So I understand most of you find ESC a joke, and of course it is, but it is the funniest joke there is. During the whole next week there will be shows in Belgrade, starting on Tuesday with the first semi final, continuing on Thursday with the second, and then the big final is Saturday.

Lots of crap this year, as always, but there are a few treasures. France is sending electronica mastermind, and currently one of my personal favorite artists, Sebastian Tellier. And his song is pretty good, but probably not a winner. If this one wins, I'll eat the booklet out of his latest CD Sexuality.



I'll also include this year's Norwegian song. This is no nil pointer, and we haven't seen this kind of optimism in Norway in a long time. Many people think it'll win. I doubt that, but it is a nice song.

I'd like to imagine the lyrics would be better if people were singing in their native language, but somehow I can't believe that. Maybe it's because I'm always caught off guard by bad crimes.

Of course, you know that there's a Eurovision winner in the Acclaimed Music top 1000 songs list, don't you?

Yeah, I know that. Waterloo. It should have been a couple more. Non ho l'età and Poupée de cire, poupée de son, at least.

This 2008 Eurovision Contest is being a complete torture for every Spanish man with a minimum degree of sensibility. The song that will represent Spain is “Chiki Chiki”, that began as a joke from Buenafuente, a famous host of a late TV show. His team wrote purposely the worst song ever and chose an actor to portrait Rodolfo Chiquiliquatre, the worst singer ever. Since it’s perceived as a joke and due to its intelligentsia alibi it seems that all the audience has willingly embraced it and the song is now a complete smash hit in Spain. Everyone seems to agree in laughing the joke. Well, but not me. “Chiki Chiki” is, no doubt about it, the biggest piece of SHIT ever.
Anyway I can see that Spain is not the only country represented by a freak. It seems that 2008 Eurovision Contest will be the parade of monsters. Sorry for posting this, but…



Moreover there was a candidate much more interesting, La Casa Azul with “La Revolución Sexual”. This song is undoubtedly kitsch and cheesy, and it’s a joke from a music nerd (Guille Milkyway) that decided to play with the codes of disposable styles as Eurodisco purposely. And, what the hell, love those “na-ra-na-na-na” at the end…

The rest of Europe is with you, brother. Spain is again doing their best for ending in the last place. Remember, they sent Las Ketchup only two years ago, and when even that failed the task, they're trying harder this year.

Here's my top ten right now.
1p Bosnia (Laka - Pokušaj)
2p Turkey (Mor ve Ötesi - Deli)
3p San Marino (Miodio - Complice)
4p Croatia (Kraljevi Ulice and 75 cents - Romanca)
5p Serbia (Jelena Tomašević and Bora Dugić - Oro)
6p Cyprus (Evdokia Kadi - Femme Fatale)
7p Belgium (Ishtar - O Julissi)
8p Bulgaria (Deep Zone and Balthazar - DJ, Take Me Away)
10p Albania (Olta Boka - Zemrën E Lamë Peng)
12p France (Sébastien Tellier - Divine)

The Netherlands isn't participating, right? I don't think we've even been close to a top 5 spot since the 70s.

I thought it was hilarious that Lordi (I believe that's what they were called) won last year. They had my vote.

Lordi was fantastic, but they won in 2006. Last year, a young Serbian woman named Marija Šerifović won with the song Molitva, a nice, powerful Balkan ballad. She didn't get my vote (which went to Sweden and The Ark), but the song wasn't bad.

Have to dissapoint you, Stephan, but Holland IS participating with a song from Hind. Didn't she win the Dutch idol competition a couple of years ago?

Anyway, the song is too complex and intelligent, we were way more successful with songs like 'Ding a Dong'

'dissapoint' should have been 'disappoint'

Oh, she's kinda hot though, so that ought to help.

And regarding The Netherlands, then you're right. They've lost it completely. They have lost the three last semi-finals, and they'll do it again this year.

They did however score top 5 places in 98 (4th), 87 (5th) and 80 (5th), but that's not very impressive.

Somehow, the Dutch did manage to win the contest 4 times, but that's all a long long time ago.

The Finnish Lordi won in 2006, but here are the (real) winners of that year:

There was an NPR story about this this morning (which ironically segues out with an awesome Air song):

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90755784

This also introduced me to the Irish song, which is amazing: