The world is divided into two kinds of people – those who have never heard of the Eurovision Song Contest, and those who wish they had never heard of the Eurovision Song Contest.
Back when the world was young, the Europeans had this apparently great idea that the world (or at least the part of it known as Europe) could be united in song. They launched the Eurovision Song Contest, which of course degenerated into the politicized mess typical of modern Europe – unattractive performers singing mediocre songs that were immediately (and thankfully) forgotten.
Then in 2022, the Euros – in their familiar fashion – “punished” Russia for events in the Ukraine by banning Russia from their Eurovision contest. Now Russia has set up a competing Intervision Song Contest for 21 countries – big date will be in late September. Will it be better than Eurovision … given that that is a very low bar for success? Only time will tell.
In answer to your question-without-question-mark: no. Eurovision is yet another bit of Eurotrash that pollutes our world. As the years go by, Europe’s good-to-crappy ratio continues to drop. It’s a long way down from Mozart and Rembrandt. At least the wine is still good, for now.
That is actually an interesting point. The lyrics of so much contemporary music are so cringe-worthy (not just talking about Taylor Swift either) that I have grown to appreciate songs sung in any language other than English. But that may be a minority view.
That is the first time I have seen a translation of the words to that song – and the sad lyric really does not seem to fit the gently upbeat music. There is definitely something to be said for hearing that song in Japanese and not knowing what the words mean!
As an aside – a peculiarity about spoken languages. When Japanese is transliterated into the Latin alphabet, it seems easy for a non-Japanese speaker to pronounce the words accurately. Don’t try that with Arabic, Russian, or Chinese transliterated into our alphabet! The range & tones of Japanese seem remarkably similar to those of English, whereas it is rather difficult for an English speaker to sound out Arabic words in a convincing manner. I wonder why this should be?
Just for reference, here is a link to the cute presentation by Liza Drozd & Sasha Lazin, an entry from Russia from the 2010 Junior Eurovision Song Contest.
( Makes one wonder, where Sasha is now, was he drafted?
Could have been, as in about 2010 he was 11 years old. So today he would be about 26 years old. )
Sorry CTLaw, it is in Russian.
But here is the translation:
Once upon a time lived and weren’t bothered Girl and boy So we suddenly decided To call ourselves
I do not know what was going on We are so small we can walk under the table But we call ourselves very boldly Boy and girl
We were friends for fun Girl and boy And were falling in love Bit by bit
I look cheerfully Who has put this nets for us And still we are together Boy and girl
We are alone in the world Girl and boy Sing this song We together
And certainly not in vain Moment of magic has found us With this great name Boy and girl
I have written before about the high quality of Russian movie - especially mini-series - making. Most of those I’ve watched are about historical figures and were excellent in every way. That’s a separate aspect of Russian artistic endeavor, but well worth exploring - if they can still be watched in the formerly-free west.