Eurovision 2006
Americans don't really understand Eurovision, a schlockfest that nonetheless inspires great passion and massive television viewership throughout Europe every May. Hosted each year by the country whose act won the festival the previous year, Eurovision this year will be held in Athens on May 18 and 20.
Last year Helena Paparizou, a Greek-Swedish singer who grew up in Gothenburg, won the first-place prize for Greece.
Eurovision isn't just a music contest. It's also a massively gay cultural event, a friendly tussle of soft patriotisms, and, not infrequently, a prism through which shifts in European cultural politics can be glimpsed. To wit: Armenia is competing this year for the first time, and Georgia is set to compete for the first time in 2007. Both countries are bidding hard to be seen as part of Europe.
More dramatically, the spat that led to the withdrawal of the Serbian and Montenegrin entry is an expression of basic tension within that particular political unit, a tension that will be addressed by a referendum on the future status of Montenegro, to be held the very day after the Eurovision final.
This year, Greece's Anna Vissi (above) leads the betting odds, with Romania's Mihai Traistariu, Sweden's Carola, and Belgium's Kate Ryan not far behind. Finland's Lordi thus far wins the award for the most talked about act, with their theatrical metal entry titled "Hard Rock Hallelujah."
Jaunted will be on the ground, reporting on this most significant of European cultural events in addition to providing the skinny on that post-Olympic, immigrant-fueled, cosmopolitan boomtown also known as Athens.
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by artextor
