Hello! Bonjour! Guten Tag! ¡Hola! Ciao! Hej Hej!
We’re only 66 days away from the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 so rather than thinking about saying “Hello” in the languages of the Big Six countries at the apex of the event – UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Sweden – you should be thinking about singing them … with a band of 5 people behind you … one of them in a piano or balanced atop a dancing Russian grandmothers … with pyrotechnics, a key change and a costume change thrown in for good measure.
Eurovision is not for the fainthearted, nor some of the more charitable might snark for decent pop songs that stand the test of time, but it is a musical juggernaut that even many years after its founding in 1956 – happy 60th birthday to everyone’s favourite glitterfest! – demands to be watched for a whole of compelling reasons.
But first in case you haven’t heard of this glorious extravaganza of giant, glowing stages, intensely-meaningful lyrics (or not even close) or barely-concealed national rivalries (we’re all friends here right … well yes until the voting), here’s a potted history of Eurovision …
WHAT IS THE EUROVISION SONG CONTEST?
Started way back in 1956 as a way to draw a fractured Europe back together with the healing power of music, the Eurovision Song Contest, or Concours Eurovision de la Chanson – the contest is telecast in both English and French – is open to all active members of the European Broadcasting Union, which oversees the competition.
Each country is permitted to submit one 3 minute song to the contest – a song which is selected by a variety of means, usually a winner-takes-all competition such as Sweden’s renowned Melodifestivalen or direct public voting – which they perform in one of two semi-finals in the hopes of making it to the glittering grand final.
Only six countries have direct entry into the grand final:
* The Big Four who fund most of the proceedings – UK, Germany, France and Spain * The host country (which is the winner of the previous year’s contest) * Italy, who didn’t take part for many years and was re-admitted in 2011 after a 14 year absence (it was one of seven countries that competed in the first event), making the Big Four the Big Five.
The winner is chosen by a 50/50 mix of viewer votes (you cannot vote for your own country) and a jury of music industry professionals in each country, a method which was chosen to counter the alleged skewing of votes based on political and/or cultural lines when voting was purely the preserve of viewers at home.
Past winners include, of course, ABBA in 1974 with “Waterloo” and Celine Dion who won for Switzerland in 1980 with “Ne partez pas sans moi”.
Above all though, the Eurovision Song Contest is bright, over the top and deliciously camp, a celebration of music, inclusiveness and togetherness that draws annual viewing figures in the 100s of millions.
This year’s contest will be held at the Globe Arena in Stockholm, Sweden with theme “Come Together”.
This year’s event will feature 43 countries, equalling records set in 2008 and 2011, bolstered by the welcome return of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ukraine, Croatia and Bulgaria, and Australia’s second appearance at the contest after its 2015 debut where it was represented by Guy Sebastian. Portugal, however, will be a no-show, a pity since it often brings along distinctive entries that never fail to attract attraction of one kind or another.
But fear not! The grand-final won’t be filled to the musical gills by 43 countries battling it out, in the most communal-affirming of ways naturally, for the crystal microphone trophy.
Rather they will be divided into two semi-finals, save for the Big Six who are granted automatic entry into the grand final, and the draw for that, which also allocates which semi-final that the Big Six will vote in and took place at Stockholm City Hall, went something as follows.
Resulting in a draw that looks exactly like this, with semi-final 1 taking place on Tuesday 10 May and semi-final 2 taking place on Thursday 12 May.
And all this singing and dancing and oddly-compelling choreography and showmanship will take place on a massive stage bristling with all the colours of the rainbow, a fitting description given that Eurovision is all about bringing not just the various countries of Europe together but everyone within those countries.
According to the official Eurovision site, “the set has been designed by Frida Arvidsson and Viktor Brattström who also produced the stage for the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest in Malmö”, which also impressed mightily.
“We want to do something that makes people wonder if it’s even possible”, says Viktor Brattström. Plans also include an innovative LED wall which allows the artists to move inside it. “Normally an LED wall is a flat background wall at the very end of the stage. We have broken up the wall and made it possible for people to move inside it” he added. (Eurovision.tv)
Hosting duties this year fall to last year’s winner Måns Zelmerlöw and Petra Mede, the latter hosting the show in 2013 to great acclaim (and with the kind of humour that endeared her to many millions across the globe).
And they are both, as you might imagine, quite delighted at the prospect.
“It’s so incredible that I, once again, get the honour to be a part of the Eurovision Song Contest and doing this together with Måns Zelmerlöw, it’s a dream come true. He’s extremely professional so the one to be worried about is me, and what I’m going to wear. It’s like when I once dared to try a rollercoaster for the first time and someone then – when I’m standing there euphoric of happiness – comes and tells me: ”You can go one more time, and this time together with a gorgeous guy!” (Petra Mede)
“I’m so incredibly happy to be part of the Eurovison Song Contest once more and to be doing it together with Petra Mede, whom I consider an outstanding host and also one of the most delightful people I know.” (Måns Zelmerlöw)
They will both be presiding over a big shake-up in the voting, designed to throw a tad more excitement back into the voting process which let’s be honest has all the excitement of paint drying, especially when one country leaps to the top of the leadership and refuses to relinquish the lead.
Under the new rules, only the8, 10 and 12 point votes of each country’s national professional juries will be announced, with the public televoting only announced at the end, meaning that the actual winner won’t be known until the closing moments of the telecast, “starting with the country receiving the fewest points from the public and ending with the country that received the highest number of points.” (Eurovision.tv)
All of which should make for a more exciting contest says the EBU’s Jon Ola Sand, Executive Supervisor of the Eurovision Song Contest.
“This new way of presenting the votes is a big step forward, both to make a better television show as well as a more exciting competition. There is more reason than ever to vote in the Eurovision Song Contest. The new voting format guarantees that the song which is most popular among the public will receive twelve points regardless of how the juries voted. It is fitting that this change to the Contest’s iconic scoring sequence will be debuted in Stockholm, where the famous douze points system was introduced in 1975.”
Lastly, but being a proud Aussie not even close to leastly, Australia will be represented by Dami Im at this year’s contest.
The X Factor winner, who found out about her selection less than a week before the big announcement on Thursday 3 March at the Sydney Opera House during a concert From Vienna With Love by past winner Conchita Wurst, is understandably pretty happy about representing the country she has called home since she arrived as a 9 year old with her family from South Korea.