Eurovision.
Most Americans would wrinkle their face and ask what that is. Well, I’ll tell you, it’s odd. Part talent contest, part geo-politics, part social satire. Ostensibly, it’s a talent competition, with each country in “Europe” sending one singing act to compete. The finals were on while we were up in the Pyrenees, and we watched (and howled) in our comfy bedroom snacking. We loved it. Now, I don’t watch American Idol, so I can’t compare, but if you can imagine the difference between an Greek wanna-be Britney, a Swedish drag queen, a Finnish heavy-metal band (of the medieval variety), and a Portuguese traditional folk song, you have some idea. The Spanish entry was mostly satire, because the Spanish know they never win (more later), and a function of the method of choosing their representative (via Myspace). The entry of Chikilicuatre, a parody-act that plays on the equivalent of the John Stewart show here. The winner is selected by public voting per country, not a total popular vote, so like the US presidential elections, skews the election by giving more power to smaller, less populated countries. Thus Serbia has the same number of votes as France, even though their populations differ by a factor of 10. Thus the acts from the big five countries (UK, Germany, Spain, France, and Italy) never win, but since they provide the vast majority of revenue, they are always in the finals. Since a country’s citizens can’t vote for themselves they typically vote for a neighbor or ally, thus the geopolitics.
We loved the Spanish announcer/commentator. The show was in English, but the Spanish channel had their own commentator. After the acts have performed the second part of the show is the voting. They take us to each country, all 43 (apparently to a marketing professional there are 43 countries in Europe), and a representative from that country tells us who their citizens have voted for. During this part the commentator was on a roll – guessing which countries would vote for whom or making wry comments. When one country, I think it was Sweden, was taking too long to tell us their votes (these are second or third tier entertainers who like to enjoy their 90 seconds on air), the commentator would say “Vamos, hombre, vamos….” [“Okay, let’s go, come one, out with it…”] We would also hear comments regarding the voting like “Ehhhhso es” [“Thaaaaat’s it”] meaning the country is voting exactly as predicted. For example: Serbia always votes for Russia, Andorra always votes for Spain, Norway typically votes for Sweden, etc.
Chikilicuatre
http://www.eurovision.tv/event/artistdetail?song=23994&event=1469
We loved the Spanish announcer/commentator. The show was in English, but the Spanish channel had their own commentator. After the acts have performed the second part of the show is the voting. They take us to each country, all 43 (apparently to a marketing professional there are 43 countries in Europe), and a representative from that country tells us who their citizens have voted for. During this part the commentator was on a roll – guessing which countries would vote for whom or making wry comments. When one country, I think it was Sweden, was taking too long to tell us their votes (these are second or third tier entertainers who like to enjoy their 90 seconds on air), the commentator would say “Vamos, hombre, vamos….” [“Okay, let’s go, come one, out with it…”] We would also hear comments regarding the voting like “Ehhhhso es” [“Thaaaaat’s it”] meaning the country is voting exactly as predicted. For example: Serbia always votes for Russia, Andorra always votes for Spain, Norway typically votes for Sweden, etc.
Chikilicuatre
http://www.eurovision.tv/event/artistdetail?song=23994&event=1469
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