Eurovision 2012.

I hadn't heard about Eurovision until about 2 weeks ago. But apparently it's a big deal here.

It's a song competition between countries in Europe (and apparently Azerbaijan is in Europe?), and it happens every year. The final is televised, and it was last night. A group of about 20 of us got together to watch it. It was...interesting. And hilarious. There were 42 competing countries, but 26 performed in the final. I came in on number 6. It was Russia's song -- some cute little babushkas who "baked cookies" onstage while they sang their little song. And it just got crazier from there.

Once all the countries have performed, you text your vote in. You can't vote for your country...well not the country you're texting from anyway. Then, each participating country tallies the votes and doles out points. First, they award 1-7 points to 7 countries (1 point to one, 2 to another, 3 to another, etc.). Then, they award 8, 10, and 12 points to their top 3 countries. It was all very political, with countries typically awarding points to their neighbors.

Sweden won it all by a landslide, which was fine with me, because it was the closest to a "real" song in my opinion. The whole thing was crazy entertaining., but there were several um...standout performances for me.

One was Turkey, because they made a human ship, complete with a masthead:



Another was Ireland, because the twins who starred in it were creepy. And they were wearing spandex armor.

And finally, Romania's moonwalking bagpipe player pretty much killed me.

Here's the link for all 42 entries. I haven't actually watched any of the ones that weren't on last night, so I have no idea what they're like.

And, just for fun, here's the winning song from 2006. Finland. Insane. And mildly terrifying.