Eurovision kitch festival
May 10th.... Eurovision time again! The Eurovision songcontest seems to be hot in the blogosphere with previews and lots of life blogging going on during the semi-finals. A good moment to join :p.
No no, don't expect life comments from me, I refer to the other links above for that or to the many newspaper comments that will be available tomorrow. I am just amused by the phenomenon of the Eurovision songfestival. As a child I was an absolute fan! Well it's not like you could swith channels in the 80ies to watch something else since almost all channels were broadcasting it. Now there are much more commercial channels that are not part of the European broadcasting unit.
As the hit of the Fikskes looks back with nostalgia to their youth, I totally agree with the sentence "Songfestival, yeah, later to bed!!". Which parent could send their children to bed before all artists had performed. And as a child you truly appreciate all kitch and glitter and show with a naieve openess. I considered it all as big Art.
(interruption of some life blogging after all: the bra of the Estonian girl is a bit tooo pushed up to look nice!! Will or will they not pop out, that's the question. Hmm no, they seem firm, no nipplegate in Europe tonight.)
After 1987 when Belgium has won the only time with Sandra Kim, I was naturally one of the many many girls imitation Sandra! And the years after I was totally into it, taping it all to video and watching my own reruns over and over. i think I am still a walking encyclopedia of groups that have playe at the end of the eighties and the beginning of the nineties!
But then you grow up, you notice it's always the same superficial shit, that it's full of kitch, horrendous costumes and lame dances. As adolescent and young adult you definately do not want to watch the Eurovision song contest anymore. But secretly I was waving my hands on the song of Vanessa Chinitor at my desk while studying .
(new iterruption...Belgians song is quite funky...only heard it for the first time yesterday evening)
(oh gosh what a horrible gothic woman on stage now for Slovenia...yikes, go home please).
The year that we almost won for the second time, I didn't stay home to watch it. It was Urban Trad that was representing Belgium and I am a big big fan of their folk music. But my friends where going out to a pub and who was I to stay home for the Eurovision song contest huh. But soon in the evening it became clear that we had a hit and the tv got turned on int he pub and in the end we had the most incredible exciting evening with a huge crowd cheering for our band as if we were watching the world cup. And tragedy oh tragedy, we lost with 1 point from Turkey. Tragedy oh tragedy, we had given 12 points to Turkey ourselves rather than 10.
Another special eurovision for me was in 2001 when I watched it while visiting a bbq: tv was on but the CD-player played different music. The entire show has immediately a huge comic potential when you can only watch the stereotypical dances and the mimic of the performers and you have to imagine the music that comes along :p
But now it seems to be cool again to watch the Eurovision songcontest, even the semi-finals are important enough to cause a lot of blogging activity. That's even amazing for Flanders since we basically only participate every second year. When Wallonia sends in their participant, the Flemish are usually completely ignorant about the song that is participating for our country. And then we watch our own country as if it was a foreign country "hmm I wonder what we'll bring tonight " :p. What do you expect ? We live in a schizophrenic country.
As an adult you watch it differently: you have to watch to be able to join the discussions afterwards, we watch to judge the clothes, the dances, ...and to maybe like some songs. At least, that is why I watch.
So what does it bring to us again? Usually a lot of songs that you usually would never hear on the radio. Somehow participants bring a song that is "typical" eurovision and therefore anything but regular.
Ok Televoting starts....can anyone vote for Belgium please? it was a bit out of tune, but we deserve to get in the final just once more. it's a quite cool funky song!
No no, don't expect life comments from me, I refer to the other links above for that or to the many newspaper comments that will be available tomorrow. I am just amused by the phenomenon of the Eurovision songfestival. As a child I was an absolute fan! Well it's not like you could swith channels in the 80ies to watch something else since almost all channels were broadcasting it. Now there are much more commercial channels that are not part of the European broadcasting unit.
As the hit of the Fikskes looks back with nostalgia to their youth, I totally agree with the sentence "Songfestival, yeah, later to bed!!". Which parent could send their children to bed before all artists had performed. And as a child you truly appreciate all kitch and glitter and show with a naieve openess. I considered it all as big Art.
(interruption of some life blogging after all: the bra of the Estonian girl is a bit tooo pushed up to look nice!! Will or will they not pop out, that's the question. Hmm no, they seem firm, no nipplegate in Europe tonight.)
After 1987 when Belgium has won the only time with Sandra Kim, I was naturally one of the many many girls imitation Sandra! And the years after I was totally into it, taping it all to video and watching my own reruns over and over. i think I am still a walking encyclopedia of groups that have playe at the end of the eighties and the beginning of the nineties!
But then you grow up, you notice it's always the same superficial shit, that it's full of kitch, horrendous costumes and lame dances. As adolescent and young adult you definately do not want to watch the Eurovision song contest anymore. But secretly I was waving my hands on the song of Vanessa Chinitor at my desk while studying .
(new iterruption...Belgians song is quite funky...only heard it for the first time yesterday evening)
(oh gosh what a horrible gothic woman on stage now for Slovenia...yikes, go home please).
The year that we almost won for the second time, I didn't stay home to watch it. It was Urban Trad that was representing Belgium and I am a big big fan of their folk music. But my friends where going out to a pub and who was I to stay home for the Eurovision song contest huh. But soon in the evening it became clear that we had a hit and the tv got turned on int he pub and in the end we had the most incredible exciting evening with a huge crowd cheering for our band as if we were watching the world cup. And tragedy oh tragedy, we lost with 1 point from Turkey. Tragedy oh tragedy, we had given 12 points to Turkey ourselves rather than 10.
Another special eurovision for me was in 2001 when I watched it while visiting a bbq: tv was on but the CD-player played different music. The entire show has immediately a huge comic potential when you can only watch the stereotypical dances and the mimic of the performers and you have to imagine the music that comes along :p
But now it seems to be cool again to watch the Eurovision songcontest, even the semi-finals are important enough to cause a lot of blogging activity. That's even amazing for Flanders since we basically only participate every second year. When Wallonia sends in their participant, the Flemish are usually completely ignorant about the song that is participating for our country. And then we watch our own country as if it was a foreign country "hmm I wonder what we'll bring tonight " :p. What do you expect ? We live in a schizophrenic country.
As an adult you watch it differently: you have to watch to be able to join the discussions afterwards, we watch to judge the clothes, the dances, ...and to maybe like some songs. At least, that is why I watch.
So what does it bring to us again? Usually a lot of songs that you usually would never hear on the radio. Somehow participants bring a song that is "typical" eurovision and therefore anything but regular.
Ok Televoting starts....can anyone vote for Belgium please? it was a bit out of tune, but we deserve to get in the final just once more. it's a quite cool funky song!
Comments
But like you said here, all the children at school were talking about it non-stop. I think it is good fun for the kids... but it's not really my style. Maybe this year there will be a song or two I like? It could happen!