There are a few things that non-Europeans need to know about the Eurovision Song Contest. One is that the most famous winner is Waterloo by ABBA in 1974. Another is that, Waterloo aside, the music is spectacularly, parodically, almost Platonically bad. Another is that the competition is taken amazingly seriously by continental Europeans. Another is that Israel is considered to be in Europe. Another is that the Portuguese entry once precipitated a revolution. And another is that the judging is universally recognized to be corrupt. "Someone has got to stop this. The European Broadcasting Union has to take a hand," said Britain's long-serving commentator Terry Wogan last night as Ukraine took the top spot under what were alleged to be highly dodgy circumstances. But were they as murky as all that? Certain forms of politically biased decision-making are a long-standing tradition of the contest; for years Greece has habitually voted its maximum 12 points for Cyprus, and vice versa, in the most shameless example of quid pro quo. And certainly if one looks at the 2004 scorecard then there are no shortage of suspicious judgments; Ukraine received 1st or 2nd place from Slavic neighbors or ethnically sympathetic cousins Belarus, Serbia, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland and Russia, while runners-up Serbia grabbed high votes from Bosnia, Croatia, Macedonia, Russia, Slovenia and the Ukraine. But note: Ukraine also did well amongst the relatively disinterested coalition of Andorra, Israel, Iceland, Portugal and Sweden, while Serbia was rewarded by Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Finland, France, the Netherlands and Sweden. Clearly regional bloc voting is playing a part here, but it's not the only explanation for the Kievan triumph. Is the ugly truth for the once-mighty Anglophone nations that their songs simply suck?
Posted by Alan Allport at May 16, 2004 07:49 AMWhile I was living in Israel, the Israeli transsexual Dana International (not her real name) won the 1998 Eurovision Song Contest with her song "Diva," which was inescapable on the radio for the next week or so. I think Israel has won on one or two other occasions.
I suppose that these days an Israeli entry wouldn't stand a chance.
I had never heard of Eurovision before I lived in Israel, but it's a pretty big deal there. They used to have a requirement that each entry perform in its native language, but unfortunately they changed that, so now it's one badly-accented song in English after another.
Besides Eurovision, Israel also competes with Europe in soccer and basketball. The neighboring countries, of course, won't let it participate in any Middle Eastern regional competitions.
Posted by: Gene Zitver at May 16, 2004 12:45 PMI suppose that these days an Israeli entry wouldn't stand a chance.
Perhaps, but they didn't do too badly in the play-offs - they were mid-table, failing to qualify but beating a number of the Slav-bloc countries such as the Baltic States, Belarus, and Slovenia. And perhaps there's a whisp of hope in the fact that two of Israel's highest point scores came from predominantly Muslim Albania and Turkey.
Perhaps the weirdest and/or most touching moment in Eurovision history came in 1993, when the Bosnia-Herzogovina panel sent in their score over a crackling radio link from besieged Sarajevo. It was a moment of kitsch meeting high tragedy that I'm sure Kundera would have relished - like American Idol being hosted in Kabul.
By the way, hello Gene; I hope you'll consider becoming a regular lurker/poster here.
Posted by: Alan Allport at May 16, 2004 01:09 PMSame here.
Posted by: Martha Bridegam at May 16, 2004 01:23 PMI watched the voting on my last night in London on vacation, and had a wonderful time.
I actually think that the system could be fixed (or at least tweaked) by getting rid of the amplification that elimination of points 9 and 11 gives. Most countries that play favorites are only giving their top two votes to countries nobody else is voting for (e.g. Andorra for Spain and France), but their third or fourth line up with the top 5 list.
Posted by: Ben Brumfield at May 19, 2004 06:20 AMHello Ben. Did you catch the World Idol show a few months back? Wonderful stuff, as the charming but dimunitive and unlikely heartthrob Kurt Nilson swept the board (much to his own surprise) and Kelly Clarkson didn't (much to hers).
Posted by: Alan Allport at May 19, 2004 07:20 AM'Fraid not. TV tends to be a vacation-time indulgence for me. And in the UK, man, what an indulgence it is! I'm not sure whether I enjoyed Eurotrash or the L10Million House better.
Posted by: Ben Brumfield at May 19, 2004 09:29 AM