On Sequins and Sincerity: A Journey into Eurovision
I suppose, given that America is both currently governed by, and has the general spiritual ethos of a reality TV show host, Eurovision shouldn’t really seem as foreign as it does. The decades long annual contest, in which each country puts forth one musical act for a cross-continental competition, may be the world’s highest annual concentration of pyrotechnics, lycra, sequins, light shows, sincerity and camp in equal measures. Acts tend to fall into one of three general categories: 1. Melodramatic torch songs (picture flowing, witchy gowns, on humans of all genders, with lots of fists grasping empty air and more lashes and fingernails than there would seem to ever be eyeballs or digits enough to support 2. HIGH camp concept songs t...
