Quote :

"The Eurovision Song Contest is an annual competition held among active member countries of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). Each member country submits a song to be performed on live television and then casts votes for the other countries' songs to determine the most popular song in the competition. The Contest has been broadcast every year since its inauguration in 1956 and is one of the longest-running television programmes in the world. It is also one of the most watched non-sporting events in the world, with audience figures having been quoted in recent years as anything between 100 million and 600 million internationally. Eurovision has also been broadcast outside Europe to such places as Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Egypt, India, Japan, Jordan, Mexico, New Zealand, the Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, the United States, Uruguay and Venezuela despite the fact that that they do not compete. Since 2000, the Contest has also been broadcast over the Internet, with more than 74,000 people in almost 140 countries having watched the 2006 edition online. Studies have been made that suggest voting blocs are a major factor, with certain countries tending to form "clusters" or "cliques", sometimes due to sharing similar cultural and/or ethnic communities, by frequently voting for one another, and that these blocs on at least two editions of the contest have crucially affected the result of the competition. Artists whose international careers were directly launched into the spotlight following their participation and victory at Eurovision include ABBA, who won the Contest for Sweden in 1974 with their song "Waterloo", and Celine Dion, who won the Contest for Switzerland in 1988 with the song "Ne partez pas sans moi""

Listen to every nominee here:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9682563BF2AE3F2F&feature=view_all

Last years winner:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSnz-iF9Xps

And yes, that saxophone guy meme is from this competition:
http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/epic-sax-guy

Eurovision drinking game:
http://www.aleth.talktalk.net/eurosong.html



I managed to catch the final round of this competition when I was in Munich last year, and it is amazing. It's like American Idol, except 50 countries participate. And most of it is entirely corny euro pop.

Almost all of it. Here is the 2006 winner, the greatest live performance ever:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAh9NRGNhUU

Enjoy. The final is on May 26th, and I'm not sure how to see it here in America.


[Edited on March 21, 2012 at 11:07 PM. Reason : ]

3/21/2012 11:02:31 PM

The only entertaining thing about this year's contest is that Englebert Humperdinck is representing the UK.

3/21/2012 11:35:10 PM

eurovision is awesome. my sister, cousin, and i watched a ton of it when we were in greece.

the girl from greece this year is really hot, but i don't think the song is very good.

the russian song is creepy

the dudes from ireland sound like they are singing a disney show theme song.

belgium is pretty funny

the lyrics of secret combination, greece's 2008 song still crack me up
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeT0kFhrbyI&feature=related

and for whatever reason i genuinely like the 2010 winner from germany
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRgp-7Q4alU&feature=related

3/22/2012 3:20:32 PM