Last night was the Final round of this year's Eurovision contest. This is some European music contest in which Israel participates, because somehow we have convinced people that Israel is part of Europe.
I don't follow Eurovision, but in the past there have been a couple of times that I have. There have been some good, or at least decent, song entries by Israel in the contest over the years, including a couple of winners. The past few years, Israel has submitted some weird entries, including the famous transvestite Dana International, The strange group from Sderot called "Teapacks", and this years entry of a Yemenite singing like a feigeleh who was the winner of the Israeli version of American Idol.
This years song, sung by Boaz Maudah, was developed by the transvestite mentioned above, but performed by Maudah. Thinking it would help, I saw an article in the paper last week about an argument between designers about what costume he should wear. The final decision was the one you will see in the video. They thought that the display of his muscles would help his cause. I thought this was a singing contest, not a Mr. May contest. Whatever happened to improving one's singing abilities to win a singing contest!!??
Whatever.
Warning: For anyone who might still not be listening to music because of sefirah, these clips are not for you.
Anyway, here is Boaz Maudah, who took 9th place in the finals last night.
The winning entry can be seen here as well. The Russian contestant took the top prize. Along with him is a guy dancing on ice skates, and the singer rips open his shirt at the end. Maybe he won because the final phrase of his song is "I believe in Jew". (though I think he meant to say "you")
What a joke of a contest.
the last few years have been bad. the worst (2 years ago?) was eddie butler, whose brother had a much more successful carreer with the TACT rap clan. (strange, unlike the recent controversy over the jewisih christian in the bible contest, no once complained that butler was israel's representative in eurovision)
ReplyDelete"Warning: For anyone who might still not be listening to music because of sefirah"
ReplyDeletehave we figured out since your post last year why we can't listen to music? (there is actually an article on this in the recent issue of Tradition, but i haven't been able to get ahold of it)
minhag, of course.
ReplyDeletesince when? based on what? says who?
ReplyDeleteDon't put down the Eurovision contest too much. It has given us the tunes to "Yidden" and the "Rebbi Nachman" song that they used to play in the streets, along with the "Numa Numa" kid dancing to the same melody.
ReplyDeleteIf anyone wants to post links to these songs, be my guest. I just don't have the time now.
"numa" was from eurovision?
ReplyDeleteI am seriously laughing out loud here. That cheesy Russian singer with his badly accented lyrics, the violin player, that creepy blond ice skater swinging his arms around- are you sure thst this is a music contest and not a comedy sketch? I can't believe they actually won.
ReplyDeleteRafi: I am a newcomer to the blog (it's the only one I read), and find much of it informative and interesting, especially as it pertains to RBS. But I need to ask you: do you not find it a bit sickening to write about transvestites and the like. I mean, we are (I think, at least most of us) religious Jews here, who are supposed to have some sense of propriety. If you lived in New York, I doubt you would report on the goings-on on 42nd street or Greenwich village, even though they may be quite popular.
ReplyDeleteShlomo - thanks. I am not reporting on transvestites. I am reporting on Israel, and in this case how it placed in Eurovision. Sometimes I like to post something entertaining and not so serious.
ReplyDeleteMauda is not a transvestite, and the report was on him. I mentioned the transvestite because I was commenting how much of a joke this contest is.