The carnival that is the Eurovision Song Contest is taking place in Portugal this year, with countries already selecting their acts in a bid to win the competition in May. Every year, wonderful (and some weird!) acts take the stage to win the prize and our hearts.
Eurovision is about being silly, having fun and international relations. It’s a few nights where entire Europe can party — this isn’t done anywhere else in the world. So much so, Europe even invited Australia to join the party as an honorary entrant in 2015. It’s something that is special to us, yet appreciated and enjoyed around the world. Here are some of our favourite acts… and a few of the weirder acts!
Dubbed the Russian Grannies, this act sings a very catchy song, trying to get everybody to dance. They all wear typical babushka clothing and perform in front of a spinning oven. There is one member who is really tiny and cute… she is a gem! Considered more of a fun act, they came second and many thought they deserved to win.
The winner of 2010 was the extremely attractive Lena. A catchy, yet simple song, it had an energetic jingle that really made one want to get on the feet.
The winner in Baku, Azerbaijan, Loreen stormed to victory with this song. A pumped-up club smash hit going into the finals, Sweden chose their act really well. They knew what was big and really went to town, with the song finishing highly in charts across Europe before and after the finals.
This catchy song was meant to go to Eurovision only in the fictional world of Father Ted, the British sitcom, but it proved so popular that a petition was made in 2014 to have the song chosen to be Ireland’s song for that year’s (actual) Eurovision. Sadly, it failed.
Here’s a weird one! The UK has a sad history of sending terrible acts. One of them is Scooch. Sexual innuendos aplenty, with the song stopping virtually in the middle to give a safety announcement. It took the silly premise of plane travel and made it so campy that it became unbearable. What made it worse is that this song got 12 points. How?!
Our favourite act on this list, drag artiste Verka Serduchka, who took her nonsensical song all the way to second spot. Lasha Tumbai has no meaning, but the song has words from Ukrainian, Russian, German and English. Serduchka performed in a silver outfit with a star atop her head, with five backing dancers all wearing similar gold and silver outfits. Silly dance moves, cheeky lyrics and a fun singer – this deserved to win!
Benjamin Wodecki
(The author is a journalism graduate from University of Gloucestershire who has interned with t2)
BRITAIN AND THE EUROVISION
Does Eurovision voting have anything to do with music at all? Many people complain that some participating — such as those in Scandinavia or the Balkans — only vote for each other, and points aren’t awarded for the quality of the entry.
It’s a topic UK islanders feel especially strongly about: A YouGov poll in 2013 showed Britons have the strongest conviction that “it’s all political”.
Our entries often lean on political bias to comfort what otherwise might be seen as sore loser syndrome, too. In 2013, singer Bonnie Tyler described the voting as “unbelievable” after she came 19th of 26 finalists and two years earlier Simon Webbe, of UK entry Blue, said it was “often not really about the song but who your neighbours are”.
But is it all political? Here’s the breakdown.
How does each country vote?
Eurovision’s countries — roughly divided into eight regions — tend to vote down geopolitical lines.
It shows the average points that each country received per year of entry from other countries, showing the 10 highest sources and recipients of points for each.
The points are out of a total of 12 — which is awarded for first place in each country — so any figure over eight means that the nation really does benefit from the other countries’ votes.
How does the voting work?
Each country in Eurovision splits its vote between a professional jury and a public televote. It then awards 10 sets of points, by drawing up a list of their 10 favourite songs — giving 12 points to the first, 10 to the second, and then eight, seven, six and so forth to the rest.
In 2016, the way these points are announced was altered to ensure the winner was not revealed before all the countries have announced their votes. But, despite much confusion in the run-up to, during, and even after the big night, the system itself hasn’t changed.
Where are the major voting blocs?
While the exact parameters of voting blocs can vary slightly from study to study, the main ones are:
• The Balkans: The countries of former Yugoslavia, as well as Romania and Albania.
• The former Soviet Union and its satellite states in Eastern Europe
• Scandinavia: This includes the main Nordic nations as well as Iceland, Lithuania Denmark and Latvia. Would ABBA have been quite so successful if they couldn’t rely on points from Finland and Norway?
Do countries just vote for their neighbours?
Most of the voting blocs seem to be based on proximity, but not all. For example, the UK and Ireland often exchange favourable votes with Malta. Indeed, Ireland and Malta were two of only three countries who awarded Electro Velvet points in 2015. This could be thought of as an unconventional bloc.
But blocs are not rigid, and some studies split them slightly differently. For example, a 2014 study conducted by UCL and Imperial College grouped the UK, Ireland and Scandinavia with the former USSR, forming a giant bloc which they said split into two more-or-less random groups each year.
Siobhan Palmer
Ashley Kirk
(The Daily Telegraph)
