Sunday, May 21, 2006

CONGRATULATIONS TO FINLAND!


Lordi, Finlands latest super hard rockers, did it! They actually managed to win the Euro Vision Song Contest!

If you don't already know it, EVSC is THE contest of the year when it comes to music in Europe. This contest, in which nothing new has happened since ABBA won in 1974, has been debatet for many years. It didn't matter whoever won it, it was "always the wrong one" that did. Small groups of elderly critics cast their votes and voilá, the debate was on. Except for the exception of ABBA, of course.

Then they changed the voting system somewhat so that people could phone in their own votes but there was much trouble. Some people could vote and some couldn't. Some people voted just once but got billed for twenty votes on their phone bill. (I bet there where people who voted twenty times but only got billed once but I guess they never told anyone...)

Anyway, this year everything seems to have worked flawlessly, except for one thing: Finland actually won. Most people agreed that they would get points for novelty but very few really thought Lordi would win with their song "Rock'n'Roll Halleluja".

I thought they had a good chance of winning. First of all, NOTHING new has happened in the EVSC for many years, except for skirts getting shorter and cleavages getting deeper. It turned more into a beauty contest than a chance to hear and vote for new songs. The trademark of the songs have always been that they stick to your brain like glue. I still, occasionaly, hum the song "Chanson d'Amour" that participated many, many years ago.

Secondly, one has to ask one self who the voters are. In the age of cell phones? Young people, of course! Specifically teenagers, who don't pay their own bills. The trademark of teenagers? Vote for anything that smells new, even if it stinks. If their parents don't seem to like it, that's even better...

The third part to the "surprise" is that many people of my age grew up with Alice Cooper, Kiss and other assorted show rockers. We don't think that Satan is behind heavy metal. We don't walk around killing people just because part of our music taste lies in heavy metal. Actually, I think many "good" Christians have killed more people than any heavy metal fan. For us, Lordi was a refreshing novelty to a contest that's grown duller by the years.

Sweden's contribution, sung by Carola, got fifth place. It's quite remarkable that this woman, with the personality of a door knob, still gets high points. Okey, I'll give her credit for her voice but I've actually met this woman. She has mean eyes, really mean eyes. And people are fed up with her christianity and diva behaviour.

Well, it's late and I won't get any younger without my beauty sleep so g'night all and once again congrat's to Finland. I don't think Lordi ever will climb up to the top of heavy metal groups but then again, who knows?

7 comments:

Virginia Gal said...

Did you know that it was at this contest back in 1994 that Riverdanc was born? Interesting...

JoeinVegas said...

And how many times did you vote?

Shark-Fu said...

A bitch caught that...looks like an interesting band too!

It was worth watching it for the show alone.

Congratulations to Lordi...and welcome back P.O.P.!

Anonymous said...

Just so you know: ESC is right, EVSC is not so right ;-).

Anonymous said...

Don't fade away, pop... I keep checking up on you...

Katherine aka LAPaganChick :-)

PissedOffPencil said...

Virginia Gal: Yeah, I remember... Does that mean I'm getting old? ;o)

JoeinVegas: I didn't vote at all. That's for young people with loads of money to pay their phone bills...

Shark-Fu: You caught that? It actually mentioned on american news? Wow... Gives kind of a hunch how schocking this was to the "experts" and media. :)

Anonymous: I know who you are and I know where you live. 'nuff said. ;o)

Katherine: Don't worry, I'm not going away, it's just that I have all these things to straighten out first. :) Love your new picture!

Anonymous said...

Most of Lordi's songs are very bad. I do not like this band. But they really hit gold with that one song. I have never heard any other good songs by them. Of course, as a Finn, I was happy that they won this contest. It was fun to watch the eurovision "traditions" fall apart at least for this one year. Some people even tried to ban Lordi from the contest - that was hilarious!