It was the big Eurovision finale this weekend. You know, the big European music contest filled with cheesy songs, questionable outfits and controversies. This year was a big one; celebrating Eurovisions’ 60 year anniversary, allowing Australia (!) to participate in the otherwise European exclusive event and of course seeing Sweden win the entire thing.
It might be hard for someone outside Europe to fully grasp how important the yearly music contest is for Europe. The truth is that the Eurovision is a lot more than just a bizarre mix of songs of a varying quality, strange outfits and a large TV audience with an estimation of 200 million (!) viewers. It’s often seen as a stupid event, yet it’s celebrated by millions and there’s special Eurovision parties hosted all over the world. The contestants are often selected through a long voting process in their own home countries to make sure that they will hopefully win (except in the UK where it’s considered a career suicide to participate).
The Eurovision Song Contests true value is how it unites people, both on a national level and as Europeans. One of the main purposes from the beginning was to heal Europe after the World War II. The contest is one of the few events that really brings Europe together, even though we are all competing against each other. Now, I’m one of those people have always considered the show stupid and I’m still not a fan of the music, but I can’t deny the importance it has in Europe. The show is in many ways about soft politics, even if the event in itself is supposed to be non-political.
Eurovision 2015 was no longer exclusive to Europe when Australia was invited to participate. There’s no real official reason for why Australia took part, but it’s safe to say that it’s most likely the result of a lot of backdoor lobbying and an extremely hefty participation fee paid by the Australian broadcasting company SBS. Australia has been organizing online votes (non qualifying) for the European Eurovision for years and there’s some followers here. But I haven’t noticed it that much to be honest, other than in the Media. Most Australians were still pretty uninterested in the competition. The large time difference also makes it a lot trickier. The grand finale began at 5am.. Yes, 5 am.. In the morning!! It’s not exactly the best time slot for a big show. The show was also broadcasted the following evening, but it’s not the same things once you already know the results.
I’m not sure how Australians participation is going to change the contest. The Eurovision Management made it sound like it was only a special 60-year anniversary thing, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they (or someone else) will be invited to participate again. As long as Australia made enough money of the event and can afford to pay another extremely hefty participation fee.
Did you watch the Eurovision Song Contest?