Well maybe ‘love’ is a bit strong it’s the voting I really love. Even back in the days when the voting was generally fair and about the music you still have some neighbour love-ins. With the rise of the eastern bloc vote becoming a reality now, everyone seem to vote for a friend or neighbours.
This year there will be a little novelty with the Australians invading on a one off invite. It has gone beyond what we regard as Europe with the end of the cold war. The floodgates opened in the 90s with the eastern bloc on mass looking to join the party, Russia and Albania were just a few, and that was the reason for semi-finals due to the number of countries wanting to join.
It may be a music competition but as a rule not to my taste, a pretty face or wacky dance routine can be a winner for me over a song. We will have 40 turns on show tonight with some of these acts massive in their own countries but outside it is a case of ‘who are they’ and ‘who cares’.
The Russia singer Polina Gagarina is one of the favourites to win and is expected to win the contestant with the most boos. Rumour has it that the organisers of the Eurovision Song Contest are installing "anti-booing" technology for the final after last year’s Russian singers was roundly booed. It must be Russia president Vladimir Putin hell winning the prize of hosting the competition with all the anti-gay ‘propaganda’ spouted by the government and its supporters. Besides being some great entertainment, it’s very popular within the LGBT (Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) community. A part of me hopes they win so the anti-gay issues with in Russia could be highlighted even more.
What about the UK entrant! Well I have heard the song and I kind of like it but it won’t do much when the voting starts. We (Brits) seem to be roundly hated by everyone and we can’t vote for ourselves so I can’t see us getting any twelve points. Even if we could vote for ourselves, I doubt the panel or whatever would give us the top points anyway.
Other bands or artist to look out for is the Finish punk band, Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät (PKN) whose members are four middle-aged, mentally handicapped men. The Spanish singer is a WAG (wives and girlfriends) of a sportsman, normally a footballer/soccer player. Singer Edurne Garcia is Manchester United goalkeeper David De Gea's girlfriend and one of the hot favourites to win Eurovision. Some guy from Sweden had been favourites to win Eurovision since day one, but he is no longer a runaway win according to the bookies, he has competition.
Then we had Terry Wogan (Sir) and his tongue in cheek commentary today it is Graham Norton carrying the baton and doing just as well in the job. All told, the BBC are giving over three and a half hours out of their schedule and if you add the Eurovision quiz before the main show four and a half hours in total. A big commitment and the biggest live show on TV not including the likes of Comic Relief, Children in Need, and the royal stuff.
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