I have seen the future....

The Eurovision Song Contest is the mother of all televised music contests. Many big name music stars found their start there. (Think, ABBA...) I was introduced to this glamarama wingding of a show last year and I am hooked. The contest consists of song entries from European countries (hence the name...duh!). Each country first has it local contest to determine which song and artist they will send to the big show. Then each country gets the chance to show the rest of Europe what it is they have to offer. This year's competition is being held in Belgrade and it is being shown worldwide via the Internet at eurovision.tv

I can't accurately explain the nature of this show. The production is big...no, ENORMOUS and part of the reason for that is the host country gets this opportunity to show off what they can do. The thing is, they don't often follow the old adage "less is more". In fact, I think they go out of their way to prove "more is more". The songs themselves run the gamut from the very beautiful to the absolutely insane. Last year, I fell into some kind of strange obsession with this entrant.

It's weird, it's over the top, it's kitschy, and, to me, it's wonderful.

The first semi-finals for 2008 happened yesterday and you can see for yourself the strange wonderfulness that is the Eurovision Song Contest. It has everything. Over blown production values, sometimes excellent music, sometimes really bad music, mostly really bizarre performances (see Ireland's 2008 entry) and in your face artsy fartsy everything make this my new most favorite thing in the world.