Eurovision-2008 - short sample of all finalists

[Jaga]

Eurovision-08 was won by Russia. Among finalists Polish song was... last.There was nothing wrong with the song but it just did not have anything special in it. The winner is chosen by the voters from the countries taking part in final. each country votes for other countries except their own.

here are samples of all finalists

[Jaga]

Irish were playing the turkey and they did not win... somebody accused Europeans of lack of humor:

[uncltim]

Did you see the Irish Dis Michael Flattley and apologize for Riverdance?

[tuftabis]

Eurovision contest results illegally arranged

Italian daily Corriere della Sera informs today about controversy around Eurovision song contest concluded Saturday with Russian singer Dima Bilan winning the first prize. The newspaper cites opinions the contest was sold.

The biggest Italian newspaper in extensive correspondence from London strikes out the opinion of Terry Wogan, Nestor of British music presenters. --The festival is a political event, dominated by a secret agreement of the former Soviet republics and national prejudice in Eastern European states. As the newspaper underlines, the festival was preceded by a summit at which secret consultation of Eastern Europe emissaries led to agreement the Russian Bear should triumph over the West.

Terry Wogan from BBC, who was the main presenter of 35 eurovision contests transmissions , said earlier this year the British participation in this festival would better be suspended.

Representative of Great Britain has occupied last place, together with Poland and Germany.

It is also notable that Germany, which borders nine states, haven't received any votes from the neighbors.

[tuftabis]

I know it is hard to believe. But yes, I have more news about Eurovision Song Contest. It's rather longish, but don't despair, you'll like it and you'll learn A LOT about Europe, dear reader

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Eurovision losers...
by Ania Piwowarska.
27.05.2008

As I mentioned last year, I take the Eurovision song contest extremely seriously. Well, as seriously as you can take such a kitsch, camp and unintentionally hilarious spectacle.


However, still it holds a special place in my heart being intrinsically linked with my Eastern European childhood. This year, to celebrate the 53rd Eurovision song contest final, held in Belgrade, I hosted my own Eurovision Song Contest Party. My guests were appropriately international – coming from Sweden, England, Holland and Germany (well, the German section of Polish Radio). I made sure that I dressed up suitably in an evening gown and a tiara so as to present the songs to my guests ‘live’ in my living room. A good friend of mine even went to the trouble of making special voting cards for everyone to fill in.

This years contest was no so very different to those held in previous years. Although, I have noticed that each year there seem to be more and more blonde Shakira-esque female singers who shake their hips against a backdrop of muscular male backing dancers. There are also repetitions of songs that have had success in previous years. For instance Finland presented us with a heavy metal band which was not that novel, as another Finnish heavy metal band, Lordi, had already played that controversial card, winning in 2006. In fact, Russia’s entry (which went onto win the whole contest) was also surprisingly similar to their entry two years ago. The same singer – metro sexual pop-star Dima Bilan, was once again flashing his tanned torso in a white top. His performance also had a very similar melody and choreography to his 2006 entry (except this time there was a male ice skater rather than a female ballet dancer). Not that there’s anything really wrong with repeating a winning formula , after all, Bilan came second in 2006. However, the question on everyone’s lip’s was did Russia deserve to win? And did Poland and the UK deserve to come last.

Reading the British press, it’s obvious that the English are a bit miffed by another failure. Apparently the BBC predicted five days before the contest took place that Russia would win. Also, the BBC’s veteran Eurovision commentator, Terry Wogan, who had been hosting the event since the seventies, said that he would have to think about whether he would continue hosting the Eurovision. In his mind the contest has become less about the music and more about ‘national prejudices’. In many ways cannot be argued with. The tradition of ‘bloc voting’ during the Eurovision is well known. Scandinavian countries vote for each other, members of the former Soviet Union vote for Russia and the Balkan states also vote for their neighbours. No one really cares whether each other’s song is good - they care more about being on good terms with their neighbour. This is certainly not fair, but it is understandable. If I was the Ukraine, I’d be scared of awarding ‘nul points’ to Russia, wouldn’t you?

So if this bloc voting is what the whole contest is based on, what does it mean for Poland. Not much, it seems. It’s blatantly obvious that neither Russia nor Russia will ever give us many points. In fact, the only countries that did give Poland’s entry points were Ireland and the UK. Perhaps, these came from the hundreds of thousands of Polish immigrants that are living and working on the isles? As it goes, I don’t feel too sorry for Poland. In sending American vocalist and composer, Isis Gee (who and only came to live in Poland four years ago) we made the same mistake as last year with the ‘The Jet Set’. Of course, there is nothing wrong with Mrs Gee not really being Polish, but unfortunately this showed in her performance. Nothing in it signaled that she was representing this country. Looking at the voting cards from my Eurovision Song Contest party, this is what people had to say about our national entry: “another disappointment”, “blue fishtail, OTT teeth bleach” (which referred to her appearance) or simply “no, no, no”. And that’s some of the nicer comments. What Poland should have done is taken a leaf out of France’s book. Perhaps they didn‘t win but they certainly didn’t embarrass themselves with a very hip entry by the bearded Sebastien Tellier I am willing to put money on the fact that this singer will make money out of his Eurovision song. Not only did he have all his backing dancers (females included) wear stick-on beards but his laid back performance and catchy synthetic euro-pop sound, were a league above the rest. Very laid-back, very French– my personal favourite and the song that was tipped by the majority of my guests to win.

As for the UK, there have been many rumours why they continue to do so badly. As it became clear that the UK would not win Terry Wogan stated: "I'm afraid nobody loves the United Kingdom ...".I agree with Terry – I mean, who is going to vote for the UK ? Certainly not France. My impression is that the Poles are dealing with their failure and lack of ‘friends’ with more of a sense of humour. After all, the whole point of the Eurovision Song Contest is to set free your hidden national prejudices during a fluffy and frankly ridiculous spectacle. No one has ever taken the contest seriously and to suggest that you get rid of ‘bloc voting’ is laughable in itself. Actually, that would probably spoil half the fun of it. Also, we all know that a truly catchy song such as Israel’s feminist anthem ‘Diva’ sang by transsexual Dana International or Ukraine’s Ruslana with her cave woman inspired ‘Wild Dances’ will always win, no matter what country they’re from. I believe that this year neither Poland nor the UK’s entries were good enough. It might have obvious from the start that Russia would win, but they had gone to the trouble to hire the legendary record producer Timbaland to produce their song, design a mini-ice rink and bring along an Olympic ice skater. And in the end who cares who won, as long as we all had fun watching it…