Our Eurovisionary series continues with a look at Macedonia and Greece.
I have pretty low artistic standards and I tend to like terrible pop music, but I feel like Macedonia’s song fails on some fundamental level. It’s supposed to be a collaboration between a young pop star and a traditional gypsy singer, but it doesn’t gel. The two of them are doing their own things, not coming together to make one catchy song.
Greece should arguably need be in Eurovision at all, considering their national debt is 180% of their GDP. (According to Wikipedia, the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation made some sort of deal to get all the expenses paid by private companies.) But they found a way to address their financial woes while still delivering a fun song. It’s Greek ska! Gra? Greka?
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I would like Greece to win. They are the only country less able to afford it than Cyprus or Ireland, and I really want to see what Eurovision on a budget looks like. Or if they just host it in German instead (satire).
Can someone please explain why the video featured an old man stalking the band?
I was wondering that myself. I believe the old man is the guy who is playing the traditional Greek instrument in the song (I believe it’s the baglamadaki). He’s not a regular part of the band.
Actually, that’s an interesting angles on Macedonia and Greece that I missed – BOTH songs are partnerships between a mainstream group and a traditional folk musician! But I’d say Greece is much more successful in integrating the two musical styles.
Well, “gypsy” had better be something she calls herself. You do realise that roma people face absolutely horrible discrimination in Europe right now, right?
It’s something she calls herself A LOT. Here’s the first sentence of the biography on her personal website: “Esma, a Gipsy from the city of Skopje…” Not to mention the lyrics of the song in question.
Fair enough, but unless I missed something that should have been made very clear.
You must have not seen the original (Full Length) post. It had to be modified because of EMI copyright trolling (the music playing in the liquor store).
Before the unfortunate edits Belinkie asks the owner if “internet comments are free” and then explains in detail the purpose of his questions. He also used the exact phrase “an artist of Roma descent who describes herself as “Esma, a Gipsy from the city of Skopje…”.
It was very tasteful… and those EMI Nazis ruined it.
Wow. How great for Greece to dare to pick a song so self critical an relevant to their times.
So what I want to happen to make thia a little more global and tie in greece to the wider financial world is a mash up with this Greek song and Toby Keith’s “red solo cup”. Red solo cups I see as a receptacle to this ‘free’ money, but are all connected in altogether flimsy, breakable and drunken financial decisions. This could be ill-thought public works, or perhaps buying risky subprime mortgage loans. The fact that a Greek rock/brass band a country music singer could be related in this way is a perfect metaphor for the interconnected nature of all this financial wizardry
Thanks belinke!