Eurovision’s over all second place winners for 2012!
We noted some months ago that their performances seemed a remarkable combination of women’s traditional crafts and a very modern setting. We might – although reluctantly – see the NY Times as getting at a similar thought:
Eurovision is known for its over-the-top kitsch, but, even by its standards, there was something remarkable about grannies from the central Russian republic of Udmurtia, not far from where the Ural Mountains border on Siberia.
The Babushki, with an average age of 75, finished second over all with a jaunty pop song called “Party for Everybody.”
Wearing head scarves and traditional dresses and coin jewelry, they bounced up and down, waving their arms, smiling mischievously. They performed with a steaming oven as a prop on stage, and, at one point during their stay in Baku, they baked trays of perepechi, a traditional dish of meat and vegetable tartlets that they served to the Eurovision press corps.
And here they are:
The Grannies totally hold have won. The Swedish entry was completely unmemorable. A travesty.
A travesty.
So, typical Eurovision? I don’t think the right person or group has won since Dana International did in 1998:
While this was fun, it was also clearly parasitic on a Russian group that’s great and deserves much more attention than it ever got, Ivan Kupala:
Even the basic idea had been done at Eurovision a few years ago by the (great and neglected in the US) Moldovan bad Zdob si Zdub:
This was the worst Eurovision Song Contest in at least a year.
Lost labour.
P.S. What do you think about Windows 2012?