If you'll ask a person to describe the Eurovision Song Contest in one sentence, he'd probably say something along these lines: A music contest, where people vote for the best song. We are all used to think about Eurovision as a contest where every country does its best to come up with the best possible song. Evenings like yesterday, however, remind us that most of the time, this is not the case. Somehow, countries tend to choose a mediocre song out of the existing pool of entries offered in their national finals. Even if no one can guerentee what chance the songs not chosen might have had in the big contest compared with the preselection winner, sometimes the winning song just seems wrong.
Was Ég á líf Iceland's best choice for Eurovision? Or even second-best? I really don't think so. Birgitta's song was much more catchier and interesting, Stefania & Jógvan's duett was much more exciting and Magni Ásgeirsson's song had much more character. And still, the public and the juries wanted Ég á líf. That was the choice of the majority. Which leads me to wonder: Maybe Eurovision isn't about "best songs" but about "best choices". In other words: The final results of Eurovision show us which population in which country was the most smart, in terms of musical inteligence, to identify the best song in its preselection.
Higher and lower Eurovision IQ
Today, at lunch time in my workplace, the conversation suddenly reached the topic of Eurovision. People laughed about Lihi Grinner, ex-reality show star who sent a song for the Israeli Kdam. At some point, someone said: "It doesn't really matter who we send to Eurovision, because we are never going to win again". I agreed with her immidiately. "Yes, Israel is not about to win again in the close future" I said. And then, when she continued talking, I discovered she meant it in a whole different way. "Eurovision is all about politics nowadays", she said, "And our only chance is maybe Dana International, and she surely can't represent us every year". I pointed out for her that Dana failed two years ago, but she neither remembered it, nor seemed to believe me. Then another guy said: "Yes, we will never win in Eurovision if we go on like this. What we need it a song in English, or at least half-English. Like Shiri Mimon, she got 4th place and why? She's a diva and she sang half-English". I tried to tell him that Shiri did well simply because her song was good, but it was no use. He and the others kept saying that we should send Divas who sing half-English songs, or Dana International.
Eyþór - Did he really have the best song?
These workplace friends of mine are the typical televoting population in Israel. They are not the snobbish type who will not watch a Eurovision preselection. On the contrary, they are prime-time lovers who enjoy it and would probably vote. But anyone who is a Eurovision fan would agree that their formula for a successful Israeli song (English + Dana / some other Diva as a performer) is a total nonesence. Israel therefore, if to judge by its typical voters, is a country that would not be smart enough to choose the right song, and would probably end up with a song that has no chance of ever qualifying to the final.
Other countries, on the contrary, have higher Eurovision IQ. The population in Sweden, for example, kept crowning non-relevant songs in Melodifestivalen, until they finaly learned the trick in the last few years and started choosing songs that really stand a chance. It didn't happen because of Melodifestivalen itself - as we all know, it has always been a preselection full of musical gems to choose from. It was a change in the voting behaviour of the population that made the difference. It's as if they suddenly understood their former mistakes, and learned how to choose "right".
Did he teach Sweden how to choose right?
How did that happen? I have no idea. Maybe a casual success with a non-typical song changed their idea of a "good song for Eurovision". Maybe the target audience of MF has changed and the schlager fans lost their power over the results. I really don't know. I only hope that more countries will become Eurovision-smart and choose the most promising candidate of their national final. It can only do good for the contest - it will become much more challenging, and better in terms of quality.
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