Eurovision party
I'm going off track a little here to talk about a certain European song contest. Music being my priority.
I watched the Eurovision song contest yesterday evening. My main reason was to be entertained by the commentary of Terry Wogan.
Those of you outside Europe may not know this competition, but within Europe, it's always been a big deal.
The overall result was of little surprise to me. With neighbour countries having a habit of casting votes for each other. None more that what I like to term as Eastern Bloc Europe. So Russia were the victors this time around. How surprising!
I had to laugh when one judge said "The best song in Europe", and one of the judges unknowingly got very close to the truth when they said it was a "Great concert", because a concert is pretty much all it was. It certainly isn't a fair competition any more. Terry Wogan said something like that. He is even considering not commenting on the competition next year, I mean concert :)
Am I sore that the British song came joint last with votes from ony 2 countries? No, I'm very shocked though, because I considered it one of the best 5 songs, and I would like to think that I know a bit about music.
It's even more amazing if you look in all the European charts. There's always British and American music there. And why is that? Well, because it's cutting edge.
I thought it was a toss up between Turkey and Norway for the title. Turkey's song was a modern sound, that was not too far removed from a band called Muse, and for pure songwriting craft, you have to give it to Norway. It's some consolation that they got into the top 10. The British composition was a pretty good one this time around, and deserved a top 10 placing too. Commiserations to Poland and Germany too (I liked the Polish entry) who were joint bottom with us. The rest of Europe must see them as having close political links with us. Political, you hear me say?
That's right. The competition now has a new name for me. The Eurovision Political Popularity Contest. Well, it's certainly not about the merits of the compositions. I think that was made blindingly obvious last night.
So what are my thoughts on Europe?
I love it, and would like to visit all the European countries in my lifetime, and meet the locals. I'm just a normal individual who loves people and doesn't colour them for the deeds of their fellow countrymen.
You can accept or refute my views. I'm not really qualified to comment on such an event. After all, I'm just a Songwriter :)
