Lordi Lordi Lordi!

A Finnish heavy metal band won the Eurovision, and I can hear the doomsayers  sharpening their quills even before the voting is overEvery year now, the culture vultures bemoan that fact that the Eurovision winner is no longer a ‘proper song’, with a real tune in a proper key sung by someone who can actually sing, and see this as evidence of the Decline of Culture. I suspect they wish it would serve as some sort of gateway to raise the ignorant masses up to appreciation of proper music – you know those horrible Schubert art songs you had to study in music class in school.   Then you get the people who defend it as a valid expression of contemporary popular culture, as if democracy was some guarantee of quality, which is isn’t – it just means, to paraphrase Cyndi Lauper, folks just want to have fun.

I do pity all those countries who thought they could win by entering a group of from 1 to 6 hot blondes in skimpy costumes, on the grounds that the lads in the pub would vote for them, and I feel sorry for all the commentators who were surprised by the Finnish win. Since every country in the contest now votes by phone poll on the night, it isn’t a song contest anymore, and has not been for several years. It is a contest to see who can make the most memorable impact in a 3 minute performance, and Lordi clearly had that down and dusted.

That doesn’t mean a song won’t win – if no one has a good gimmick, then a good song with a good singer can win, but there were very few of those this year. Since the dancing girls has been done, (and no one will ever surpass the Ukraine from a few years back for that), and Lordi did the metal band in left over props from the Sci-Fi channel, the problem now for countries that actually want to win is how to come up with a good idea to hang on a 3 minute song.