[lit-ideas] Re: Eurovision Politics
- From: "Simon Ward" <sedward@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 14 May 2007 17:06:17 +0100
I saw.. now hold on, make no assumptions please... I saw a small clip of what,
from David's descriptions, could only have been the winning entry. Squinting at
the wide screen TV I found myself looking closely at the lead singer (amongst a
obviously male entourage) and concluded that she was probably female; no doubt
from the tone of the singing, although that's no guarantee. It turns out that
the entire crew was female. It wouldn't have made me watch.
Someone said, on Saturday, that the Eurovision Song Contest was on that night.
"It's such a scream!"
So I screamed.
Simon
Ironically, no doubt
on Dartmoor
----- Original Message -----
From: David Ritchie
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Monday, May 14, 2007 4:41 PM
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Eurovision Politics
For those who, on this side of the pond, haven't a clue what Eurovision is
about or why it might be interesting, here's a quick summary: it is an
international pop competition, the rules being that your song must be somehow
comprehensible to lots of viewers who only have a smattering of English as a
common language. The result in the old days was reflected in Monty Python's
lampoon in which a policeman from Monaco sang, "Bing Tiddle Tiddle Bong:
(Eurovision girl comes in.)
Girl: And that's the final entry. La derniere entree. Das final entry. And
now, guten abend. Das scores. The scores. Les scores. Dei scores. Oh! Scores.
Ha! Scores! (cut to scoreboard in Chinese) Yes, Monaco is the winner - hall
Monaco is the linner- oh yes, man, Monaco's won de big prize, bwana ... and
now, here is Chief Inspector Jean-Paul Zatapathique with the winning song once
again.
(The accompaniment starts as the singers hum the intro. Cut to flashy
Eurovision set. Zatapathique steps onto podium.)
Voice Over: (hushed tone) And so, Inspector Zatapathique, the forensic expert
from the Monaco Murder Squad sings his song 'Bing Tiddle Tiddle Bong'.
Zatapathique: (spoken) Quoi? Quoi? Tout le monde, quoi? ... mais, le monde
... d'habitude ... mais ... je pense ...
Zatapathique and Singers:
Bing tiddle tiddle bang
Bing tiddle fiddle bing
Bing fiddle fiddle tiddle tiddle
Bing fiddle tiddle tiddle BONG!
According to the Scotsman today (
http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=742472007) Europe is currently divided
into two, the postmodern, ironic audience which watches because the show is so
awful, and the other half, which believes there are good reasons to win. I
quote:
Adrian Monck, a media analyst, said: "In the west, we're interested in
Eurovision for post-modern ironic reasons. The eastern Europeans have yet to go
through the ironic stage - there is a certain cheese factor with Eurovision
that doesn't play there."
However, Serifovic and her five female backing singers have already acquired
one hallmark of classic Eurovision status - by being acclaimed as gay icons.
Serbia's tiny gay community - unpopular in the deeply conservative Orthodox
Christian country - embraced their country's all-girl winning act as an example
of lesbian chic.
"A big win for Serbia, a small step for gay rights," sighed one partygoer,
leaving Belgrade's only gay-friendly club.
David Ritchie,
eurovision impaired in
Portland, Oregon
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