Eurovision!

I finished Chemistry Paper 3 on Friday, an event that marks the end of both my IB exams (whew) and my high school career. Period. I mentioned on the wiki that ISH holds graduation in September - however, I've come to understand the weighty significance of high school graduation in the United States over the past few weeks, and I realize my comment was misleading. In the traditional sense of the word, ISH has no graduation. The event in September is a quiet Diploma Evening: the students get their diplomas, but no rehearsals, student speeches, robes, or deep emotions involved. I'm not going to be there anyway, and probably most of my graduating class will be similarly absent. Cultural differences. *shrugs*

The big news of the weekend here in Europe are the results of the Eurovision Song Contest. I would guess this event is pretty much unknown in the US. The idea is that each European country submits one act performed by a homegrown artist/group to the contest. Most of these groups are little-known and often new groups with a small regional fan-base. Although many different types of music are represented, there tends to be a heavy emphasis on pop (Eurovision launched the careers of ABBA and Celine Dion, to give you an idea). The contest has two rounds, a semi-final and a final, in which each group gets to go on stage and perform their number, and the winners are decided by a massive SMS/phone vote in 37 countries. It's a huge media event, and they must get tens of thousands of votes.

Anyway, my family and I watched a big chunk of it last night, and it was really a scream. All the more so because it was BBC covering it, and the British announcers, who are bitter because the UK never wins, took every chance they got to make cheap, cynical remarks about the show. My favorite group was the Latvians, an a cappella choir, although the Ukrainian, Bosnian, and Romanian acts were all pretty good. Most of the rest were not. The Germans sent this country group called "Texas Lightning," complete with cowboy hats and twanging lyrics. The Lithuanians' song (described as "engagingly modest" by the BBC) was called "We Are the Winners" - its main lyrics "We are the winners/of Eurovision." The Maltese singer was a little flat. The winning act was "Hard Rock Hallelujah" by a Finnish group called Lordi who dressed up in orc suits. The voting was really political - although no nation was allowed to vote for its own act, all the Scandivians voted for each other's acts, as did the Eastern Europeans. Apparently the BBC announcers were really steamed when France did not vote in support of their beloved British rapper . . . heh. A little glimpse of the intense internecine strife within the European pop scene.

Groetjes,

Sam