Categories: television, eurovision
Date: 12 May 2007 23:06:14
Oh, what fun the Semi-Final of Eurovision was: though I'll confess to a hint of disappointment that some of the more zany acts (vampires of Switzerland; drag-queens of Denmark) didn't get through. We received the BBC broadcast, and I did enjoy Paddy O'Connell and Sarah Cawood's commentary. I also liked the various 'postcards' that occurred between songs: some rather humorous ones, and some beautiful scenery. As we won't see the final until just under twelve hours, I'm going to have to be very careful where on the web I look at today.
SBS went all out last night: we had a Finnish documentary, Zero Points, which looked at Finland's history at Eurovision (placed last total eight times and scored zero points three times: last year was their first time coming first) as well as the preparation for this year's Eurovision. I do confess to having a look, as Miss Lisa did, flicking over to Primeval during the ad-breaks for a look: it was rather interesting.
After the Eurovision semi-final, it was a screening of Get Ready to be Boyzvoiced, an hilarious mockumentary from Norway about a fictional boy band (Boyzvoiced). If you get a chance to see it, go for it: very, very funny. You can view some of the hits (songs ranging from puberty blues to finding out your 16 year old girlfriend is 12 to liking your cousin!) -- which are frighteningly similar in melody and video clip to real life boy bands -- of Boyzvoiced on YouTube, and I confess We are the Playmomen is still in my head. Unfortunately the song the lead wanted for a James Bond movie, Spy Me At Noon, isn't there: it was truly so similar to a real Bond song.
In between, the wondrous and crazy semi-final. I mentioned my disappointment about the Vampires from Switzerland and Denmark's Drag Act not getting through, but there were a number of fun, and dare I say even good, acts: Malta's singers, together with a topless violin player, went to the Orient, joining people waving fans Mikado-style; Austria shone [literally: they were in silver costumes!] telling us to Get A Life -- Get Alive; Andorra wanted to save the world with a toe-tapping number; Slovenia (whose song I rather liked) and Latvia went high-brow with operatic numbers; Israel went zany, and controversial, with Push the Button; and the male Princess Diana look-a-like (as he's described) from Belarus worked his magic to get through to the final, joining 10 qualifiers from last year as well as the "Big 4" [France, Germany, Spain and the UK]. I'm sure I've missed some highlights: fill in my ailing memory in the comments.
A great night in: bring on the final, screened here tonight at 19:30 (at least in NSW) on SBS.