I don't know if any of our European members watch the Eurovision. The contest could be quite a disappointment, the songs pathetic, the performances kitchy. This year I happened to have the TV on on Thursday and watched most of the half-final. I wasn't planning to watch at all, but all of a sudden there appeared some really nice songs and kept watching to the end. Last year's winner, Ukranian superstar Ruslana, had a nice, fast-paced song with themes from the Hutsul floklore. Probably because of her success many of the songs from East Europe this year also combine pop with indigenous music and with very nice results.

I liked especially the guys from Moldova and Hungary. Chanahari, are you familiar with the Hungarian group? Their leading singer could very well be the next Ruslana. She is an amazing singer and dancer.

I can't say that I'm actually familiar, but I happened to hear them, NOX - I was in hearing distance from our TV, and some of my family members watched it. I liked it.

i can tell you my countrypeople are ecstatic first futbol now this

Are you Greek, Eva? Oh, of course, you mentioned some time ago that you went to a Greek school and were trained to appreciate ancient Greece. I am not sure that the Greeks deserved the Eurocup, I think the Czechs were the best, the Greeks had more luck when they needed it. In games like football things can be unpredictable.

At the Eurovision, the Greek girl had the most powerful presence on stage and basically succeded because she looked and behaved like a Greek version of Britney Spears. Ultimately the proverbial eurokitch won the first prize, but there were some very interesting songs with folk elements which ended in the top ten which was reassuring.

I don't know much about footbol technically to judge who deserved it in terms of sheer sports virtuosity. But I did find it more than amusing that the Greeks won only because they are the extreme underdogs, always placed last, and if anyone were to ever predict they would win the EuroCup the response would be people laughing straight in your face. Despite them being a giant joke footbalwise, the country is obsessed with that sport and talks about it all of the time, which is even more funny considering they totally suck. So I always like it when the underdog wins at least for sheer shock value.

I did not watch EuroVision but someone showed me a url of the winner and from the picture I can see what you are talking about when you say Britney Spears and kitch but you have to admit some of those pop songs can be catchy!! I am surprised to hear Eurovision would have any intriguing music I imagined it as some kind of European version of American Idol or Star Search, partly because I know Celine Dion won that contest long ago. It is good they have at least some interesting music on TV in Europe, as far as North America goes I have to say I can't honestly enjoy anything since 1994 in the way that I used to enjoy it before. I am positive this has to do with music somehow getting really bad and I blame the advent of all this computerized music in the mid-nineties for jumpstarting this era of bad music in all genres. However people tell me No, it is all in my head, I am just getting old! I refuse to believe it I think music has just gone down, who agrees!?

The title of this topic includes the line: "The final is tonight". It isn't but the Eurovision Song Contest 2008 in Belgrade is coming up soon. So here is the Dutch entry: Hind
and the Irish: Dustin the Turkey.

It is a requirement of gays that the Eurovision Song Contest be watched. It is totally gay thing. I will have to enter purdah...

Rhapsodieff, is 'dustin' the turkey' a gay-euphemism?

Obviously the ESC has been hijacked by the gay community, but that doesn't make it a "totally gay thing". Is Terry Wogan gay? Because of the televoting system I will probably not watch it anymore but I have been watching it for about 50 years now and everybody knows that gays didn't exist back then! Not even in Amsterdam. And what is a purdah?

hehehe - I cannot stand Terry Wogan with his badly mismatched rug, or maybe it is a tame haggis sitting on his head.

purdah
Noun
1. a state of social isolation
(synonym) solitude
(hypernym) isolation
2. the traditional Hindu or Muslim system of keeping women secluded
(synonym) sex segregation
(hypernym) segregation, separatism
3. a screen used in India to separate women from men or strangers
(hypernym) screen

Does the purdah means that you wont be watching? I don't know Wogan's Wig but I think his way of commenting is rather suited to the event.
I was thinking about that gay aspect of the ESC. When you see it from the campy side - and who doesn't - then the ESC could have been a gay thing already for a very long time. I remembered in Susan Sontag's essay "Notes On Camp" from 1964 (!) that she already gave camp (and the appreciation of kitsch) a homosexual origin.

The winning song from last year had indeed strong soft porno lesbian touches. It was very well done, just the singer took herself a bit too seriously. I liked more the previous entry from Serbia, the guy ended third I think.

I always watch Eurosong, it is thrilling to see so many winning songs mixed together, each coming from a different national selection determined by different tastes and mentality. The tele-voting is frustrating because all the former Soviet republics and Yugoslavian republics vote for each other and gain unfair advantage over the other participants. Let's see what will happen this year.

There are rumours of a coup this year. Those that do not make a financial contribution will have their votes discarded. This means that the only countries whose votes will count are france, spain germany, UK, and Italy.

I hear also that the eastern european countries have been warned that the tactical voting seen in previous years, if repeated, will result in their permanent disqualification.

But hey its only a song that after the event no one listens to...

It is coming again. Tuesday first installment of the Eurovision Song Contest, " Europe's favorite TV-Show". Thursday the second semi-final and Saturday the Final.

France has Patricia Kaas.
She will not win.

She didn't! She was hilarious with her Edith Piaff-like mannerisms. She looked just mad, not vamp at all. I liked very much the winning song from Norway, the singer has tons of charisma. My personal favourite was Portugal's Flor-de-lis, a nice jolly song, lovely people, and a great singer who is not a standard glossy magazine beauty. And UK's Jade and Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber gave me goosebumps.

Oh my goodness, he gave me the goosebumps too, is there anyone else who more closely resembles a possessed ventriloquists dummy -- could there be?! are you ok?