Eurovision 2017: The Aftermath

It's been a few months since the final of the Eurovision Song Contest, and I haven't wanted to write about it because as a resident of the United States, the clips have been geoblocked, so I'm not able to post anything here on this blog that are viewable to me.

I have a couple things I really want to share.

1.  The best song in the contest won for the second year in a row.

Salvador Sobral   "Amor Pelos Dois"  (Portuguese national final)

The song was a three minute bit of stillness in the middle of painfully current pop and shouty ballads.   If you can go out and find the final performance online, it's well worth it.

2.   The European Broadcasting Union has proven to be an ineffectual European bureaucracy.

I have two reasons for this.   The first is their handling of the Russian/Ukrainian conflict.   Their inability to see the obvious propaganda war the two countries would have and deal and their tone deaf response to it just proves how ineffectual and out of touch the organization is.

The other thing that is that the organization has not addressed the geoblocking in North America.  I'm certain the reason is due to a rights deal with Viacom, the company that owns the television channel that broadcasts Eurovision in the US.  Yet the EBU has said nothing and questions about the issue are not answered by representatives of the EBU.   It is another example of the lack of transparency in multinational European organizations that is expected yet frustrating.

3.  Ukraine put on a pretty decent show.

There was a lot of drama over the production of this year's contest, but when all was said and done, Ukraine did a decent job.   Other than a Ukrainian idiot who stage crashed the performance of last years winner, everything went off without a hitch.

I also found a group that I started to listen to after the contest.

ONUKA & The National Academic Orchestra of Folk Instruments of Ukraine   "Megamix"

ONUKA's performance is a medley of a number of their songs and is well worth going and listening to more of their stuff.

That's about it for this year.   I am looking forward to next year's contest in Portugal and if all things go to plan, I'll be able to vote in next year's contest.