It's the final of the Eurovision Song Contest this evening and I just want to confess that I love it. I love it all, and I am going to have a ball watching it. Those of you who hate it look away now...…….
The contest has been going on for years, and the good old Great Britain, or Grande Bretagne as the French say, used to have a fair chance of winning. That's all gone out of the window for some reason and all we can hope for tonight is, as one presenter stated, we end up on the left hand side of the table. The table shows the amount of votes the songs have got and so obviously we want to be near the top. Do I think we will? There is always hope, isn't there?
Why do I love his contest so much? After all it's been slated in the media for years as our favour appeared to drop, and more countries got involved. There have been accusations that the voting is rather politically orientated. Countries seemed to give the most votes to those bordering them, or have similar cultures. Oh and when the UK voted to leave the EU, well that was that! Our fellow countries didn't seem to care about us at all. Obviously our songs were naff? Either that or the UK songs just didn't resonate with the other participants? Or they were punishing us? Who knows. We just haven't done that well for some years now.
Forget all that. Just enjoy the sheer madness of it all. Of course it's not all about European countries any more. A lot of it is to do with the country's broadcasting Authority being a member of the European Governing Body. Because of this you have countries like Australia in it! Apparently the contest is a big deal down under and very popular. It's been broadcast there for three decades and what better than to allow them to compete along with us all? What's more their songs appear to be popular, and since they have competed they have always done better than us. Pah to them then. The same is true of Israel, and so on. The bit about them doing better than us is also true, sadly for us.
The songs are usually either true weird wonders that make your eyebrows raise, or traditional musical arias from their country, or actually rather good proper songs that sound really rather, erm good! Most of the time the singers are good too. Then there are the outfits. There is always one country that wears some outlandish shocking outfit which makes you giggle behind your hands. This year it's the turn of Iceland with their group Hatari. Think gimp masks, hammers and punk. All very weirdly entertaining. The girl singers seem to be favouring thigh high boots this year, oh and look out for the huge chair that needs ladders to get to the seat, oh and the angels, oh and the dancing. It's such fun and all in the best possible taste naturally.
The other thing that makes me love the Eurovision Song Contest is the fact that every one of the acts, and all the audience, are clearly having a great time together. Note the word 'together'. No boos. No fights. No nastiness, just honest real niceness. There is a common bond between everyone, and the fun and happiness is infectious. It's so cheesy it's hilarious too. The presenters are always trying to be funny when they aren't, and always practicing their language skills. Every year it's the same. Oh, and we mustn't forget the past contests with Terry Wogan as our commentator who was hilariously droll and witty. His place has now been taken by the equally fabulous Graham Norton. Their comments alone are worth watching the contest for.
So all in all it will be a good feeling evening. I will have a few drinks, place what I think are hugely funny comments on Facebook and annoy the hell out of all my fellow Facebookers. Who will win? The bookies favourite is The Netherlands, but I suspect Russia, Australia and Switzerland will also be up there close to the top. Oh I'm so looking forward to this...….
Netherlands
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0F_FrLDpt30
Russia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCKHUldGcEI
Australia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3WF2AsxLB8&list=RDm3WF2AsxLB8&start_radio=1&t=0
Iceland
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1HNhA-7OEU
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