It’s kind of like the Olympic Games meets “Pitch Perfect” — with a dash of our confusing presidential primary system thrown in to the mix.
"It" is the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest, an annual event watched by an estimated 200 million TV viewers in dozens of countries in a rather loosely defined idea of Europe — yet even the man in charge concedes iit s "difficult to explain what it is."
Eurovision executive supervisor Jon Ola Sand also told The Guardian newspaper that the contest involves “a lot of countries you might not have heard of in the U.S.”
That's all about to change. On Saturday, for the first time in its 61-year history, Eurovision will also be seen live in the U.S. Cable channel Logo will air the Grand Final of what it calls the "biggest, boldest, campiest music competition on Earth" beginning at 3 p.m. (it will also stream live on logotv.com)
This year’s contest takes place at the Globe Arena in Stockholm. That’s because Sweden won the 2015 contest. And that’s also pretty much the only thing that’s easy to figure out about this event which involves viewer voting, professional juries and something called a “national spokesperson” for each participating country. Forty-three are competing this year, each having sent one act (an individual or group) to perform an original song. After preliminary rounds which took place earlier this week, 26 countries made it into Saturday’s Grand Final.
Will any of them wind up getting the "dreaded nul?" That outcome — a country's rep receiving absolutely no points for its performance in the televised extravaganza — apparently is so rare and publicly humiliating, it has its own tribute web site, "Nul Points!" (www.nulpoints.net).
Here are five other reasons Eurovison 2016 is Can’t-Miss TV:
- The crazy voting system: After all of the songs have been performed in the Grand Final, each participating country awards two sets of points to their 10 favorites— one set comes from something called a "professional jury" and the other from viewers televoting (including by mobile app, etc.). The country's final ranking of songs is a 50/50 combination of the two. All the votes are toted up and the winner declared. But here's the craziest thing of all: You can only vote for other countries' songs, not your own. It would be like voting in a Senate election here in Georgia — but having to choose among people running in Maine and North Dakota.
- France always makes the final: Just as the United Nations has its five permanent members of the Security Council, Eurovision has its so-called "Big 5." As the largest economic contributors to the contest, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain and Italy are rewarded with automatic spots in the final every year. So is whichever country is hosting. This most recently — and deliciously — blew up in organizers' face in 2003, when the UK representative, a pop duo named Jemini, received … that's right … the dreaded nul.
- "Europe" is an elastic concept: From Azerbaijan and Armenia to Malta and F.Y.R. Macedonia, this year's lineup is a testament to Eurovision's expanding borders over the years. This caused a bit of an uproar last year when Australia was finally allowed to compete. Eurovision's Sand said it was because the show had a "huge fan base" there after being broadcast on Australian TV for 30 years. Already, Logo's decision to show Eurovision here this year is creating fears all over "Europe" that the U.S. will soon be allowed to join the ranks of competitors. "No, I don't think so," Sand told one newspaper, citing the lack of a domestic audience here for the show. "But this could change."
- Eurovision unknowns have become superstars: In 1974, Sweden won the contest when Abba performed "Waterloo." The 1988 winner was Celine Dion, who triumphed by a single point over the UK representative only after the votes from Yugoslavia came in (told you, it's crazy). Dion, who's Canadian, represented Switzerland (see: "Europe is an elastic concept").
- Someone might sing naked: The genres range from rock and pop to folk music and heavy metal. In 2009, a "Roma hip-hop" group representing the Czech Republic got the dreaded nul. In 2012, the second-place finisher was Buranovskiye Babushki, an "ethno-pop" group of elderly women from Russia whose choreography included them baking bread in an onstage oven. And before Eurovision 2016, it was reported that Belarus's representative, Ivan (just Ivan), would sing in the nuded, accompanied by live wolves. Alas, he did not make the Grand Final.
