Of late, I have been trying to give each month a music theme. March saw Classical Music, while April saw Terrible Music as voted by the general public. This month we are switching to the Eurovision Song Contest.

 

Background Information

For those of you who don't know (mainly those outside Europe), we Europeans have a musical contest during the month of May. It has been running for some 50+ years, and has expanded considerably over the last decade or so due to the inclusion of Eastern Europe. Each country that decides to participate that year sends a group with a song. It has gotten so large that we know have to have Semi-Finals in order to determine which countries go to the Final. Certain countries, like the hosts, the UK, Spain, France and Germany are in the Final automatically. Everyone else has to qualify for the remaining 20 places. The greatest debate and contraversary about Eurovision is the political nature of the voting. It definitely has come to fore since the Eastern European countries have been added.

 

Activities

Over the month, the Band of the Red Hand will be hosting many activities based on Eurovision. They include:

- 4 Tune or No Tunes, including this year's winner

- A general discussion on the Contest

- 2 "It's A Knockout" - one for recent winners, and another for the older songs, with the 2 winners going head-to-head

- For the 2 Semi-Finals and the Final (cricket depending), Corki's views on each contest, which you are more than welcome to get involved with

- Revisiting Corki's Top 10 flops and Top 10 winners

- Our own contest, as members of DM pick their winning songs in the manner of Eurovision voting

- Possible other threads depending on my studies for exams in June!

 

I hope you will take the time to get involved and make this event a success! I will post to announce when threads have been added.

The first installment of "Tune or No Tune" has been up since Monday. It is the 2006 winning song - Hard Rock Hallelujah by Lordi of Finland.

 

http://forums.dragonmount.com/index.php/topic,42947.0.html

The General Discussion thread about Eurovision is up:

 

http://forums.dragonmount.com/index.php/topic,43120.0.html

I forgot to post this on Saturday morning, but:

 

I've set up the 2 "It's A Knockout" threads:

 

Eurovision Song Contest (1956-1982)

http://forums.dragonmount.com/index.php/topic,43128.0.html

 

 

Eurovision Song Contest (1983-2008)

http://forums.dragonmount.com/index.php/topic,43129.0.html

The second tie of the 1st Round is now up and posted for your votes.

With less than 20 minutes to go, come and share the fun as I give a commentary on this evening's semi-final.

 

http://forums.dragonmount.com/index.php/topic,43258.0.html

With about 10 minutes to go, come and share the fun as I give a commentary on this evening's semi-final.

 

http://forums.dragonmount.com/index.php/topic,43346.0.html

And we are off for the Grand Final!

 

Follow my coverage here:

 

http://forums.dragonmount.com/index.php/topic,43417.0.html

Come and cast your votes as the Band of the Red Hand and DM determine who we think should have won the Eurovision Song Contest. Each song has a YouTube link. But if you do not want to listen to everyone, there is a summary for you as well.

 

Voting ends on Sunday 31st May 2009.

 

http://forums.dragonmount.com/index.php/topic,43428.0.html

The 2nd ties of Round 2 for "It's A Knockout" have been posted.

 

Also, the latest "Tune or No Tune" has been posted. And up for the vote this week is the 2009 winner, Fairytale by Alexander Rybak. Come and vote to have your say and view on the winning entry. Do you agree with my vote?

 

http://forums.dragonmount.com/index.php/topic,43507.0.html