Eurovision’s song remains the same
ISTANBUL - Though this year’s Eurovision Song Contest ended Saturday night, with a victory for Norway, debate over the voting patterns in the half-a-century-old cultural competition continues.
Eurovision’s song remains the same Norwegian performer Alexander Rybak, 23, received the highest number of points from tele-voters and juries from 42 countries, setting a new record of 387 points. The baby-faced singer garnered the most points in Eurovision’s 53-year history with his song "Fairytale," outstripping Finland’s Lordi, which set the previous record in 2006. Turkey came in fourth, thanks to the support of Turks living in Europe as well as that of neighboring countries such as Azerbaijan.
Minsk-born Rybak, who left Belarus with his musician parents when he was four years old, earned the maximum number of points from several of the former Soviet Union countries that participated in the event. In a press conference right after the contest ended, Rybak said his victory brought a mixture of happiness and sadness. According to the official Eurovision Web site, Rybak "explained that Belarus is known for the melancholy of its people, whereas the happiest people in the world live in Norway. For him, the mix of both was a key for success." Asked about a televised Norwegian talent show that he lost in 2006, Rybak said he "wasn’t among the best" on that show, but that he was "one of the best singers" in Eurovision and won because he "had a story to tell."
The second-place finisher, Iceland’s Yohanna, garnered 218 points for the song "Is It True?" Aysel & Arash from Azerbaijan came in was third with 207 points; their song, "Always," accompanied a folksy melody with an acrobatic dance routine and two blonde female backup singers. Local media in Azerbaijan welcomed the good news yesterday, as finishing third was a first-of-its-kind success the country’s Eurovision history.
Turkish representative Hadise performed her song "Düm Tek Tek" at this year’s event, which was held at Moscow’s Olimpisky Indoor Arena. She took fourth place with 177 points. "I represented my country very well," Hadise said after the competition.
Despite the change in the voting system this year, the essential routine in the song contest did not change, as politics played a role in the voting once again.
Over the past decades, six different systems have been used to pick the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest. Tele-voting was introduced in the late 1990s in response to accusations that the juries were making their selections based on political considerations, but the new system, which aimed to give power to the people, ended up favoring former Yugoslavian and Soviet Union countries.
To try and tackle the issue of political votes and reciprocal ones from neighboring countries, the organizers at the European Broadcasting Union switched to yet another new system, one that attempts to give equal weight to both the juries’ and the people’s votes.
"After all songs have been performed, viewers in all 42 participating countries can vote by making a phone call and/or sending an SMS for their favorite song. Professional juries in all 42 countries vote as well," read an explanation on the Web site for this year’s contest. "The tele-voting results and the jury results are then merged for each country. Each result counts for 50 percent." Viewers are allowed to vote up to 20 times, but, as always, cannot cast a vote for his or her own country.
Staying loyal to the unwritten "neighbor voting" rules, Turkey and Azerbaijan exchanged their 12 points, showing that Azerbaijan’s resentment toward Turkey over its rapprochement policy with archrival Armenia was not reflected in its voting pattern. Although Azerbaijan did not give any votes to Armenia, it received one vote from Armenia, which was seen as a gesture. Armenia gave 12 points to Russia, and, for the first time, four points to Turkey, likely a direct result of the normalization talks that have been recently initiated between the two countries. Turkey closed its border with Armenia in solidarity with Azerbaijan over the 20 percent of its territory that is under Armenian occupation.
12 points from France
Turkey also received 12 points from its Balkan neighbor, Macedonia, with which it enjoys friendly relations, and Hadise likewise got 12 points from Belgium, the country where she was born. The 12 points that came from the United Kingdom, Switzerland and France are attributed to both the sizable Turkish communities in each country and to the juries’ enjoyment of the song. French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s objection to Turkish entry into European Union, under the argument that Turkey does not belong to Europe, seems not to have affected the jury in Paris.
Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia each gave 12 votes to Bosnia and Herzegovina, which came in ninth. Greece gave its maximum points to the United Kingdom and received maximum points from Albania, Bulgaria and Cyprus.
Britain had been billed as a favorite in the contest, but its singer, Jade, only managed fifth place, despite renown composer Andrew Lloyd Webber writing her song, the Associated Press reported yesterday. Greece, another favorite, pinned its hopes on an elaborately choreographed stage performance involving a giant flashing treadmill.
In its performance, Israel appealed for peace and harmony with "There Must Be Another Way," sung in Arabic, Hebrew and English by the Arab-Jewish duo Noa and Mira. Taking the contest seriously this year did not result in a pleasing outcome for France, whose famous singer Patricia Kaas could only garner 107 points, coming in seventh.
In a Eurovision first, crewmembers on the International Space Station gave the command to start telephone voting in a video message from the orbiting science laboratory. Moscow reportedly spent $42 million on the five-day event, making it the most expensive competition in Eurovision history, Reuters reported. As the winner, Norway will host the next Eurovision Song Contest in 2010. Russia’s efforts to capitalize on the prestigious event to showcase the nation’s hospitality and growing role in modern society were undermined several hours before the start of the competition when riot police attacked gay-pride rallies in the capital.
Police hauled away some 40 demonstrators, including British activist Peter Tatchell and American Andy Thayer of Chicago, the co-founder of the Gay Liberation Network, who had defied Moscow authorities and tried to stage a banned demonstration.
Eurovision winner Rybak appeared to throw his support behind the protesters when he said at the news conference, "Why did they [the Moscow police] spend all their energy stopping gays in Moscow when the biggest gay parade was here tonight?
If you criticize one, you must criticize all. Otherwise, your criticism will not be seen as credible and will only be treated as one sided drivel.
