Literaire Studentenvereniging Flanor

Eurovision. Don’t get me (Iris) started. If you know me even a little bit, you know I’m obsessed with it. I start obsessing in July/Augustus when they have to pick a city for the next edition and will constantly check my sources starting in September for the song releases, which results in me knowing all the songs by heart in February/March (yes, even all the non-English ones). As in pre-corona times, Flanor will be hosting a livestream of the finale in the Graanrepubliek on the 14th of May. Since rehearsals for the semi-finals started this week, I thought I’d explain my obsession a bit. Get ready, get some popcorn, and have fun reading!

It all started in 2009, when Ralf Mackenbach won the Junior Eurovision Song Contest for The Netherlands with his song Click Clack. I just turned 9 and something magical happened. I got the CD of all the 2009 entries for Sinterklaas and by Christmas I knew all the songs by heart. 

In 2012, after Loreen’s win with Euphoria (which changed Eurovision for the better imo), I started getting interested in the Eurovision Song Contest. However, it was only in 2014, when the Common Linnets participated, that I started to get more invested (yes, I’m a fan of Waylon, don’t judge me). After that, I slowly became the hardcore fan I am today. 

It’s hard to explain why I’m actually so obsessed with Eurovision. I don’t know if it’s because of the diversity in music and culture, dancing along with Francesco Gabbani and his gorilla (!) to Occidentali’s Karma (Italy, 2017), Manel Navorro’s high note in the 2017 finale (Spain, look it up, your ears will bleed, but it’ll definitely make you laugh), the EfenTix Ship in 2021 or my dozens of Eurovision crushes starting with Eduard Romanyuta (Moldova, 2015: I was 14 and hormonal, sorry not sorry) continuing with Mikolas Josef (Czech Republic, 2018 and still to this day) and now with… well... you can find out on the 14th.

But in all seriousness, it’s the combination of the cringy, typical Eurovision songs (Karma, Albania, 2021), the funny songs (I don’t feel hate, Germany, 2021 / Give that wolf a banana, Norway, 2022), the slay songs (Fuego, Cyprus, 2018), and just the straight-up good songs (Soldi, Italy, 2019) and performances (My Lucky Day, Moldova, 2018) for me. Maybe even the very “not so political” political context is a good reason to go watch Eurovision, if you know what I mean (Dancing Lasha Tumbai, Ukraine, 2007). 

In the end, Eurovision never fails to bring a smile to my face. Every year I discover new artists I fall in love with, like Madame, Monsieur (France, 2018), Little Big (Russia, 2020), Go_A (Ukraine, 2020 & 2021) and, of course, Måneskin (Italy, 2021, did I say I love them, already?). The week of the semi-finals and finale is my favourite week of the year. It’s my own little party in my head that maybe no one will ever understand, but I don’t care. I love it. 

I could talk for hours about Eurovision, but I’ll keep it at this. If this blog post convinced you to watch Eurovision this year, come to the Graanrepubliek on the 14th of May at 20:30 to watch the finale live with us! You can still sign up here: https://www.flanor.nl/activiteiten/evenementen/eurovisie-songfestival 

(P.s. my Eurovision pet peeves: Madonna; Cyprus and Greece giving each other 12 points; accusing the winners of doing drugs on live television; last-minute translating songs from the native language to English or last-minute changes to songs in general when you already know them by heart.)