for the contest's musical integrity. Their only winner was Udo Juergens in 1966, and since then, they have not produced very many hits. As Sullivan points out, the best recent success (2003) was when they stopped caring and let Alf perform:
Alf's act consisted of rapping in front of cardboard cut-outs of animals holding instruments, and his Weil der Mensch Zählt (Man Is the Measure of All Things) came in sixth out of 26 - Austria's first top 10 result in 13 years.
Austria won't even broadcast the contest, so my friends and I are planning to watch the final tonight on the Spanish channel that has been broadcasting it. (You have to try to hear what the announcers are saying over the real-time audio translation the channel provides.)
I hope Austria (well, Austria's broadcasting company) comes to its senses and decides to continue sending singers to the competition--even if they won't win--in the name of international cooperation. The Eurovision Song Contest is a good opportunity for countries to put their politics (and perhaps, sour grapes?) aside for a few days of ridiculous pop music.
And with that, I'll leave you with Udo Juergen's Eurovision-winning hit, "Merci Chérie."
