The Fredösphere

I have not bothered to watch American Idol, but over the Christmas break I indulged in a rare session of broadcast TV and caught a commercial for it.  To my virgin eyes, the hype was laughably, disturbingly, bewilderingly overwhelming -- pretty much on the order of:

American Idol returns!
Lift up your heads, America:
Your redemption draweth nigh!

Over the past few years, however, I have enjoyed from a distance a parallel phenomenon known as the Eurovision Song Contest.  To note that ABBA is the pinnacle of quality of all the show's winners down through the years tells you just about everything you need to know about it.  The contest promotes acts that do not have established careers (as I understand it).  An additional spin not found in American Idol is the national loyalty:  each European nation submits an act.  Any embarrassment an act causes (and oh, boy, that's a fairly common occurrence) is a shared national experience.  Bitter recriminations and second-guessing are a common post-contest pastime.  Thus, we are spared the graciousness and good-sportsmanship that does so much to make this world a colder, poorer place.  England seems to be especially susceptible to embarrassment, which is odd considering its fine pop music tradition, and that English is the international language of the genre.

The inversion is what I love:  Through the centuries, Europe developed a rich musical tradition that was the envy of the world.  We provincial Americans struggled to produce our own crude versions, with (until recently) embarrassing results.  Then, riding a wave of technological advances, America developed a rich pop music tradition that was the envy of the world.  Provincial Europeans struggled to produce their own crude ... well, you get the picture.

The main website is here.  Be prepared to install an oddball plugin if you want to download video.  Sadly, it looks like the quality of this year's entries might be rising to semi-pro levels.  Darn, darn, darn.  The semi-finals are tonight, and the finals are this Saturday.  Here's a good short summary of the contest, past and present.  Here's some information (for its reliability I cannot vouch) on whether and how red-blooded Americans might be able to enjoy the spectacle.  My humble contributions to spreading the Eurovision Song Contest Gospel is here.  And to answer your most pressing question, Vlad has been shut out of the competition again this year.