Eurovision
March 19, 2012 1:27 AM   Subscribe

Rambo Amadeus - Euro Neuro, Montenegros rapping donkey-riding entry to the 2012 Eurovision Contest. "Euro skeptik, analfabetik, try not to be hermetic. Euro Neuro don’t be skeptik, hermetic, pathetic, analfabetic forget old cosmetic you need new poetic, estetic eclectic, dialectic."
posted by dabitch (61 comments total) 11 users marked this as a favorite
 
Whenever someone makes the comment that Americans have no culture I always respond "Eurovision".
posted by PenDevil at 1:38 AM on March 19, 2012 [7 favorites]


The revolution, she is televised, yes?
posted by erniepan at 1:45 AM on March 19, 2012


I"m not mocking anyone's English as I struggle enough with my own, and certainly can't speak any other language to save myself. But that rocks dog's ball. Truly, loved it. Montenegro for the WIN!
posted by taff at 1:59 AM on March 19, 2012 [2 favorites]


massive wealth disparity detected in black mountain recommend kidnapping extortion return to piracy raids all along the Adriatic Coast demand for war reparations end transmission
posted by Meatbomb at 2:03 AM on March 19, 2012 [1 favorite]


Whenever anyone says Europeans have no sense of irony, I always respond "Eurovision." No one on the continent confuses this comedy program with "culture." Watched with friends and copious amounts of alcohol, it is the Super Bowl of a good time where there are no disappointed fans!
posted by three blind mice at 2:08 AM on March 19, 2012 [8 favorites]


From the same country that brought you the .me domains!!!
posted by oneswellfoop at 2:40 AM on March 19, 2012 [2 favorites]


Lets rap along, shall we?
... Euro neuro, don’t be dogmatic, bureaucratic, you need to become pragmatic, to stop change climatic, automatic need contribution from the institution to find solution for pollution to save the children of the evolution.
posted by dabitch at 2:49 AM on March 19, 2012


It's going to beat the hell out of our Humperdinck snoozefest.
posted by creeky at 3:20 AM on March 19, 2012 [2 favorites]


Whenever anyone says Europeans have no sense of irony

I won't even dignify the fact that this occurs, other than to cock an eyebrow.
posted by flippant at 3:30 AM on March 19, 2012 [1 favorite]


Žižek! S'up dawg?.
posted by srboisvert at 3:51 AM on March 19, 2012 [2 favorites]


This kitsch monstrosterpiece lost out in the Swedish pre-Eurovision selection competition. It would've been something else to see Björn Ranelid baffle an entire continent. Here he is explained with the appropriate level of seriousness.

The Swedish song that won, Euphoria by Loreen, is actually a fairly decent Europop song, by Eurovision standards.
posted by Kattullus at 4:31 AM on March 19, 2012 [2 favorites]


It was interesting, but it's no dancing elf with a fiddle.

2,472 likes, 582 dislikes -- Wonder why so many dislikes?
posted by crunchland at 4:41 AM on March 19, 2012


I was actually thinking of making a Eurovision post, but I was going to center on Ukraine, whose chosen singer this year is half Ukrainian half Congolese, amd has become the target of racist attacks from Ukrainian politicians.

(Seriously, don't even look at the comments section on that article...)
posted by dnash at 4:57 AM on March 19, 2012 [1 favorite]


I remember the year that the UK sent a very good disco song. The UK will never have many points (unless it starts breaking up), but that year was lower than any other (except maybe the year when the sound equipment failed). I had to wonder whether it was because the singer happened to be black.
posted by jb at 5:08 AM on March 19, 2012


Well, Dave Benton won in 2001. That said, racism is almost certainly a factor in Eurovision voting, but it's hard to tell how big a factor it is.
posted by Kattullus at 5:15 AM on March 19, 2012


Have we already forgotten the gentle harmonies of 2006's big winners? (The "Happy New Year in Finland" hat does it for me -- a delicate counterpoint to the massive spread of the lead's dragon wings.)
posted by Mike D at 5:27 AM on March 19, 2012 [2 favorites]


no, we will never forget Lordi.

Still the winners with the most points ever?
posted by jb at 5:40 AM on March 19, 2012 [1 favorite]


All Eurovision Winners: 1956-1980 , 1981-2010
posted by crunchland at 5:43 AM on March 19, 2012 [3 favorites]


oh, yes, eurovision......... There are too few guilty pleasures in my life.
posted by kaibutsu at 6:12 AM on March 19, 2012


Ehh, it's no "My Lovely Horse."
posted by barnacles at 6:54 AM on March 19, 2012 [2 favorites]


Can't see this at work but if it's half as good as "Baila el Chiki-chiki", I'm there dude.
posted by Roentgen at 7:06 AM on March 19, 2012


I would really liked to have seen Music Thief, Latvia's tribute to filesharing, in the final, but I guess cooler heads prevailed.
posted by rollick at 7:14 AM on March 19, 2012


plagiarism rather, not filesharing
posted by rollick at 7:16 AM on March 19, 2012


Apparently, "analphabetic" is the Croatian/Montenegran term for "illiterate." I'll just file that away in the spot of my memory previously used for my cable account's passcode.
posted by Slap*Happy at 7:22 AM on March 19, 2012 [2 favorites]


I'm really disappointed that a lot of amazing songs didn't make it from qualifier contests to the main contest proper.

Finland could have had a synthpop masterpiece.

Estonia could've had a blissful new wave, Human League/New Order type song.

Russia could've had a gothy, operatic song about a castrati. (To be fair, "Party For Everybody", Russia's entry, is probably the best thing they could have sent. It's something like folk-dance-pop by a group of grandmothers who sing as a hobby, the "Buranova Babushkas". You can't make this up.)
posted by LSK at 7:32 AM on March 19, 2012 [3 favorites]


"ANALFABET" will work for you pretty much everywhere in the slavic world. It would be a perfectly cromulant English word too if "illiterate" wasn't already squatting in that space, eh?
posted by Meatbomb at 7:36 AM on March 19, 2012


LSK, The Mimicry from Estonia are awesome!
I really miss watching Eurovision in Europe and ragging about it with my work colleagues.

(As for the Swedish entries, why do I find myself k-popifying them in my head?)
posted by needled at 7:49 AM on March 19, 2012


I meant to link to this performance of Mimicry's "The Destination", actually: live with ridiculous dancing
posted by LSK at 7:55 AM on March 19, 2012 [1 favorite]


Well, he's no ZLAD!

All kidding aside, that was pretty darn cool! Thanks!
posted by Ron Thanagar at 8:02 AM on March 19, 2012 [3 favorites]


Won't win. Not homoerotic enough.
posted by markkraft at 9:10 AM on March 19, 2012 [2 favorites]


I'm still hoping the Trackshittaz make it to the finals.
(and no, they are not singing what you think they are singing)
posted by Webbster at 9:12 AM on March 19, 2012


LSK: "Russia could've had a gothy, operatic song about a castrati. yt"

That's pretty good, but wait, the band with the castrato reference is actually called "Farinelli Balls"? That takes things to a whole new level.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 9:15 AM on March 19, 2012 [1 favorite]


Greg Nog: I'm a little disappointed to see that "rapping" is a descriptor applied to "entry", rather than "donkey", as I'd originally assumed.

I think Shrek is an international phenomenon/catastrophe, making any singing/rapping donkey look like a knock-off of Donkey.
posted by filthy light thief at 9:22 AM on March 19, 2012


By the way, in 2009 when Oslo hosted the final, the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation went all-out and performed the most stunning camera movement I've ever seen in a live broadcast.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 9:22 AM on March 19, 2012 [7 favorites]


The Trackshittaz have a really good shot at it... their song is all about the ass.

Really, please let them win. Jedward would be a musical travesty, but they *are* homoerotic.
posted by markkraft at 9:25 AM on March 19, 2012


Nice, but NOTHING can compare with 2009, when Svetlana Loboda represented the Ukraine.
There's patriotism. With Flags. There's Flames. There are gladiators. And Body Oil. There aren't even WORDS to describe the full-on majesty of this… I hesitate to call it a performance, because that pigeonholes. That LABELS.
posted by tabubilgirl at 10:04 AM on March 19, 2012 [1 favorite]


San Marino is singing about Facebook this year
posted by razorian at 10:12 AM on March 19, 2012 [1 favorite]


The lyrics of Music Thief seem to be about plagiarism rather than filesharing, but their stage show is pretty clever nonetheless. Latvia's qualifier, Beautiful Song is not much less laden with pop culture references and self-referential irony. The Balts are a bit like that in general.
posted by ikalliom at 10:34 AM on March 19, 2012


Wonder why so many dislikes?

Racists with short attention spans who only saw "negros".
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 10:45 AM on March 19, 2012


Rambo Amadeus is no newcomer. He's the ex-YU equivalent of Weird Al Yankovich, an entire musical parody industry inone slavoid package. Here is Balkan Boji complete with parodies of one string fiddle gusle music. How about weirding out with voivodina tamburica band music? And my favorites: Rambo raps in Serbo-Rromani with roma rock band Kal, and feature Kal front man Dragan Ristic on Rromani rap "Dikh tu Kava."
posted by zaelic at 11:38 AM on March 19, 2012 [4 favorites]


the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation went all-out and performed the most stunning camera movement I've ever seen in a live broadcast. -- Wow. Someone finally found a way to use a Segway that was actually cool!
posted by crunchland at 12:08 PM on March 19, 2012


Bože drag! The Elbonians made it to Eurovision!!!
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 2:14 PM on March 19, 2012


Ah, Metafilter gets round to my chosen specialist subject. So, no links (ask me nicely) but I have the #1 Eurovision podcast in itunes, run a Eurovision site, and host the Australlian Radio broadcast for SBS.

I'm tempted to say 'ask me anything', but let's go with a crazy song from a non-qualifier.... sunstrokes Superman. They sang in ESC 2010, and from that show came the Epic Sax Guy meme (and I was about 20 feet away when it was recorded).

Sunstroke Project: Superman (YT)

Moldova accepted this as an entry, but it never reached the televised final. Such a shame
posted by ewan at 2:31 PM on March 19, 2012 [4 favorites]


Eurovision is truly the gift that keeps on giving. The commitment to, how should one say it, total cheeseball insanity is downright touching.
posted by yasaman at 3:16 PM on March 19, 2012


Rambo Amadeus is no newcomer. He's the ex-YU equivalent of Weird Al Yankovich, an entire musical parody industry inone slavoid package.

Ahhhh...thank you for posting that. So this is less "WTF" than "a joke I'm just not getting because I don't speak the language."
posted by dnash at 4:11 PM on March 19, 2012


ewan, I thought it was "Run Away" from Sunstroke Project that was in the ESC 2010 semifinal? If not, well, enjoy Epic Sax Guy in the linked video.
posted by needled at 4:46 PM on March 19, 2012


ewan, here's Epic Sax Guy's RESPONSE TO BEING EPIC SAX GUY. Metasax!
posted by mdonley at 4:48 PM on March 19, 2012 [1 favorite]


A slightly better version of the video in tabubilgirl's comment above, with Norwegian pre- and post-commentary.
posted by mdonley at 4:56 PM on March 19, 2012 [1 favorite]


Don't forget this gem from Eurovision 2007 - Verka Serduchka - Dancing Lasha Tumbai
posted by promptcurry at 8:00 PM on March 19, 2012


This post should probably also link to the last post we had about Rambo Amadeus on Metafilter. I'll see if I can find it.
posted by koeselitz at 10:45 PM on March 19, 2012


Aha! I found the previous post on Rambo Amadeus - which isn't so easy since he isn't mentioned by name in the post text, although he plays a big part in the essay that it's about.

Here it is. I encourage everyone to look over that post, and in particular to check out the video essay that goes with it. Rambo Amadeus is not just some crazy guy, although he is a crazy guy - the inventor of Turbo Folk, he is a very intelligent person whom I would venture to call brilliant on the basis of some of his creations.

I'm happy if Rambo Amadeus is going to be part of Eurovision, but he is an elder statesman of weird and has been for a long time.
posted by koeselitz at 10:57 PM on March 19, 2012 [1 favorite]


DONT HAPPY BE WORRY
posted by koeselitz at 11:05 PM on March 19, 2012


Also, rewatching this brilliant essay, I think it's safe to say that the appearance on Eurovision of Rambo Amadeus - an original avatar of the weird European combination of hyperlocality and hyperuniversality - is highly ironic, and very interesting from a sociological point of view.
posted by koeselitz at 11:11 PM on March 19, 2012 [1 favorite]


ewan, I am going to ask you nicely, where is the #1 Eurovision podcast in itunes? This sounds liek something I need to subscribe to right now
posted by dabitch at 12:32 AM on March 20, 2012


My eurovision kingdom for an edit window...
posted by dabitch at 12:33 AM on March 20, 2012


Main link (which was apparently a linkjacked version) has been taken down on copyright violations. Here it is on Rambo Amadeus' Youtube page, which is worth looking over by itself.
posted by koeselitz at 7:07 AM on March 20, 2012


Oh shoot, sorry. Didn't see that the user is just a fan rather than official, link still works for me though. Maybe mods can change it so the official account gets the link-juice?
posted by dabitch at 4:25 AM on March 23, 2012


What the hell, Holland?
posted by Kattullus at 5:58 AM on March 24, 2012


uuuuh, yeah the full warbonnet and the mini-skirted backup-singers taking fashion tips from the Pocahontas Disney cartoon seems a bit off for your regular cutesy folksong.
posted by dabitch at 12:37 PM on March 24, 2012


Aha.. "the origin of the text of her song is about an innocent young love of herself when she was five years old and playing 'Indians' with her little boyfriend. " I see.
At 1:21 and other spots of that clip there seems to be a film playing on the screens in the background, where the heroine is wearing a toy-like warbonnet, the kind that come in lots of colors.
posted by dabitch at 12:42 PM on March 24, 2012


Okay, I can understand the context but that's still spectacularly misguided. Thanks for the info.
posted by Kattullus at 2:17 PM on March 24, 2012


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