5 Reasons Why Eurovision Is Awesome (from an Indonesian Perspective) — Part 1
The stories behind “Yo Bandrek” and “The Epic Sax Guy”
Ah… Eurovision. This event is always worth waiting and exciting to watch. The 61-year-old song contest involves countries all over the Europe geographically (+ Turkey, Israel and in some occasions ++ Morocco, Lebanon and wasteful participation of Australia) joined in one alliance of broadcasting called European Broadcasting Union (EBU). The game rule is simple: every country sends one performer with a song, the performer has to deliver the song live to be voted by jury and audience (televoting) from every single participated country. One country will give score 1–8, 10 and 12 to 10 most voted songs (the voting can be based on jury, televoting, or combination of both depending on the rule’s dynamics). Country with a song receiving the highest voting score will be announced as a winner (and should host the contest next year). Interesting? Well, it’s just the superficial things I’ve explained about Eurovision.
The contest itself is popular not only within the Europe itself, but also outside Europe, you name it: USA, China, Venezuela, and of course our lovely Australia. Sadly, the contest is not well-known in Indonesia (TVRI is not EBU’s member anyway). In Asia itself there’s such an event called ABU Song Contest but it isn’t designed to be live broadcast. Australia even has a plan to make an Asian version of Eurovision called Asiavision -having an outside chance of happening soon. Now it’s my turn to explain why you have to know (and have to love) Eurovision. Me myself has been a fan of Eurovision since 2008 when Russia won with its super-exaggerated performance of song called “Believe”, sung by Russian singer Dima Bilan.
1. Eurovision is the place where stars were born
And I’m not joking on this. Eurovision is the platform where some international stars and hits were born. Julio Iglesias, ABBA, Céline Dion, and t.A.T.u started their huge careers performing on Eurovision. Even some big names such as Cliff Richard, Olivia Newton-John, Lulu, Katrina and the Waves, Blue, Jedward, Cascada, Bonnie Tyler, and Guy Sebastian had competed in Eurovision.
Familiar with song titled “Congratulations”? To your surprise, the song was born from the contest, to be exact in Eurovision 1968. Sung by representative of United Kingdom Cliff Richard, the song unfairly lost the contest by only single point behind Spain’s Massiel with “La, La, La”. It was later revealed that Spain — under the direction of fascist dictator Francisco Franco — rigged the the contest, affecting the final results.
Love to watch “Ini Talkshow”? If so, I bet you often hear Sule, Andre, or Mang Saswi sing “Yo Bandrek”. To another surprise, the song was adapted from another Eurovision entry. It was called “Nel blu dipinto di blu (Volare)” (Translated: In the blue that is painted blue [to fly]) performed by Italian Domencio Modugno. The song was sent to Eurovision 1958, placing third out of 12 fields. Taking you to bigger surprise, the song atop US chart for 7 consecutive weeks and won the first ever Grammy Awards for Record and Song of the Year categories.
The most notable breakthrough effort came from Swedish quartet ABBA which conquered Eurovision 1974 with an uptempo number “Waterloo”. The winning shot their popularity across Europe and beyond as the song topped the chart in UK and other 9 countries. The song also charted in South Africa (#1), Australia (#4), Canada (#7), New Zealand (#3), and even US (#6). Another notable breakthrough was done by Canadian singer Céline Dion. She brought Switzerland to dramatic winning in 1988 by fully French track “Ne partez pas sans moi” (Translated: Don’t leave without me). It was less commercially successful — the single was not released in UK and Ireland. But indeed, the winning took the singer to her international fame in 1990s era.
2. Eurovision is the place where some rare occasions happened (for better and worse)
Eurovision recently has grown into the most anticipated televised event in Europe — maybe in the world as well. Sometimes it wows us and makes our jaws dropped by unexpected performances and even unexpected supplementary occasion on the event. Some acts competed have left such an iconic influence in pop culture. Even some memes circulated on 9gag were based on Eurovision things.
I bet you’ve been familiar already with ‘The Epic Sax Guy’ gif or memes on 9gag. Yes, this meme is based on performance by a group called SunStroke Project, while the guy playing saxophone is named Sergey Stepanov. SunStroke Project along with Olia Tiara represented Moldova in 2010 contest with a track “Run Away”, which placing 22nd out of 25 finalists. 7 years later they’re back with track “Hey Mamma!” and The Epix Sax Guys was back on action doing a sax solo once again. “Hey Mamma!” got respectable third place in 2017 contest. For your information, Sergey did not really play the sax at that time.
Not all of Eurovision winners doing the usual way in performing their songs. 2006 winner Lordi (it is a heavy metal band) wore demonic costume and used so many pyrotechnics on stage singing “Hard Rock Hallelujah”. But the more unusual thing is the fact that some countries sent drag queen/transgender performers to Eurovision. Even two winners are transgenders: The Israeli — Dana International with song “Diva” in 1998 and The Austrian Bearded Lady — Conchita Wurst with song “Rise Like a Phoenix” in 2014. Another notable drag performer is Verka Serduchka (the stage name for Andriy Danylko), representing Ukraine and singing infamous “Dancing Lasha Tumbai” in 2007 contest. Wearing shiny silver all over the top wearing (the most shiny costumes on Eurovision ever), the performer was close to atop the contest, being runner-up and only losing from Serbia’s Marija Serifovic who sang “Molitva”.
The worst part of every performer in Eurovision is getting their act interrupted. And in Eurovision, it can happen. Not only happened once, but twice during the contest’s executions. The first incident happened in 2010, while Jimmy Jump — the Spanish streaker, interrupted Spanish representative Daniel Diges performing “Algo pequeñito” (Translated: something tiny) and took part of the choreography before he got escorted away from the arena. The second incident happened in 2017. It was 2016 contest winner Jamala sang as the interval act while Vitalii Sediuk entered the stage with Australian flag and 1 2 3 voom… he mooned the crowd, showing his rear back (you got it right, that bum). But Jamala didn’t pay any attention as she delivered her song smoothly til the end.
