Eurovision 2017 is in town and I haven’t been this excited since Euro 2012 came to Ukraine.
I just can’t figure out why.
Like the Euro 2012 football championships, the Eurovision Song Contest is something I knew little about and didn’t follow.
As an American, the Eurovision Song Contest just didn’t register with me until I moved back to Ukraine in 2008. Actually, I’m not sure I had heard of it, but I am sure that I never paid any attention to it while stateside.
Truth be told, while I love my music, I am more of a connoisseur of newspapers.
I edited the stories in the Kyiv Post about the 42 national participants, but I had never heard of most of them – O. Torvald, Ukraine’s entry, being perhaps the lone exception. I’ve even seen the group perform live at this year’s YUNA music awards contest.
Emotionally, I am having deja vu from Euro 2012, which Ukraine hosted successfully, to the pride of all of us.
But then as now, I could not name a single football player and had no idea about the relative strengths of each participating nation and no idea why I was so excited, other than seeing the new stadiums, airports and roads built for the occasion.
Just like Euro 2012, it didn’t really hit me what a gigantic industry this whole Eurovision phenomenon is until we started covering Kyiv’s plans to host the event this year, the first time it’s had the honor since 2005.
In the run-up to the main event on May 13, when the 2017 winner will be crowned among 26 finalists, there have been hundreds if not thousands of stories written about every conceivable aspect and more about this song contest with 42 participating (mainly European) nations. It’s hard to keep up with the avalanche of stories that, while entertaining and diversionary, are about nothing consequential in the grand scheme of things.
And maybe that’s the whole point of Eurovision.
Some of the questions posed by articles I came across: What will be the effect of Brexit on the United Kingdom’s chances of winning? Will the U.K. break its 20-year drought in the winner’s circle? Will Portugal ever win? Why isn’t there an Amerivision? (Apparently, there was one once, in 2013, among 18 North and South American nations.)
And my own question, which I can’t find the answer to: Why isn’t America in Eurovision? After all the United States is part of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
And why is Australia in Eurovision? Its first appearance was in 2015. It doesn’t strike me as fair that America is out and Australia is in, but maybe my country doesn’t want to be in Eurovision. I just don’t know.
But in the articles I’ve read, I’ve learned that it’s a very political contest — the Telegraph of London even had a great infographic on May 3 showing how nations voted in history. Ex-Soviet republics favored each other, with Ukraine being no exception, at least before Russia launched its war in 2014.
I learned that Eurovision started in 1956.
I learned that voting procedures and rules have been changed over time.
I learned that Eurovision used to require artists to perform songs in their official national language, but now most performances are in English.
I learned that most winners don’t go on to outstanding musical careers, Abba in 1974 and Celine Dion in 1988 being among the major exceptions.
One journalist even wrote a Eurovision primer for “dumb Americans,” which I appreciated greatly.
Anyway, I have never watched a Eurovision final before, but I will try to stay up and do so this year. I tried to buy tickets, with no luck. I let my better-informed Ukrainian colleagues take our media accreditations.
Maybe I will hang out in the fan zone. Ah, the return of the fan zones! Fan zones bring back such warm memories of Euro 2012, of locals mixing with visiting fans, drinking together and socializing in peace and harmony. Sports and music are the twin uniters.
In any case, I’m as happy about Eurovision being in Kyiv as I was about Euro 2012 being in Ukraine, despite my ignorance, which can, indeed, be bliss sometimes.
It’s May in Kyiv. The temperature and hryvnia are up. The sun is out. Tourists are supposedly flocking to Kyiv by the thousands — always a good sight. All, except the street robbers perhaps, are in great moods and on their best behavior.
So, like in Euro 2012, which provided a welcome break from the corruption of ex-President Viktor Yanukovych that toppled him two years later, let’s party on.
Eurovision is a fleeting break from the even more serious problems confronting Ukraine today. Let’s bask in it.
