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I wasn't sure if this belongs in Music, Politics, or ZOMGWTFLOLCATS, but I figured I'd put it here anyway.
The official Eurovision 2020 event has been cancelled due to corona. Ironically, the slogan for 2020 was "Open Up." It's kinda still happening, because Europe is coming together to stream a Eurovision special called Shine A Light, which is not a contest. It's more of a showcase. They are also doing a series of 'living room' concerts, which are actually really good. Seems like European living rooms have a lot of forests and lakes in them, and some of them are desaturated empty warehouses, but whatever. Europeans are creative with their living rooms, I guess. My favorite one so far was the fourth one, where Keiino did acoustic versions of Spirit in the Sky, and Hatari's song from last year.
While all this is going on, the UK came up with their own Eurovision called "Come Together," although my friends are all calling it the Eurovision Brexit, LOL.
For fellow Americans who don't know what I'm talking about...
Eurovision is a crazy European singing contest that started back in 1956, and it's one of the most watched cultural events in the world, even though Americans usually don't watch it. It's the only singing contest I watch. Eurovision has given us acts like Abba and Celine Dion (who is Canadian, but she sang for Switzerland). All the European countries send singers to compete for votes. Some countries just kinda let a government bureaucrat randomly pick somebody, and some countries like France spend months on a massive cultural festival to pick their contender. Europe includes Australia and Israel. The country who won last year is stuck with hosting it this year, so lots of countries don't want to win, except Australia, because if they win, then the UK has to host it for them, because nobody told the UK that Australia isn't a colony any more.
The rules get kinda crazy. You can only have something like 5 or 6 people on stage at a time, no farm animals, no live instruments, and no recorded vocals. Why no farm animals? That used to be a thing. Now they do things like using holographic wolves on stage, instead. Most of these rules weren't always in effect, so in years past, you had live instruments and full orchestras, but not any more. Now, it's a singing contest. The countries can send singers can come from anywhere, like how Switzerland sent Celine Dion, and they can sing in any language they feel like. Some countries invent languages for Eurovision. They almost always sing in English, but you never know what they are going to do. Keiino won the popular vote with a song with a chorus in the Sami language last year. The Sami are a remote, obscure arctic tribe, and I probably would have never even heard of them if not for that song.
The voting is a little nuts, too, because nationalism and european politics is on full display. The math of it all is too involved to get into here, but basically, the audience gets a vote, called the televote, and that is factored into the final result, but most of the voting power comes from a jury made up of representatives from each country. So the winner has to be both good at singing, and not offending other countries. Some countries can't help but be offended at each other, though. For example, Greece and Turkey will never vote for each other.
I like it because it's a great show of what can be done in music when you loosten up and just have fun with it. American pop music is too uptight, especially in recent years. Some Eurovision songs are simple pop formula songs, but a lot of them aren't. Also, the diversity is just great to see. A bearded lady won it in 2014, and she was awesome! I have a hard time imagining Americans voting for a bearded lady like that on American Idol, but it's nice to dream about that world.
Anyway... if you want another reason to watch it, here is one of my favorite performances, from Ireland, from 2008, during the financial crisis, when they seriously did NOT want to win and be stuck with the expense of hosting 2009. So they sent a foul mouthed muppet Turkey named Dustin to compete.
The official Eurovision 2020 event has been cancelled due to corona. Ironically, the slogan for 2020 was "Open Up." It's kinda still happening, because Europe is coming together to stream a Eurovision special called Shine A Light, which is not a contest. It's more of a showcase. They are also doing a series of 'living room' concerts, which are actually really good. Seems like European living rooms have a lot of forests and lakes in them, and some of them are desaturated empty warehouses, but whatever. Europeans are creative with their living rooms, I guess. My favorite one so far was the fourth one, where Keiino did acoustic versions of Spirit in the Sky, and Hatari's song from last year.
While all this is going on, the UK came up with their own Eurovision called "Come Together," although my friends are all calling it the Eurovision Brexit, LOL.
For fellow Americans who don't know what I'm talking about...
Eurovision is a crazy European singing contest that started back in 1956, and it's one of the most watched cultural events in the world, even though Americans usually don't watch it. It's the only singing contest I watch. Eurovision has given us acts like Abba and Celine Dion (who is Canadian, but she sang for Switzerland). All the European countries send singers to compete for votes. Some countries just kinda let a government bureaucrat randomly pick somebody, and some countries like France spend months on a massive cultural festival to pick their contender. Europe includes Australia and Israel. The country who won last year is stuck with hosting it this year, so lots of countries don't want to win, except Australia, because if they win, then the UK has to host it for them, because nobody told the UK that Australia isn't a colony any more.
The rules get kinda crazy. You can only have something like 5 or 6 people on stage at a time, no farm animals, no live instruments, and no recorded vocals. Why no farm animals? That used to be a thing. Now they do things like using holographic wolves on stage, instead. Most of these rules weren't always in effect, so in years past, you had live instruments and full orchestras, but not any more. Now, it's a singing contest. The countries can send singers can come from anywhere, like how Switzerland sent Celine Dion, and they can sing in any language they feel like. Some countries invent languages for Eurovision. They almost always sing in English, but you never know what they are going to do. Keiino won the popular vote with a song with a chorus in the Sami language last year. The Sami are a remote, obscure arctic tribe, and I probably would have never even heard of them if not for that song.
The voting is a little nuts, too, because nationalism and european politics is on full display. The math of it all is too involved to get into here, but basically, the audience gets a vote, called the televote, and that is factored into the final result, but most of the voting power comes from a jury made up of representatives from each country. So the winner has to be both good at singing, and not offending other countries. Some countries can't help but be offended at each other, though. For example, Greece and Turkey will never vote for each other.
I like it because it's a great show of what can be done in music when you loosten up and just have fun with it. American pop music is too uptight, especially in recent years. Some Eurovision songs are simple pop formula songs, but a lot of them aren't. Also, the diversity is just great to see. A bearded lady won it in 2014, and she was awesome! I have a hard time imagining Americans voting for a bearded lady like that on American Idol, but it's nice to dream about that world.
Anyway... if you want another reason to watch it, here is one of my favorite performances, from Ireland, from 2008, during the financial crisis, when they seriously did NOT want to win and be stuck with the expense of hosting 2009. So they sent a foul mouthed muppet Turkey named Dustin to compete.