Tuesday, May 10, 2011 at 16:20
Frau A in Eurovision, Germany & German Culture, Music, pop music, schlager
This week is an important week in Europe, and a good example of another pan-European love that is a mystery to most Americans. Yep, it's the 56th annual Eurovision Song Contest. This is something that, unless we've had the fortune to have British friends, most of us never hear of in the US. However, it's the most viewed non-sports broadcast on earth - EBU estimates 125 million viewers per year, with more watching worldwide online.
This week in Düsseldorf, musical acts from 43 European countries will compete for the coveted title, decided by a combination of experts and the voting public. The whole week is a festival of parties, rehearsals, and performances, with all of the national delegations, journalists, and fans coming into town for the festivities.
On each broadcast, the contests will perform live (recommended 3-3:30 minutes). An interval act will perform after the contestants, while the votes are being tallied. The winners (or 10 advancing to the Finals) will be announced, but the actual scores and rankings will not be released until after the Finals are complete.
Eurovision is fun...it's usually mainline pop (think modern schlager music), with glitzy costumes, choreography, and wind and smoke machines. Celine Dion launched her international career with a 1988 win, and ABBA has been Eurovision's biggest success story. (Yes, think ABBA when you think of what's popular in Eurovision!).
And yet sometimes there are surprises...Germany's schlager hit Dschinghis Khan won the 1979 contest and we LOVE the 2006 winner, Finnish heavy metal band Lordi. It's hard to describe, but it's a little bit like KISS meets the aliens that you'd find in a bar on Star Trek DS9
For the most part, the entries are more along the lines of well-produced, formulaic pop that will appeal widely and are fun....a lot like this
The rules are somewhat complex and often changing, but the current key rules are:
Entrants:
Each member of the European Broadcasting Union may submit 1 song to represent its country (the number of competitors varies per year)
Member countries can select the entry by any method - Sweden hosts the Meolodiefestivalen extravaganza competition; others have reality shows to select the candidate; and yet others just recieve an invitation from the national broadcasting company
The song cannot have been previously commercially released
Performances are broadcast live with no recorded vocals permitted
Unless it cannot, the winning country always hosts the next year's competition
Rounds:
The "Big Five" Germany, France, UK, Spain, and (recent addition) Italy plus the host country automatically qualify for the final.
The other entrants compete in one of two semi-final rounds, with the top 10 from each Semi-final going on to the Final
It's determined by draw who will be in which Semi-final
Voting: (this one is complex)
Each country casts a single "vote" which ranks the other acts in the round.
This "vote" awards 12 points to the favorite act, 11 to the second favorite, and so on down to 1 point
The points awarded to the countries are tallied to come up with the winners
Each country's vote is determined 50% by the public and 50% by a professional jury in that country. Public voting is by phone and SMS - each person can vote a max of 20 times, but not for his/her own country
In the Semi-Finals, only the participants from that round can vote, plus the designated 2 or 3 from the Big Five (this year Spain & UK vote in 1st Semi, the others in the 2nd)
In the Finals, all 43 nations can vote, with the same voting system
Voting often is controversial (even more so than in the Olympics), with accusations that countries often vote in blocs to ensure their positions relative to others. But the system of awarding a fixed number of points does now ensure that the large countries don't have an unfair advantage due to larger populations voting.
Being something so loved in the UK, there of course are bookmakers and odds on Eurovision results....
So who do I predict to win the first rounds?
It could all change with the live performance, but based on their video submissions, my predictions for who will go on to the Finals are:
1st Semi-final: Turkey, Switzerland, Russia, Poland, Hungary, Azerbaijan, Croatia, Malta, Georgia and Norway. 2nd Semi-final: Denmark, F.Y.R. Macedonia, Ireland, Israel, Estonia, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Sweden and Moldova
Finals: We'll see who makes it to the final, but the UK will be a tough one to beat. Italy and France seem too slow and classical to win; Spain is fun and makes you want to dance but isn't outstanding; and sorry, but Germany's entry is too much a pale shadow of last year's Eurovision winner (the beats are strangely similar, but Taken by a Stranger doesn't quite work as well as last year's hit Satellite):
And this year's German entry (also by Lena):
This years entrants....a mix of pop, rock, classical, folk, and seventies....Click on the country name to see their official video for this year's entry:
After seeing videos from some of this week's rehearsals, I have high hopes for lots of glitter, dancing, and wind machines! We'll post some of the best videos from the semi-finals and give you our picks for the finals this weekend.
I'm curious to see how it's presented. There are a lot of interesting stories behind the songs and performers, and if this were an American show, I'd expect the focus to be on the story behind the scenes...Norway's entry by a Kenyan immigrant inspired by her grandmother's words (put into a song that makes you want dance).....How Iceland's entry is being sung by "Sjonni's Friends," after Sjonni himself died suddenly this year....Israel's beautiful transgender diva (and 1998 Eurovision Winner)...or Finland's cute, simple entry by a guy who just wanted to get some feedback on his music, not win a competition..... I'm imagining it will mostly be about the performances, but the stories behind them often are equally interesting.
So, we've made it through the Semi-Finals. I had a very surreal feeling as I watched German presenters on German TV speaking in English. It was a nice change of pace, but very very strange.
I was again impressed by their ability to switch between English, German, and French (well, the two ladies could. Stefan Raab switched effortlessly between English and German, leaving the French to the ladies).
As for our predictions (finalists are in bold), we were 5/10 in the 1st Semi and 7/10 in the 2nd:
1st Semi-final: Turkey, Switzerland, Russia, Poland, Hungary, Azerbaijan, Croatia, Malta, Georgia and Norway. 2nd Semi-final: Denmark, F.Y.R. Macedonia, Ireland, Israel, Estonia, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Sweden and Moldova
Moving on to the finals are (click on the link to go to their Eurovision page):
Nothing too crazy or shocking so far. There's a lot more rock and use of hip hop interludes than I expected.
These shows generally also are a giant tourism ad for the host country. I really like how Germany did its ads. Before each performance there's a short video of some site in Germany following someone who is from the country about to perform. They talk a little about the person and then conclude with the Eurovision 2011 motto "Feel Your Heart Beat" written or said in the native language. Additionally, the videos are mostly shot in the tilt-shift type of mode that makes it look like a cute little diorama in motion. Also a very subtle but good way to promote diversity in Germany. The Slovakian surfer at Munich's Eisbach was a nice touch!
Article originally appeared on Schnitzelbahn - Food, Travel, and Adventures in Germany (http://www.schnitzelbahn.com/).
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Frau A
Austria 
Azerbaijan 
Bosnia & Herzegovina 
Denmark 
Estonia 
Finland 
France 
Georgia 
Germany 
Greece 
Hungary 
Iceland 
Ireland 
Italy 
Lithuania 
Moldova 
Romania 
Russia 
Serbia 
Slovenia 
Spain 
Sweden 
Switzerland 
Ukraine 
United Kingdom