{"id":192,"date":"2003-03-17T03:37:28","date_gmt":"2003-03-17T10:37:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stefangeens.com\/?p=192"},"modified":"2003-03-17T03:37:28","modified_gmt":"2003-03-17T10:37:28","slug":"swedish-cultural-extremes-part-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stefangeens.com\/2001-2013\/2003\/03\/swedish-cultural-extremes-part-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"Swedish cultural extremes, part II"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Saturday, Helena (Gustavsson, from SAIS Bologna days) and her sambo<\/em> Christer sambo<\/em>: person you live with but are not married to.<\/span>hosted an important event in the yearly calendar of Swedish rituals: Communal watching on TV of the selection of the official Swedish entry<\/a> to the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC), to be held in Riga on May 24, 2003. <\/p>\n

If you have never been subjected to the Eurovision Song Contest, count yourself blessed. I suspect ESC is responsible for fully 20% of New York immigrants from Europe. But try as they might, nobody really ever escapes its insidious influence. Case in point: it launched the career of Celine Dion, who won in 1988<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But you only really begin to appreciate the brilliant depravity of ESC when it dawns on you that she won because she was better than the rest. Brilliant marketing idea: a double CD-set with all the worst songs<\/a> over the years.<\/span>My own youth was scarred by a single accidental exposure to ESC in Belgium. Not only was the Belgian entry atrocious, we then had to sit through hours of “Belgique, nul points” as we were officially shamed for being even worse than tolerable.<\/p>\n

If there is one silver lining to the whole ordeal, it is that it helps the young learn early how European politics really operates. All the French speaking countries vote for each other, all the English speaking countries team up with the Scandinavians, and the rest engages in balance-of-power politicking. Also, Turkey always loses.<\/p>\n

If you live in Europe, then, you have to develop a coping mechanism. And the best way to cope is not to cower, but to stare the beast in the eyes, and then give it a big wet sloppy kiss on the mouth. This is what we were doing Saturday night, addled by fine wines, which made it easier to leave one’s ironic detachment at the door (there were children<\/em> there, after all). <\/p>\n

Sweden’s 12 candidate songs fall into two classes. Those sung in Swedish by people wearing elk fur which have no hope of winning, and those sung in “English.” The scare quotes are justified this year. Here are some of the “lyrics:”<\/p>\n

Alcazar: Not a Sinner, Nor a Saint<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

I’m not a sinner nor a saint,<\/p>\n

Not that I will lose my head and faint.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

Am I a bad boy? Maybe. Am I a sad boy? Let see…<\/p>\n

Nul points! Sad enough?<\/p>\n

Barbados: Bye Bye<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

You make me feel like a UFO,<\/p>\n

This time I’ve had it, I will take no more,<\/p>\n

I’m better off alone out of this war zone.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

Who’s going to turn you on when I’m gone?<\/p>\n

Nul Points! Bye bye.<\/p>\n

Fame: Give Me Your Love<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I can be the one you love forever,<\/p>\n

I can be the dream of your heart.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

You can turn the winter into summer, oh yeah<\/p>\n

You can be me my wonder every day.<\/p>\n

Everytime I see you I just want to hold you,<\/p>\n

I wish you felt the same way that I do.<\/p>\n

These guys won. Yes, Sweden’s official entry is a song about… stalking.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Saturday, Helena (Gustavsson, from SAIS Bologna days) and her sambo Christer sambo: person you live with but are not married to.hosted an important event in the yearly calendar of Swedish rituals: Communal watching on TV of the selection of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-sweden"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7eNhC-36","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stefangeens.com\/2001-2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stefangeens.com\/2001-2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stefangeens.com\/2001-2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stefangeens.com\/2001-2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stefangeens.com\/2001-2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stefangeens.com\/2001-2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stefangeens.com\/2001-2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stefangeens.com\/2001-2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stefangeens.com\/2001-2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}