Eurovision Song Contest this evening.

[tjwmason]

Coverage starts 8p.m. U.K. time.

9 p.m. C.E.T.
3 p.m. Eastern.

The world's greatest celebration of crap music, bad taste, and high camp.

I'm counting down the seconds already.

http://www.eurovision.tv/english/index.htm

:bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

[Mutley]

1. That just sounds like a thrill.

:D

[tjwmason]

2. It really is.

There's nothing quite like Eurovision.

The only rule is that one can't take it seriously - if one does, then everything falls apart.

[Mutley]

3. It's too bad we don't get Eurovision here.

We do get Crapovision, though. :P

[Kellanved]

4. have no worry: there will be live internet streams

:D

[Mutley]

5. Excellent!

:bounce:

:D

[tjwmason]

6. Look at the complete lack of interest.

What a bunch of horrifically uncultured folk we must have here.

[Mutley]

7. What do you expect?

Most of the Lounge denizens are American.

[Cannikin]

8. Sounds like my kind of event

[tjwmason]

11. It truly is wonderful.

There's nothing quite like it. :bounce:

[REDKING]

9. It is shite isnt it.......

:puke:

[tjwmason]

12. It's brilliant.

It's so bad that it's actually good.

:bounce:

[MissHoneychurch]

10. Two friends are coming over to my place

and we gonna watch it and have a blast I am sure :bounce:

[tjwmason]

13. Hope you have a great time Miss H.

But how could one fail to have a great time with Eurovision on.

:bounce:

[MissHoneychurch]

14. Esp, when drinking wine while watching it

I probably need to switsch over to Single Malt later on.

Maybe next year we can watch it together :)

[tjwmason]

16. Oh definitely.

Sobriety is positively a bad thing when it comes to Eurovision.

[bikebloke]

15. Used to watch it on my kibbutz

Back in the early 80's, while I was living the Israeli hillbilly life on a kibbutz, someone would scrounge up an old telly. We'd all sit around and vote ourselves. We never matched with the official votes though.

One year, there was a Belgium bloke. A bunch of his friends entered the contest as a joke and actually won for Belgium. So he was able to see them on the telly in Israel.

[Monkey see Monkey Do]

17. What did you learn at school today? That's what the teachers used to say..

Daz Sampson, the greatest British rapper since John Barnes!

http://www.dazsampson.co.uk/

One of the co-hosts - Maria Menounos - may be familiar to some (although not me) as she's worked for Entertainment Tonight & has a role in One Tree Hill.

[Kellanved]

18. I felt a great disturbance in the Force, ...

as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror in the hope for a few to fall suddenly silent.

[tjwmason]

19. Pah.

It's definitely getting closer - can feel the build-up of crappy wonderfulness all the way from Athens.

:bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

[Kellanved]

20. Here a few live streams

Real player:
http://stream.ndr.de/bb/redirect.lsc?stream=ndr/live/ndrhigh.rm&content=live&media=rm
Real player low bandwidth:
http://stream.ndr.de/bb/redirect.lsc?stream=ndr/live/ndrlow.rm&content=live&media=rm


Windows media:
http://lsd.newmedia.tiscali-business.com/bb/redirect.lsc?content=live&media=ms&stream=ndr/live/ndrhigh.wmv
Windows media low bandwidth:
http://lsd.newmedia.tiscali-business.com/bb/redirect.lsc?content=live&media=ms&stream=ndr/live/ndrlow.wmv

[tjwmason]

21. What on earth is happening with this Latvian entry?

It was more of a badly tuned vocalise than a song. :shrug:

The only problem with Eurovision - one doesn't always know whether they're supposed to be that bad.

[Monkey see Monkey Do]

22. But they had a little robot man thingy! nt

[tjwmason]

23. That was the best part.

Utterly pointless - like the whole damn contest.

:bounce: :bounce:

[mwooldri]

24. The Lithuanian entry wasn't exactly that great either.

"We are the winners of Eurovision" repeated...

UK entry erm... not overly impressed. Finland? Different :)

I guess I'll see the voting later.

Mark.

[tjwmason]

25. I loved Lithuania.

I think that I'm probably going to vote for them.

:bounce: :bounce:

[T_i_B]

56. I thought that song was hilarious too!

Made me laugh if nothing else!

As to the Finnish entry, well at least we now have proof that the devil does not have all the best tunes! :rofl:

[MissHoneychurch]

26. You were right

the British entry has the best chance to land very far in the end. Next to the Finish entry :rofl:

[Kellanved]

27. Yup. But the German entry made me feel genuinely sorry for Texas

I just hope the moderators explained their watchers that the band was formed around comedians.

[MissHoneychurch]

28. I like our moderator

he makes ... uh .. interesting comments ...

[tjwmason]

30. The British one just makes rude comments about everything.

It was easy to guess that they were comedians though.

[tjwmason]

29. It really was glorious.

I texted several votes for Lithuania - almost as ridiculously bad. :bounce: :rofl:

I did like the German one too - as soon as I saw those cacti in the back-ground I knew it was going to be a good one.

[MissHoneychurch]

31. There was a cactus in the background???

I didn't noticed. Must have filled up my wine glass in that moment :rofl:

[tjwmason]

33. Part of the "Country" theme.

there were several illuminated plastic green cacti :rofl:

[Call Me Wesley]

32. Yikes!

'Mr. Grand Prix' Ralph Siegel
Composer of the Swiss Eurovision entry in 2006

Actual quote from the official website. I didn't watch it, but I hope they lost everything ...

[tjwmason]

34. It's the voting now.

I don't like this change in the rules - the first points are given automatically without translation into French and English.

It's all so splendidly political - Andorra gave maximum points to Spain, and Slovenia to Bosnia. :eyes:

[MissHoneychurch]

35. I don't like it

that all the small countries give their points to tehir neighbors.

And UK and Germany are both at the same level :rofl:

[tjwmason]

36. That's not fair.

We were waaaaaay worse than you. :P

Those Finns were barking mad, but they're in the lead. :rofl:

[MissHoneychurch]

37. You just got 6 points from Ireland

so you are better now :P

Thos Fins are .... it is unbelievable. :wow:

[tjwmason]

38. We're in the top half at the moment.

How in earth did that happen?

I think that we need to split into smaller countries - if Germany actually voted as the separate Laender then you'd be able to win every year.

Cyprus voting - guess where their twelve points went. :rofl:

[MissHoneychurch]

40. Hey, we got three points from the Netherlands

and 7 from Switzerland

:rofl:

I know Cyprus gave 12 to Greece. But I have to say I liked the Greek song

[tjwmason]

43. You're creaping back up.

Though we both get back in next year regardless of how badly we do.

[MissHoneychurch]

44. I can't believe that Finland gets so many points

did all the people who voted had something in their drinks????? :smoke:

Oh ... UK is voting .... wow we got 5 points from you. Thank you :rofl:

[tjwmason]

46. It looks like Finland is going to win.

People really did put something into their drinks... :rofl:

[MissHoneychurch]

47. For sure

there is no other explanation :rofl:

The Germans are voting right now

we had something in our drinks as well ...

[tjwmason]

48. You didn't vote for us.

:cry: :cry: :cry:

:rofl:

[MissHoneychurch]

49. I think it was all the Turish people in Germany

who voted. I mean 12 points for Turkey????

[tjwmason]

50. That's what the British commentator said.

He's making bitchy (and probably drunk) comments about the political voting. :rofl:

Malta's finally off the mark - one point from Albania.

:bounce:

[MissHoneychurch]

51. No comments about it here

but it is clear.

Wow, we have 11 points more than you. When the British group sang I was about to call you. The dancing reminded me of Britney Spears :rofl:

[tjwmason]

52. Finland has won.

The Monsters have won. :bounce: :rofl:

[MissHoneychurch]

53. Yup, saw it

Ok, next year: Finland. Really intersting contest. That such a song can win :eyes:

[mwooldri]

55. Neat!

They definitely were "very different" to the normal Eurovision pap. Us Brits just went the wrong way with the Eurocrowd... but we can do rock good if we wanted to.

I guess Lithuania went down well in the UK, even though I didn't care for it. 10 points for them (Finland got 12).

So who did you vote for, Finland or Lithuania?

Mark.

[khashka]

39. Oh Lord!

Every European's secret fantasy!

But could someone please explain this to me..... since when was Israel part of Europe?

Khash.

[tjwmason]

41. Good evening mon ami.

Long time no see.

It's great isn't it. :bounce: :bounce:

I've got no idea why Israel is part of it though. :shrug:

[Call Me Wesley]

42. Not mine. Not mine ...

Welcome back! Long time no see ...

To answer the question, if I remember it correctly, to include Israel in the song contest was an old political decision.

[Kellanved]

45. It's the Eurovision Song Contest

IIRC even Japan, Australia and the USA are associated members.

And almost all north-African states are full members, as is the Vatican.

[mwooldri]

54. Main reason: ITU Treaty on defining continental broadcast areas

From the European Broadcasting Union, the guys who run Eurovision:

a member country of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) situated in the European Broadcasting Area as defined by the Radio Regulations annexed to the International Telecommunication Convention, or a member country of the Council of Europe which is situated outside the European Broadcasting Area

As Kellanved said, yes a lot of North African states are members of the EBU. As is Lebanon, Syria, and oddly Jordan. They're members because they're in the European Broadcasting Area, per international treaties which define which country is in which broadcast area.

Mark.