For whatever reason they seem to generate a mass affection for perennial runner up - or sometimes worse... There's the football team (who are doing better) but tend to disappoint at the semi final stage of any contest, the rugby team who haven't been able to revive their world cup winning form, Tim Henman whose greatest feat at Wimbledon was having a Hill embankment named after him, and then their Eurovision Song contest winner each year.
My first experience of this strange cultural event was in 2002. At first horrified by Terry Wogan's commentary, one learns that this commentary (now undertaken by Graham Norton) is in fact the best part of the whole damn show!
If you don't know, the Eurovision song contest is like Pop Idols - but between the countries of Europe, and the "Top" 25 compete one night every year and the populations of each country select their winner by telephone vote. It is cringe-TV of the highest quality, and often embarrassing enough to have you scampering behind your sofa, shivering and trembling for your Mommy.
And every year the United Kingdom comes last, or in a good year, second last.
Eurovision has in fact been responsible for coining a now popular phrase in England - "nuls points" - the French phrase meaning "Nil points" following a particularly disastrous entry in 2003 - when the United Kingdom scored ZERO points.
So this evening once more I settled behind the sofa, hands across my eyes trembling in anticipation... And I was surprised...
Firstly, by some miracle worthy of being an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical itself, Mr Lloyd Webber has managed to find a contestant to represent the United Kingdom, and then marketed her rather brazenly across the television sets of Europe over the last 4 months. The result - UNITED KINGDOM FINISH 5TH! (Out of 25 countries - you are not reading this incorrectly)
Perhaps more amazingly, the petty voting patterns that have governed the contest over the last several years (where Each Eastern European country would vote for its neighbours, and as such one of them seemed to always win regardless of quality of song) appears to have been broken. And that in a competition hosted in Moscow!
Yes, this evening a rather catchy little ditty, sung by someone looking like a Norwegian Wurzel one the contest.
Norway won! The curse is broken.
And on second listen, the song is in fact not too bad either.
Could it be?
Could music FINALLY have won the day?
But congratulations too though must go to Jade Ewen on her fine performance and finishing 5th.
If you are interested, here's the winner: Alexander Rybak from Norway
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I'll have to watch the video when I get home and have sound.
ReplyDeleteAnd I may have to check out the Brit entry as well. I happen to be in that minority that has a weakness for Andrew Lloyd Webber.