A week on the web: Eurovision 2012
It’s Eurovision time once again, and the excitement is mounting ahead of Saturday’s final. Well, Jedward are excited in any case. Will the event be or a hit or miss this year? Here's the online take on proceedings
- The campest show on earth rolls into Baku, the human rights activists' holiday destination of choice, on Saturday.
Yes, Azerbaijan – whose population of political prisoners currently stands at 16, according to Amnesty International - has the dubious pleasure of hosting the 2012 Eurovision song contest.
The big question this year is not who will win, but, in cash-strapped Europe, why you’d want to win in the first place. Whoever gets the gong has to host the following year’s event, and it's not cheap to put on.
One of the participants in the final has even admitted they're not really up for it.
'Don't win Eurovision' Spain toldSpain's Eurovision contestant has admitted the country would struggle to host the event if it were to win. Directors from broadcasters TV...- In this context, the choice of Engelbert Humperdinck as UK representative makes a lot of sense.
UK sent Humperdinck to #Eurovision so we had no chance of hosting it next year. It apears the same austerity thinking applies across Europe!- The title of his entry has a certain resonance, given the political climate in Baku.
#Eurovision Engelbert singing "Love Can Set You Free". In Azerbaijan. Oh the irony...- Poor old Greece has been the brunt of a lot of Eurovision jokes, including this from Keith Chegwin. Yes, that Keith Chegwin. He’ll be on the Daily Politics with Andrew Neil next.
- And while we're on the subject…
"Europe, this is Davina. The lines are closed; the votes have been counted. I can reveal, Greece, you have been evicted!" #eurovision
Am I right, the winner of #eurovision replaces Greece in the Euro? Basically European Bank could get Jedward as members?
If you win at Eurovision, your country automatically gets kicked out of the EuroZone, right? #Eurovision- Despite all the cynicism, and very much unlike the Spaniards, Ireland’s contenders want to win so badly they’re channelling Barack Obama’s election slogan.
- Given the effect Jedward (not sure which one this is) has on small children, surely they’re a shoo in?
- Make your own mind up, if you dare.
- Despite the pair’s hair, some reckon Eurovision isn’t the spectacle it once was.
- So will you watch it? And if so, how? This conversation captures the zeitgeist rather nicely.
