Guess what I am just doing? As a good European. Of course! Watching the Eurovision Song Contest. According to a commentary at Radio Free Europe:
It’s gimmicky, kitsch, with substandard singers performing mindless pop. It’s a refuge for the never-have-beens and never-will-be’s.
But the contest actually says a lot about Europe and Europeans, warts and all. For, despite the flag swapping and the bonhomie, and the three-language choruses calling for armies to lay down their guns, the contest has always been petty, provincial, and even mean-spirited. And what could be more European than that?
And the German girl group “No Angels” has just performed. Mmh, and I know I am probably not the appropriate person to judge singing skills. The only reason I was allowed to sing in the church choir as a child was: My mom was teaching at the same school as the choir leader. And later at highschool when I applied for the choir, I was told: Well, Karin, if you ABSOLUTELY want to join us, then …
Given all this, I`d still dare say that the German performance was suboptimal. Or to be more direct: One of them simply did not hit the right tone.
My favourites so far are Armenia, Ukraine and Greece – in all three cases very good looking female singers wearing hot dresses and having lots of men dancing around them ;-)
The lyrics are very inspiring, too. Sirusho from Armenia for example sings:
You wanna be with me,
You think and dream of me
Come qele, move qele.
Instead of watching me
You should be reaching me,
Come qele, move qele.
Latvia was great, too. I have really loved the costumes of “The Pirates of the Sea”, reminded me of Captain Hook, great movie! And when listening to the Spanish song I was dancing in my living-room … (Because of the song, not the guy!)
Results are coming in now. I`ll continue later …
Believe it or not, but my favorites ended up second, third and fourth.
And the winner is: Russia.
Now that`s indeed a big surprise. No, not because of the rather boring performance. Not because he - like most others - was singing in English. No, the question I asked myself was: Does Russia belong to Europe?
And the “No Angels” ended up 23rd out of 25 - (Bulgaria saved us, we got 12 points from there because Lucy, one of the singers, is from Bulgaria). After all, they had well chosen their song`s title: “Disappear”:
Cause I need you here
And it’s just not fair
That it won’t get better
Why did you disappear
And we got nowhere
But it won’t stop there
Though you’re gone forever
I can’t make you disappear