[Insert Tasteless Mock Norwegian Headline Here]
Mark J.
happened Saturday night, and Guardian blogger Heidi Stephens,
following the great tradition in the UK of not taking it seriously at
all, laid into the Norwegian winner much as she had most of the other
contestants:
"It's NORWAY, and a young cheeky little chap called Alexander Rybak.
This is the favourite, apparently ... umm, sorry?
"He's like a little Dickensian schoolboy with a violin and bonkers
eyebrows, and it's all very theatrical, with backing dancers in braces
doing gymnastics. It's like a stage school performance of Fiddler On
the Roof. Could someone please poke him in the eye with his violin
bow, please? Fairytale my ass.
"This cannot possibly win. I will not allow it."
-----------------
Unfortunately for Stephens, much of the rest of Europe does take
Eurovision seriously, and so her live blog post at the Guardian's
Organ Grinder soon had over 1,300 comments, many of them from angry
Norwegians (egged on by right-wing newspapers tsk-tsk-ing at the
famously lefty Guardian) supporting their hero (includes links to live
blog post):
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/organgrinder/2009/may/18/norway-eurovision-song-contest-heidi-stephens
And to think that the biggest controversy might've been some grannies
calling up the BBC to complain about that poof Graham Norton replacing
Terry Wogan as host of the Beeb's Eurovision coverage.
Adam Bowie
improved by Twitter. Following the right hashtag meant great
entertainment for all concerned! In this instance - #twumpet - created
by Father Ted and IT Crowd creator, Graham Linehan.
In fact - any big live TV moment's improved with Twitter. Awards
ceremonies for example.
Eurovision is a strange thing that even us Brits claim not to take
seriously - but sort of get upset if we don't do well. We finished in
the top 5 this year, so that improved on recent performances. They
also changed the judging criteria so that it wasn't just a thoroughly
partisan phone vote (lots of "young" eastern European states all vote
for one another - whereas we only reciprocate with Ireland).
The point scoring is as much fun as watching the songs. Especially
with presenters who want to "build" on their fifteen seconds of
Europe-wide fame, and when poorer more "deficiant" states technical
inadequancies are laid bare. The poor old Azerbaijani presenter took
this year's wooden spoon. She had prehistoric green-screen technology
with fireworks projected behind her, and the feed kept cutting out
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpOzeNZ8ru0&feature=related - about 1
min 20).
What happened to the mooted idea - I think by NBC - of doing a US
state by state competition along similar lines? You have two
semi-finals and then a final of 25 songs. You'd get three big three
hour spectaculars!
Adam
Kevin M.
> What happened to the mooted idea - I think by NBC - of doing a US
> state by state competition along similar lines? You have two
> semi-finals and then a final of 25 songs. You'd get three big three
> hour spectaculars!
My instinct is to mock the concept, but I frankly don't know enough
about the Eurovision song contest, aside from a few mentions in Python
sketches. How are winners chosen? Who decides who can participate? If
there are judges, how are they chosen, and do they do the sort of
televised verbal harrassing of singers that the Idol judges do?
If somone wanted to organize a continent-wide talent search conducted
by leading music industry professionals and artists, not for the
purposes of producing a weepy-eyed and overdramatic TV show, but for
the purposes of actually scouting talent, I'd be all for such an
endeavor.
Listening to the commentary track of the first Godfather movie,
Francis Ford Copalla noted that he always holds open auditions for
characters in every film he does. He feels it is a way for those
without connections, agents, etc. to get a foot in the door... to be
seen and reviewed by experts (such an audition process resulted in
Ford discovering/casting the inimitable Abe Vigoda).
I think the main reason I've never been impressed with the pool of
talent collected by shows like American Idol or Nashville Star is
that, having worked a few casting calls for other reality shows, I
know people are being booked to appear on a TV show. Yes, their
musical ability is an issue, but it is not the only issue, and it is
rarely the most important issue. Contestants are known by talent
scouts as "characters." It is more obvious on shows like "The Amazing
Race" where you almost always see "the old couple," "the gay couple,"
"the ethnic couple," and other easily spotable stereotypes.
I know I tend to be overly critical of reality TV, but there is a
difference between finding talent (whether a singer, dancer, actor, or
"survivor") who happens to be old/homosexual/ethnic as opposed to
casting someone BECAUSE they are old/homosexual/ethnic and they are
needed to round out the cast of characters for a television show.
If we had successful radio shows in America like they do in the UK, I
think we would be in a better position to conduct a search for musical
talent. But the consumptive and commercial nature of US television all
but prevents a TV network from funding a legitimate search for a
singer, songwriter, or performer. The best network TV can do is search
for characters.
--
Kevin M. (RPCV)
Mark J.
On May 18, 11:43 am, "Kevin M." <drunkbastar...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > What happened to the mooted idea - I think by NBC - of doing a US
> > state by state competition along similar lines? You have two
> > semi-finals and then a final of 25 songs. You'd get three big three
> > hour spectaculars!
>
> My instinct is to mock the concept, but I frankly don't know enough
> about the Eurovision song contest, aside from a few mentions in Python
> sketches. How are winners chosen? Who decides who can participate? If
> there are judges, how are they chosen, and do they do the sort of
> televised verbal harrassing of singers that the Idol judges do?
Wikipedia article--from its length alone, you will see that it's more
like a big old-school musical competition than it is a reality show,
although it does ultimately boil down to votes from viewers to
determine the winners:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurovision_Song_Contest
dsi...@yahoo.com
> Listening to the commentary track of the first Godfather movie,
> Francis Ford Copalla noted that he always holds open auditions for
> characters in every film he does. He feels it is a way for those
> without connections, agents, etc. to get a foot in the door... to be
> seen and reviewed by experts (such an audition process resulted in
> Ford discovering/casting the inimitable Abe Vigoda).
pretty well-known actor here in the Bay Area, and was approached for a
lunch meeting with Coppola about working on a new film project. This
person thought it might be their big break at last, and went to the
lunch eagerly. Coppola told this person that he was going to have the
actor up to his winery, spend the days working on the script and
characterization, have lovely home-cooked meals at night -- and then,
on the weekends, his "movie star friends" would come up and take over
to take advantage of all the work they had done, cutting my friend out
entirely. The actor turned down the opportunity.
So I'd take anything like that from Coppola with a mountain of salt.
--Dave Sikula
Adam Bowie
>
> On Mon, May 18, 2009 at 9:11 AM, Adam Bowie <adam....@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> What happened to the mooted idea - I think by NBC - of doing a US
>> state by state competition along similar lines? You have two
>> semi-finals and then a final of 25 songs. You'd get three big three
>> hour spectaculars!
>
> My instinct is to mock the concept, but I frankly don't know enough
> about the Eurovision song contest, aside from a few mentions in Python
> sketches. How are winners chosen? Who decides who can participate? If
> there are judges, how are they chosen, and do they do the sort of
> televised verbal harrassing of singers that the Idol judges do?
>
> If somone wanted to organize a continent-wide talent search conducted
> by leading music industry professionals and artists, not for the
> purposes of producing a weepy-eyed and overdramatic TV show, but for
> the purposes of actually scouting talent, I'd be all for such an
> endeavor.
>
Different countries do different things to choose contestants. But in
the UK - yes, we essentially have a reality show to determine who
represents us. Although Idol-style in its open audition format, the
short run of the series meant that we got a winner quite quickly.
There were only six televised contestants!
How each country selects their entrant to Eurovision is down to them,
and you obviously wouldn't want a sprawling series determining the
"final 50" who go head to head. So some countries choose established
popstars in their homelands. But a series of open auditions could be
used - perhaps with local media supporting it?
The ultimate winner is chosen by a strangely fascinating voting
procedure in which each country gets to award points for the top ten
songs.
Does Eurovision find real talent? Not often. Abba and Celine Dion seem
to be two who did well out of it. As did Michael Flatley with
Riverdance following his interval performance when Ireland hosted one
year.
That probably doesn't make you think it's a good idea. But it gets big
ratings across Europe, so I'm surprised some executive or producer
hasn't tried replicating the formula!
Adam
Michael
>
a friend of mine (who will go unnamed here) is a
> pretty well-known actor here in the Bay Area, and was approached for a
> lunch meeting with Coppola about working on a new film project. This
> person thought it might be their big break at last, and went to the
> lunch eagerly. Coppola told this person that he was going to have the
> actor up to his winery, spend the days working on the script and
> characterization, have lovely home-cooked meals at night -- and then,
> on the weekends, his "movie star friends" would come up and take over
> to take advantage of all the work they had done, cutting my friend out
> entirely. The actor turned down the opportunity.
>
> So I'd take anything like that from Coppola with a mountain of salt.
>
experience?
Bryan
> about the Eurovision song contest
I liked what Kent Jones said on Rachel Maddow's MSNBC show
tonight, which went something like this: "This is what you get when
your country doesn't invent music like country, or blues, or jazz, or
rap or hip hop" (paraphrasing, but it was something like that...)
Adam Bowie
What happened to the mooted idea - I think by NBC - of doing a US
state by state competition along similar lines? You have two
semi-finals and then a final of 25 songs. You'd get three big three
hour spectaculars!
Jon Delfin
Adam Bowie
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