A North American Guide to Eurovision
If you’ve been surfing through some of the global music news sites, you must have run across stories about Eurovision, the most daft international competition ever conceived by humankind. This year, 37(!!!) countries competed in a giant karaoke contest that incites a particularly weird form of nationalism from a very weird segment of the public. There is no equivalent in North America. Not even close.
As we get down to the short strokes for 2014–the finals are tonight with Denmark, France, Italy, Germany, Spain and the UK involved–you might want to bone up on what Eurovision is all about. And before you dismiss it as nothing more than overblown Idol or The Voice, you need to read this primer on the subject.
Once you’re familiar with Eurovision, you need to review some of the worst of the worst over the decades. Because if there’s one thing about Eurovision, it’s that the best stuff to watch is the worst stuff on display.
Once you’re done, check out the UK’s best disappointments.
