Hell has frozen over! or "Dave submits a blog post"

Dave Writes: Well when my dear hubby reads this, he is going to have a heart attack. Not for what I say, but because I actually wrote an entry for “our” blog! ;-) Yes boys and girls, I have not completely faded away into the great white Canadian North. It merely took me a while to start feeling normal again and “at home” in my new surroundings. Is British Columbia my home yet? Not quite. Will it ever feel like home? Of course it will! It will just take a little more time and a few good vacations with visiting friends (from Rhode Island and Finland) and a trip to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware USA. I am learning that friends are only a flight away. But enough of this dribble! Why am I writing to you now? Well I need to do some translating for our fabulous North American readers. I have no doubt that some of you, dear readers, are asking yourself “What is this thing you call Eurovision?”

Well Eurovision, or more accurately the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC), is the most fabulous of all international song competitions in the whole wide world. Yes, I’m sure that song contest that those Von Trapp kids sang at was good too, but ESC is the bestest of the best. Of course I say this having seen absolutely no other real song contests ever! But I know in my heart this is true.

So what is it that makes it so great? The music, when it is good, is really good. The costumes and dresses are fantastic (or delightfully horrible and that, my dears, can be even MORE entertaining). But the best part is the audience – when you are in a group of ESC fanatics (Kuka?) you can’t help but fall in love with the contest. All it took was one year for me…1999. The year Sweden won, yet again, for big boobs and that damn kalang kalang kalong piano riff stolen from Abba’s Waterloo and used in every Swedish entry since 1974. This was also my first trip to Europe and the first time I was fortunate enough to be introduced to Timo and Tytti (Pekka had already interrogated me in Washington DC in 1996). Since then, ESC has been in my life the same way Christmas or a birthday would be when marking the passing of time. It helps that Tuomo is also a fanatic (can you tell?).

Although I have many many favorite entries, I have narrowed it down to a few. So without further ado, I present you with the top three Eurovision Song Contest entries ever submitted (by my humble opinion):

Number Three: United Kingdom, 1981 “Making Your Mind Up”
Sooooooo campy!



Number Two: France, 1991 “C'est Le Dernier Qui A Parlé”
My God! She can actually sing 16th notes! And its beautifully haunting.



Number One: Iceland, 1999 “All Out of Luck”
True, the dudes in raincoats don’t help. But this song just makes me very happy!