Go Jessica!

I have been watching the Eurovision song contest all weekend.  I have never watched it before as a matter of fact I’d never heard of it until I came across Fiona Palmer’s interview with Cathryn Hein

“And what is your favourite TV show ?”  –  “The Eurovision Song Contest . Definitely.”  Cathryn replied.

What? I’ve never even heard of anyone else watching it.   Okay – dark ages woman.

Purely another chance saw me catching the second half of History of the Eurovision Song Contest last week.

Amazing.

It is the  history of Europe.  The music vibrates  with the culture and the people and the joy of all the nations of Europe competing against each other  –  in a song.. The patriotism and waving of flags and I will repeat – the joy of it all.

Did you know, in the 90’s, Ireland won three or four times in a row – and the cost of running it sent the TV Station nearly broke so the fifth year they were begging Ireland to write the ‘worst’ song they could.  Okay,  Irish sense of humour.  Then there were the Bosnian and Serbian winners, a time of forgiveness, and  the wonderful Ukraine winner who entered Parliament the next year in support of her new President.

It is huge.  It is bigger than King Kong.  180 million people watch and have sweated this out,  year by year for the last forty or fifty years. There are traditional drinking games attached to it that people play, year after year, betting is serious and I would like to know who would have predicted that Conchita, a bearded drag queen from Austria, would win. She was lovely by the way

But the best thing was Jessica Mauboy, our very own Australian  diva who got up there and belted out a great song.  Sea of Flags  –  By invitation –  I learnt.   I was on a very sharp learning curve.  And she wrote her own song.  Another thing I must find out.  Do they all write their own songs?

Wow, bring on the Eurovision song contest  for 2015,  in Austria.