Eurovision geopolitics
I rather enjoyed watching the Eurovision song contest last night. Not for the quality of music, you understand: I'd like to think that having been a musician since I was three that I could produce something rather better. A demonstration is why it is not a musical competition can be nicely shown here, with the Ukraininan entry:
The other element of the competition which amuses me is the blatant political nature of the voting. The UK, for example, produced a really shit song, full of not-so-subtle sexual inuendo like 'Would you like something to suck on?'and yet Malta, with whom we have very strong ties, gives us 12 points. Ireland still felt obliged to give us seven. It's a game, guessing who will get the points before they are announced, and no one is too surprised when, for example, we guess that Finland gives Sweden 12 points.
My friend said that maybe the musical tastes are more similar in countries in close proximity to each other, especially if they have a land border. I think that's a nice idea, but basically countries can't help but vote in a political way, even in something as camp and irrelevant as the Eurovision song contest. Perhaps that's the way we should decide voting in the Council of Ministers?
And on that point, how come there are now 48 countries taking part in the EUROvision?
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1 comment:
I wrote over 3000 words on this last night thinking that live blogging the Eurovision would make me it understand it. It didn't. I thought it might convert me to the European cause. I'm now firmly entrenched in my belief that the EU cannot work because we can't even agree on something as simple as the best sound out of twenty four.
Did you notice that the UK was one of the few countries that failed to give Serbia a single point?
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