Eurovision Song Contest

This week is an important week in Europe, and a good example of another pan-European love that is a mystery to most Americans. Yep, it's the 56th annual Eurovision Song Contest.  This is something that, unless we've had the fortune to have British friends, most of us never hear of in the US.  However, it's the most viewed non-sports broadcast on earth - EBU estimates 125 million viewers per year, with more watching worldwide online.

This week in Düsseldorf, musical acts from 43 European countries will compete for the coveted title, decided by a combination of experts and the voting public.  The whole week is a festival of parties, rehearsals, and performances, with all of the national delegations, journalists, and fans coming into town for the festivities.

On each broadcast, the contests will perform live (recommended 3-3:30 minutes). An interval act will perform after the contestants, while the votes are being tallied. The winners (or 10 advancing to the Finals) will be announced, but the actual scores and rankings will not be released until after the Finals are complete.

Eurovision is fun...it's usually mainline pop (think modern schlager music), with glitzy costumes, choreography, and wind and smoke machines. Celine Dion launched her international career with a 1988 win, and ABBA has been Eurovision's biggest success story. (Yes, think ABBA when you think of what's popular in Eurovision!).

And yet sometimes there are surprises...Germany's schlager hit Dschinghis Khan won the 1979 contest and we LOVE the 2006 winner, Finnish heavy metal band Lordi. It's hard to describe, but it's a little bit like KISS meets the aliens that you'd find in a bar on Star Trek DS9

For the most part, the entries are more along the lines of well-produced, formulaic pop that will appeal widely and are fun....a lot like this

The rules are somewhat complex and often changing, but the current key rules are:

Entrants:

• Each member of the European Broadcasting Union may submit 1 song to represent its country (the number of competitors varies per year)
• Member countries can select the entry by any method - Sweden hosts the Meolodiefestivalen extravaganza competition; others have reality shows to select the candidate; and yet others just recieve an invitation from the national broadcasting company
• The song cannot have been previously commercially released
• Performances are broadcast live with no recorded vocals permitted
• Unless it cannot, the winning country always hosts the next year's competition

Rounds:

• The "Big Five" Germany, France, UK, Spain, and (recent addition) Italy plus the host country automatically qualify for the final.
• The other entrants compete in one of two semi-final rounds, with the top 10 from each Semi-final going on to the Final
• It's determined by draw who will be in which Semi-final

Voting: (this one is complex)

• Each country casts a single "vote" which ranks the other acts in the round.
• This "vote" awards 12 points to the favorite act, 11 to the second favorite, and so on down to 1 point
• The points awarded to the countries are tallied to come up with the winners
• Each country's vote is determined 50% by the public and 50% by a professional jury in that country. Public voting is by phone and SMS - each person can vote a max of 20 times, but not for his/her own country
• In the Semi-Finals, only the participants from that round can vote, plus the designated 2 or 3 from the Big Five (this year Spain & UK vote in 1st Semi, the others in the 2nd)
• In the Finals, all 43 nations can vote, with the same voting system

Voting often is controversial (even more so than in the Olympics), with accusations that countries often vote in blocs to ensure their positions relative to others. But the system of awarding a fixed number of points does now ensure that the large countries don't have an unfair advantage due to larger populations voting.

Being something so loved in the UK, there of course are bookmakers and odds on Eurovision results....

So who do I predict to win the first rounds? 

It could all change with the live performance, but based on their video submissions, my predictions for who will go on to the Finals are:

1st  Semi-final: Turkey, Switzerland, Russia, Poland, Hungary, Azerbaijan, Croatia, Malta, Georgia and Norway.
2nd Semi-final: Denmark, F.Y.R. Macedonia, Ireland, Israel, Estonia, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Sweden and Moldova

Finals: We'll see who makes it to the final, but the UK will be a tough one to beat. Italy and France seem too slow and classical to win; Spain is fun and makes you want to dance but isn't outstanding; and sorry, but Germany's entry is too much a pale shadow of last year's Eurovision winner (the beats are strangely similar, but Taken by a Stranger doesn't quite work as well as last year's hit Satellite):
 

 And this year's German entry (also by Lena):

This years entrants....a mix of pop, rock, classical, folk, and seventies....Click on the country name to see their official video for this year's entry:

First Semi-final (10 May 2011)

Country	Artist	Song
Albania	Aurela Grace	Feel The Passion
Armenia	Emmy	Boom Boom
Finland	Pardise Oskar	Da Da Dam
Georgia	Eldrine	One More Day
Norway	Stella Mwangi	Haba Haba
Poland	Magdalena Tul	Jestem
Russia	Alexj Vorobjov	Get You
Serbia	Nina	Čaroban
Switzerland	Anna Rossinelli	In Love For A While
Turkey	Yüksek Sadakat	Live It Up
Azerbaijan	Ell and Nikki	Running Scared
Croatia	Daria	Celebrate
Greece	Loukas Giorkas feat. Stereo Mike	Watch My Dance
Hungary	Kati Wolf	What About My Dreams
Iceland	Sjonni’s Friends	Coming Home
Lithuania	Evelina Sašenko	C'est Ma Vie
Malta	Glen Vella	One Life
Portugal	Homens da Luta	Luta É Alegria
San Marino	Senit	Stand By

Second Semi-final (12 May 2011)

Country	Artist	Song
Austria	Nadine Beiler	The Secret Is Love
Belgium	Witloof Bay	With Love Baby
Bosnia & Herzegovina	Dino Merlin	Love In Rewind
Cyprus	Christos Mylordos	San Aggelo S'agapisa
Moldova	Zdob și Zdub	So Lucky
The Netherlands	3JS	Never Alone
Slovakia	TWiiNS	I'm Still Alive
Sweden	Eric Saade	Popular
Ukraine	Mika Newton	Angel
Belarus	Anastasiya Vinnikova	I Love Belarus
Bulgaria	Poli Genova	Na Inat
Denmark	A Friend In London	New Tomorrow
Estonia	Getter Jaani	Rockefeller Street
Ireland	Jedward	Lipstick
Israel	Dana International	Ding Dong
Latvia	Musiqq	Angel In Disguise
F.Y.R. Macedonia	Vlatko Ilievski	Rusinka
Romania	Hotel FM	Change
Slovenia	Maja Keuc	No One

Final (14 May 2011)

Country	Artist	Song
France	Amaury Vassili	Sognu
Germany	Lena Meyer	Taken By A Stranger
Italy	Raphael Gualazzi	Madness of Love
Spain	Lucía Pérez	Que Me Quiten Lo Bailao
United Kingdom	Blue	I Can
Top 10 scorers from 1st Semi-final
Top 10 scorers from 2nd Semi-final

After seeing videos from some of this week's rehearsals, I have high hopes for lots of glitter, dancing, and wind machines! We'll post some of the best videos from the semi-finals and give you our picks for the finals this weekend.

I'm curious to see how it's presented. There are a lot of interesting stories behind the songs and performers, and if this were an American show, I'd expect the focus to be on the story behind the scenes...Norway's entry by a Kenyan immigrant inspired by her grandmother's words (put into a song that makes you want dance).....How Iceland's entry is being sung by "Sjonni's Friends," after Sjonni himself died suddenly this year....Israel's beautiful transgender diva (and 1998 Eurovision Winner)...or Finland's cute, simple entry by a guy who just wanted to get some feedback on his music, not win a competition.....  I'm imagining it will mostly be about the performances, but the stories behind them often are equally interesting.

Update on Friday, May 13, 2011 at 11:58 by Frau A

So, we've made it through the Semi-Finals. I had a very surreal feeling as I watched German presenters on German TV speaking in English. It was a nice change of pace, but very very strange.

I was again impressed by their ability to switch between English, German, and French (well, the two ladies could. Stefan Raab switched effortlessly between English and German, leaving the French to the ladies).

As for our predictions (finalists are in bold), we were 5/10 in the 1st Semi and 7/10 in the 2nd:

1st  Semi-final: Turkey, Switzerland, Russia, Poland, Hungary, Azerbaijan, Croatia, Malta, Georgia and Norway.
2nd Semi-final: Denmark, F.Y.R. Macedonia, Ireland, Israel, Estonia, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Sweden and Moldova

Moving on to the finals are (click on the link to go to their Eurovision page):

Austria

Azerbaijan

Bosnia & Herzegovina

Denmark

Estonia

Finland

France

Georgia

Germany

Greece

Hungary

Iceland

Ireland

Italy

Lithuania

Moldova

Romania

Russia

Serbia

Slovenia

Spain

Sweden

Switzerland

Ukraine

United Kingdom

Nothing too crazy or shocking so far. There's a lot more rock and use of hip hop interludes than I expected.

These shows generally also are a giant tourism ad for the host country. I really like how Germany did its ads. Before each performance there's a short video of some site in Germany following someone who is from the country about to perform. They talk a little about the person and then conclude with the Eurovision 2011 motto "Feel Your Heart Beat" written or said in the native language. Additionally, the videos are mostly shot in the tilt-shift type of mode that makes it look like a cute little diorama in motion. Also a very subtle but good way to promote diversity in Germany. The Slovakian surfer at Munich's Eisbach was a nice touch!

How to Write A Pop Hit

As we discovered from our David Hasselhoff concert outing (and schlagermusik and the Eurovision Song Contest....), one of the keys to music that the crowd enjoys is giving new words to familar tunes.

Australian comedy band Axis of Awesome has taken this a step further and offers entertaining proof to their hypothesis that the key to writing a pop hit is to use the same four chords.

These guys are truly awesome. I'm jealous of all of you in the US who have the chance to attend one of their 2011 tour dates. If they don't tour continental Europe, we might just have to hit the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August.

Enjoy!