Eurovision

Saturday night was the finals for Eurovision, a song competition where each European country sends a representative to compete. Since a Dane won last year, the competition was hosted in Copenhagen this year. I had never heard of Eurovision before moving here and since living in Europe have heard mixed things about Eurovision. It seems evenly split with people thinking it is the greatest and coolest competition to those who think it is the greatest embarrassment of Europe. ABBA got their big break from being on Eurovision back in the 70's and all Europeans know of it so since it was being hosted a few minutes away, I knew I needed to take advantage and see Eurovision for myself. Copenhagen was showing Eurovision in a square on a giant screen and some friends and I were planning on watching it in that crowd however, with last minute changes, we ended up watching it at my place in our pajamas.

Not impressed with Iceland

What was started as a way to bridge tension and unite Europe after WWII has become, or maybe always was, a highly political competition. You can't vote for your own country, you can only vote for other countries. This lends to countries usually voting for their neighbors or allies. Russia was booed by the crowd and received votes from Belarus and Ukraine, shocker I know, while Denmark gave the most points to Sweden. 

I voted! My tastes/votes were almost the same as the UK votes. I'm not surprised.

The songs are hokey and most are songs I'd never like to hear again. It was fun to watch with friends but I got disillusioned during the voting results as I saw how truly political it is when countries got votes simply because of who they were and not for what they put forward.

But, the top contenders were probably some of the best. Sweden came in third followed by the Netherlands in second. And the winner went to the Bearded Lady of Austria. I voted for the Netherlands, Malta and Austria. I was happy Austria won, much more for the courage it takes for a drag queen to perform at such a huge level than for the actual song/performance.

And so ends my Eurovision experience. I don't think it's a date I need to save on my calendar for next year.