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Friday, February 17th, 2006 02:37 am
I've made it sadly plain I worship bad pop music and I have a long running obsession with Eurovision. I have ever since I stumbled upon it when I was sixteen and I would LOVE to actually go and see the contest live someday. But with someone who actually wants to go with me. lol. I don't care if it's a friend or a gf. When it comes to something as goofy and over the top as Eurovision I really only want to go there with someone who will truly worship and revel in the hilarity of the event with me. Not someone who will sort of roll their eyes and put up with my lame love of it because I amuse them or something. The love of Eurovision must be pure if they are to join me on this epic musical journey!

Why the fuck am I babbling about this? I won't have nowhere enough money to attempt doing this for probably at least another seven years. Whatever. It's fun to babble. It's what I do.


Anyway. I'm glued to the Eurovision Today website, I'll link it later, and watching all the various semifinalists that are showing up. My early favorite is Silvia Nott who is an actress/comedian from Iceland. A lot of people are peeved about her because she's basically parodying the typical Eurovision song entry styles. The parody entries don't tend to do well in terms of winning the overall contest but I must admit I find them really amusing. Plus Silvia is just unbearably adorable in the performance of her song Til Hamingju Ísland. Here's the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDCmIBIRqOU&search=eurovision

If you want to see the site I'm glued to lately this is the link:

http://www.esctoday.com/

You can register on the site for free and if you do that you get access to a lot of exclusive and cool stuff. The only bummer about it is I had to lie about what country I'm from because United States isn't an option on the drop down list. Normally I would just not put anything but filling out what country you're from is a requirement of opening up an account. So what country is Nic now from? I come from France! Hah. No, I didn't do that because I carry a perverse torch for that stupid SNL sketch. My mother's side of the family is almost entirely French, although an Italian snuck his way in there, and I've gone to visit family there a few times. I figured that was as close as I could get.

Though part of me wanted to say I was from Estonia just because.

For the random ass sake of it I'm now going to link a really fucking high quality video of Eurovision 2004 winner Ruslana and her semi-live performance of Wild Dances. It's not from the actual contest but it's hella cool. And please, don't even try to tell me it's not hella cool. She's deliciously dressed up like Xena: Pop Music Warrior Princess, it has a super dramatic tension filled intro, fucking crazy fast cut aways, warriors who appear to be having a grand old time despite being consumed in battle, and Ruslana flashing her 1,000 watt smiles constantly. This is quality, I tell you! lol. Quality!

Wild Dances Video by Ruslana:

http://s39.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=2ETNX21TB1LA91H2JTE8DL2YMO
Friday, February 17th, 2006 01:39 am (UTC)
Just dropping by to confess the guilty pleasure that is Eurovision.
Even though I'm in Oz, my Dad is English. So every year we used to gather around the tv and watch it. Growing up, I never used to appreciate it. I used to think it was the biggest pile of cack in the world. But as I got older I got to see why it was so good and why dad loved it so much.
For me, it isn't the music that makes it great; it's the commentary by Terry Wogan. That guy is a genius! I swear half the time he's drunk, but the snarky comments he makes are just hilarious! The voting is always great to watch as well. You always know that the Europeans vote for their favourite neighbours/countries instead of best singer. Even Terry comments on it every year with something witty to say. Pure genius!
If you can't make it to the actual concert, you should try going to one of the Eurovision parties instead. There's a massive European community here in Melbourne and without fail, every year they gather in their droves at various places and party on. I'm sure the same would happen in the States.
I know it's not the real thing but it's close enough.
And to all of those unconvinced by the greatness that is Eurovision, I have one thing to say... ABBA!
Without Eurovision there'd be no Abba and frankly, the world would be a dark and unhappy place without them.
Friday, February 17th, 2006 02:12 am (UTC)
Terry Wogan rocks. I love his snarky comments because they're always bang on. He rarely says anything that I don't end up snickering in amusement at. Abba is indeed proof of the glory that is Eurovision. Honestly, I'm so into the contest because I adore pop music and the over the top revelry that's involved with it. I think what's best about Eurovision, to me, is the fact that all of the contestants, fans, just everyone involved with it in some way are clearly super happy to be there and it makes the event just a blast to watch.

I'm so stuck in like a deluge of Eurovision video watching right now. lol. I just watched Elena Paparizou's winning performance from 2005 of My Number One. If anyone wants to see her hotness, besides in the form of my avatar in this post, here's the video for that:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NRBqXSsCQk&search=helena%20paparizou

I also have the video that has her performing with Antique in 2001. It's kind of a let down after watching her in 2005 though. To me, there's something lacking in the 2001 performance compared to 2005. Maybe it's the energy level or maybe I just like focusing on Elena alone. lol. But dude, thanks for replying and thanks for the suggestion to look for viewing parties in the USA. I never tried that because, as far as I know anyway, the contest has yet to be aired locally on television here and so I didn't even think to look into any publically open viewing parties.

But like a fucking nerd I just created a new sticky reminder on my Mac to check and see if our cable provider has BBC so I can watch it on television instead of relying on bittorrent feeds. If I can indeed get Eurovision in my home you can fucking count on the fact that I'll be throwing the most epic viewing party ever for my friends. This being caused by the sheer nerdy joy I get when I share Eurovision with those unfortunate enough to not know of its brilliance.
Friday, February 17th, 2006 05:09 am (UTC)

What I want to do is to strangle the person who decided that it was a good idea to start with the Swedish tryouts in the middle of the Olympics. How am I supped to make a choice between Melodifestivalen and ice-hockey? They are putting me in a very unfair and impossible position here!
Friday, February 17th, 2006 03:27 pm (UTC)
Hee. You're tortured. I'm not at all into the Olympics so I'm not at all suffering as I would be if I was torn in between watching two things. You can tape one and watch the other though, right? But it's not the same as watching it live when it comes to Eurovision and The Olympics. I mean, hell, to be dorky you could call Eurovision the Olympics of pop music contests. lol. I need to try and remember to watch figure skating when that starts. It's lame but somehow compelling.
Friday, February 17th, 2006 05:10 am (UTC)
Hey,
as you know this year's competition will be held in Athens - Greece and it will be broad casted by ERTSAT, check if your cable provider can get ERT or ERTSAT, i believe that the channel is free and you will be able to watch it. Also if it is easier for you the biggest Greek-American community is in Astoria and maybe they will organize something(but you will have to tolerate that everybody will be speaking Greek)
Friday, February 17th, 2006 03:23 pm (UTC)
Dude! Thank you so much. I just made another sticky note reminder so I'll check up on that. Thanks again for those Elena links you gave me. One of my friends managed to find some import cds for Elena that are fairly cheap and I bought two. They should get here any day. Yay! lol.
Friday, February 17th, 2006 10:35 am (UTC)
lol, here we go again.
Without the contest we would not have ABBA, or Katrina and the Waves, I still have a soft spot for the Irish guy, whatshisname Johnny Logan??? And though the parodies never win, there were some pretty close calls, especially when you understand what they are singing, it might sound sincere, but is total crap.
I read that the US wants to have something similar next year, where they can participate and compete with 40 other countries.
Friday, February 17th, 2006 03:16 pm (UTC)
While I would love it if we did something like this in the USA it seems almost blasphemous for us to attempt our own version of Eurovision. But what I would really LOVE is for us to just join the fucking contest and show the ignorant American Idol worshippers what a real music contest on an epic level looks like. And as much as I love my country I would get perverse pleasure out of the fact that the first year we competed we would most likely get our asses kicked royally which would take wind out of the sails of a lot of mindlessly Pro-American/Con-Anyone Else retards we have populating this country. lol. I know. I'm bad.

I forgot all about Katrina and The Waves and I have no idea how since I love Futurama and the main character on it, Fry, has this hilarious habit of randomly singing Walking On Sunshine. I love the parody songs but they never really get close to winning the whole thing, do they? I'm not sure but I'm fairly positive there hasn't been a song parody performance that ends up in the top ten by the end of the contest. Hmm.
Friday, February 17th, 2006 04:00 pm (UTC)
I just know that participants from my country are only able to make it into the top then when they do parodies:
1998 and 2000 respectively. Which is somehow ironic considering how incredibly funny Germans are, I mean, the first thing that comes to mind when you her Germany is their humour.
Friday, February 17th, 2006 09:16 pm (UTC)
Cool. I wasn't for sure if any of the parody songs managed to get very far in the contest so it's nice to know that Germany actually gets somewhere with those because I really do have a fondness for the goofy parody entries. Probably because even though it's a parody they have this weird reverence for the material and the contest. Maybe it's better to call them hilarious tribute entries? lol. That works.

As far as Germans not being known for humor I have a little story that somewhat relates. Mostly because Germans are also not known for being altruistic and accepting people for their differences. My ex-gf from high school went to Germany over the summer for an exchange program and we were both really out and open in high school as lesbians and lesbians dating each other. But anyway. We talked fairly often on the phone, despite the charges, when she was there as well as wrote each other emails several times a day and she was forever going on about how accepting everyone was that she was gay and I was like, "What does that mean? No one treats you bad here."

She basically explained that while no one personally treats her badly for being gay we have a large population who are phobic assholes but although she has only been in Germany for a short time she doesn't get that vibe from the population. I was surprised at her enthusiasm in praising Germans and German culture but hey! It was cool to hear.
Saturday, February 18th, 2006 07:37 pm (UTC)
I also like Eurovision, but I don't usually go babbling about it.
(Anonymous)
Saturday, February 18th, 2006 07:48 pm (UTC)
LMAO!
Saturday, February 18th, 2006 09:38 pm (UTC)
I don't see anyone forcing you to read my babble about it.
Sunday, February 19th, 2006 06:33 pm (UTC)
Sorry, it wasn't meant like that. It just came out wrong. Babble is good, when done by others. Uhm, I apologize if this offended you.
Sunday, February 19th, 2006 06:40 pm (UTC)
It's okay. lol. I'm usually a super friendly person but I have sudden moments of crazed bitchery. Among my close friends those moments are sadly legendary. lol.