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Eurovision Song Contest: Serbia Brings It Home
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by Jordan Yerman | May 12, 2007 at 10:27 am
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UPDATE: Serbia wins it!
[q
url="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6650599.stm"]Serbian
singer Marija Serifovic has won the Eurovision Song Contest at a
ceremony in Helsinki which saw the UK's entry coming joint second-last.
Serifovic's powerful ballad Molitva had been second-favourite with bookmakers in the run-up to the competition.
She scored 268 points, beating Ukrainian drag queen Verka Serdyuchka
into second place. Russia was third, with Turkey fourth and Bulgaria
fifth.[/q]
Eurovision, which has brought the world everything from Abba to the Cheeky Girls, is getting down to business in Finland as we speak. Who will triumph?
Oh, the anticipation: as the event gets underway, check out BBC's snarkalicious blog as they cover the event. (UPDATE: ...Or don't, as it wasn't updated during the course of the event!) Also, the audio-visual director of Eurovision, Ola Melzig, has a production diary going. You have to click on each day to see its entries; nothing yet for today, but it's a neat read.
The 24 acts taking part in this year's Eurovision
Song Contest have completed their performances in Helsinki, with voting
by viewers now under way.Ukrainian drag queen Verka Serdyuchka has been the bookies' favourite so far.
The estimated 100 million TV viewers saw a wide mix of
music - folk from Ireland, rock from Finland and Sweden, and
old-fashioned pop by UK act Scooch.The Finnish capital has embraced the competition, with thousands of fans watching on big screens in the city.
More than 350 supporting events were planned as part of the Eurovision "fever".
Before the show, Scooch - singing Flying the Flag - said it would be "really difficult" to follow the Ukrainian favourite. "We're not really sure what the crowd's reaction is like
because we've got earpieces in, but it seemed to be quite good during
this afternoon's rehearsal," group member Russ Spencer told the BBC
News website.The winner will be announced at about 2300 BST (2200 GMT) on Saturday.
I'm more Tom Waits than Tatu, but Eurovision fascinates me as an institution: each nation deciding which song it thinks will best represent it to the rest of the world: more of a PR exercise than a genuine talent contest.
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Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (1)
at 03:00 on May 16th, 2007
The interesting part about this contest is that it has become a kind of cultural catalyst for Europe - with implications reaching far beyond. Public debate in the Western European countries, namely Germany and Switzerland, over "manipulation" and "mafia style" for-favors voting of Eastern European countries have shown that the iron curtain still exists in cultural terms. Now, that would not be a problem if the song contest alone were concerned. But it is likely that the expansion of the European Union to almost 30 countries has let its cultural identity vanish with most people. Which is why to many nowadays it is an unwelcome stepchild. Of course, it is a non-PC taboo to say that, even in opinion polls. The overwhelming "no" in France and Holland to the project of a European Constitution speak a clearer language. Just as the new Berlin Wall at G8 in Heiligendamm allows world leaders to meet without any contact to reality, a Marie-Antoinette-style better-not-ask-the people will allow governments in Europe to reign against their peoples for some time. The question is, for how long, and what happens then.