Hard Rock Hallelujah!

I’ve had a soft spot for the Eurovision song contest for a few years now. Unlike Australian Idol where karaoke graduates cover tried and true crowd pleasers with the help of a backing band, the Eurovision entrants must actually write and play their own materal. Sure, the stuff they write is not much better than what’s found in Australian Idol but their songs are full of kitschy nods to the folk music of whatever European country they hail from. They also seem to take themselves a whole lot less seriously than the karaoke graduates.

The main reason I watch it though (apart from the interesting voting systemPeople in Country A can vote for any other country but their own. The country with the highest number of votes from A gets 12 points, the next highest 10, etc. Points are then tallied over all countries as a Borda count. ) is that every so often, amongst the large number of soulful crooners, boy-band numbers and pop-rock, a country decides to put forward an entry that is a little bit different. The Ukraine did this in 2004 with Ruslana. Fronted by a Xena-esque vocalist and backed by what looked like dancing, drum-beating savages, this band managed to take out the finals as a popular favourite. She’s since hung up the loin-cloth and is a member of parliament.

Things were back to normal in 2005 with a competent but boring Helena taking first place which meant Greece hosted this year’s show. Despite the Mediterranean heat and the rubber monster costumes, Finland’s Lordi managed to growl and chop their way to a win.

There’s no point trying to describe their performance so here they are in the semi-finals, courtesy of YouTube. You just have to check them out for yourself.