With "Hard Rock Hallelujah," a slice of metal theater, Finland's hard rock band Lordi came out far ahead of second-place Russia in this year's Eurovision song contest, becoming one of the most surprising winners in the competition's history. Lordi pulled in front early and increased their lead gradually as the televote from 38 countries came in.
National vote reporting is one of the most enjoyable parts of the Eurovision evening. A representative from each country reports the national televote. The top ten vote-getters in each country receive points. The tenth through third highest vote-getters receive one through eight points, respectively. The second highest vote-getter nets 10 points, while the top vote-getter receives 12.
It is not possible to vote for your own country's act, although, as fan site esctoday.com has pointed out, Skype may be changing this.
The best moment during the vote reporting: Dutch announcer Paul de Leeuw flirting with co-presenter Sakis Rouvas, calling him "chickie," and offering him his phone number.
Finland's first ever Eurovision win may encourage other countries to reject more typical quasi-ethnic and ultra-sugary sorts of entries for acts that represent actual local tastes. Hardcore metal is huge in Finland, and Lordi matches domestic musical interests quite well.
Over the last 120 years, Greece has been a country of significant emigration -- to North America, Western Europe, and Australia, among other countries. Since 1990, however, Greece has quite quickly transformed from a country with very few immigrants to a multiethnic country. Over half of this wave of immigrants to Greece comes from Albania, with Bulgarians and Romanians also contributing significant, though much smaller, numbers.
In addition to this immigration flow, 150,000 ethnic Greeks from the former Soviet Union have moved to Greece since the late 1970s. Furthermore, many Greeks who emigrated during harder economic times have returned as retirees. All these influx routes make for dramatic population changes. Immigrants are estimated to make up about 10% of the Greek population today.
In cosmopolitan Athens, the verdict seems mostly positive. We met a fourth-grade teacher who works for a school in a heavily immigrant neighborhood. He raves about his children, 20 of 21 of whom are of immigrant backgrounds, and seems enthused about the immigration-fueled boldness of contemporary Greek society.
There are shards of ambivalence as well, of course. Parts of the Greek media have engaged in a scapegoating form of immigrant stereotyping, focused in particular on Albanians. One hotel proprietor we met slyly made it clear that she doesn't allow Albanians and Bulgarians to stay in her rooms.
Hands down, the two best Eurovision semi-final performances were given by Finland's hard rock band Lordi and Iceland's completely bizarre Sylvia Night.
Lordi performed sheer metal pyrotechnic theatre that had the crowd--not an obvious hard rock audience--exploding. Sylvia Night's act included a striptease, a phone conversation with God, and a garbled bad word that got her in trouble with the European Broadcasting Union, all in a babytalk voice. She was applauded and booed. It was an exhausting three minutes.
Through to the final: Russia, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Finland, Ukraine, Ireland, Sweden, Turkey, and Armenia. They'll join Switzerland, Moldova, Israel, Latvia, Norway, Spain, Malta, Germany, Denmark, Romania, the United Kingdom, Greece, France, and Croatia in the final.
These latter countries qualified either on the basis of their performances last year or by dint of market size: the UK, France, Germany, and Spain automatically qualify each year for the final.
A public televote determines winners, with people allowed to vote for any country performing but the one from which they are calling. This form of telephonic democracy allows for some surprises. Case in point: Eurovision fanatics rated Belgium's Kate Ryan their top choice. Yet despite this and despite her significant success as a dance music artist throughout Europe, Ryan failed to place through to the final.
Ahh, the Eurovision odds, a small industry unto itself.
According to UK bookmaker PaddyPower, Swedish singer Carola is slowly gaining ground on Anna Vissi, the singer representing Greece. Trailing Greece and Sweden, in order of descending odds: Romania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, the United Kingdom, Finland, Germany, Belgium, and Russia.
Sadly, the Monegasque entry, sung by one Séverine Ferrer and titled "La coco-dance," has been given only a one in one hundred chance of winning by PaddyPower. "La coco-dance" is the sort of song we imagine countless French tourists returning from a 1980s Club Med holiday singing until their ears bled, a piece of sugary pop perfection. Go Monaco!
Behind the scenes the buzz is still with Finland's Lordi and Anna Vissi. After Vissi's press conference Tuesday night, a throng of mostly Greek journalists slowed her pace to a crawl as she attempted to leave the press work area adjacent to the press conference space.
Meanwhile, Lordi supporters can be seen among journalists and rabid fans in attendance wearing buttons trumpeting their allegiance to the Finnish hard rock band. We'd root for them too, if their costumes weren't so incredibly terrifying.
The Eurovision updates stacked on press centre tables are kitsch heaven.
One, titled "SPAIN IMPRESSED WITH GREEK HOSPITALITY," quotes Las Ketchup, the Spanish entry (yes, the lasses who sang "The Ketchup Song" a few years ago) with the following:
Well, we were obviously expecting a huge production and we've not been disappointed. But what's taken us by surprise is how friendly people have been--and that means everyone from the production crew to the press.
Finally, a breakthrough in that impasse of Spanish-Greek relations! Citizens of countries along the southern edge of the European Union can sleep soundly tonight.
Another press release, titled FABRIZIO OF MALTA READY TO HAVE FUN has Malta's Fabrizio Faniello reflecting on a good rehearsal:
I really enjoyed it and I think we all felt amazing actually. We're getting ready to really have fun on the big night. Let's face it, that's why we're all here.
Wandering the streets of Athens today, your trusty correspondent's first impressions include the following: the cleanliness of the air, the ubiquity of cafés, and the understated funkiness of one `hood, quiet Koukaki.
Wasn't Athens the city old hippies refused to spend time in on their way to one or another debauched sun-soaked island on grounds that the pollution was too bad? Tuesday in Athens was so gorgeous it hurt, in the seventies with a light breeze, and very little evident chemical pollution. What gives?
Before the Olympics, the then-Greek Ambassador to the United States, George V. Savvaides claimed that a number of infrastructural changes made in preparation for the Olympics (along with cleaner gasoline and increased local usage of public transportation) reduced pollution in Athens by 30%.
Cafés are full of twentysomething hipsters projecting aloofness, their fiftysomething mothers with lashings of make-up, and seventysomething old men grouped around tables, kvetching and chatting. Oddly enough, the coffee drink of choice in Athens appears to be a Nescafé creation known as a freddo. The milk used in the freddo tastes like the condensed variety, and the drink is typically served quite sweet. Request little or no sugar unless you like your coffee to taste like candy.
Koukaki, to the south of Filopappou Hill and a stone's throw from central tourist `hood Plaka, features an inviting pedestrian-only street named Drakou. The apartment buildings lining Drakou are utilitarian-modernist, with little balconies shuttered during the day. Wild foliage, including palm trees, populate the street's garden strip. More cafés than can be counted cluster at street level. Koukaki is the ideal sleepy `hood.
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by artextor
