Eurovision Song Contest

We often think of US as the home nation of TV, but did you know that the worlds largest TV event is actually European? You may think the Superbowl a large event; in 2010 it had an average audience of 106.5 million. But the yearly Eurovision Song Contest final has an estimated 125 million viewers across Europe and the close east.

This is basically a song-writers contest, but today the performance and presentation of the singers and dancers are equally important.

The winner is chosen by televoting in each participating country. It is a two-stage process where each country gives 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 or 1 points to 10 other countries (you can't wote for yourselves:-) based upon the number of televotes. This means that small countries (like Norway) has as much influence on the result as large countries (like Germany or United Kingdom).

The quality of the entries varies enormously, from simple and boring pop songs to innovative and beautiful works. But the value of the art is not the reason to watch ESC. It's the varied cultural expressions! I always finds it so fun and amusing to see what's popular in different counties:-)

Last year, Norway actually won the ESC, so we get to host the event this year. It has caused somewhat of a headache, because it's so expensive. Actually, the national broadcasting had to let go of the rights to show the world championship in football (ok, soccer, if you live in the US:-).

The video above is the Romanian entry. I like it because its a simple melody that gets easily inside your brain, and the video has some nice virtual reality scenes. Have fun!