IDAHO

Today is the International Day Against Homophobia. An awareness day to celebrate the great variety we humans come in and to communicate that everyone has the right to love and be loved equally.

Eurovision has stirred up some controversy on this front, as Georgia and Greece have reacted negatively at Finland's Krista Siegfrids kissing her female backup singer at the end of the performance. Now, this is a competition where there are no rules when it comes to who people can be - the most obvious example being a trans woman from Israel, Dana International, who won the competition in 1998. That's a decade and a half ago! Attitudes have changed a lot since then, and still being gay is incredibly hard in this world for far too many people, and several westerns countries, that are seemingly very tolerant, are still making a fuss over equal marriage and finding too many excuses not to start amending the marriage law.

The Culture & Arts sector has throughout history attracted a big variety of different people with different interests, personalities and values - one similarity being that they are creative souls and willing to push the boundaries of what is considered acceptable. The Eurovision Song Contest is no exception. Every year we see entrants from all walks of life, and from all cultures (naturally). Some can be obnoxiously camp, others sensibly open-minded, and some plain vanilla, and they are all equal on that stage (let's forget neighbour-favouritism for this). That's what it's about.

Giant moths, stalker girlfriends and rocky horror opera dubstep

So... I was having dinner during the first four performances, so my notes on them aren't quite as extensive as the rest of it. And because I have a 6.30am alarm tomorrow morning again I can't be arsed to google and re-watch just for the sake of writing a better blog post. So there. But overall I can say that this was the real semifinal. Tuesday must've been just a test run, a little warm up.

I don't think there are no ladies who will give you cuter babies.

Latvia. Mirror ball Jedward.

San Marino. Red cult lady.

Macedonia. What the hell happened!?

Azerbaijan. Hey, it's Eric Saade! Finalist.

Finland! YAYY! It's super catchy, I've had the song stuck in my head for a week already. OH-OH OH-OH-OH DING DONG! (And ps. I know the girl who kissed her) Finalist.

Malta. I'd listen to this on a summer picnic! Very much a feelgood tune. Finalist.

Bulgaria. Giant moth headpiece.

Iceland. Hot man. Probably a really lovely song if I understood any of it. Iceland is good at emotional big melodies, anthemic slow songs. Finalist.

In Greece alcohol is free. Making a mental note to add Greece to holiday destinations list. And you get to drink listening to ska. I will have fun on this holiday! They're like less colourful Gogol Bordello. Finalist.

Israel. That's a very tight dress. I wish I knew what she's singing about because some corny lyrics might be able to salvage this from boring.

Eurovision rock from Armenia! The lead man could be Kevin Richardson's (of the Backstreet Boys fame) twin and the band could be Creed. Finalist. (Really now? Who voted?!)

Hungary is quite sweet. The guy looks like a radio DJ. Finalist.

Norway has brought an actually a good song that could stand on its own, not restrained by Eurovision bubble. Finalist.

Albania has lots of men who look metal (by Eurovision standards) but the sounds doesn't live up to their looks. I don't know what this sounds like, it's a bit of folk, bit of Disney, bit of rock, lot of Eurovision. Although they have a fire shooting guitar.

Georgia. Duet ballad. Rather boring. Finalist.

Switz. AWWW of the old guy playing fat bass* he's 95. The song is quite pleasant, if not too 'even' from beginning to end - it doesn't travel at all and gets boring quickly. *I've been informed it's actually called double bass in English but I don't care, I prefer my Finglish fat bass.

Romania. Man in a dress, finally! And lots of sequins! Naked dancers. He's invented a new genre: transvestite-opera-dubstep. I wonder if he's seen the Rocky Horror Picture Show a few too many times.  It kinda sounded like he's actually singing Bon Jovi's It's My Life but deceiving everyone with opera! Finalist. (would be a crime if he wasn't)

I remember doing the time warp

In memory of rapping spacemen

It has begun! The annual festival of kitsch. THE EUROVISION SONG CONTEST!

My ramblings while watching the live show tonight. It was the first semi-final and so this is just a quick one. Will write a more thoughtfully (well, technically this is 100% thoughts running through my head, but you get me!)  constructed post about the final on Saturday. It's a damn shame that Montenergo isn't there. Or Serbia.

We're in space. Rapping to dubstep.

Austria. She's The Voice winner. There are a few of those this year (Finland on Thursday!). Quite a tame start. I'm slightly disappointed, this is too normal!

Estonia threw a pregnant lady on stage. The song was nice, if not unlike a million slow songs in this world. She had fog and wind though, like any self-respecting Eurovision entrant should. Finalist.

Oh dear, Eurovision dubstep by Slovenia. With a trio of dancing iron masks. And she's dressed head to toe in club wear leather. Here we go, this is Eurovision! I wonder if dubstep will be this year's fad genre to try at ESC.

Croatia has a male choir wearing something Napolean. I do not mean the city in Italy, but the short man with the white horse. The song was called "Misery" apparently, but sounds very tame and peaceful.

Seizure coming up! Denmark warns us about strobe lights and flashing. The girls is channeling Shakira on her knees, interestingly. The flashing wasn't very noticeable, if you ask me. Finalist.

Russia. The Voice winner again, they apparently call her the new Adele. What's up with this abundance of female singers with ballady songs and big melodies and ball gowns? A ballad won't win unless it's Irish. Finalist.

Ukraine. A giant carries this pocket rocket of a girl on stage and here we go, another woman in a long dress but this one's got more of a beat to it. This strangely reminds me of Lion King. There was a disturbing lack of Giant Igor (I learned his name is) after the very first few seconds. Finalist.

The Netherlands brought back Anouk! She seems to have grown out of her Nobody's Wife days. This could be on a movie soundtrack, featuring Thom Yorke. It's interestingly different for this event. Finalist.

Montenegro has recruited... wait for it... SPACEMEN! Rapping astronauts! Oh yes. And a little space fairy with a powerhouse voice. I like the greenness on stage. Hmm, quite like fairy washing liquid. Another Eurovision dubstep entry but far better than the other one, whoever that was.

Lithuania. Is this going to be Eurovision rock? He looks like a British musician, and it's kind of trying to be Eurovision rock but his voice isn't powerful enough. This is ... average. Although, he did sing "because of the shoes I'm wearing today, one is love the other is pain." That earns him some Eurovision points. Finalist.

Belarus. Now this is more like it, the whole show seems to have picked up now and we're firmly on Eurovision territory. Underwear model looking girl in a tiny shiny dress and Jessica Simpsonesque dance skills. Finalist.

Moldova's girl's hair looks like lasagne and she has the white backup dancers that are a compulsory accessory for at least four performances each year. Up she goes! I've seen this trick on Super Sweet Sixteen. Finalist.

Ireland has a younger Adam Lambert! I like the shirtless drummers, who are probably actually not drummers but male models, but that's not important. Finalist

Belgium's dancers were weirdly protective of their ovaries in between of imitating chicken walk. The song sounds like something you'd hear on the radio but never remember who sings it. Finalist.

Serbia. Now these girls are rocking the Eurovision uniform! They've sort of dressed up like creepy living candy floss. I'd imagine Japanese Bratz dolls to look similar. What exactly is going on? It looks like there's some sort of story to this song, there's a bit of drama and sudden dance moves. It's like a pantomime where you can't understand a word!

Oh yes I'm wearing marshmallow, what of it?

Gay or European? The annual Festival of Kitch

This post is about Eurovision Song Contest. If you don't appreciate the ridiculousness, hilarity and excessive use of glitter in ESC, stop reading.

Eurovision week is over. Congratulations to this year's winner, Sweden's Loreen with her song 'Euphoria'! And speedy recovery to all ESC drinking game players. To be honest, I was quite surprised by Loreen's victory. Normally these conventionally good quality songs that will go on to play at clubs and radio, don't succeed that well in Eurovision. Euphoria has already topped the charts in Nordic countries and now will no doubt do just that also elsewhere.

On the day of the second semi-final, Thursday that is, Eric Saade started trending on Twitter as soon as Norway had performed. The similarities between Sweden's last year's performance and Norway's show this year were incredible. The guys look the same, the backup dancers look the same - if you ignore the gender upgrade - and the songs could be by the same artist. Norway came in last in the final with only 7 points.

As Norway's poor performance showed us, it's not a good idea to resemble another (famous) artist too much. Yet this mistake is made every year. This year Italy's artist was clearly channeling Amy Winehouse and Denmark's girl sounded a lot like Alanis Morissette. Denmark only scored points from six countries, coming to a total of 21 points, while Italy did considerably better with 101 points and 9th place.

I am sailing, across the stage

The gayest show this year was Turkey, no contest! Their leather wearing seaman and his batman-inspired backup dancers managed to be exceptionally camp, even by the Eurovision standards. And then their capes transformed into an outline of a boat and made me giggle uncontrollably. Most fun this year, however, was Malta's little foot dance! They also had a pretend-DJ on stage. 0:55 is when the fun begins.

The UK's Engelbert "The Hump" Humperdinck came second to last with only 12 points despite his huge global success and large fan base. The BBC offers this as explanation: "Historically no-one who has opened the contest has gone on to win, as viewers often tune in late and miss the early contenders." which is of course complete bollocks. While he came across as sympathetic and sweet, his song 'Love Will Set You Free' (yes, really) was utterly boring, as the title would have you think. In this freak circus such a ballad will go unnoticed, unless it's Ireland. And even they've had bad luck lately. Of course, they've also had a turkey.

Speaking of Ireland, I liked Jedward's 'Waterline' much better than 'Lipstick' last year. The audience, however, seemed to disagree. I don't blame them, the whole reason even I watch this show is for the WTF-reactions and the exciting shows these artists throw at us. Seeing the same performers year after year is dumb and boring.

Special mention goes to Georgia for providing the most ridiculous performance, in the true spirit of Eurovision Song Contest! I would have definitely wanted to see them in the final.

Another special mention to the Slovakian Eurovision Hair Metal band with shirtless lead man. That should be a genre; it's a classic Eurovision song disguised as hard rock/glam metal. Listen to it and you'll know what I mean (ignore the beginning, it gets more Eurovision-y come chorus). Belarus also had a Eurovision rock band with members who looked like they jumped on the stage straight from the TV show The Tribe. Yep, "Eurovision rock" needs to be a genre. Not limited to only bands who've been in ESC.

The BBC commentators made this year so much better for me (that's where the headline for this post came from). The Finnish commentators have some good jokes and say funny things but hold back much much more than the guys at BBC. It was a joy listening to them. I'm also extremely happy to have learned about the existence of Dr. Eurovision! Isn't it marvelous! Academic expert, has a PhD in Eurovision. I don't know if that's incredibly cool or just incredibly ridiculous. Or both. Awesome dude either way.

What were your favorite moments this year?