2 posts tagged “eurovision”
Pennie and I have held Eurovision parties for the last decade or so. The effort that went into them was often inversely proportional to the number of people in attendance: i.e. the year we had food from every country, a life-size cut-out of Terry Wogan and meticulously sourced costumes from our allocated countries, we were the only two there. But hey! It rocked anyway! Who needs other friends!
We saw no need to end this tradition merely because she's moved 5000 miles away to Oklahoma. This was merely an opportunity to introduce Eurovision to an American audience. And my god, the crowd that we packed into Pennie's house forcefully embraced it with their confused Yankee hearts. We explained it was similarish to American Idol but this, of course, does not encapsulate the feast of outlandish camp cabaret and predictably biased voting that is Eurovision. However, once they'd come to terms with Terry's commentary ("so, is he being, like...sarcastic?"), they couldn't get enough of it.
Everyone had been allocated a country and came in national dress and with food from their nation. For many people, food equated to sweet, sweet booze (FACT #1: you can only buy alcohol from liquor stores, and it is guiltily handed over in a brown paper bag, presumably so Jesus can't see it.)
The Armenian representative created a cocktail called the Armenian crotch-grabber. I have no idea what was in it, but it tasted super-fine and was stronger than Lidl's finest meths. This made our marking increasingly difficult as the night wore on. If you look closely at the photo below, you can pinpoint the exact moment the potent mix kicked in:
That's right: Serbia, when Marcus is only able to write "RAW FUCKING POWER!" He goes on to over-excitedly give Romania 30,000 points, which commemorates the moment we passed the vodka bottle round. At roughly this time I decided to take lots of blurry photos:
Please note the badge created by Mr Armenia, which apparently says "One nation, one people." Yeah! I have three spare badges if anyone wants one. Don't all rush at once. (FACT #2: Americans call badges, "buttons"! I know! Crazy.)
The rest of the night was a
brilliant hazy blur and, from my aching arms the following morning, I
can only conclude I over-enthusiastically demonstrated the British
entry's dance routine. Doubtless my new American friends were dazzled
by my elegance and co-ordination. I bet they are counting down the days until next year's contest.
Every May, for the last eight years, my friend Pennie and I have hosted a Eurovision Song Contest party. They were elaborate affairs that involved weeks of planning. We had food from every country to be eaten while its act was performing (vodka covered much of the Eastern Bloc). We printed out voting papers with different categories (dance routine, outfit, ludicrousness of lyrics). We had a life-size cut-out of Terry Wogan who watched over proceedings. We had a Eurovision quiz, Eurovision karaoke and, if we still had money and energy, Eurovision outfits.
Yeah, we were cool.
Did I mention we were often the only guests?
Yeah.
Anyway, Pennie decided that eloping to Oklahoma to be with her girlfriend was somehow more important than this tradition. But - much to her chagrin - US telly does not show Eurovision. I KNOW. A nation that loves the crapheap that is American Idol would surely take the trashtastic, overblown and politically biased evening of Europop (and Lordi) to its collective bosom.
So she's done what any self-respecting member of the MySpace generation would and started an online petition: Say YES to BBC America showing The Eurovision Song Contest. She is desperate. So do the right thing. Click on the link. Tell all your friends. Please - if I have to listen to her whinging any more about it I will go fecking mad.
