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Of course, the big event is Eurovision — and I have blogged about it at bottom.
I’ve been feeling sentimental about the theme song for Red Dwarf (YT). Here’s a live orchestral performance (with singing and electric guitar) (YT) Here’s a fascinating 29 minute interview with the song composer Howard Goodall (YT) where he mentions two silly songs he also wrote for Red Dwarf. Tongue Tied (YT) and the Arnold Rimmer song (YT). The lyrics for the song are silly and irrrelevant to sci fi. That, Goodall, says, is precisely the point. He consciously avoided a futuristic style for the music or lyrics.
It’s cold outside
There’s no kind of atmosphere
I’m all alone
More or less
Let me fly
Far away from here
Fun, fun, fun
In the sun, sun, sun
I want to lie
Shipwrecked and comatose
Drinking fresh
Mango juice
Goldfish shoals
Nibbling at my toes
Fun, fun, fun
In the sun, sun, sun
Fun, fun, fun
In the sun, sun, sun
Post-Eurovision Notes
As you know, Americans normally cannot watch the final performance on YouTube; it is geo-blocked. However, I noticed that some of the National Finals (NF) are streamable in USA. So YT links will go to the portion of the NF which show the song in question.
I have deliberately avoided watching the semi-finals, but I did take a peek at the 2nd semi-finals. Long enough to watch the great Australian Milkshake Man video (YT). Amazed that it didn’t qualify for the finals. Also, Ireland not making the finals?! At least Albania and Ukraine qualified.
Okay, I’ve watched the whole thing. Twice (more or less).
The biggest Eurovision surprise was the delightful Made in Switzerland song (YT) which educated people about the history and culture of Switzerland. It also had a surprise appearance of Petra Meade (who is a Swedish comedienne and frequent Eurovision host). I suspect the William Tell stuff is just tall tale/silly history, but apparently there is a literary tradition of inventing wild adventures for that character.
Overall, I didn’t particularly care for Austria’s song (the singer was too high-pitched for my liking, and the melody wasn’t that pleasant either. Frankly, I was surprised as hell that it placed so high.
I loved Latvia’s Tautumeitas song. (YT) They sing some divine harmonies, and their choreography was also terrific. The performance was too arty, so I didn’t expect them to win, but I had hoped that they would place highly (and they did).
I was pleasantly surprised by Italy’s song by Lucio Corsi (YT) It was so sunny and pleasant, a far cry from the heavy metal Maneskin of a few years ago.
Subtle songs get missed by voters but are ranked highly by the juries. I was pleasantly surprised by Zoe Me of Switzerland (YT) (and it was ranked very highly by juries), but it received zero points by the voting audience.
I liked Israel’s son by Yuval Raphael, and she scored 2nd overall. Not my first choice, but a lovely song and lovely singer. Reading online, I discovered that she faced a horror during the Hamas attack. She hid in a shelter with 50 other people, and one of the terrorists threw hand grenades in her shelter, killing everybody but 11 people. Yuval hid for 8 hours behind the bodies, even sustaining injuries herself. Her song is one of healing and hope. This kind of story reminds you that one can hold a grudge against a government for its policies, but not against individual citizens, who may be victims themselves. Should it matter that the singer be a victim of the political violence? I don’t know, but it’s unavoidable. (YT)
Update: It appears that several countries have lodged formal complaints about the presence of Israel at the festival because of their actions in Gaza. Israel engaged in an aggressive campaign to encourage people in other countries to vote for the song — including an ad in Times Square in NYC! Maybe Eurovision should revisit guidelines about how to promote a country’s song. In this case, Israel only did so-so on the juror’s vote, but phenomenally well on the call in voting
I loved Klavdia of Greece. (YT) Her voice was beautiful, it’s a great melody and the staging was beautiful and simple. I feel almost the same way about Sweden’s Claude and Poland’s Justyna Steczkowska (YT) . I would have been happy with any of these three winning. The dizzying choreography of Poland’s song definitely gave it a Ruslana vibe. For the record, I haven’t listened to much Polish pop music, but the little that I have heard is always terrific! (Also, the Eurovision songs all tend to be great showcases for singers’ voices.
I was struck by two things: first, a lot of countries did not appear this year. That includes Romania, Bulgaria, Slovakia Moldova, and obviously Russia, Belarus, Turkey, Hungary and Morocco. I imagine the financial costs of participation is a factor and also perhaps some of the more conservative (and Muslim) governments don’t see eye to eye with the super-tolerant values of Western Europe. Although some small countries participate, frankly it is rare for any of them to do that well (Of course, big countries like UK, Germany and France don’t do that well either, but at least they have more money to burn).
Pre-Eurovision — Thoughts
This week has finally arrived. Tuesday and Thursday are the semifinals for Eurovision, and the finals are Saturday afternoon. All the shows are broadcast live on Peacock and can be streamed later.
It’s also on YouTube — but geo-blocked for Americans unless they use a browser with a VPN and spoof as a European. Actually if you have checked, most of the European finals from previous years are also unavailable to U.S. users on YouTube even though you can usually watch the Semi-final performances for most of the acts.
For the three years I lived in Europe, I had never heard of Eurovision. Several years after I had returned to the States, I first heard about it when the Ukrainian singer Ruslana won the whole damn thing in 2004 (YT). After that I followed Eurovision in a lackadaisical way. But over the next decade, I developed a religious fervor for Eurovision. By 2021 I had became an outright proselytizer for the Eurovision religion to the barbarous American natives.
I have blogged about it, tweeted about it and even done a podcast about it on a global music podcast a few years ago. The podcast host was barely aware of Eurovision, and just a few days ago I mentioned it in passing to a South-American-born DJ living in Houston, and he also had never heard of the biggest music competition in the world. My teenage nieces and nephews had also never heard of it — although in the last year or two moments from past Eurovision performances have shown up randomly in their TikTok feeds.
Last year, I had been discussing the whole Eurovision thing with a British artist now living in Spain. He had certainly heard of Eurovision, but had stopped watching it a decade ago because it was getting “too gay” for his tastes.
However, my Irish-American mom — who also watches the Grammy Awards religiously, got into the show and admits that it’s pretty fascinating — even though by the third hour she usually call it quits. Telling her that Ireland is one of the heavyweight contenders in Eurovision history (along with Sweden, Italy and now Ukraine) probably increased her curiosity, although last year it turns out that Irish’s entry, Bambi Thug sang an almost unlistenable Industrial Metal song called Doomsday Blue where she screams and dances with Satan inside a pentagram. In addition to being non-binary, neo-paganist and dressed in BDSM outfit and a firm supporter of Palestinian rights (Bambi Thug was specifically forbidden by the Eurovision contest from wearing a Palestinian flag in her performance), my Mom decided that she still preferred the traditional Irish songs like My Irish Eyes are Smiling and Danny Boy. (As it turns out, Bambi Thug placed 6th — the highest rank that Ireland has had in 20 years. Some of Bambi Thug’s other songs are much more listenable — though still very witchy).
One of the most amazing things about Eurovision is that there is no prize except the satisfaction of winning. Last year Eurovision host (and female comedian) Petra Mede announced that for 2024 only there would be a special bonus prize for the 1st place winner — it would be a box set of Season 3 of the Gilmore Girls. Last year’s competition had its up and downs, including an international sing-a-long of various obscure Eurovision gems. “Lyrics will appear onscreen during the screen to help those singing along at home,” Petra said. “And if you already know the lyrics to all these songs, then you will know that you really are a homos– I mean– a true Eurovision fan.”
Every year has some stinkers and some ridiculous performances and some gems which never made it out of Semi-finals. Here’s some wonderful little gems from 2023 which scored close to last place in the finals.
Mia Nicolai & Dion Cooper (Netherlands)
Mimicat (portugal)
So my predictions about who will win the contest never materialize. One year, the act I had predicted would win the whole thing ended up receiving the 2nd lowest score. The unpredictability of Eurovision has to do partly with the demographics of EU residents voting with their phones. Who could predict for example that the songs from Israel would consistently land near the top of the Eurovision heap regardless of the political turmoil going on in Gaza? Eurovision is on an island totally devoid of politics. Nobody worries about Donald Trump or for that matter what crazy things are happening in the USA. Nobody talks about the Ukrainian war (although I wouldn’t be surprised if what finally ends the Ukrainian invasion are a bunch of crazed Eurovision fans who take Putin hostage until he gets Russia back into the contest). First place winner for last year (Nemo) is a Swiss non-binary pansexual who once called on his Switzerland to recognize a third gender. Here’s their winning song, The Code.
As for this year? Who knows. I’ve heard that Sweden has a song performed in a sauna. I’m pretty sure that whatever Germany, France and England send will be close to last place. I’d love to see a smaller country like Albania win it — smaller countries typically don’t do well.
Adding to the problems are that family events are conflicting with this year’s Eurovision schedule. (This is like the third year in a row!). That means I have to avoid social media and news until Sunday noon, when I can watch the stream unencumbered by schedules and out-of-town family here for the weekend.
In the meantime I have created a Spotify playlist called Magnificent Purple Babies with about 13 hours of old and new Eurovision songs. Enjoy!
Postscript: Other Eurovision Stuff
I have noticed that full shows of old Eurovisions are available to Americans. The 2009 show in Moscow is universally considered to be the best show, and the 2021 post-Covid Show is also terrific.
For 2009 Eurovision, besides the wonderful winning song by Alexander Rybak (at the 1:27:32 mark), there was a gorgeous song by Estonia’s Urban Symphony (1:08:17) Turkey (1:19:52 ) and a (seriously) great song by Greta Thunberg’s mother (24:52 )
I just love that Estonian song Rändajad (YT) and its singer Sandra Nurmsalu (when she was singing with the Urban Symphony group).
From the 2009 show they had a performance by T.A.T.U. (remember them?) and more importantly, a singing group called the Alexandrov Ensemble. They’re a famous men’s musical group consisting of Russian soldiers (here dressed in uniforms) singing a nice medley as a long introduction for TATU. From the YouTube comment section, I learn that 64 of the Alexandrov Ensemble died in a plan crash in 2016.
YouTube and Geo-Blocking
One reason Eurovision is so unknown in the Americas is that you can’t watch most of the performances on YouTube. ESC geo-blocks the vids from regions whose country has not licensed the content.
But Americans can still watch the music vids for the song — and ESC puts the unblocked music vids on their channel.
They have been in my peripheries for a long time, but I finally got around to listening to Sixpence None the Richer and realized that 1)I really love the group’s sound and 2)the singer Leigh Nash comes from New Braunfels, Texas. They had a few hit songs around the turn of the century, such as Kiss Me (YT)
SMUT. Here’s a comic song by Tom Lehrer (1928-2025) praising smut. (YT) “I’ve never quibbled if it was ribald… Who needs a hobby like tennis or philately; I’ve got a hobby. It’s re-reading LADY CHATTERLY…”
Non-Eurovision Music Stuff
Wow, Talkingheads released a music video of Psycho Killer …. 50 years later. And it stars Saoirse Ronan. (YT)
See also my rateyourmusic profile and my review spreadsheet.in Google Docs.
Bandcamp
Jabee (BC, Youtube) is an Oklahoma-based rap singer. Very versatile and has lyrics which tap into calls for social justice.
Freegal/Library/Archive.org Acquisitions
Slowly I’ve been downloading music from Freegal.
Various Eurovision stuff: GoA, Sunstroke, Mimicat, Kalush Orchestra, Katja Ebstein, Dai Freyr, Alexander Rybak, Rosa Linn. Destiny, “Je me Casse,” Salvador Sobrai.
Also the album Pop Trip by Pogo Pops (a 90s Norwegian pop group). I’ve been watching the great Norwegian show Pernille with an amazing soundtrack. The title song (which we only hear 5 seconds of); after much searching, I discover that it was “You don’t own me” by Saygrace and it is based on a 1963 song by Leslie Gore. Saygrace’s Live version is much better and cleaner than her European rap duet megahit (YT).
Great song by Mina (“You are my destiny”)
I’ve noticed that a lot of bootleg concerts from the 1970s-2000s are downloadable from Archive.org. There’s only one hitch: the recordings are in .flac format (and so you can’t listen to them in the embedded player on archive.org ). Fortunately, there is an easy solution. Download a zip of the flac files, unzip and then batch convert to mp3/.m4a/opus by using the free conversion tool freac. The other hitch is that some of the flac files don’t have good metadata. I would recommend editing the .flac metadata before doing the conversions. The first album I downloaded contained track information for another live concert. Welcome to the wonderful erroneous world of bootlegs.
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