I can`t explain Eurovision and the magic it has brought to my life. I just...can`t. For those lowly Americans like me who haven`t (yet) experienced the joy of this show, just picture American Idol with representatives from 26 Europeans countries, all vying for the honor of hosting it next year. All of these contestants have original songs and light shows/backup dancers that are probably the result of someone`s acid trip. This show was televised in Azerbijan this year and was broadcast all over Europe (and for some reason, Isreal, New Zealand and Australia?), so it`s not like this is somehow a random TV program I happened upon. These are three hours I will never get back, and I cannot unsee the things that I have seen.
Among them:
1. Men in capes who then use the capes to create a boat (Turkey)
2. Backup dancers who taught me how to dance like a crab robot (Moldova)
3. Fountain dancing in gold spandex (Ireland)
4. Advertisements for Azerbijan in which the country is described as "A Land of Horsemen"
5. I am not making this up: six little elderly women baking and singing "Party for Everybody" (Russia)
You have not lived until you`ve seen that last one. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5g5Nm5z0FqI
The hosts of this viewing party at Our Chalet were two spring vollies who are obsessed with Eurovision, one from the UK and one from Sweden, which was convenient since we ended up streaming it live from Sweden, so we had a translator. Everyone dressed up like the country they were supporting, and as Ukraine, I wore two sweaters, wool socks with flip-flops and brought a potatoe, which should make you really proud of my life choices. It was somewhere in this beautiful, semi-political, semi-80`s dream of a show, I had a really meaningful epiphany.
Europe is insanely weird. Never, never change.
Oh Cate, you should have called me! With my help, you could have OWNED the Ukraine costume. I appreciate the support though. ;)
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