EUROVISION’S SONG REMAINS THE SAME
Hurriyet
May 18 2009
Turkey
ISTANBUL – Though this year’s Eurovision Song Contest ended Saturday
night, with a victory for Norway, debate over the voting patterns in
the half-a-century-old cultural competition continues.
Norwegian performer Alexander Rybak, 23, received the highest number
of points from tele-voters and juries from 42 countries, setting a
new record of 387 points. The baby-faced singer garnered the most
points in Eurovision’s 53-year history with his song "Fairytale,"
outstripping Finland’s Lordi, which set the previous record in
2006. Turkey came in fourth, thanks to the support of Turks living
in Europe as well as that of neighboring countries such as Azerbaijan.
Minsk-born Rybak, who left Belarus with his musician parents when he
was four years old, earned the maximum number of points from several of
the former Soviet Union countries that participated in the event. In a
press conference right after the contest ended, Rybak said his victory
brought a mixture of happiness and sadness. According to the official
Eurovision Web site, Rybak "explained that Belarus is known for the
melancholy of its people, whereas the happiest people in the world live
in Norway. For him, the mix of both was a key for success." Asked about
a televised Norwegian talent show that he lost in 2006, Rybak said he
"wasn’t among the best" on that show, but that he was "one of the
best singers" in Eurovision and won because he "had a story to tell."
The second-place finisher, Iceland’s Yohanna, garnered 218 points for
the song "Is It True?" Aysel & Arash from Azerbaijan came in was third
with 207 points; their song, "Always," accompanied a folksy melody with
an acrobatic dance routine and two blonde female backup singers. Local
media in Azerbaijan welcomed the good news yesterday, as finishing
third was a first-of-its-kind success the country’s Eurovision history.
Turkish representative Hadise performed her song "Dum Tek Tek" at this
year’s event, which was held at Moscow’s Olimpisky Indoor Arena. She
took fourth place with 177 points. "I represented my country very
well," Hadise said after the competition.
Despite the change in the voting system this year, the essential
routine in the song contest did not change, as politics played a role
in the voting once again.
Over the past decades, six different systems have been used to pick
the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest. Tele-voting was introduced
in the late 1990s in response to accusations that the juries were
making their selections based on political considerations, but the
new system, which aimed to give power to the people, ended up favoring
former Yugoslavian and Soviet Union countries.
To try and tackle the issue of political votes and reciprocal ones from
neighboring countries, the organizers at the European Broadcasting
Union switched to yet another new system, one that attempts to give
equal weight to both the juries’ and the people’s votes.
"After all songs have been performed, viewers in all 42 participating
countries can vote by making a phone call and/or sending an SMS
for their favorite song. Professional juries in all 42 countries
vote as well," read an explanation on the Web site for this year’s
contest. "The tele-voting results and the jury results are then merged
for each country. Each result counts for 50 percent." Viewers are
allowed to vote up to 20 times, but, as always, cannot cast a vote
for his or her own country.
Staying loyal to the unwritten "neighbor voting" rules, Turkey
and Azerbaijan exchanged their 12 points, showing that Azerbaijan’s
resentment toward Turkey over its rapprochement policy with archrival
Armenia was not reflected in its voting pattern. Although Azerbaijan
did not give any votes to Armenia, it received one vote from Armenia,
which was seen as a gesture. Armenia gave 12 points to Russia, and,
for the first time, four points to Turkey, likely a direct result of
the normalization talks that have been recently initiated between the
two countries. Turkey closed its border with Armenia in solidarity
with Azerbaijan over the 20 percent of its territory that is under
Armenian occupation.
12 points from France
Turkey also received 12 points from its Balkan neighbor, Macedonia,
with which it enjoys friendly relations, and Hadise likewise got 12
points from Belgium, the country where she was born. The 12 points that
came from the United Kingdom, Switzerland and France are attributed to
both the sizable Turkish communities in each country and to the juries’
enjoyment of the song. French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s objection to
Turkish entry into European Union, under the argument that Turkey does
not belong to Europe, seems not to have affected the jury in Paris.
Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia each gave 12 votes to Bosnia and
Herzegovina, which came in ninth. Greece gave its maximum points to
the United Kingdom and received maximum points from Albania, Bulgaria
and Cyprus.
Britain had been billed as a favorite in the contest, but its
singer, Jade, only managed fifth place, despite renown composer
Andrew Lloyd Webber writing her song, the Associated Press reported
yesterday. Greece, another favorite, pinned its hopes on an elaborately
choreographed stage performance involving a giant flashing treadmill.
In its performance, Israel appealed for peace and harmony with
"There Must Be Another Way," sung in Arabic, Hebrew and English by
the Arab-Jewish duo Noa and Mira. Taking the contest seriously this
year did not result in a pleasing outcome for France, whose famous
singer Patricia Kaas could only garner 107 points, coming in seventh.
In a Eurovision first, crewmembers on the International Space Station
gave the command to start telephone voting in a video message from the
orbiting science laboratory. Moscow reportedly spent $42 million on the
five-day event, making it the most expensive competition in Eurovision
history, Reuters reported. As the winner, Norway will host the next
Eurovision Song Contest in 2010. Russia’s efforts to capitalize on the
prestigious event to showcase the nation’s hospitality and growing role
in modern society were undermined several hours before the start of the
competition when riot police attacked gay-pride rallies in the capital.
Police hauled away some 40 demonstrators, including British activist
Peter Tatchell and American Andy Thayer of Chicago, the co-founder
of the Gay Liberation Network, who had defied Moscow authorities and
tried to stage a banned demonstration.
Eurovision winner Rybak appeared to throw his support behind the
protesters when he said at the news conference, "Why did they [the
Moscow police] spend all their energy stopping gays in Moscow when
the biggest gay parade was here tonight?