The most biased contest on earth!

[Ultimate Charizard]

Those Europeans amongst the board know all about the Eurovision Song 'Contest' but after this years i thought id expose the US types to it too.

Its a long show, with songs from 25 countries around Europe represented and then 43 Countires post votes. Its meant to be a fair and fun contest but the amount of Political BS that goes on with neighbour countries (Especially the Old soviet block) makes it all pretty pointless.

As the UK host, Terry Wogan, says its simply a chance once a year, to Laugh at Johnny Foreigner and throw things at the TV....and some of these acts provoke both responses.

Enjoy....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/page/item/b00bv005.shtml?src=ip_potpw

Oh and if your wondering the Deep voiced narrator in the background is Terry Wogan, the UK presenter. Basically this years was produced by Serbian TV, as the local TV station usually do for whichever country is hosting it but the other countries still send commentators to present it for their countries in the form of a voice over.
Terry Wogan is a legend in the uk for this show in which he slowly gets more and more drunk and more and more bemused by the events going on. Ridiculing acts, hosts and anyone else he notices.

And one more piece of good news. There are talks of the US wanting to host something similar but initially only starting out as an American Song Contest where its State vs State instead of Country.

[Ultimate Charizard]

Highlights...in my opinion. And im using the term highlight very loosely. Ill try not to comment on them all but some just need it.

#2 - UK.
Pretty damn decent song despite what others say. Deserved to do well though i may be biased.

#5 - Bosnia.
Its pretty normal up until here then things go Batshit crazy

#8 - Finland
Gothic Rock in the same Vein as Lordi. They love a winning formula do the Finnish..

#10 - Poland
My god the teeth!

#11 - Iceland
Europop style Dance number. Not bad if you like that kinda thing and they can actually sing.

#12 - Turkey
Actually pretty good Rock number. The style reminds me of someone pretty big. Cant remember who though...maybe Greenday or Manic Street Preachers.

#14 - Latvia
Only one word for this. YAARR!!!

#15 - Sweden
Bride of Frankenstein.....decent enough song i guess though.

#19 - French
WTF.....Please, for the love of god let there be a sniper in the audience

#20 - Azerbaijan
Is the sniper still around? A couple of tuneless Squeaking Falsetto's in angel costumes...

#21 - Greece
Very pop. Decent but its the type of thing that could be done by any Britney-esque wriggler

#22 - Spain
Ok im serious, please Assasinate this guy now. Looks like Jims Dad from american pie after a month in Benidorm. The only act that the crowd in the arena booed.

The rest you can find out for yourself but for anyone who doesnt know the result i dare you to pick a winner and come anywhere near being right lol.

[woz]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsJI7VPBg8M

[Ultimate Charizard]

actually this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z28STzFIFBU) was Irelands entry this year.
It didnt get past the Semi finals lol.

[Jeff]

Sorry, this programme is only available to play in the UK

Discrimination!

Anyway, I would probably watch an American version of this, but it probably works better as an international contest.

[Ultimate Charizard]

I didnt realise that the IPlayer only worked for the UK although theres been plenty of US websites that refuse to play outside the US. (Think the MTV website wss one of them..)

Anyway most of those tracks are on Youtube in some shape or form though you may miss out on the voting.

For those still interested the Russian entry was the winner with Greece in second.
Spain managed to get 56 points for their entry thanks to Andora and portugal etc voting for them while Great Britain finished Dead Last for the second year running.

Oh and Azerbaijan finished in the top 10. wtf o_O

[Crystalmaster Mike]

Eurovision 101: In which country, there are 2 different television stations selecting the candidates for the Eurovision Song Festival?

Answer: Belgium. One year, the Flemish choose, the next year, it's the Wallons' turn.

----

The sad thing, there's so much money and effort put in the project each year.
2 years ago, the Minister of Culture sponsored a tour for our candidate around Europe.
Every year, we're hosting this long contest to choose our candidate (à la Idols). The jury doesn't know what to look for no more. You could go for originality, or for multicultural sound (which boils down to using Irish and Slavic melodies, and either English or a made-up language), but in the end, you only get votes if there are other countries that

speak the same language;
neighbour yours;
have a lot of immigrants from your country.Which ends up with having Greece and a big bunch of Eastern European and Scandinavian countries scoring the loot, whether they deserve it or not.

And of course, there's the fact the 4 sponsoring countries, besides the host, always automatically are in the finals.

[Ultimate Charizard]

Yeah but who are the Sponsors?

Im assuming its someone like Uk, France, Germany, Spain etc. Yet its those countries that generally have been finishing bottom.
Its like the other countries say 'thankyou for paying for this, now we rig it and will win it with no real talent while you come at the bottom.

I agree with what you say though. Its so political that no matter what certain countries send their results are usually already set.

Also as i understand it the acts/writers performing arent supposed to be paid proffesional acts so when you hear "this guy is the biggest pop star in Moldova" or whatever its a little bit 'wtf?'

[Crystalmaster Mike]

Actually, those are exactly the sponsoring countries.

And about the acts, today I don't think that ball is still rolling. Some of the potential candidates we had here were established, popular musicians... even Idols finalists, so...

[Little_Pikachu]

About 10/15 years ago I enjoyed watching it, with ye olde 888 teletext subtitles on to translate the songs, one line always sticks in my head "I am a volcano, I cover myself with grass", don't know what country it was...
Back then it was based more on the music, the UK actually had a fighting chance if they had a good song, now we only get votes from Ireland. The song bit is still interesting to watch, but they probably shouldn't bother with the voting and just rotate who hosts it and just make it a song show rather than a contest.