Another Old Friend

So much has been written about Eurovision this year that it is hard to find a new angle, but I'll just say that I enjoyed it.

I have no idea how odds are determined, but Croatia was picked to win.

Maybe my favorite part of their act was the lace all over the drum set.

Each country has a jury that decides how to distribute its points and the public also gets a vote. 

The whole world does not get to participate in the contest,
but the whole world can pay to vote.

I was originally watching the Australian broadcast and could see that it cost $0.65AUD, which is less than 50¢ USD.

I decided to see if I could watch the Danish broadcast, which I could. It turns out I was missing all the filler bits, like this silly act. It was there that I learned that 

it cost only 1DKK or 15¢ USD for their vote.

I was not in Australia or Denmark so

if I wanted to vote it would be €0.99, which more than $1 USD.

Sweden won Eurovision last year and was the host this year, fifty years after ABBA won.

ABBA had said they would not perform this year, but I, like many people, hoped they would change their mind. They didn't. This computer-generated group performed instead.

The second-place song last year, and the favorite of the public, was from Finland. The hosts claimed this would have been the dance number while votes were counted if Finland hosted. That would have been fine with me.

None of this really describes the event, just bits and pieces that stood out to me. In the end, Switzerland won.

It was not as fun as a party with friends in Denmark, but being able to watch and text with friends around the world was a fine second choice.

Weekend Entertainment

 

I have loved the book Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch since I first read it. You can watch this video if you want someone to read it to you.

I was excited to see that it was being
performed live and I could watch online.

Unfortunately, the Danish Melodi Grand Prix, to pick which performance would go to the Eurovision Song Contest, was at the same time.

I was able to enjoy both of them and use a third device to chat with friends in Denmark about which performers we wanted to see in the finals.

The next day we had a chance to see a live performance as part of Family Weekend at Scripps College and Scripps Presents.

The ABBA tribute band brought out a lot of dancers and many of us sang along.

The highlight for me was when the band invited an especially enthusiastic student to sing with them. She had a great voice and her passion and zest were infectious. She shouted, "I'm living my dream!" and everyone cheered.

Contentment

Some people have been waiting to eat in a restaurant, others want to travel, and there are those people who were waiting to get a haircut. I have been waiting for Eurovision. I have seen the movie based on the event, watched the interviews, and read the gossip. I have watched the special online event created to substitute for the 2020 competition and the video the artists created. 

This week was the real thing! Knowing how much fun I had with the semifinals it was hard to imagine that the finals could really be better, but they were! The five largest countries (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the UK) and the host (The Netherlands, which won the last competition) are given automatic entry into the finals so it was the first time to see them perform. For an entertaining summary you can read this piece or watch this video.

The other big difference was the voting to determine the winner. This part is hard for me because even though I am happy for the winner I am so sad for everyone else!

The movie based on Eurovision had this line, which was funny because it is true. In my opinion the UK has not had the worse song even though they usually finish last. This year the bookies picked them for last and they received zero points from the juries of each country and zero points from the popular vote. Maybe it was related to Brexit?

Other highlights for me (your experience will definitely vary) - 

Iceland using an actor from the Eurovision
 movie to award their twelve jury points

A little hand jive from Lithuania,
a bit like the Zoom arm thing
and not like the Jeopardy thing.

And it was not my favorite song, but I loved Iceland's act!

Their funny keyboards

which became

a round keyboard.

And just matching sweaters, no sequin, fringe, or cleavage/waxed chest anywhere! They finished in fourth place, which was their seventh top-ten finish.

I always imagine going to the winning country to see Eurovision live and there had been talk of going to The Netherlands with a friend. It didn't happen but planning is half the fun! Or all the fun! After getting a high number of jury points and the most popular points Italy was declared the winner. It would be amazing to go there because the Giro d'Italia, a three-week bike race, is every May so we could see both events! Too bad D. has to work and A. has finals. I will miss them! 😉 I have already written to two friends in Italy and a local friend who is from Italy. Planning is all the fun!

So Much Fun!!

 Eurovision is back and even though I am not watching it Europe I am having a lot of fun!

Of course I can't just watch the Eurovision YouTube channel.

And even though A. put a VPN on my computer, it was initially not much help. I wanted to watch Graham Norton on the BBC but their site said that even though the VPN said I was in the UK the BBC could not verify it so I couldn't watch. 

A. fussed a bit and found that using an Austrian connection worked. Yippee!

There was a running commentary with my American friends in Denmark and all her friends. It is a lot more fun watching with friends.

I was gathering information for this post and went to the best Eurovision blog and was amazed to learn that I could have watched with an NBC app (Peacock). Maybe they are trying to build an audience to prepare for the arrival of American Song Contest in 2022? If you click on that link be sure to follow the important rule of the internet and do not read the comments.

So now there is not much room left for any Eurovision blather, so I will just post about crosswalks.

I was going to post about dancing crosswalks.

I looked all over for a story and initially only found the video above

but then found one here and here, which you can go to if you want to see people dancing as they cross the street. Wish I were there!!

Worth the Wait

Maybe you were wondering why I went all the way to Denmark for a Eurovision party (aside - no, the Eurovison Song Contest was not in Denmark. I was invited to a Eurovision party that was held in Denmark. The song contest was in Israel. Maybe that makes it more confusing?) and am just posting about it now. I have already bought the cd so it must be time to wrap it up with a post.

After listening to the official videos I initially didn't like any of the songs, but listening for a few more weeks made me a fan.

Here's a fifteen minute recap of the 41 songs.

Last year's winner was a song called Toy.

This was my attempt at a costume that went
with the Toy theme AND fit in my suitcase.

The cakes went along with the theme, too.
Chocolate teddy bear, marzipan frisbee,
lemon rubber ducky, and vanilla Rubik's cube.

We had Eurovision Song Contest trivia and also Eurovision bingo.

This is an example, not the one we used.

Of course there was the actual song contest, which we did actually watch. There were enough entertaining bits and enough silliness to make it feel like Eurovision.

Australia (wait, Australia is not in Europe, I hear you cry. Yes, but they wanted to be and they are not the US so Europe let them join) had the most Eurovision song. The official video above gives you a sense of the final performance, but if you want to see the real thing from the point of view of an audience member, check this out.

After the long voting process, both juried votes and televoting by individuals, Netherlands came out the winner, as predicted. If you aren't in the US you can probably see the winning performance. Otherwise you will have to watch a pre-competition video. Sigh.

Or you could watch an 18-minute summary of the whole evening. My favorite part was when the former winners sang songs performed by other winners (especially at 14:15 when Verka Serduchka sings Toy).

What finally got me to write this up happened just a block from
my house. As I was walking the dog I saw a party truck.

On the other side were some screen with games. A few kids had chosen the Wii dance option and there was Netta singing Toy and people happily dancing along. When I asked if they had heard the song before they told me of course they had!

It is nice to have an event that brings so many smiles to so many people!