Friday open thread: douze points
May. 16th, 2025 05:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dolorosa_12It's the best week of the year (as long as you ignore virtually everything else that's going on in the world): seven days of that indescribable mix of camp and earnest and songs and staging that have to be seen to be believed that is Eurovision. I love it.
This year has it all. We've got two beverage-themed comedy songs. We've got two songs about female orgasms belted out by two different divas (both of whom were asked to tone it down in various ways, and essentially passive aggressively shrugged and continued capering and gyrating on their giant gold climactically firework-shooting microphone prop/stage trapeze). Latvia sent a folk polyphony group of forest spirits whose entire song and aesthetic could have been lifted wholesale from pretty much any Cirque du Soleil stage band. The Polish singer last competed in Eurovision in the 1990s and has returned to sing in front of a fantasy backdrop (dragons and all) surrounded by a mixed gender group of backing dancers dressed in what I can only describe as centurian fetishwear, all wearing the highest stiletto heels imaginable.
Sweden sent a comedy band of Swedish-speaking Finns (inevitably singing about saunas). Germany sent two Austrians. Ireland sent a Norwegian, singing a dance tune about Laika the Soviet space dog (making this the second time by my count that a Norwegian singer/group submitted a Laika-themed dance song for Eurovision). San Marino sent one of the members of Eiffel 65.
Somehow all of this makes sense.
So, today's prompt is to use Eurovision as a starting point and talk about whatever takes your fancy. If you're watching this year, do you have any favourites or predictions? What are your favourite acts or moments from years gone by? If you're from a country that participates, does it get into the Eurovision spirit in any particular way (or does the whole thing pass by virtually ignored)? Do you have any preferred setting or format for watching? Etc.
This year has it all. We've got two beverage-themed comedy songs. We've got two songs about female orgasms belted out by two different divas (both of whom were asked to tone it down in various ways, and essentially passive aggressively shrugged and continued capering and gyrating on their giant gold climactically firework-shooting microphone prop/stage trapeze). Latvia sent a folk polyphony group of forest spirits whose entire song and aesthetic could have been lifted wholesale from pretty much any Cirque du Soleil stage band. The Polish singer last competed in Eurovision in the 1990s and has returned to sing in front of a fantasy backdrop (dragons and all) surrounded by a mixed gender group of backing dancers dressed in what I can only describe as centurian fetishwear, all wearing the highest stiletto heels imaginable.
Sweden sent a comedy band of Swedish-speaking Finns (inevitably singing about saunas). Germany sent two Austrians. Ireland sent a Norwegian, singing a dance tune about Laika the Soviet space dog (making this the second time by my count that a Norwegian singer/group submitted a Laika-themed dance song for Eurovision). San Marino sent one of the members of Eiffel 65.
Somehow all of this makes sense.
So, today's prompt is to use Eurovision as a starting point and talk about whatever takes your fancy. If you're watching this year, do you have any favourites or predictions? What are your favourite acts or moments from years gone by? If you're from a country that participates, does it get into the Eurovision spirit in any particular way (or does the whole thing pass by virtually ignored)? Do you have any preferred setting or format for watching? Etc.
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Date: 2025-05-16 06:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-05-16 08:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-05-16 07:30 pm (UTC)The KAJ hype over here is intense, for once Finland doesn't mind if Sweden wins! After all they say "perkele" in the song. Apparently KAJ's Swedish is of a quite unique, being from Swedish-speaking parts of Finland and not of mainland Sweden dialects.
There were... attempts of moral panic for Ich Komme, mostly the "What about the children" kind. But truly, as a kid in the 90s I heard very sexually frank lyrics in Finnish songs, so I don't get the outrage.
It kinda feels we are participating with two acts. Just the fact that KAJ got to represent Sweden was huge (lol get rekt Måns). Our president (who is Swedish-speaking bättre folk himself) is rooting for the family friendly sauna boys, as are various tie-in sponsorship deals.
Anyways, here is a Bara bada bastu mashup for all 90s banger fans!
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Date: 2025-05-16 08:42 pm (UTC)Don't they count to three in the song as well? (That, kiitos, and the word salmiakki are like literally the only Finnish that I know.) I do like that Sweden has finally competed with a Swedish-language song again after all these years, and yet it's the Finnish dialect.
lol get rekt Måns is my reaction as well, although I do find how much he loves Eurovision (and tries to insert himself into it at every opportunity) alternatingly endearing and tiresome.
That mashup is incredible! Sauna de Janeiro!
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Date: 2025-05-17 09:38 am (UTC)I might have listened to Sauna de Janeiro more than the original song, oops..
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Date: 2025-05-16 08:19 pm (UTC)LB told me the second one was much better. The only song he told me to watch was Poison Cake, and that was certainly a show :)
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Date: 2025-05-16 08:46 pm (UTC)Hopefully you're feeling better by tomorrow and can watch the final.
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Date: 2025-05-16 08:44 pm (UTC)I have 15 songs from previous eurovisions on my mp3, but I think only one that ever won.
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Date: 2025-05-16 08:50 pm (UTC)I almost always prefer another song to the one that ultimately wins (although in most cases I can at least understand why the winner did so), although the only Eurovision act I've felt motivated enough about to go and seek out their full discography is Go_A (and Onuka, but she was an interval act rather than a contestant).