What EUROVISION Means for the World

While Americans enjoy their schadenfreude entertainment of watching small-town dreamers get their voices corked by Idol judge Simon Cowell, a chaz with no formal training in the music industry and spins his pedestrian judgment to be “one of us,” when in fact he is rolling in millions of GWs for his tawdry style of being well, British; there is a more redeemable song contest out there.

Imagine if Ed McMahon could speak Flemish or Russian; French or Hebrew.

Across the Atlantic, Europeans have been competing for years in their own Olympian version of balladeering: EUROVISION.

For fifty years, countries throughout Europe put forward their strongest musical talents in competition with one another. Over the years, the contest, once a formal black and white affair, has broadened its audience to appeal to pop culture. In particular, one that over the years has a penchant for camp and adds a dash of controvery in the glass of conservatives/nationalists, and the like.

This year's show was hosted in Helsinki, the winner from last year's contest. Finlands The Monsters, with some serious facial grafts, fur and grotesqueness were the darlings of 2006.

Other such memorable contestants have included a tranny Israeli songstress, Ukraine’s straight boys in drag (See Verka above), Swedish songs about gay reproduction and a pack of Russian “punk” lesbians crowing about a chick kiss. And there's more where that came from. A lot more of that showbusiness.

Including this year’s coup de grace, Serbia. Marija Serifovic has won this year’s contest for her song “Molitiva,” or prayer. On her return to Belgrade, she was greeted by 25,000 Serbs in the public square who answered her prayers in a show of support and pride. Some Serbs were reported to feel Turbo-Folk stylized ladies around here. She's a dyke, and there’s no way of seeing a woman in a tux otherwise. And this is a double coup for Serbia, a country deeply imbued by the garrison of resident orthodox priests.

Her poignant love song even moved Croatia and Bosnia to give a maximum vote of 12 a piece to Serbia. The song, and the regional support, do come as a surprise for me. Then again, Eurovision can unify people more than the United Nations.

Mostar Bridge

bridge- /brij/ noun, verb, bridged, bridg·ing, adjective –noun 1. a structure spanning and providing passage over a river, chasm, road, or the like. 2. a connecting, transitional, or intermediate route or phase between two adjacent elements, activities, conditions.

Mostar. Think bridge. Think UNESCO. See the divers jump from the Bridge, Stari Most, in an amazing display of antiquated sport. See tourists cross bridge. Oh, wait. Bridge is blown up by Croatian nationalists. Bridge is restored with millions of American dollars and Turkish lira. Bridge becomes UNESCO site.

Bosnia is a patchwork fulfilling that cliche on ethnicity, yet it makes for one uneven rough, threaded, tattered quilt.

Herzegovina has holes all throughout its canton. The shrapnel has littered and pock-marked every surface-- on the Bosnian side of Mostar--if it hasn't blown out entire facades altogether. This town is appopriate for Westerners' fascination with multi-ethnic, internecine war. So you will venture to see this surreal town with its winding river and awe at the bridge. Germans, Australians, Japanese, and they will take pictures from that bridge and stand atop and maybe for just a moment they might feel shivers looking down, imagining a plunge. Not one of us can fathom that water was once red.