The Eurovision Song Contest has been an annual event in Europe since 1956. Up to 44 countries participate and a performer and song from each country are entered each year. It's like American Idol on 'roids. The contest is broadcast throughout the continent and the winning songs can generally be translated into English as "crap". The most notable Eurovision winner was Celine Dion in 1988.
However, this year Eurovision took an unexpected turn when the winner was a "Metal" band from Finland called Lordi. Me thinks Lordi is Finnish for "Gwar". Discuss amongst yourselves.
Click HERE for the BBC coverage.
Lordi performing 'Hard Rock Hallelujah' on the Eurovision Finals:
The song would still suck even if they weren't wearing costumes.. but it's still a MILLION times better than anything on American Idol. Europe is so far ahead of the United States in so many ways. "It's the Rockalypse.."
Thanks to Brad in Prague for this.
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From Umlaut's old friend Ginger:
As all expats in Europe know (because it's said over and over again), the most well-known band to come out of the Eurovision contest is ABBA. They won in 1974 with "Waterloo".
Real live Umlauts to you from Berlin,
Ginger
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From Umlaut friend Jim:
Oh Lordi Lordi Lordi.
Hey Umlaut -
Just returned home from my British odyssey yesterday afternoon, and am sitting at work deleting email like a madman. So I come to your blog entry re: Why I Love Europe and about burst into hysterics. Here's why.
Last Thursday I had nearly an entire day to spend by myself in London. So I took one of those Beatles Walking Tours of London, which culminated with a short Tube trip to Abbey Road to walk across the famous zebra crossing and view the exterior of the building where it all occurred. Only thing was, when we arrived we were prevented from getting too close to the building by a video crew, a few photographers, and five beings who looked as though they'd just crawled out of a computer game. No one knew who they were, but a few judicious questions determined that it was Lordi (and their recent climb to notoriety). Of course, in a few minutes they got around to walking across the crossing themselves, with a photog stopping traffic perched atop a stepladder. Of course, I couldn't resist and snapped a dozen or so shots of them.
Cheers,
Jim