Ok, first the difficult bit, I admit that I have in fact been watching Eurovision on and off for at least 30 years, or over half the length of the 53 year old competition. It’s not something I’d turn down an invitation for, but if I’m home, and it’s on, then I’ll watch.
There’s a certain spectacle and geo-politics in the raw that’s compelling, plus every now and then there’s a good song or two. Ok, maybe just a fun song.
I’m not bad at picking what’s going to finish where either, until this year.
This year every country which fears Russia sent a swag of points their way and put a middle of the field song at the top of the pile. Possibly a bigger tragedy was the British effort, a well performed and solidly constructed mo-town style number coming equal last.
Back in the old days when nominated judges from each nation would allocate points at least the national preferences were out in the open. Now some countries conduct a telephone poll, while other still have an internal jury. Even more problematic is that juries are kept in case of “technical difficulties” with the vote. When announcing the national point allocations no mention is made of whether a jury over-ride has been made, or whether it was a popular vote. Frankly I question the ability of Belarus (to name but one country using ex-Soviet telephony) to record and tabulate thousands of phone votes in a fifteen minute voting window.
Did the people of Armenia, Belarus, Estonia, Israel, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine really all decide that the Russian entry, sung in English, was the best song on the night? Or did their Governments all opt for a simple life and making the bear happy on something that costs them little?
Italy has already walked away from the competition in a huff, it’ll be interesting to see how long the rest of Western Europe puts up with the farcical voting.
Anyway with equal legitimacy to the official process The Concatenate hereby declares Latvia to be the winner with “Wolves of the Sea”. I came to this conclusion because I like pirates and whenever I go to a costume party dressed as one I get lucky.