Matin Lapin: Eurovision

Showing posts with label Eurovision. Show all posts

...and so it begins

Last night I dreamed that I had to give a lecture entitled "The Best Thing In The World" - and I got to choose the topic, so naturally I chose...

Wooooohooooo!

Eurovision for the WIN!

Eurovision Song Contest 2012 results

Soooooooooooo, Sweden won the 57th Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday night. For the first time in about 6 years I was unable to watch it live, so Jms recorded it and we watched it on Sunday morning instead. I had to be sure to turn off my phone and not go on the internet all of Saturday night and Sunday morning, for fear of finding out the result before watching it. We invited some peeps over, got some food in, made some tiny flags with cocktail sticks and labels, decorated gingerbread men in European flags, prepared score sheets for the entries, and put up European flag bunting and a little banner in anticipation.

The show lasted just over 3 hours, and in that time much food was consumed, much jollity was had and many arguments persisted about the quality of certain entries. I still maintain Norway was the best show of the night, despite finishing 26th (out of 26).

As well as watching (and arguing) we all had score sheets to fill in for every act - luckily we had decided when designing them to include a disclaimer just in case anyone was unnecessarily cruel about Norway - and as well as points for the quality of the song and the overall performance, there were also an extra two columns for people to choose how they wanted to grade the performers. We had such varied categories as dancing, funkiness and costumes to amount of spangles, narrative content and emotional impact. One of Susie's categories was "number of boats" for which, obviously, Turkey's entry scored 10/10.

After every country had performed and our score sheets were completed, we revealed our personal results. That alone wasn't good enough, and Jms decided to tot up all the scores from all of the score sheets and work out an overall top 3. I'm not sure how we got it so wrong, but we had decided that Turkey should finish in top place (they actually came 7th), followed by Russia (who did come 2nd, woo!) and Romania (who finished 12th). And our lowest rated songs included Serbia, who ended up in 3rd place. I'm not sure quite how that happened.

Sweden won with no real difficulty, and by about half way through it was impossible for anyone to catch up with their score. There's already a wiki page about Eurovision 2013, which will be held in Sweden, though whether it will be in Stockholm, Gothenburg or Malmö hasn't yet been decided. Obvs I'll let you know as soon as I know. I've not been to Sweden, so I'm very much looking forward to going there next year!

In preparation for my ongoing year of Sweden Excitement, here's a nice Swedish-themed outfit which I would wear if I could... I might just have to go with blue trousers and a yellow top instead, which just isn't as dedicated, is it?

{shrug // East} {shoes // Carvela} {nail colour // FACE Stockholm}

{tights // Forever 21} {dress // A/wear} {necklace // EA Burns}

{bow // Bow Fabulous} {bag // Friis & Company} {belt // Lodis}

Did you watch it? What did you think of the result? Have you ever been to Sweden?

Eurovision semi-final results

Tuesday night saw the first semi final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2012.

It was incredible.

Some people might not know about the most spectacular show on Earth, so you can read more of my opinions about why it's the best thing ever or take a peek at the official website for more info, if you care to.

Of the 18 acts who performed, 10 went through to the final which is being held this Saturday. As Azerbaijan won the contest last year they have the opportunity to play host, and a new arena has been built in the capital city, Baku, especially to host ESC.

Tonight was the second semi-final, and another 10 countries went through to the final, to make 26 entrants in total.

There are 6 countries who always go through automatically: France, Spain, Italy, Germany, UK and the host country. The first of the five are known as The Big Five, and they go through every year as they are the largest financial contributors to the event. The other countries through to the final are, in no real logical order:

Romania, Moldova, Iceland, Hungary, Denmark, Albania, Cyprus, Greece, Russia, Ireland, Serbia, Lithuania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Turkey, Ukraine, Sweden, Norway, F.Y.R. Macedonia, Estonia and Malta.

And of course I want Norway to win -

go check out their entry!

You can see all of my previous Eurovision posts here (I know you secretly want to).

Christmas vs. Eurovision

I just came across this note on passive aggressive notes and was concerned for a moment that it might be concerning me - I can't say that I'm not guilty of playing Christmas music throughout the year...

...but then I remembered, with only 58 days to go until Eurovision, I've pretty much only been listening to Europop for the last month!

Obviously, I don't think it's bizarre music taste at all - Christmas songs and Eurovision can't help but make you happy!

Is anyone in agreement, or do you all think it's a bit weird too?

Which would you rather be subjected to - Christmas music or Europop?

Engelbert Humperdinck: our saviour

OMG. This morning I woke to the news that the UK's entry to the Eurovision Song Contest had been chosen... and it's none other than 75-year-old Engelbert Humperdinck! It's pretty much the most exciting Eurovision news ever and I'm actually rather looking forward to hearing this year's UK entry. The song hasn't yet been chosen, but I'll let you know as soon as it has been, natch!

Here's what he had to say about it on his official website:

Dear All,

I am so thrilled to have been asked by the BBC to represent the UK at Eurovision 2012!..without hesitation I happily accepted.

I will proudly represent my country in song!

This is a competition steeped in tradition and is one of the few remaining that is for the country as opposed to a talent search like Idol, X Factor or The Voice (which I am also a big fan of all 3 shows)

Plus it gives me the opportunity to represent the country in something I'm relatively good at....Otherwise it would have to be at Darts!

More to follow...Keep checking back for updates.

Love
Enge

Oh Enge, I love you!

What do you think about the decision? Fabulous or ridiculous?

Eurovision countdown: 99 days to go...

Forgive me for not alerting you guys earlier, but there are only...

99 days until Eurovision!

I know, right? I'm super psyched, and thought I would share with you my current favourite act, Tooji, who is representing Norway...

Catchy, non?

You likey?

Boom Boom goes my heart

I woke up at around 5am this morning with Armenia's 2011 Eurovision entry buzzing around in my head. It's pretty awesome so I thought I would share:

I've never been to Armenia, but it's on my 'Eurovision Nations To Visit' list - which I am hoping to complete in the next few years. I've been reading up about it, and it's a pretty interesting nation. Here are some factoids:

Armenia lies in the highlands surrounding the Biblical mountains of Ararat, where Noah's Ark is said to have come to rest after the flood.
The world's earliest leather shoe was found in Armenia, dated to about 4000BC.
Armenia became the first officially Christian state in AD 301.
The pomegranate is the national fruit of Armenia.
Cher is of Armenian descent, as are the band System of a Down.

And just because it's the kind of thing I like to do, here's an Armenian-themed treasury. There don't seem to be many Armenians on Etsy, so it's kinda only loosely themed...

{I Love Armenia}

Have any of you ever been to Armenia?

P.S. only 122 days until Eurovision!

the countdown begins

If you read the blog live, rather than in a reader, you may have noticed the addition of a little purple countdown calendar just above the treasuries list in my sidebar.

You might be thinking: "ooh, that sounds fun, I wonder what it's counting down to...?"

I'll give you a little clue:

It's counting down the days until Eurovision 2012!

Yaysies!

I know it's still 278 days away, but that doesn't make it any less exciting for me. It is, however, looking more and more unlikely that I will be able to go to Azerbaijan to see it live, which is a real shame, but finances are quite stretched. Tickets will be on sale from November but I have no idea about prices yet, and flights from London to Baku will cost roughly £400, so it would be quite an expensive weekend if I did end up going.

In other Eurovision-related news, a new Moroccan TV channel have said they are hoping to enter a song into the contest next year. Morocco has entered once before - in 1980 - where they came second to last, hence their unwillingness to enter again.

I'll let you know when they confirm. I know you can't wait!

eurovision party delights

Incredibly, I have never been to a Eurovision party other than those I have hosted myself. This, of course, means that I never really know what one should do at a Eurovision party - should there be drinking games? Should it be fancy dress? Should people bring something from the country they want to win? Who knows!

I never normally have any kind of entertainment other than the actual show, but this year I decided to try a bit harder: after both of the semi-finals, when the final 25 contestants had been chosen, I attempted to find some food from every participating country... it was not an easy feat, I can tell you! I didn't technically complete the challenge, but I think I did pretty well in the one day that I had to prepare it all - and the countries from which I couldn't find food, I at least tried to link in some food somehow...!

Here is a list of what was chosen for each country:

Austria - I couldn't find anything from Austria so I bought some Viennese Whirls... they're from Vienna, right?!

Azerbaijan - pakhlava (it's Azerbaijani baklava, nyom!)

Bosnia and Herzegovina - the song is called "Love in Rewind"... so I bought Fruit Winders, of course!

Denmark - Danish pastries, natch.

Estonia - the song is called "Rockefeller Street" so I bought some rocky road.

Finland - Finn Crisps (multigrain crispbread).

France - French baguette (made from 100% French flour, no less) and brie.

Georgia - now this one was very tricky... so my friend Georgia made some cakes so we would have something from Georgia!

Germany - Hit biscuits made by Bahlsen - my favouritest biscuits when I was a child.

Greece - my lovely friend Dave scoured the shops for Greek olive oil and Greek balsamic vinegar to have with our French bread, and also brought Greek dolmades - stuffed vine leaves - one of my favourite snacks!

Hungary - well, this was impossible so we just had an empty bowl to represent hunger. I know, I'm sorry, that was an awful joke, but we were desperate.

Iceland - after going there in February I brought back a horrendous-smelling traditional Icelandic alcoholic beverage called Brennivín (meaning Black Death) even though I don't actually drink alcohol. I knew it would come in handy at some point.

Ireland - I could have bought one of lots of different types of alcohol for Ireland, but I thought I'd better not risk it after the Brennivín - so I got some jelly lips, as the song is called 'Lipstick'.

Italy - this one was easy... no, not pizza or pasta, that's too obvious! I found some utterly delectable biscuits that I first had when I was in Sicily a few years ago, and had no idea you could buy in this country until a few months ago, woo!

Lithuania - Ekstra beer - this was a great discovery, as Lithuanian food is hard to find!

Moldova - this one is a point of contention among the group: I, for one, don't believe that this ridiculous song should have made it through to the final show, and I think Belgium deserved to go through far more as their song was awesome and had a guy beatboxing (!) so when this song was playing we ate Belgian buns instead of Moldovan food, in protest.

Romania - I found some disgusting Romanian biscuits in one of the grocery stores close to my house, so we had to go with them as we couldn't find anything else.

Russia - easy: vodka. OK, OK, I know the vodka we had was Swedish, but I didn't know that at the time!

Serbia - the song was about magic, so I bought Milky Way Magic Stars.

Slovenia - this was the only country I couldn't find anything from :(

Spain - some weird sticky honey cakes I found in a shop nearby.

Sweden - after all my recent adventures to Ikea, I already had plenty of Swedish goodies in my cupboards - Daim chocolates and Kex bars in particular.

Switzerland - cheese and chocolate, nyom!

Ukraine - the song is called 'Angel' so we made up a batch of strawberry Angel Delight.

United Kingdom - Cadbury's Roses - the ultimate British chocolate.

There was quite an unfair bias toward the sweet end of the food spectrum, which meant that by the end of the show a couple of people were drunk and most others were suffering from a sugar high, me included. The amount of food I ended up with was huge, and a lot of it was, sadly, vile, especially the Romanian biscuits. I'm very impressed though that I was able to find as many of the countries as I did - that's one of the great things about living in such a multicultural city, and in probably the most culturally diverse area of that multicultural city!

If anyone would like to try any of these bizarre foods, do let me know and I'll supply you with some!

eurovision: an introduction (and a bit of emotion)

This year's Eurovision Song Contest, being held in Düsseldorf, Germany, will see 43 participants battle it out to be (unofficially) the best act in Europe!

As I imagine a lot of people won't know about Eurovision, I thought I'd do a little introduction...

The Eurovision Song Contest is an annual singing/song contest. The contest was devised in 1955 when the European Broadcasting Union, based in Switzerland, were trying to think of a way to bring together all the countries of the EBU. It was first held in 1956, and has been held every year since. Each EBU member country (there are 56 of them in total!) are eligible to enter a song into the contest, as long as it has been written (or co-written) by someone of the nationality of the country it is representing (though the performing artist need not be from that country). The chosen song from each of the countries are performed in a live final, and the songs/acts are all then judged by the other countries in the competition, using representatives from each country as well as public phone votes. Whichever country wins the most votes is given the opportunity to host the next Eurovision Song Contest. Germany won last year, with Lena's song "Satellite", so they are the hosts this year.

Germany's winning entry 2010

Although Eurovision is thought of as being a European thing, many of the countries in the EBU are not considered European, but are still eligible to enter, for example Azerbaijan, Israel, Armenia and Georgia. Even some countries in North Africa are eligible to enter, though they don't.

The sad thing with Eurovision in the UK is that it has pretty negative associations...

the voting system is often seen as being "fixed" - there are certain countries who always give each other the highest marks, despite the quality of the song
similarly, a lot of the voting may be based on politics or relationships between countries, and the UK generally have a poor relationship with the rest of Europe. No matter how good the UK's song is, it is unlikely to win as people will not vote for a country they do not feel participates fully or respectfully, or is not politically in tune with the rest of Europe. As you can probably guess, I don't generally support the UK - I support whoever has the best song (that is the point, after all!)
although it is taken very seriously by the vast majority of the competitors, the UK entry is rarely serious or even very good, but is often jokey or takes the mick, which the rest of the participating nations do not appreciate, understandably

Unlike in the good ol' days, the perception of Eurovision has greatly changed in the last 20 years - people see it as being overly camp, ostentatious and humorous, which yeah, sometimes it can be, but it is also an amazing showcase of talent from a variety of countries with incredible cultures, many of whom sing in their own language. It is an inexplicably beautiful thing to see and hear someone representing their country with the passion that is shown in the contest, made even more so if they are singing in their national language. There is nothing quite like Eurovision anywhere else in the world and I genuinely feel a part of the wider world when I'm watching it, whether live in an arena (where there is an ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE atmosphere, I can't even try to describe it) or in the comfort of my own home. I rarely feel as connected to the rest of Europe (or the EBU countries, I should say) than I do during those few hours every May. I find it hard to explain the rush of emotion I feel when watching the show: it's the most enchanting feeling, and it fills me with such utter delight - don't even get me started on the thrill of the results coming in, it's like I'm one of the participants myself: I feel nervous, sad and jubilant on behalf of every country.

I have never met anyone who is quite as emotional about Eurovision as I am, and I know it must sound absolutely ridiculous to have this kind of emotion about something so seemingly trivial, but Eurovision is one of my biggest joys in life, certainly my favourite day of the year, and I'm not ashamed to admit it!

P.S. Only 10 days to go until the final!

to listen or not to listen

This morning I received the Eurovision 2011 CD in the post (yeah, it was pre-ordered, I'm just that ~~obsessed~~ organised). I have heard the UK entry already, natch, but I haven't listened to any others apart from Ireland's entry (it's performed by Jedward - how can a girl resist such kitsch?)

Now the big question is: should I listen to the CD before the show?

I shouldn't listen to it because...

I have never listened to the songs prior to the live show before, apart from when watching the semi-finals.
It will ruin the surprise of the songs when I watch the live show.

I should listen to it because...

I'll be able to learn the song words and then be able to sing along while watching it on TV.
It won't ruin the surprise because I still won't know what the acts look like/will be wearing, which is a huge part of the enjoyment for me.

Thoughts?

E to the U to the R to the O to the VISION!

There is only one month to go until the Eurovision Song Contest 2011, and I can barely hide my excitement!

I have pre-ordered the Eurovision CD (released on 18th April, woo!)
I am in the process of finding a foodstuff from every participating country (Bulgarian biscuits FTW!)
I have been looking for awesome Eurovision merchandise... but devastatingly to no avail - the official sites just sell rubbishy t-shirts and bags and stuff, and since no one really actually likes Eurovision in this country apart from me and the Swedes who live here, it's quite a challenge to find anything Eurovision-y and fabulous...

Hope is not lost, however, as the Australians have never let me down yet! Able and Game, based in Melbourne, have the most wonderful card for sale in their Etsy shop. Here it is in all it's glory: