Ah, Eurovision, the Hunger Games of Europe. It is a fitting nickname for it. Underneath its campy fun and snark, there is a political game of subtle and not-so-subtle jabs where judges can be politically corrupted.
I don't care about the songs (I do and I'm not a music critic but I certainly do enjoy music)...although the live performances of the songs can be questionable. All I care about is the fairness of the thing. We don't know for sure if people purposely voted Conchita for the fact she's a man in drag or because of her song. Music is subjective in the first place; it's just music. If there are people who genuinely likes "Rise Like a Phoenix", then so be it. Just don't attack Conchita Wurst, okay? The person is sweet and kind and overall gracious to the criticisms; she is certainly a great vocalist, powerful and clean, just right for Austria to send her in. Just don't generalize people as LGBT supporters or to get back on Russia by supporting Austria's Chosen Lot; we don't know for sure. There are people who genuinely likes ESC, those who watch it for the opportunity of mocking, and those who watch for the political jabs. While the latter is annoying to just watch the politics play out in an innocent contest, it's just stupid to watch whereas it's great to watch the better performances and fascinating to watch the weird and catchy ones. I just watch it for the songs really just to see what Europe is sending to their annual contest.
When the clearly political songs play, my brain just shut down and I...I just went to cry into my BL books.
I am aware that political lyrics or anything indicates politics would not make it through but sometimes they do make it through the subtlety of the song. I personally found Jamala's "1944" not that great and certainly not my favorite and not either the juries & popular favorite. That would be Russia. Nothing against Ukraine but the political mess of the whole game is just stupid and brain-breaking more than the outright stupid ones like France's "Mustache" and Greece's "Alcohol is Free". It literally broke my brain when Jamala won. At least "Waterloo" and "Heroes" are vague enough that they either talk about love or standing strong. At least the weird songs and downright awful songs fit right in with Eurovision. Yeah, I personally dislike how the Eurovision was handled on their last contest (politically speaking not comedic when you have Mans and Petra's hosting). It just shuts down my brain, okay, when I see a song that clearly has a political message is shown; arguing that the song has to do with her grandmother does not lessen the fact she is still talking about war that Ukraine had greatly impacted with; it's still a war song no matter how much you twist it; at least "Waterloo" is talking about love and "Heroes" are so vague and I heard "Rise Like a Phoenix" is Austria's apology to Poland which I can't tell when the song itself is vague enough to talk either about LGBT or war or you as a person; "1944" is about war with a clear political message and that's what pissed me off and I utterly refuse to watch the next opening of Eurovision with the winner song because that's how much Eurovision pissed me off with the 2016 contest, skipping to the damn beginning of the contest. I just wanted to scream at each and every person who thinks it is a good idea to send it in when the point is to promote peace, not to get more divided.
I really want all the politics gone from this stupid competition. Making sure lyrics and music indicating politics is not enough. Be more strict about it to make sure there are good songs, weird and somehow catchy songs, etc. Get rid of juries that are clearly political based and get music critics. Make the popular televoting the clear winner. Just do something to make sure no winner is politically based when the point of the damn contest was to promote peace, not talking smack about each other through song. Just make a song that proclaims you winners or something like Lithuania. Toris, Liet, Lithuania, dear, you tried but Finland's Lordi stole the show.
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| While I am not sure if you would win had Tino not send in Lordi, I'm sure you'll win someday in the future. I may always root for Italy but I want a fair result. Look at UK and France who sometimes sent in good results and I am quite surprised by their placement because I thought those deserved better. I thought Sognu to be good and deserved better than the fifteenth place. |
...Much as I do not want to hate on Jamala's "1944" in spite of my ranting of how political it is and how the last contest was handled, congratulations to Ukraine. I may not like the song as much and not that great a song when Russia sent in a good song that the people are willing to put aside their hatred of the country. You buxom lady, I hope you handled the contest well and just hopefully not be heavily political. The last thing I want is to go and cry and ruin my perfectly good books.
I am still skipping your opening though because I will rant when Jamala's "1944" comes on. While hugging my Hetalia dolls. While keeping a pile of doujinshi and BL books by my side in case any political songs come on. And club soda on the other side.
Like every other series or thing, there will always be good as well as bad. I just want Eurovision to be free of politics and be what it was intentionally designed to be.
But keep the camp. Eurovision is already campy and I don't think you can get rid of it after many years of humiliating performances and unlikely be completely serious. Camp makes it fun.
That's just my two cents into the Eurovision mess.
