First the news, in case you haven't already heard:
DJ Bobo from Switzerland, the hot favourite, has been eliminated. His Vampires Are Alive was knocked out of Thursday's semi-final, while competition newcomers Serbia and Georgia were among the 10 qualifiers.
Most bookmakers currently have Ukraine as favourites to win, followed by Serbia, Belarus and Sweden. However, a recent panel by the BBC News website favoured the German entry, performed by Roger Cicero.
Now to play fair with the American readers - we're talking about the Eurovision Song Contest here, possibly the most appallingly talentless, glib, kitsch, televised monstrosity of a spectacle ever to assault the senses in a medium already devoted to tat.
You would never wish to watch it.
The songs are bad, the costumes some sort of surreal joke and the official male and female commentators are so wooden that BBC commentator Terry Wogan referred to those at the 2001 Copenhagen festival as Dr. Death and the Tooth Fairy. And they take it all so seriously.
I never miss it. It's fascinating in its awfulness and its appeal [for the Brits] lies in three areas:
1] the appallingness;
2] the voting at the end which is really rather exciting, as each country sends in its tally from lowest to highest. Oscars eat your heart out;
3] Terry Wogan.
Sardonic, aging BBC commentator Wogan, who once held the world record for the longest successful golf putt ever televised, 33 yards at the Gleneagles golf course in a pro-celebrity TV programme and who had the record for the slowest lap time in a celebrity car race, is the key.
Poking fun the whole time, the Europeans hate him:
The executive producer of Eurovision 2002, Juhan Paadam, has also gone on the record expressing his displeasure with Wogan. "Yes, I know Terry Wogan," Paadam was quoted by Estonia’s Paevaleht newspaper as saying. "There is not such an arrogant and rare type in the world."
but the Brits usually adore his commentary:
"When you pick a boy band usually, you pick them for their good looks. But the Russians appear to have gone to the other extreme."
"They got dressed up for this the Italians - you're absolutely nothing without a pair of leather trousers in Italy."
Even Brits who otherwise don't listen to Wogan on his regular Radio 2 slot each weekday morning, seem to love his annual Eurovision shows, credited with dramatically boosting the number of Brits who tuned in to watch the competition each year.
However, not all love him:
We have got to the end of our tether with Terry Wogan. He was only slightly funny on a couple of occasions, crashed the vocals often, committed the sacrilegious act of talking during the songs, and kept making errors during his rants about the block voting. Pension him off now. Bring on Paddy O'Connell.
Another strike against him, unrelated to the Eurovision, is that he accepted a fee for his BBC’s Children In Need fundraising work. Most Brits are not impressed with this.
I, for one though, can't imagine a Eurovision without Wogan.
More on Eurovision here, here, here and here.
