A Review Of 2007's Eurovision

After all the pre-event furor surrounding politicized drag queens and nuclear annihilation, it was a surprisingly straight-forward performance that secured victory for Serbia in the 52nd Annual Eurovision Song Contest held in Helsinki, Finland on Saturday night. The soaring ballad Molitva (Prayer), performed by Marija Serifovic, bucked many of the latest Eurovision trends to secure the country's first win. The Serbian entry was one of only a handful of songs not to be performed in English and, unlike the majority of other entrants, Serifovic made little use of stage accessories, apart from a gang of glamorous backing singers who caressed her at regular intervals. Ukraine's hotly-tipped entry, Vera Serduchka, resplendent in a space-age silver outfit and supported by male dancers dressed in Bacofoil shorts, took a well-deserved second place. But it was another disappointing night for Eurovision's old stalwarts, with Ireland , Britain and France occupying the bottom three spots out of a record 24 countries. The night was particularly bitter for Ireland, Eurovision's most successful nation, who only escaped the humiliation of "nul points" thanks to a vote from unlikely allies Albania.

Besides the triumph of Serbian sobriety, this year's Eurovision offered up plenty of other surprises — notably the elimination of much-fancied Israel and Switzerland in Thursday night's qualifying round. Teapacks, the seven-piece rock band representing Israel, had garnered extensive media attention for their multi-lingual song Push the Button; an anti-war track with clear references to Iran's nuclear program. Prior to their semi-final collapse, Switzerland had been a leading favorite for the overall title with the sublimely ridiculous Vampires Are Alive; a gothic version of Michael Jackson's Thriller complete with a somewhat incongruous use of the word "hence" in its opening verse.

The night's events also proved beyond doubt that petty factionalism is alive and well in today's Europe. Indeed, the more Eurovision grows, the more numerous and complex the public's voting alliances seem to become. As expected, Cyprus awarded the maximum twelve points to Sarbel — a Greek Ricky Martin who, for reasons unexplained, performed his catchy track Yassou Maria in an ill-advised grey tracksuit. The Scandinavian countries also rewarded each other with neighborly generosity. At certain points, the voting took on the feel of a musical Peace and Reconciliation Commission, with love-fests developing between formerly warring nations. The Balkan states of Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia all voted for each other like the best of friends. Yet the audience's biggest gasp of the night came when Turkey awarded a full twelve points to Armenia.

Hosting the Eurovision Song Contest is not only about treating your fellow Europeans to a musical (and political) extravaganza. For a small country such as Finland, it's a rare opportunity to inform over 100 million potential tourists and investors of all the attractions your over-looked nation has to offer. In Eurovision, where advertising is strictly prohibited, these marketing moments take the form of short video clips inserted between each song. The Finnish clips were especially bizarre. In a series of increasingly abstract vignettes, the most frequent inclusions were snow, computer nerds, Santa Claus and groups of teenage goths. Overall though, Helsinki put on a good show and, at several points in the evening's entertainment, Finnish tongues were firmly in cheek. Their roaming reporter, Finnish comedienne Krisse Salminen, was an inspired touch of Euro-trash. Reminiscent of Bruno, Sacha Baron Cohen's camp, fashion correspondent, Salminen enlightened viewers with post-show interviews of the contestants, most of whom were already making full use of the backstage hospitality. An inebriated member of the Swedish party struggled when asked, in broken English, why tonight was, like, totally going to be the moment in his life.

Even if music seems an increasingly irrelevant detail of what is fast becoming the Eurovision Voting Contest, Eurovision is still in fine health. An estimated 110 million viewers tuned on Saturday night — the highest TV ratings in the contest's history. And long may it be so. After all, how many other events can juxtapose Georgian warriors dancing to a techno record with leather-clad Bulgarian drummers while keeping a (mostly) straight face?