Eurovision: Poets or idiots?

[CharleyH]

any thoughts?

 

[champagne1982]

any thoughts?

Well, first the inevitable Wiki link What the hell Charley's talking about.

Now, I don't see them as poets at all, they're songwriters and performers. It's like equating a draftsman with an architect ... kinda the same but different. Perhaps the visionaries who developed the concept could be counted as poets, but I doubt that their wildest fantasies would have conceived that this would persist as a major thing for 56 years.

 

[UnderYourSpell]

It's all politics now nothing to do with who has the best song anymore just which countries are supporting each other

 

[Liar]

I must admit, the whole shebang has a certain flair of post-ironic Gonzo art to it.

 

[annaswirls]

Hmmm I never heard of Eurovision before today. Thanks for the link, Champ.

I don't see how the group of people could be considered poets OR idiots... primarily because the two categories are not mutually exclusive and it seems to me by my limited experience, they would be in the same category as any singer-songwriter-performer.

I think the only one I recognized from the list: edited to add-- I saw a couple other familiar ones



Title: Abba - Waterloo lyrics

Artist: Abba


My my, at waterloo napoleon did surrender
Oh yeah, and I have met my destiny in quite a similar way
The history book on the shelf
Is always repeating itself

Waterloo - I was defeated, you won the war
Waterloo - promise to love you for ever more
Waterloo - couldn’t escape if I wanted to
Waterloo - knowing my fate is to be with you
Waterloo - finally facing my waterloo

My my, I tried to hold you back but you were stronger
Oh yeah, and now it seems my only chance is giving up the fight
And how could I ever refuse
I feel like I win when I lose

Waterloo - I was defeated, you won the war
Waterloo - promise to love you for ever more
Waterloo - couldn’t escape if I wanted to
Waterloo - knowing my fate is to be with you

And how could I ever refuse
I feel like I win when I lose

Waterloo - I was defeated, you won the war
Waterloo - promise to love you for ever more
Waterloo - couldn’t escape if I wanted to
Waterloo - knowing my fate is to be with you
Waterloo - finally facing my waterloo

 

[UnderYourSpell]

You've never heard of Cliff Richard? Not that I would say he is one of my favourites!!

 

[Eluard]

Some good entries this year I thought: Israel, France, and Greece, all pretty decent songs. And there were many more that were listenable. I thought it was a pretty good crop.

 

[annaswirls]

You've never heard of Cliff Richard? Not that I would say he is one of my favourites!!

umm... I just googled him....I remember my sister singing the "It's so funny, how we don't talk anymore...."

I am sure there are many on the list that I would recognize if I heard them

 

[bogusbrig]

The only poet ever to have a song in the Eurovision was Serge Gainsbourg, the original daddy of all punks. He wrote the song Les Sucettes in 1963 (?)which is about a girl sucking lollipops but which everyone who could speak French really knew was about giving a blow job. It shocked the French nation and the singer Francois Gall who was young and naive at the time, went into hiding for several weeks and never sung the song again. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Pxt_R7jLKA

It was the first time Gainsbourg shocked the French with a song but not the last, he went on to write Je T'aime http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHiMDB19Dyc which was about fucking with all its heavy breathing which many thought had a recording of Jane Birken genuinely heavy breathing. Gainsbourg said if it was genuine, it would have been a long player, he was one with the women. It was actually first recorded with Bridget Bardot but she refused to allow her version to be released because she was still married and only having an affair with Gainsbourg at thew time. He then shocked the French by recording a song about incest called Lemon Incest which was a duet with his eleven year old daughter, the now famous actor and singer (in Europe anyway) Charlotte. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LE06lqT0Y2g After that he scandalized the France by turning the national anthem into a reggae song Aux Armes Et Caetera http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRN_xHY5dNw .Apart from that, Gainsbourg is a real poet and painter that many respect.

 

[ishtat]

Alas for Portugal

any thoughts?

None except to note that Portugal has the longest record of failure of any entrant.

They first entered 44 years ago an have never won. Should we congratulate them or commiserate? I tend to the former.