Thanks, Fiona! I think it went well.

What the hell is Eurovision?

A European song contest, just like you figured out. There's only one song per country (it can be one singer or a band, I don't think there's a limitation on the number of people), and the contest of the following year takes place in the country that was represented by the winning song.

There are several ways for choosing the representative song. In Israel alone (and I only know about Israel) there were 'pre-Eurovision' songs contests for some of the years, and a board to choose the song to represent Israel on others.

During the competition itself, each country gives points from 1 to 12 to songs from other countries (only one score for each song, so not all the songs get points, and a country can't rate its own song, of course), but they can't give 11 points, and I think another number is skipped, too - I'm rusty on that.

Also, as some of the previous posts may have hinted - it's extremely cheesy. I mean, think of the cheesiest song contest you can imagine, and add extra cheese. More cheese than that guy in "Restless" used for the entire filming of that episode. Lots of laughter, lots of silly fun.

Eurovision site.

The Eurovision Song Contest is not, despite the name, limited to Europe. It also includes Turkey and Israel. Details of its history can be found here.

Essentially, it's a kitschfest. In the UK it's a standing joke, and regarded with affectionate enthusiasm by students and various others. The quality of the music is...well, it varies, but generally speaking we're talking cheesy, camp, kitsch and mockable. Some countries take it pretty seriously - especially the former Eastern Blok countries, for whom any inclusion in a Europe-wide event is a big deal. It does kind of warm the cockles of one's heart, in a way, and yet it's also pretty hilarious. It's not like the Miss World contest, and yet I can't think of any other cheesy kitsch thing to take as a point of reference. Hmm.

As I understand it, there are two stages to the competition; the first stage involves shedloads of countries, and then they whittle it down to the 26 or so we get to see in the televised competition. In years gone by the judging was done by a handful of people in each country (heaven only knows upon what basis they were selected) and traditionally voting has been very political - eg Cyprus gives its largest vote to Greece, Norway gives big votes to Sweden and Iceland, France gives big votes to Belgium etc etc. Because of technological advances, however, we've now got phone votes and so the people of each country get to vote for who they like best. There's still an element of favouritism creeping into it, I think, but not so much as in years gone by.

It's tremendous fun. Camper than a row of pink tents, tasteless as a tasteless tasteless thing with no taste, and all made eminently more palatable by the reliable piss-taking commentary we get from the old stalwart of Eurovision coverage, the venerable Terry Wogan.

Thanks for the info, you guys! Like a lot of Americans, what I know about Eurovision is from seeing Python skewer it in various ways. I even know what song won in 1957 ("Sing, little Birdie") which I believe Chairman Mao knows in that quiz show sketch.

Eurovision gave the world Abba, Bucks Fizz and some other ::cough:: venerable talent that charted in some countries.

but they can't give 11 points,

Um, why not?

Not to be difficult, but isn't Turkey technically Europe? If not, what is it - Africa or Asia?

And a hearty bwahahaha! to Scrappy for beating me to that particular Python item.

WHO ONE THE CUP FINALS IN 1959?

You get to give, er, I think it's 1 point, 2 points, 4 points, 6 points, 8 points, 10 points and 12 points. I think. Or something like that. Basically you've got a bunch of points that you can deal out to deserving countries in various sizes of chunks, depending on how good they were.

Wasn't it the Wolverhampton Wanderers?

isn't Turkey technically Europe?

I believe that half of Turkey is in Europe, and half is in the Middle East. But I failed Geography, so I may be talking out of my arse here.

You get to give, er, I think it's 1 point, 2 points, 4 points, 6 points, 8 points, 10 points and 12 points. I think. Or something like that.

Okay, so it's not some 11-is-a-bad-number thing then.