The Eurovision Song Contest

I'm an old fan and I'm not ashamed of it. I watch the Eurovision Song Contest every year, passionately and unpatriotically and I must say more and more unironically, despite the cheesiness. The thing I love most about it, is, that it gives me the opportunity to listen to a great variety of European languages at prime time once a year (which makes me want to learn a great number of them) and to get a three minute impression of how countries represent themselves that I mostly won't hear about the rest of the year. That's why I prefer songs sung in the language of their countries and not in English. My favourite this time was Vania Fernandes who sang for Portugal. A great song and a great voice and a beautiful performance! Another wonderful voice was Boaz Mauda for Israel!
I absolutely don't like the winner this year - Dima Bilan for Russia with an expensive but cheap sounding Timbaland song accompanied by figure skating world champion Yevgeni Plushenko, who I actually think is quite a cool guy. Well at least it is cool to wear that haircut for years! But it looks stupid to skate on a tiny space with a mad violinist and a half-naked singer. The performance looked repulsively new-rich and I don't want to hear an American song by a Russian singer. I disliked the ones who finished second and third place as well, a Ukrainian shady lady and a Grecian Britney. People should please stop voting for stuff like that!



My absolute highlight of the evening was Goran Bregovic's Wedding and Funeral Band. They played in the voting break. Look how handsomely and gleefully they smile while singing! I love this, I really do! And I love the Eurovision Song Contest for letting me discover gems like this every year!