Going for a song

It is easy to get hooked on the Eurovision Song Contest, even if you are not in Europe - a status which seems to apply to at least half of those nations entered in the competition.

The 2011 event, played out last weekend, made for the usual compulsive television viewing, even if they have shortened the voting process (which is the only really interesting bit) to make time for the huge number of countries now entitled to vote.

The UK entry wiped its face without troubling the leaders, but at least it was a decent song – the first for many years. The winner was Azerbaijan. It was a catchy enough tune, although hardly Cole Porter.

Azerbaijan will now host the 2012 contest, which has led to threats of a boycott on the grounds of Azerbaijan’s reportedly intolerant attitude towards homosexuals.

“Eurovision is the gay World Cup,” chorus the protesters. No it isn’t. The World Cup is the gay World Cup. Life was so much simpler back in the 1960s when The Allisons represented the UK at Eurovision, and when neither ‘gay’ (in the way that the word is now used), nor Azerbaijan, existed.

Are you sure?

chris@merlinco.com