Today the famous Nokia-beeping of an sms woke me up in the middle of the night with the following words from my mother in Sweden: “Congratulations Russia won! How does it feel? Hugs, mom”. Relieved as I am from owning a TV, it was only on an intuitive level that I understood that I had slept myself through yet another ‘Sacred’ Eurovision Song Contest. For non-europeans it might be difficult to fathom this phenomena, and even more so after watching the show itself, I imagine. The status of the competition differs in all of the European countries, iin some people couldn’t care less, in others it’s almost religion [my seculative native land falls into the former category]. In Russia this Contest is only beginning it’s journey to becoming a true folk fest, whereas in Sweden it’s more about the National rounds leading up to the final contest in May than actually watching heart-wrenching ballads from Malta or listening to the discobeats of Israel. It was Dima Bilan’s second try to conquer the hearts and charts of Europe [he won me over already in 2004 with his hit "На берегу неба"] and he did it, with the song “Believe”. And the cherry on top of it all must be that the Russian president, everyone’s favorite ‘teddybear’ Dima Medvedev, rang him up at 2 a.m. and congratulated him.
Комсомольская Правда writes: “Евровидение-2009″ пройдет в Москве!” [Eurovision-2009 will go down in Moscow!]
Известия writes “Рудковская: “Евровидение” в России должно стать лучшим в истории шоу.” [Rudkovskaya (Dima's producer): "Eurovision" in Russia must become the best show in history]
My ‘homies’ at E1 write: “Дима Билан стал победителем Евровидения-2008.” [Dima Bilan became the winner of Eurovision-2008] and also feature a list of the 25 contestants and their places in the rating – revealing my poor Sweden at a sad number 18. It’s a long way from Abba and “Waterloo” in the 70′s…
If you want to know more about modern Russian music, while the Russian iTunes store is still non-existing and all you can buy at your local music store is Alla Pugachyova, visit Far From Moscow. This morning I recieved an e-mail from a certain David MacFadyen with the following: “In the light of yesterday’s Eurovision result, I’m writing from the University of California, Los Angeles. We’ve just created the only English-language site dedicated to new music from Russia. Every day we add video, audio, and quick sketches of the artists.” Now doesn’t that sound like a dream come true?
2 Comments
J,
First, your English usage lesson: Sweden is a secuLAR land. I don’t know that “seculative” is a word yet, but I am certain that Swedes worship something, it’s just NOT Eurovision yet.
As for Dima and his Teddy Bear namesake’s phone call, I listened to the winning performance, and as a professional musician for more than 45 years, (which makes me a little older than you, credentials being the essentaial point here), I cannot agree with the decision. I don’t know the process used to arrive at the winner, so I can only offer that I would have chosen another performer…or a different song from Dima’s repertoire.
As for Alla, I prefer her work BEFORE Filip K. I also enjoy the work of daughter Kristina, as well as Katya Lel, Julia Savicheva, Настя Приходько, even though Meladze has a hard time smoothing some of her rough edges. I still like her Passion for the messages in her music.
Still, continue with your good work. Maybe someday I will write Russian well enough that you could critique me. I am still working on “Da, Nyet, and Pri-vy-et”
Okay, so I think I knew when I wrote ‘seculative’ that there is no such word, yet my mind was not yet alert enough (it was Sunday morning!) to understand that the correct English one would be ‘secular’. Thank you, John!
Actually, I haven’t heard Bilan’s song, despite very much wanting to and even trying to. From what I remember of Eurovision, it was never about the quality of the music (only when Ireland or Sweden won was it about the music!) but what it’s really about is voting for your neighbors. And Russia is a big country with many borders…
I got nothing agianst Alla! But she’s not the only one out there who’s doing great, ‘dushevnaya’ music in Russia. I’ve been wanting to post a little something about Maksim (a girl from Kazan’ who became Russia’s sweet heart without any help from mayor labels!) since I started blogging here, and maybe I will… And post some videos from youtube to go with it