New fix for Idol junkies: Eurovision finals set for Saturday
While U.S. television viewers have been obsessed with "American Idol" over the last few months, European music fans have been transfixed on "Eurovision," their longer-running (since 1956), song-centric version of "Idol."The second semifinals of the multi-country competition (each country sends a representative act and song to compete against other nations) was held yesterday, leaving 20 countries’ entries still standing and ready to proceed to the finals Saturday in Belgrade, where the event is being held, despite a rough year for the Serbian capital.
The nations surviving Thursday's elimination round are Iceland, 2004 winner Ukraine, Albania, Portugal, Croatia, Sweden, Turkey, Georgia, 2003 toppers Latvia and 2001 champs Denmark.
On Saturday, the aforementioned 10 will square off against 10 other countries who won the first semifinal, which took place earlier this week, with their representative acts.
Those countries include early favorite Russia, 2006 champs Finland, 2005 winner Greece, Romania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Israel, Poland, Azerbaijan, Norway, Armenia and Norway. Host country (and last year’s winners) Serbia and the four nations bankrolling the entire contest (Spain, France, Germany and England) get free passes into the finals Saturday.
Among the countries not making the cut for the finals this weekend? Ireland (who offered up a turkey glove puppet named Dustin as its entry), Bulgaria and Switzerland.
Don’t ask us how, exactly, the winner will be crowned at Eurovision. The bizarre selection process for the competition is famously complex, with judges representing various countries often voting in groups. The Baltic states, for example, like to stick together.
And while Russia ("Believe") and Sweden ("Hero") are among those tipped to win this year, we like to think Ukraine has the best shot to take the "Eurovision" crown with Ani Lorak's catchy pop song borne from club music roots ("Shady Lady") .
"Shady Lady" seems to have all the elements of a winning tune: a danceable beat, cheesy lyrics and a "hot" lead singer who knows how to smile for the camera and, more important, the judges.
You can stream the finals live Saturday from several websites, including the official Eurovision site or here.
--Charlie Amter
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I live in Southern California, USA and on Wednesday night, I watched the award show of this year "American Idol" but I could not feel the vibration, the excitement at all compared to the first semi-final show that I watched a day before! Through live streaming, I could enjoy the second show of Eurovision this year and it was even better than the first one! The performances were totally authentic, powerful, mesmerizing with spectacular background enhancements, lightings, dancing and above all, vocal capacity. The performances that I did not like were less then five! Even though, Eurovision has been the burning subject when it comes to critics and polical bloc voting, I still appreciate the concept of Eurovision as the place of cultural unification as well as acknowledged musical diversity! The contest exceeds the meaning of personal accomplishment of a singer. Many news papers, especially UK media, have been adamant to accuse political voting of last year result. They justified their assumption academically by publishing some research about the voting! However, they failed to address the important obvious awareness that neighbor countries share strong linguitic, cultural, musical interferences that direct them toward a similar taste. However, the history of the contest really witnesses the victory of different nationalities. Especially, the past few years, matching the period of UK's bitterness about the results, I could highly appreciate the seriousness and great deal of performing efforts from those Balkan, Eastern and Scandinavian countries.
To me, Eurovision should deserve some positive comments
Incredibly Great job Eurovision! I am now a big big fan of Eurovision!!!!
Posted by: Tri-Tinh Tran, Westminster, CA | May 23, 2008 at 08:03 PM
Greece's representative is a delightful young singer named Kalomira. She is a talented, charismatic Greek-American from Long Island, NY. She first became well know in Greece in 2004 when she won Greece's version of American Idol. Katie Couric interviewed her for the Today Show that year during their Athens Olympics broadcasts.
As a Greek-American myself I'm double proud that she has done such a fine job representing Greece in this year's Eurovision contest. The Final begins in one hour... Best Wishes Kalomira!
Posted by: Anastasia Kalivas | May 24, 2008 at 10:57 AM
Ireland's entry of a singing turkey glove-puppet should give readers unfamiliar with the concept an idea of how seriously this competition should be taken. It is, and has always been, dross.
Posted by: The Riverboat Captain | May 24, 2008 at 02:26 PM
Bravo Kalomira!
Posted by: stella | May 25, 2008 at 12:55 PM