2008-05-25

Eurovision

I did not succeed in becoming interested in any of the songs, sorry. But a bunch of tourists came, they all seemed to enjoy themselves, and nobody was attacked by skinheads. So that has to count as a success.

Update: It seems some people were attacked after all.

11 comments:

cicciosax said...

Not even el chiki chiki did? http://it.youtube.com/watch?v=d2sun973nfY :-)

Catherine said...

At least it makes it a little easier to explain what Russian soft power means.

Katja R. said...

haha @ catherine! and as for me, I loved chiki chiki and voted numerous times for it!

Eric Gordy said...

On the subject of Russian soft power, I came across this analysis:

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/mary-dejevsky/mary-dejevsky-a-eurovision-win-that-is-not-mere-politics-834332.html

Eric Gordy said...

Oh, and as for Chiki .... if my slow connection here in Belgrade lets me watch it, I should at some point form an opinion.

Unknown said...

You went to Belgrade just for the Eurovision song contest ... I am still trying to analyse the geo-strategic implication of the voting from Bosnia-Herzegovina ... I think it was Turkey 8 points, Croatia 10 points, and Serbia 12 points!

Eric Gordy said...

Paul, check out these 2 clips and tell me whose self-indulgence is more unbearable:

http://belgrade.org.yu/blog/585/a-tourists-observation-about-eurosong

Katja R. said...

@Paul, simple, block voting plus there's Serbs in Bosnia, and Bosnians in Serbia, and there's Croats in Bosnia, and you can't vote for your own country. Basically Turkey is more in the Central Asia block as far as block voting. I was surprised Turkey didn't give more points, but there isn't much of a Bosnian diaspora left in Turkey. Sandzak probably accounted for some Serbian points for BiH, and then the whole ex-Yu against the World factor probably contributed.

oh the Klingons are borrowing English swears!

fuwkhihs

that was the captcha I had to type! :)

Anonymous said...

shame, you missed the bosnian great song. why bother following if not detecting whats new and good?

Anonymous said...

It turns out that a few Poles and Brits did get beaten up.

Eric Gordy said...

Yes, and there was some discussion in Vreme as well. It turns out these incidents were effectively kept out of local media, which may be a scandal in its own right.