Wow, I completely forgot the Eurovision was last night. I didn't even hear the Isreali song once.

Also, welcome, Emlah! May I ask from which part of the UnAmerican world you are?

[Edit: x-post with Fay. t waves When are you leaving for the USA?]

Heading to the States on Wednesday. Yay!!!!

Israel's entry was highly amusing - it was the first one I saw when I happened across the show. You guys had a cheesy male singer with five backing singer/dancer types. The girls were dressed in tiny pleated schoolgirlish skirts and white schoolgirlish shirts with ties. At a suitably dramatic moment they all ripped their tops off, to reveal little black corsety type tops (still retaining the collar and cuffs, iirc, and the skirts) with the word for 'love' inscribed on each girl's top ina different language. A little later, as I was still getting over the giggles, they all simultaneously grabbed their little corsety tops and pulled them down in such a way as to alter what was inscribed upon them - there was some kind of secret panel affair, so that each girl suddenly had a single letter on her bosom. The spelled out L O V E U. You could quite possibly hear my laughter all the way to Israel.

The UK entry, meanwhile, was the only one to get Nil Points, and everyone in my household wholeheartedly agreed that this was deserved. It was a truly wretched entry in every conceivable way. Lousy song, Lousy execution of song, Lousy sub-Steps group. breathtakingly lousy costumes which seemed to be the bastard offspring of Gina G's "Ooh Ah Just a Little Bit" microfrock and the black minidresses sported by those Robert Palmer video ladies back in the 80s. Only much nastier. And with pimp chains. Oh, we were dreadful. As Terry pointed out, the voting demonstrated how very unpopular we are in Europe right now - but, also, how utterly shit our entry was. Sigh.

As Terry pointed out, the voting demonstrated how very unpopular we are in Europe right now - but, also, how utterly shit our entry was. Sigh.

Oh, I don't think it's about Britain being unpopular, really. A crap entry would do it on its own.

Oh yeah, I also saw Poland's entry. That was a bit freaky. Missed Isreal. They must feel they have to keep up the camp quotient after Dana International.

Lucky you, Fay, with the flying to LA! You have to represent all of the UnAmericans, you know that, right?

Oh, Fay, you don't need me to tell you that, but have an amazing time each moment you're there, OK? You're like the UnAmericans representative, so you have to party hard enough for several people [Edit: x-post with Fiona, my sister in UnAmericanism] How long are you going to be there?

I knew that we had some cheesy song (it's a real cheesy singer), even cheesier than in the past (last year we had a dramatic 'light a candle with me' song). Now your description makes me wish I'd see it - I could use the laughter.

You could quite possibly hear my laughter all the way to Israel.

Oh, so that was that noise I've heard...

Poland's entry! Now her outfit was gorgeous. My mother described his look as more Coco the Clown, between the pink hair, the glitter and the embroidered doves. It was gloriously Eurovision.

I was so pleased Ukraine got some points, because it was their first go, and I was terribly embarrassed for Latvia, and delighted when someone finally gave them some points, 'cause they were making such a valiant effort with the hosting. Bless.

I look forward to representing all that is UnAmerican. Perhaps I should ritually burn the flag upon my arrival?

eta Nope, that sounds super negative. Perhaps just plant the Union Jack in the soil of California, then, and declare the land the property of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II?

(I'm there from 28th May to 3rd June. Yay!)

I was so pleased Ukraine got some points, because it was their first go

The composer of their song is Israeli, the same one who composed Dana International's song when she won a few years ago (his name is Tsvika Peek).

Embarrassingly jealous of Fay. But really wants to see her planting the Union Jack on USA soil. But if I could see it, I would have been there, so I wouldn't have been jealous.

Brain goes in circles. To stop it, I'm going to a class to give a presentation. [Edit: stopping it from going in circles, not stopping it all together. I'm going to need it for the presentation, and, well, in general]

Perhaps just plant the Union Jack in the soil of California, then, and declare the land the property of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II?

No, no, you need a Buffista flag. And declare the land the property of PORN. At least for the duration of your stay.

Good luck with your presentation, Nilly!

I've always wanted to know this. What the hell is Eurovision? I mean, I figured it was a song contest, but never really got more than that.

So I guess there is only one singer per country? How are they chosen?

Thanks, Fiona! I think it went well.

What the hell is Eurovision?

A European song contest, just like you figured out. There's only one song per country (it can be one singer or a band, I don't think there's a limitation on the number of people), and the contest of the following year takes place in the country that was represented by the winning song.

There are several ways for choosing the representative song. In Israel alone (and I only know about Israel) there were 'pre-Eurovision' songs contests for some of the years, and a board to choose the song to represent Israel on others.

During the competition itself, each country gives points from 1 to 12 to songs from other countries (only one score for each song, so not all the songs get points, and a country can't rate its own song, of course), but they can't give 11 points, and I think another number is skipped, too - I'm rusty on that.

Also, as some of the previous posts may have hinted - it's extremely cheesy. I mean, think of the cheesiest song contest you can imagine, and add extra cheese. More cheese than that guy in "Restless" used for the entire filming of that episode. Lots of laughter, lots of silly fun.

Eurovision site.

The Eurovision Song Contest is not, despite the name, limited to Europe. It also includes Turkey and Israel. Details of its history can be found here.

Essentially, it's a kitschfest. In the UK it's a standing joke, and regarded with affectionate enthusiasm by students and various others. The quality of the music is...well, it varies, but generally speaking we're talking cheesy, camp, kitsch and mockable. Some countries take it pretty seriously - especially the former Eastern Blok countries, for whom any inclusion in a Europe-wide event is a big deal. It does kind of warm the cockles of one's heart, in a way, and yet it's also pretty hilarious. It's not like the Miss World contest, and yet I can't think of any other cheesy kitsch thing to take as a point of reference. Hmm.

As I understand it, there are two stages to the competition; the first stage involves shedloads of countries, and then they whittle it down to the 26 or so we get to see in the televised competition. In years gone by the judging was done by a handful of people in each country (heaven only knows upon what basis they were selected) and traditionally voting has been very political - eg Cyprus gives its largest vote to Greece, Norway gives big votes to Sweden and Iceland, France gives big votes to Belgium etc etc. Because of technological advances, however, we've now got phone votes and so the people of each country get to vote for who they like best. There's still an element of favouritism creeping into it, I think, but not so much as in years gone by.

It's tremendous fun. Camper than a row of pink tents, tasteless as a tasteless tasteless thing with no taste, and all made eminently more palatable by the reliable piss-taking commentary we get from the old stalwart of Eurovision coverage, the venerable Terry Wogan.