do you feel my heartbeat, europe?

It's the most wonderful time of the year!  It's live!  It's tacky!  It sparkles!  It's EUROVISION 2011, and it's on!  For those of you who are unfortunate enough to have never experienced a Eurovision, it's like a ridiculously hilarious mix of American Idol and the Olympics.  The song competition debuted in 1956 in Switzerland as a way to heal the divisions in a war-ravaged Europe and it is now one of the longest running television programs in the world.  The basic premise is that each country submits one song for judgment, which is to be performed over a live broadcast that reaches all countries in the EBU (European Broadcasting Union). Countries vote for other countries (voting for yourself is prohibited) and, eventually, someone wins.  In case you were wondering, you can thank Eurovision for ABBA.

 ABBA ca. 1974 [http://msbeaker.blogspot.com/]

But what makes Eurovision such a riot is the cheese factor.  The announcers are typically desperately unfunny, the costumes and props unbearably tacky, the lyrics irritatingly catchy and nonsensical, and the performers shamelessly flirtatious.  Case-in-point, Russian's entry Alexei Vorobjov is coming to get you and Hungary wants to know--what about my dreeaaaaaammmz?!:

 

Good stuff, man.  There are some charming groups, too, that warm the heart and make you go "awwwww" like Iceland:

Ireland will be performing in the second semi-final round on Thursday.  The submission?  Strange, intergalactic, amazeballs twins from Dublin who call themselves Jedward (John + Edward) with very bizarre yet somehow endearing personalities (in small doses, of course).  Now, I'd heard an awful lot about the UK's submission (a sufficiently cheesy boy-band, Blue) but I hadn't heard of Jedward at all until I looked up the Eurovision listing on RTE.  They're pretty fantastic.  I'm not going to say I want them to win just yet, but Ireland holds the record for most Eurovision wins (7) and it'd be cool if the youngest competitors this year could add one more to the list?

completely sober.  i can't wait until tomorrow when i'll be drinking that druid that's been in the fridge since st. patrick's day.

That's it for now, folks.  Stay tacky!