oh well
Anyway I forced myself to log on and make a post about the eurovison just to keep up with what seems to be one of the central topics to this blog.
For those who don't remember (and I'm going on memory here) last year Azerbaijan beat Sweden (my tip for victory) late in the voting with that creepy duet between the young guy that looked skeevy and the older chick who didn't know she was way to old to be singing and looking longingly at the young skeevy guy... I wasn't a fan... but that means Baku, capital of Azerbaijan is hosting the event... and except for where Azerbaijan is, that Baku is the capital and that it has fought a few wars with neighbouring Armenia I know 2/5ths of fuck all about the country...so I did what everyone does and googled it. and came up with the following get to know Azerbaijan facts:
- Apparently funerals are a big deal with hundreds of guest and big outdoor tents with professional caterers costing like 1/3rd of the average salary in a year...
- Freestyle wrestling the national sport along (I won't even bother with the jokes)
- Chess and backgammon as national past times (again no jokes)
hmmm sounds like an exciting place.
Apparently in the 80s Azerbaijan was a big tourism place (and part of the Soviet Union) with that dying off in the 90s thanks to yet another Armenia/Azerbaijan conflict. And all the tourist attractions I could see in my (very quick) interweb search involved things being old and "cultural", which admittedly sounds a bit better than Moldova's "organised crime and people smuggly" and I'd still like to go there (Moldova) so I shouldn't mock them to mercilessly (but I probably will because I'm in a mood).
Anyway I think the eurovision could be seen as a big deal by the Azerbaijan government... which in itself is a worry... but I would then guess we're going to be in for a good couple of hours worth of "look at our culture" during the show... which is always painful...
With 42 countries entering I really can't be assed looking at any of them in advance (except for one... more on that later) so I'll just list out my pre-eurovision thoughts
- Spain's entry will be terrible... they don't care and they definitely don't want to be stuck hosting next year (because it's expensive) so they need to make sure they don't win... And given they're "big 4" (or is it "big 5" now Italy is back) they automatically get into the final... so that halves their chance of losing, so they need to make sure they don't win
- Italy is back... still
- And on that note apparently Jedward (that horrible red cordial and ADHD overdose from Ireland in 2011) is back... Last year I was horrified that if they did well there would be copycats... I never dreamed they'd pull a Lena (who I actually liked) and be back....
- Will anyone vote for Greece (besides the 12 points they ALWAYS get from Cyprus)... I know I said this before and Opa did well but this year has got to increase the political tension (at least Germany and Greece probably won't vote for each other)
- England are entering Englbert Humperdinkelbert in some vague attempt to look like they're being serious (therefore giving them the right to bitch when noone votes for them) but not actually risk winning and having to host it
- One entry I have seen in advance was Russia... because they were the first entry to qualify. It's better than Russia's normal entries
Love Hugs and Kisses
ANt
Posts
