In what is big news in Europe, a heavy metal band whose members have
been accused of being devil worshippers has won the Eurovision Song
Contest, shattering the competition's traditional image. The band from
Finland performed its song dressed like characters from a horror movie.
The Eurovision Song Contest has never seen or heard anything quite like
this before. But the Finnish band Lordi stormed through their set,
demolishing their opponents and the bland reputation of the contest in one
fell swoop: and when the votes of viewers and listeners from around Europe
and beyond were finally counted up, Lordi had won an easy victory. Even the
band leader himself, Mr Lordi, seemed stunned by what they'd achieved.
(BBC)
Mr Lordi: "We feel great, think about it, this is weird, this is
strange this is interesting. You know think about it, we're a rock
band and we just won the pop song contest. That is weird and also Finland
won which is kind of nice."
He also hailed the result as "a victory for open-mindedness."
From the moment Lordi won eight points at the start of the voting, Finns
watched incredulously as the band continued to lead the field until it hit
an all-time Eurovision high of 292 points – more than 40 ahead of Russia.
(Belfast Today)
This was indeed a big victory for Finland, which first entered the contest
more than forty years ago, but until now had always come away
empty-handed.
Since March, when Lordi won the contest for the Finnish entry, many in the
highly self-conscious nation feared that the band would damage the
country's reputation. Lordi's piece was heatedly debated and the
group's exploits regularly hit tabloid headlines. Band leader Mr Lordi
said the group may have changed the face of Eurovision for good. "This
is proof that there were rock fans watching Eurovision," he said in
Athens.
The show attracted a peak viewing audience of 10.8m viewers, or 50% of the
total audience, half-an-hour before the contest finale, according to
unofficial overnight figures. The contest averaged 8.2m viewers throughout
the duration of the show, which was broadcast between 8pm and 11pm.
I'm kind of pissed that this show wasn't on TV here in the
US...god forbid any network broadcasts a show that might be at risk to take
away as much as (GASP!) 2% of American Idol's ratings share.
American Idol is objectivly the shittiest show on television today.
But I shouldn't go saying that Eurovision is much better, Lordi
appears to have been one of the only acts worth watching...but then again
who knows, becasue I couldn't fucking watch the show.
I supose it's worth saying at this point that most of the real Finnish
metal bands are pissed too, becasue everybody knows the technical ability
and alltogether heavyness of the Finnish bands is not reperesented in
Lordi. Lordi is at best, a heavy rock band.
What if here in the US we were fortunate to have our own entry into the
competition (granted it wouln't be "Eurovision" then) or at
least a show. Never in a million years would it be a metal band...Network
executives would hang themselves before one such band, from a genre which
the US media pretends doesn't exist, would be chosen to represent this
country.
But I can dream, right? Or should I keep dreaming that one day I will
actualy be able to watch Eurovision?
That being said, who are my pics?
Would it be GWAR...
...The original horror costume wearing metal band (circa. 15 years
before Lordi, and they are actualy real metal.) Who would
enter the contest only to point out the short commings of the Finnish
imposters.
Or would it be a newer, more popular, more skilled, more media friendly,
(but by no means less deserving) band like Mastodon?
What do you think?
posted by surgeonbob on Monday 22nd May 2006, 11:56:49
American Idol is proof that we are
on the verge of apocalypse. More people vote for their industry-canned
pick on that show than go to the polls during our elections. We get what
we deserve...
btw- I'm batting a thousand for AI, &
all the other "reality" shows. Haven't seen it, don't
want to!
I think its funny the way bands do certain things and pretend like there
new ideas.
Like when Slipknot sued Burger King because their ads showed a rock band
wearing chicken masks (kind of like slipknots mask theme), but slipknot
forgot to mention that Mr. Bungle was wearing disturbing masks 10 years
before slipknot was even formed.
I have heard the song that won - Hard Rock Hallelujah. And I like it - so
much so that I now have two albums by Lordi. If you want me to send you a
couple of songs - gimme a yell.
Oh and - they arent a satanic band, they have been likened to Kiss - they
don't take their image seriously. In fact, they have a song called
"Devil is a Loser".
If you want to watch Eurotrashvision, you can get satellite TV and watch it
along with your Chinese soap operas. I'm sure you could also download
video of it too if you felt so compelled.
As for American Idol, the original Idol format started in the UK as Pop
Idol, and was later tested out here. From what I recall, the UK
version spawned a very low-grossing winner who, much to the chagrin of the
producers, turned out to be gay (and therefore affected sales). Now the
format is all over the world.
I would not be surprised if Eurovision, or some spawn of it, appears in
America, and I think one is in the works. Let's just hope we
don't hear the same words about it, as about the talent from AI, when
Simon Cowell admitted: "the talent is better in America."
You seem to be forgetting that the Eurovision of this year was the
51st. Why would America all of a sudden copy it now when they
had the chance 50 years ago?
Because now that the whole voting/talent contest has been
popularized with AI, people might give Eurovision some
consideration. Also, it seems this year has actually drawn some
attention; I can't recall reading anything about Eurovision
prior to this year on the BBC or otherwise. Sometimes it takes a
good year to generate enough publicity for a show to be
noticed--even after 50 years of running.
Lordi Wins Eurovision
