Euroshitvision sinks to new lows

[htpcl.livejournal.com]

Greetings, m'dear procrastinators! It may've become evident to all by now that I'm no big Russia fan obviously, and I'm not exactly into Eurotrash type of bullshit either (the one that Eurovision is all about) - and yet, I couldn't help but cringe/smirk on seeing the news (oh, our own BG lady did quite well, taking #4 and winning many hearts; that's not the issue here):

http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-36295366

The win of Ukrainian Tatar singer Jamala at the pageant has flamed up the passions and again raised the question if politics is really allowed to take over music. The winner song, called 1944, is ostensibly dedicated to Stalin's deportations of thousands of Crimean Tatars for having sided with Hitler in WW2. Jamala's family themselves were among the deported, so the song is very personal and emotional. It's another question if she can sing, and if the song itself is good enough to win the Eurovision. The public TV vote placed her 2nd in the rankings, but a jury vote has conveniently been added for some years now (conducted behind closed doors, btw), it placed her firmly 1st, and the public vote couldn't compensate for that.

Naturally, this has sparked the sparks between Russia and Ukraine once more, the Russian contender being the bookmakers' favorite before the final of the pageant, and indeed winning the popular vote by a landslide - but being shot down by the jury (which, conveniently, constitutes 50% of the score, and has been placed there for whatever reasons - perhaps to "smooth things out" whenever some "rogue" entry happens to stir things up a bit).

Naturally, the reactions were short to follow on all sides. The general accusation from Russia is that music is again being used as a political tool, for political propaganda, and now as part of the hybrid warfare between Russia and the West. For instance, the speaker of the Russian foreign ministry wrote this on FB:

Meanwhile, Ukraine is naturally ecstatic. President Poroshenko tweeted his congratulations, saying that "the truth always wins".

But the real scandal started only later. Two Russian journalists posed as Poroshenko's aides and called Jamala, who then appeared to admit to them that the song had indeed been political, and was really about the annexation of Crimea. When they asked her why she didn't entitle it 2014 then, she said it wouldn't be allowed by the jury that way, so she made it appear to be about 1944 (which doesn't make it any less political, though).

The Russians are now considering boycotting next year's Eurovision, which will be in Ukraine.

All the while, almost no one noticing that Australia (which is far from being a European country, but has been participating for the last couple of years) came 2nd and could've grabbed the win - which would've put the contest in the curious situation of being hosted about a dozen thousand kilometers away from the actual European continent. But I digress.

My take on the matter is as follows. All the complaints about the rigged Ukraine win (despite the obvious political overtones in their entry), as whiney as they may sound, are not fully devoid of sense in this case. Indeed, politics is only banned on Eurovision on paper, while being everywhere around Eurovision in practice. Such is the case with Ukraine, and such has long been the case with the so called "friendly" vote by former Soviet republics both big and small, which year after year has given a huge boost to Mother Russia, no matter if their entry is good or crappy.

So, in principle, those who are bewailing this year's results do have a point. Except, I don't see why anyone should've voted for Russia either, since their song, purely music-wise, was worse than mediocre. In fact, it was as mediocre as most others, including Ukraine. We're still talking about a music contest here, right? Or so we're supposed to.

Seems like the preferences of a large part of the whiners (as well as the jury itself) had been pre-determined, long before anyone had even heard any of these songs. In both cases, nobody cares about the music itself, the songs, the performance, etc. All they care about is politics. Hell, there are people over here in BG who claim Russia should've been #1, even though our own song, as ordinary as it was, was much better than both the Ukrainian and Russian ones, music-wise (I'm not saying it was the best of them all; in fact there were at least a dozen other songs that were better, but some of them didn't even make it to the final - and most of them came from tiny little countries with little [political] support from friendly neighbors). Turns out, the old rule that our people identify as either Russophile or Russophobe first and foremost, before they've even identified themselves as Bulgarian, applies once more. Not that there aren't a myriad of other lines to be getting divided along, mind you.

But my point is about the selection - and I do mean selection, not election) of Ukraine to be this year's winner - because the public most definitely did not favor that song, as the popular vote shows. That choice on part of the jury was obviously meant to spite Russia. The entry was intended to further demonize Russia. And Europe obliged - because it suits them.

On the other hand, the Russo-fans both here at home and abroad do not care about the music dimension of the event much, either. Let's face it: all that both sides care about is politics. While Eurovision has occasionally been marred by political messages sneaking in here and there, now this has taken blatant proportions. Not that this pageant has anything to do with real music, mind you - it's mostly a parody of itself, a cartoonish caricature full of posh and kitsch, representing everything you might have in mind when using the term "Euro-trash". Which is kind of embarrassing. But still. Apart from everything else, it has now allowed itself to be turned into yet another front in that hybrid war between Russia and the West. And that's bound to have some Putionoids getting their knickers in a twist, no doubt.

While all of that has at least been mildly amusing most of the time, t'is also kind of infuriatingly disgusting when you think of it. And is yet another reason why I don't watch Eurovision. Frankly, it makes me puke. There were times it used to make me puke just for musical reasons, and I was okay with that. Now it's got one more reason to make me puke - and I'm feeling unclean even by talking about it.

Comments

[luvdovz.livejournal.com]

The truth always wins, Chocolate Petro? Indeed it does. And the truth is, Satanin punished those Tatars for providing the Wehrmacht with a comfortable launching pad for his assault on the southern USSR. They're responsible for hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths, and should consider themselves fortunate that Satanin didn't choose to reciprocate, but instead moved them to other places like he often did with everyone who happened to stand in his way at the time.

So yeah, perhaps Jamala should've asked her grandparents why they and their people chose to support an invader rather than defend their country in the first place. Then maybe she could've added a couple of extra lines at the beginning of her song, which was oh so touching.

[ddstory.livejournal.com]

Heh. Eurovision being Eurovision. If I wanted to hear real relevant music, I'd steer clear of that all that nonsense at the first opportunity.

[abomvubuso.livejournal.com]

Perhaps Putin would now figure it's more convenient for the thin-skinned Russians if they made a pageant of their own instead? Let's say an Eurasianvision. They could invite Syria and North Korea if they so much insist. ;)

[nairiporter.livejournal.com]

By the way, the Ukrainians have had a great pop music school for years, and the Russians were very fond of it - until they decided to invade Ukraine. Now suddenly they've stopped loving the Ukrainian pop music that they've always loved. Talk about politics messing with music indeed.

[airiefairie.livejournal.com]

Your country performed very well. In a way, it's the winner, since it comes first after the political entry, the non-European entry and the imperial Mother Russia entry. =)

But seriously, Poli Genova is charming, hugely talented, and has a bright future ahead of her. You should be proud of her. All the rest, especially the politics, is not worth paying attention to.

[luzribeiro.livejournal.com]

Ugh, Eurovision. Who cares! It's not that it has produced anything memorable on the pop scene, apart from ABBA.

[dreamville-bg.livejournal.com]

And so the petitions (https://www.change.org/p/european-broadcasting-union-make-eurovision-song-contest-revise-the-results-of-the-song-contest-2016) have started.