I know, I know, it’s not always easy to understand my fascination with the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC). But consider, where else in the space of two hours would you get to see:

• Dancing Greek musicians wearing kilts, singing a song in Greek with the refrain in English Alcohol is Free
• A young Maltese pediatrician singing a quiet ditty about Tomorrow accompanied by a guy on a ukulele
• An opera-singing Dracula from Romania (of course) surrounded by modern dancers clad in red body suits

But all that and more was on tap last night at the ESC Semi-Final #2. What’s not to love about a program like that? 🙂

Actually, Chris and I were both struck by how a greater percentage of the acts last night didn’t all sound like the standard power ballad that had been so prominent on Tuesday night. However, there still were some more of those same-sounding power ballads.

And when the votes were counted at the end, most of those power ballad numbers made it through to Saturday’s final, while most of the more interesting ones got eliminated. Ah well. But have no fear – the 3  I listed at the top of the post did make it through the finals. Of course, IMHO, that was really too bad in Dracula’s case. Actually, the singer, Cezar,  is a well-regarded young opera singer from Romania, and he sounded like he probably has a nice voice. But the song … and the staging … and the costumes – oddly compelling and off-putting at the same time.  But people voted for him. We’ll see how he and the song fare in the final.

BTW, among the eliminated groups was the band from Switzerland; they stood out in part because the group consisted of 2 young women, 4 young men, and a 95 year-old guy on the double-bass. He is the oldest contestant ever to perform in an ESC competition, according to the official website.

Other quick notes:

• Both Semi-Finals and the Final are telecast as live, 2-hour shows, without commercial interruption. I can’t imagine that happening the U.S., can you?
• For the most part, there was little filler in the program. They need some during the period when the voting lines are open, of course, and the comedienne/host had a few short pieces including Part II of the ESC History, and some other woman had a comic bit about trying to find what Sweden is known for other than cold. but really, it kept moving right along. Each act is given a 1-minute intro, but there were no long up-close-and-personal type things that would have dragged the proceedings to a halt.
• The song entry from Iceland was sung in Icelandic, but Chris and I joked that the lyrics of the chorus must mean Eres Tu, since the song was remarkably same-sounding in the chorus. But to the best of my limited research – i.e. a quick look in Wikipedia – the Icelandic entry this year was not accused of plagiarism. However, it turns out that a number of songs actually were accused of being copies of other songs this year, although I believe all but one made it through the review period without getting tossed out. So, Germany was not alone in having a controversial song entered ESC 2013.

Somehow we ran across a blog today by a reporter who was sent to blog about ESC 2013 for the BBC. In addition to talking about the contest, she talks about some of her behind-the-scenes experiences, including this anecdote from yesterday:

I suspect the room is also filling up because the organisers have brought out free cake. In Sweden, it’s known as fika time – a traditional social institution that roughly translates as coffee break.

Typically, you enjoy your fika with a sweet accompaniment and more than a dozen cake stands and plates have been brought out crammed with cinnamon rolls, muffins and biscuits.

There are also some golf ball-sized chocolate balls covered in desiccated coconut. In the name of good journalism, I feel it is only right I sample everything and report back.  – from BBC Blog by Genevieve Hassan

Ah, how well I understand the need to sample the local specialties and report back. I mean, I do that kind of thing all the time here. But she gets paid to do that? Hmm… clearly, I need to figure out how to get hired for that gig next year…

Anyway, now it’s on to the ESC finals on Saturday. But except for the Big 5 (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) plus Sweden, we’ve already seen all the performances, as the people from the Semi-Finals have to perform their songs again in exactly the same way as before.

But, your commentator is prepared to sit through the Final, just for the experience of seeing it broadcast live.  Dedication? Perhaps. And we also have no other plans for tomorrow night, so we might as well tune in.

Now to figure out where to find some cakes and chocolates to sample while we’re watching the final…