Eurovision Tuesday
May 12, 2009 in Culture
The 2009 Eurovision Song Contest takes place this Saturday evening in Moscow. Or rather the final does. The main event is preceded by two semi-finals, the first of which takes place tonight (Tuesday), with the second semi occuring on Thursday night. After the semis, the field of 42 countries will have been whittled down to the 25 competitors who will take part in ‘the world’s biggest television programme’.
The first Eurovision took place in 1956 and, in the 53 years since, it’s become something of a cult. Nothing else combines culture, popularity and negative street cred as the ESC does. In its time, it’s managed to spawn a Grammy ‘Record of the year‘, a revolution and, perhaps most famously of all, ABBA.
Unsurprisingly, it’s also something of a quizzing gold mine, with venues, hosts, interval acts and gaffs all being viable themes for quiz rounds before one even gets to the acts and their songs.
There is a theory that resurfaces from time to time that there is no better tool for the promotion of an event or sport than the individual brilliance of a superstar performer. News stories grow up around their rare (maybe even freakish) abilities and, through them, the general public are thus introduced to, or reminded of the existence of, the event.
Sunday nights in the author’s childhood home had a metronomic regularity to them. Before 9pm (the dreaded “bedtime”) arrived, the following schedule was obeyed: homework had to be done by 7pm so that the Sunday night bath could be fitted in before 8pm. This was so we could then watch Where in the World? (8pm, hosted by the lovely Ms Lowe) and 
