RIP Stephen Gately

Stephen Gately, former member of Irish pop group Boyzone, is dead. I just discovered the news while surfing the internet.

Gately was found dead in his apartment on the Spanish island of Majorca. Apparently, he died of excess fluid in his lungs. I was shocked by this - yet another celebrity to have died so young. I SMSed my good friend Ivan C the other day to tell him of the news. From his SMS reply, I think Ivan was shocked, too.

No doubt members of Boyzone, & thousand of their fans & others within the music industry, would have been devastated by the news.

RIP Stephen Gately.

Eurovision Song Contest 2009

I saw Eurovision Song Contest 2009 last nite on SBS. It was hosted by Russia, thanks to their win in last year's contest. It was quite good to watch. Norway's youngster Alexander Rybak ended up winning Eurovision 2009 in a landslide. He got a whopping 387 points, the highest points score in Eurovision history, apparently. Iceland's teenage beauty Yohanna finished a distant second, on 218 points.

Rybak is of Belarussian descent - he was born in Minsk. His winning song, "Fairytale" was performed with the violin, & was inspired by Norwegian folk music. Rybak is certainly talented & I quite liked his song, but I wouldn't go as far as to give him first place. Top 5, yes - only just. I was most impressed by Turkey's performance (wonderful belly dancers, brilliant music), & would have picked them as winner on that basis. I would then have picked Iceland, Albania & Azerbaijan as the next best 3 performers, & then Norway in fifth place. I would rank UK, Israel & Greece alongside or just behind Norway. After that, I would give honourable mentions to performers from Russia, Romania & Sweden. But hey, that's me, it's just my opinion. I don't decide Eurovision. Televoters across Europe do, & just about every country voted Norway in their top 3. Of course, the exception is Norway as no country is allowed to vote for itself. When all is said & done, the final standings for Eurovision 2009 are:

1: Norway (387 points)
2: Iceland (218 points)
3: Azerbaijan (207 points)
4: Turkey (177 points)
5: UK (173 points)
6: Estonia (129 points)
7: Greece (120 points)
8: France (107 points)
9: Bosnia & Herzegovina (106 points)
10: Armenia (92 points)
11: Russia (91 points)
12: Ukraine (76 points)
13: Denmark (74 points)
14: Moldova (69 points)
15: Portugal (57 points)
16: Israel (53 points)
17: Albania (48 points)
18: Croatia (45 points)
19: Romania (40 points)
20: Germany (35 points)
21: Sweden (33 points)
22: Malta (31 points)
23 (joint): Lithuania (23 points)
23 (joint): Spain (23 points)
25: Finland (22 points)

Of course, no Eurovision contest is complete without the "bloc-voting". You get the former Soviet states, the Balkan nations & the Scandinavians giving top votes to each other. It's easy to guess which way certain countries would vote. Anyway, that aside, it's fun & quite fascinating to see the coming together of various European cultures in the name of music.

Just one other thing - please bring back the British commentator Terry Wogan! Don't tell me he has quit commentating on Eurovision?? Please no. We get SBS using their own commentators for Eurovision 2009. Huh, Eurovision commentated by Australians - goodness, that's even worse than Americans commentating soccer. Those SBS people are amateurs (ok, maybe I'm being a little harsh, but u get the idea). Come back Mr Wogan!!

Eurovision Song Contest 2008

Wow, these past few weeks must have been great for the Russians. Their ice hockey team won the 2008 IIHF World Championship by beating their Canadian hosts in the final. Then, Moscow hosted the 2008 UEFA Champions League final, which apparently did wonders for the Russian capital & injected considerable tourist money. And now, Dima Bilan just won the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest for Russia.

The 2008 Eurovision was hosted by Belgrade, Serbia, courtesy of Serbia's victory in the previous year. Prior to the final round, they had 2 semi-final rounds to filter contestants for the final. I saw the semis & thought it was a shame that San Marino & Holland didn't make it through to the final round. But anyway, Marija Šerifović, who led Serbia to the crown last year, opened this year's final by performing last year's winning song.

Dima Bilan's winning song was titled "Believe". Though I quite liked it, I would have preferred first place to have gone elsewhere. I was most impressed by the performers from Albania & Armenia (nice ladies, both) & the pop performed by the duo from Iceland. I would have awarded these 3 the top 3 placings. I also quite liked the performances of Greece, Portugal, Norway & the Cher lookalike of Sweden - I found these 4 to be at least as good as the Russian performer. There were some strange/bizarreish performances, too - the pirates of Latvia, the angels of Azerbaijan & most of all, Spain's performer with Elvis-like hard hair who sang "Dance the Chiki Chiki". Uh huh, I think the Spanish guy takes the cake for clownish act....his song was so comical. Not bad, just amusing & weird. Ahh, well....it takes all sorts to make Eurovision....

Among the guests was the Serbian basketball legend, Vlade Divac. I remembered him from the 1990s when he starred in the NBA for LA Lakers (before he moved to other clubs) - that was when basketball highlights were shown free-to-air. Man, he has aged - his appearance on Eurovision was the first time I've seen him in ages, & he's now got grey hair. But good to see him.

The voting is almost as big a feature of Eurovision as the song performances themselves. Some 43 countries voted. And of course, as always, there was "bloc voting", whereby viewers' voting tend to lean towards performers of neighbouring or "nearby" countries. I suspect that this might have played a significant part in Russia's success. Russia got a lot of their points from the former Soviet nations, such as Ukraine, Latvia & Armenia. I mean, initially, Russia & Greece were neck & neck, but the Russians eventually pulled away & ended up winning by a very comfortable margin. The BBC commentator Terry Wogan would sneer (in a humorous, non-malicious way) as each bloc voting become apparent - everytime the Baltic states give first placing to Russia, everytime Greece & Cyprus viewers vote for each other, everytime the Nordic countries award top points to each other, etc etc. I enjoy Wogan's commentary.

Anyway, what's good about Eurovision is that we get to see glimpses of various cultures, listen to songs in unfamiliar foreign languages, see & laugh at some comical acts (like the Spanish "Chiki chiki" guy, as mentioned above), & well, just chill. Well done to Russia for their success. Next year, Russia will be the hosts, & Moscow will probably be the venue. Oh, well, guess that means next year's Eurovision will be brought "from Russia with love". Hahaha, pardon the silly attempt at "pun". Anyway, that's it for this year's Eurovision. Next month, my attention will once again be weighed in on Europe. Because coming up, it's....Euro 2008!

"Jesus Take The Wheel" (by Carrie Underwood)

While "trolling" on a Christian online forum last month, I stumbled on the lyrics to the song "Jesus Take The Wheel" performed Carrie Underwood. I then hopped on to YouTube to listen to the song. It was wonderful, & it has a soothing & assuring feel about it. Assuring in the sense that it reminds me that Jesus is Lord & that He is in control of everything in life - something which is not necessarily always at the forefront of my mind.

I hope by listening to the song every now & then, it will spur me on in my quest to be dependent on God & rely less on myself. But goodness, it's not going to be easy to surrender the wheel....

The song (not actually written by Carrie herself) is of country music variety. Normally, I'm not into country music, but I will definitely make an exception for this song! I certainly should - it has Christian content (although I don't know how strong Carrie's spiritual life is). And according to Wikipedia, this song has earned number 1 spots on Christian radio countdown in the US, & it has won the Gospel Music Association's award for best country single for the year 2006.

Here are the lyrics:

"Jesus Take The Wheel"

She was driving last Friday on her way to Cincinnati
On a snow white Christmas Eve
Going home to see her Mama and her Daddy with the baby in the backseat
Fifty miles to go and she was running low on faith and gasoline
It'd been a long hard year
She had a lot on her mind and she didn't pay attention
she was going way too fast
Before she knew it she was spinning on a thin black sheet of glass
She saw both their lives flash before her eyes
She didn't even have time to cry
She was sooo scared
She threw her hands up in the air

Jesus take the wheel
Take it from my hands
Cause I can't do this on my own
I'm letting go
So give me one more chance
To save me from this road I'm on
Jesus take the wheel

It was still getting colder when she made it to the shoulder
And the car came to a stop
She cried when she saw that baby in the backseat sleeping like a rock
And for the first time in a long time
She bowed her head to pray
She said I'm sorry for the way
I've been living my life
I know I've got to change
So from now on tonight

Jesus take the wheel
Take it from my hands
Cause I can't do this on my own
I'm letting go
So give me one more chance
To save me from this road I'm on

Oh, Jesus take the wheel
Oh, I'm letting go
So give me one more chance
Save me from this road I'm on
From this road I'm on
Jesus take the wheel
Oh, take it, take it from me
Oh, why, oh


And the clip from YouTube:




NB: I thought there was something vaguely familiar when I saw the name "Carrie Underwood" on that Christian forum. No wonder - she's actually the winner of American Idol Season 4. Cool - a Christian song making an impact & achieving musical success on a prominent (if secular) stage.

Eurovision Song Contest 2007

I just watched the final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2007 which was held in Helsinki, Finland. The way the hosting works is that the given year's event is hosted in the country that won the previous year's edition. Since Finland's representative won the 2006 edition, it hosted this year's Eurovision. In the end, newcomers Serbia (who recently split with Montenegro) were winners of Eurovision Song Contest 2007.

Some 24 countries took part in the final, & this is made up of the 4 automatic qualifiers, the top 10 placed countries from Eurovision Song Contest 2006 final & the top 10 countries from the Eurovision Song Contest 2007 semi-final (which was shown on Saturday nite). The 4 automatic qualifiers are France, Germany, Spain & the UK, & they earn their automatic slots simply because apparently (so I heard) they are the biggest financial contributors to Eurovision (or at least to the producers of Eurovision, the European Broadcasting Network).

As it turned out, the 4 automatic qualifiers did not fare well - they occupied 4 of the bottom 6 places. The UK finished 2nd last, ahead of only Ireland. France finished 3rd last. In fact, Western European countries did not fare well in this year's Eurovision - the highest from Western Europe is the host Finland, which took out 17th place. I have sympathy for Ireland's representative, who certainly didn't deserve anything like the last place.

The Eastern Europeans strongly dominated the final, with the top 5 spots filled by Serbia, Ukraine, Russia, Turkey & Bulgaria. Serbia's representative may have won, but I personally preferred the performances of the representatives from Turkey, Ukraine, & Russia. These 3 songs were the more "upbeat" dance/pop types, compared to the more passive/mellow ballad sang by the Serbian representative. If pressed to name my choice for winner from those 3, I'd pick Turkey, whose song "Shake It Up Şekerim" (a.k.a. Shake it Up Sweetheart) was peformed by popular Turkish pop singer Kenan Doğulu, accompanied by some British belly dancers (!) - they were awesome, Kenan's singing was good too. Having said that, I quite liked the Serbian entry, & congratulations must go to the Serbian singer Marija Šerifović, complete with her thick spectacles.^ I guess it's good that a country who previously never won the competition has now won it. Actually, that would be because Serbia never previously took part. So apparently, this is the first time a newcomer wins at first attempt. Well done to Serbia! The winning song is called "Molitva" (English translation is Prayer).

The televoting took place after all songs were presented. Viewers from practically all countries in Europe (even those not taking part in the final) get a chance to vote for their favourite song, athough they cannot vote for their own country. A spokesperson from each country announce the "top 10" results of the country's televote, from lowest (1 point for 10th place) to the highest (12 points for 1st place). This year, the European Broadcasting Network cut down on the broadcast time allocated for presentation of the votes, so that points 1 to 7 are shown automatically on the screen & only the top 3 votes (8, 10 & 12 points) are read out individually.

One entertaining feature of the Eurovision televoting is the voting bias or "bloc voting", where the trend is that viewers/voters seem to award points to neighbouring or "nearby" countries, or to countries which have a political relationship or some other commonality to the voters' own country. There's Greece & Cyprus. There's the Nordic bloc (Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland & Iceland). There's the Balkan bloc, i.e. the former states of Yugoslavia (Serbia, Croatia, etc). There's the ex-Soviet bloc (Russia, Ukraine, Belarus etc). And then, there's the UK, Ireland & Malta. Some people say that the voting "bias" happens because people do vote for the country which with which they share similar culture, language & musical taste (& therefore more inclination to appreciate the music), rather than because of political ties between countries.

It's "hilarious" watching who gives top points to whom, & some of the results are rather predictable. Cyprus gave top points to Greece (as they do every year), & the only reason Greece didn't reciprocate this year is Cyprus didn't take part - so Greece gave top points to Bulgaria. And Bulgaria gave first place to....yeah, Greece. The UK got all their points from Ireland & Malta, & nothing from the rest of Europe. France got almost half their total points from tiny neighbours Andorra. Denmark & Norway gave top marks to Sweden. The Norwegian spokesperson jubilantly announced that 12 points go to "our neighbours Sweden" (hmm, what a surprise, I wonder why). The ex-Soviet states gave top marks to either Ukraine & Russia, so that greatly helped these 2 countries finished 2nd & 3rd respectively. And interestingly, voters in Croatia, Bosnia, Slovenia, Macedonia & Montenegro awarded top place to Serbia. It seems all that animosity from years of brutal Balkan conflict does not extend to music & entertainment. Oh and if that's not enough, Turkey got top marks from Austria, Belgium, Germany & the Netherlands - countries which have a sizeable Turkish population.

Eurovision's a once a year thing, it's quite interesting to watch. Needless to say, some performers are better than others, that's the way it is. Serbia will be next year's host thanks to this year's success. Oh, & next year, there's Euro 2008, too!

^ Hmm, speaking of spectacles, I think it's high time I get myself a new pair. That means scouting around for a suitable new look ;)