I am pretty sure there is some unwritten
rule agreed upon in the back alleys of major European cities that you cannot
win Eurovision twice in a row. Sic Google on me if I am wrong, maybe there has been a rare twice-in-a-row winner, I don’t know and I’m not going to look it
up. BUT, the host country of the Eurovision seems to be an automatic loser of the
night, despite having the crowd behind them. And I am pretty sure that Sweden
has set itself up to continue this long tradition of failure.
I admit, in writing this, that I did
not watch Melodifestival, the Swedish competition to choose a song to compete
at Eurovision. It is pretty much the equivalent of spending 4 Saturday nights
in a row watching a nails on chalkboard competition – how would you judge that?
I do not know, just like I do not know how to judge this mess.
That said, Sweden has a confusing and odd
system in which the Swedish people get to vote for the best song, but in the
end it is an International Jury that decides which they think will do best
internationally – or as I tend to think of it ‘which one will cause Sweden to
lose so that their countries will stand a better chance’ vote – but maybe I am
the lone Melodifestival conspiracy theorist.
See, Sweden had an entertaining number they
voted for that, while it may not be a winner, probably would have gotten
attention and votes. Also it would have won if it were the Japanese music
festival.
I give you ‘Yohio’ – the only act I managed
to catch a part of while channel surfing during the 4 (or was it 5) weeks of
this mess. You can give Yohio a lot of crap, but it isn’t boring. And it is
memorable. Two things that win a lot of plus points at Eurovision.
Instead, the jury chose Robin. Just a small
town boy, who barely qualified through every single round (and there are way
too many rounds) he entered to make it to Eurovision. Seriously, if he couldn’t
win over the Swedes, how is he going to go down with the Eastern European
Voting Conspiracy? Not very well.
If you want to hear him sing, cut to the 4 minute mark....
His song is not memorable. He is not a
blonde Swedish walking stereotype of a bikini team member, and his name is not
Carola. I imagine this entry will go the way of The Ark (that means almost last
place). I don’t even think he will muster up any press about how Europe loves
him and he is a frontrunner.
So, Sweden shelled out a lot to host
Eurovision this year, but they have pretty much guaranteed themselves not to
have to host next year.
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He actually came in first by the international jury while yohio came second to last. The people also had 50% as did the jury and there Robin came second. He was the better choice and countries can win twice in a row but it's not common. If you look around Youtube you will see that robin is ranked top ten by most people. Yohio is the one that would become the ark 2.0. He wouldn't have made it in europe but Robin Stjernberg will. He won't win but he will come in the top ten.
ReplyDeleteI hate the melody festival and never watch it. I sometimes think I'm the only one who thinks they ruined it when they they went from only one Swedish contest to like a dozen.
ReplyDeleteHowever I do remember that Ireland has won twice in a row, more than once.
@anon - OK you caught me, no I didn't watch the contest, but I still think the international jury is a cop out. And I stand by my Robin prediction, but I am not a betting woman, and I am not willing to wager watching the whole damn Melodifestival next year if I am wrong. Which I could totally be, since, I am convinced that schlager is the cultural difference between assimilation and integration. And I have landed firmly on the integration side of things.
ReplyDelete@Sophia - agreed, it could have been a funny night if it were one night. Instead it seems like something they could use to make prisoners talkif they make them watch the episodes back to back. Thanks for the info on Ireland too, good for them! (or maybe bad for them?)