Eurovision

[Peter Korsten]

By now, everybody knows that I rather like the Eurovision Song Contest, 
and being a regular viewer, I've seen a lot of things over the years: 
transvestites, changing acts, skirts being pulled away, monsters, rock, 
dance, opera, bad taste, terrible taste, and a lot more. I thought I'd 
seen it all.

Obviously, I was gravely mistaken.

When the votes are being counted, they have this act to spend the time, 
and usually it's a previous winner (which is easy, because the 
organising country would have had a winner the previous year), or some 
local artist trying to reinvigorate a failing career.

This year, the Russians were the organising country, and they an army 
choir. /A freaking army choir!/ Only a few days ago, they were parading 
on the Red Square and plotting to conquer the world, and now they were 
happily singing some song about... whatever. Including a vocalist who 
I'm sure headed a gulag not too long ago.

Then they got a drum/marching band (again, military) plus some people 
doing a presumably traditional Russian dance. Then they got t.A.T.u., 
the army band was happily singing "not gonna get us", and I kid you not, 
they had a mock-up of an Su-35 jet fighter on the stage.

It defied belief. I'm still lost for words, and Lenin turns in his gr... 
mausoleum.

And this was only one of the semi-finals! What will they do on Saturday, 
when there's the final? Nuke Georgia?

Oh, the songs. They were absolute rubbish, but my favourites would have 
to be Finland, Iceland and Sweden, purely on the basis that they had 
gorgeous blond female singers. Needless to say, they all made it to the 
final. As did Malta, incidentally.

- Peter