Eurovision 2021
As we all know, especially thanks to Mr Grady’s enthusiastic contribution to the newsletter last week, Saturday night played host to the yearly musical extravaganza that is the Eurovision song contest, and what an event it was. Many different styles of music were performed over the course of the evening and several songs had important messages to relay, one of these being Manizha’s ‘Russian Woman’, a powerful letter of feminism, strength, and power. France’s Barbara Pravi also performed a powerful song, emotional ballad ‘Voila’ which, though I didn’t understand a word (Latin and former Spanish student here), I really enjoyed. Some more of my personal favourites included Ukraine’s entry, dark folk song ‘Shum’ by Go_A, and The Roop’s ‘Discoteque’, submitted by Lithuania.
Graham Norton’s commentary, eagerly awaited by some, was on point at times during the evening, such as when he referred to Germany’s… Interesting performance of ‘I don’t feel hate’ as ‘Marmite – if everyone hated Marmite’. However at other moments during the show I would have to disagree with him – the presenter consistently categorised both Italy’s ‘Zitti e buonni’, performed by Maneskin, and Finland’s ‘Dark side’, performed by Blind Channel, as ‘heavy metal’; personally, I would class Blind Channel as alternative, judging by their Bring Me The Horizon/Linkin Park sound, and Maneskin as simply rock.
Misidentified genres aside, Italy managed to win the competition for the third time with 524 points – the UK, however, were hilariously less fortunate. While even the aforementioned ‘I don’t feel hate’ managed to hang onto a handful of points, we came out the other side with a big fat zero - but was this really due to James Newman’s lack of musical ability? Though his vocal ability is unremarkable, I’m sure I’m not the only one who thinks this has something to do with Europe’s political opinion of the UK, particularly following Brexit. Maybe I’m overthinking this – I guess we’ll see if next year’s competition yields similar results.
I don’t usually watch Eurovision but, encouraged by my mum, I thought I’d give it a try this year and found myself really enjoying the show. To those of you who’ve long been invested in the competition, know that you’ve convinced me to join the dark side, and to those who didn’t take part in the fun, think about watching next year – you might be surprised.
By Liv Harrison 10G
