Very much OT but EUROVISION VICTORY!

[LauraPaura]

I'm not sure if most of you even know about this song contest we have here in Europe called the Eurovision (www.eurovision.tv), but anyways.. It's a yearly thing (what do you call something that happens always once a year?? annual?) and in the last 40 (yes fourty!!!) my dear beloved home country Finland has never won. Actually we haven't even got more than 2 points in this contest.
But today or tonight we finally DID IT!!! There's this hidious looking group of men called Lordi (check out www.lordi.org if you dare) that won the damn contest with almost 300 points and aa huge 40 point gap to Russia that was second!
I just had to share this with you guys, I am just so happy about this! Finally we did it

[Lise]

YEA, Finland!

I know about Eurovision only because my sister lived in Israel for 15 years, and it's a big deal there. I heard a funny piece on the radio yesterday about how Eurovision is as big as the World Cup, but has less violence.

Glad to hear that Finland finally got her due. L.

[Popoki_Nui]

Moikka LauraPaura, and congratulations for your first Finnish Eurovision win!! Yes, many of us over here know of the contest; I first learned of it in 1974 when ABBA won. I hope Finland will win another one soon!
Näkemiin,
Sherry.

[margo49]

Oh yeah, Watched the first 25 min of it.
One of the Swiss singers (song#1) was a young woman from the kibbutz ( the one with the long hair) - I was her metapelet in the children's house when she was a baby (well 1/2 till 3 years old). So I toilet-trained her. Which is my personal contribution to Eurovision since I sing very badly.
Israel's song (#3) was nothing much but then we watched a documentary on refusal to do army service - my SO was imprisoned twice for that in the bad old days ...wayyy OT
Well done Finland, I like to see the little countries win things. Coming from one and living in another.
Sibelius will be spinning in his grave

[VenusdeVelo]

Congrats LauraPaura to your home country win!! We live in NL and we were watching it (as silly as the show seems to be at times!) -- we were rooting for FI and Lithuania...(I loved that spoof on "we are the winners"). But I think both countries accomplished more -- they were able to stand apart from some of the sappy pop music and dare to be different, and WIN!

It was really fun to see...

But how about those hosts (Maria and the other guy...), were they awful or what?

[crazycanuck]

Watched a clip on the bbc about the group that won...All i can say is they're not my cup of tea however i'm sure you finns are as proud of them as you are of Esa Tikkanen and the early 80's finns in the NHL....????

Their makeup reminds me a bit of Star trek....

The contest is being shown on SBS tonight...I can't bring myself to watch it...

c

[DirtDiva]

If you're getting the BBC version it's worth watching for Terry Wogan's comentary. Didn't see it this year, but he tends to pour scorn upon proceedings and I'd put good money on him having a drink in hand all evening...

[pkq]

Congratulations! The arts are a very important part of life just as exercise and left brain thinking are. Maybe Finland can start a trend now.

[alpinerabbit]

Hee hee I watched it on the Austrian channel and the presenter there was so funny. You could really hear he probably hated his assignment so he was oozing sarcasm.

We sat there whooping everytime Finland moved ahead again!

You see, for all who don't know it, the ESC is really something of an exercise in nationalism... Notably, the eastern european countries all poured the top number of votes onto each other, so does Scandinavia and the Balkan countries.

The reason Finland won, IMHO - although the song is pretty good, they can in fact carry a tune (as opposed to at least two of the other acts) - is because of protest votes. The content of the song contest (founded in the 50's??) has moved far away from the interest of the young people who vote via text messages, so apart from voting for their neighbors, most voted for Finland.

"ESC gate-crashing" was invented in Germany.
A couple years back, Germany participated twice with acts that were popularized by a satirical TV show and sort of "crashed" the national pre-selection party. On the night of the contest, voting parties were hosted across the borders in Belgium and the Netherlands for Germans to cross over and vote for their act (can't vote for yourself)....

[VenusdeVelo]

tlkiwi,
Last nite we watched the BBC version and I thought the commentator was hysterical -- typical dry brit humour. I amhappy to know his name now!

He did add several commentary, some biting, to the show and it made the show funnier than intended, I think....

[Trek420]

Is this the same contest that Norways Great Carlic Girls were in?

Discussion of the contest here.

http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showt...t=garlic+girls

Eurovision sounds great, I wish we could see it here in the States I'm in CA, my sister Bikeless on this board lives in Norway, her eldest UK Eliphant on this board is presently in the UK but not an eliphant what passes for TV and culture here....

[winddance]

Hey, that's great!

Your post inspired me to read more about this, and stumbled across the following:

NBC announced plans earlier this year to replicate the formula — a forerunner of "American Idol"-style talent contests — in the United States, with acts from different states competing for viewers' approval.

Just what we need...an American version...! They'll find some way to ruin it...