Irelande Douze Points!

Dustin the Turkey (RTÉ)

You can watch Ireland's entry for this year's Eurovision Song Contest online thanks to RTÉ and YouTube. No really, thank you. And here are the profound lyrics:

Oh, I come from a nation
What knows how to write a song
Oh Europe, where oh where did it all go wrong?

Come on!!!!!!

Irlande douze points

Drag acts and bad acts and Terry Wogan's wig
Mad acts and sad acts, it was Johnny Logan's gig

Shake your feathers and pop your beak
Shake 'em to the west and to the east
Wave Euro hands and Euro feet
Wiggle to the edge of the turkey beat

Irlande douze points
Irlande douze points
Irlande douze points
Do the funky beat

D O E double B L E yeah

Hello Abba, hello Bono, hello Helsinki
Ola Prague, hello sailor, c'est la vie
Auf wiedersehen Mama Mia, and god save the Queen
Bonjour Serbia, good day Austria
You know what I mean?

Shake your feathers and pop your beak
Shake 'em to the west and to the east
Wave Euro hands and Euro feet
Wiggle to the edge of the turkey beat

Shake your feathers and pop your beak
Shake 'em to the west and to the east
Wave Euro hands and Euro feet
Wiggle to the edge of the turkey beat

Irlande douze points
Irlande douze points
Irlande douze points
(and fart!)
Irlande douze points
Irlande douze points
Irlande douze points
Do the funky beat
Come on!!

Give us another chance, we're sorry for Riverdance
Sure Flately he's a yank
And the Danube flows through France
Block voting, shock voting
Give your 12 today
You're all invited to Dublin, Ireland
And we'll party the Shamrock way

Irlande douze points
Irlande douze points
Irlande douze points
Irlande douze points
Irlande douze points
Do the funky beat
Come on!!

Irlande douze points
Irlande douze points

Eastern Europe we love you
Do you like Irish stew?
Or goulash as it is to you?

Shake your feathers

Listen Bulgaria, we love you
Belarus, Georgia, Montenegro,
Moldavia, Albania, Croatia,
Poland, Russia, Ukraine,
Macedonia, love you Turkey
Hungary, Estonia, Slovakia,
Armenia, Bosnia Herzegovina
And don't forget the Swiss!"

Lashes of Ramayanimation

A still from Nina Paley's Sita Sings the Blues

I came across this series of flash animations by Nina Paley today on Google Video and had to post a link to them.

The New York-based animator is producing a musical adaptation of the Ramayana from Sita's perspective, featuring the late 20s jazz songs of Annette Hanshaw and vivid, sharply-drawn figures.

Hanshaw's surviving-men soundtrack and the cartoon's Betty Boop-meets-Samurai Jack visual style is shockingly fitting for telling the ancient tale of princess-napping and monkey-god shenanigans. A revelation!

Singing career breaks

Further to Wednesday's post on the Eurovision Song Contest, BBC News reports today how gravely the competition is taken in the Balkans: not only has Serbia-Montenegro had to withdraw after the controversial reselection of last year's Montenegrin-flag wavers No Name, but Kosovan bands continue to attempt to enter on behalf of neighbouring Albania.

Contrary to the prediction quoted in this week's New Scientist - that Bosnia-Herzegovina's entry from a singer with prewar, pan-Yugoslavian appeal was most likely to win - an April 4 press release from William Hill said Greece was ahead of the rest at 2 to 1... but they did also put the UK down as second favourite.

The Register, in an article last month on the Serbia-Montenegro debacle, reported that Lithuania has already declared themselves the victors with their entry We Are The Winners. Classy.

Something else for the whole continent to consider when voting this year (isn't there enough already?) is that winning artistes may end up representing their people in rather more profound ways.

According to a Yahoo News-cached Kyiv Post article from last week, Ukraine's 2004-winning performer Ruslana has entered Rada - no, not the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art but her country's national parliament - along with other successful celebrity candidates.

She's quoted saying: “I may even consider a break in my singing career.”

Bosnie-Herzégovine... douze points!

An article in this week's New Scientist reports on an analysis of historical voting results in the Eurovision Song Contest.

According to Derek Gatherer's research, and perhaps not too surprisingly for anyone who has sat through the televised event, blocs of nations voting for each other's entries produce clear patterns of winners and losers.

For the record, the New Scientist article says Derek's prediction for the winner of this year's contest in Athens on May 18 & 20 is Bosnia and Herzegovina. The lyrics of their entry, called Layla and sung by the curiously-named Hari Mata Hari, can be read here in both Bosnian and English.

Brokeback Bollywood

An amusing Brokeback Mountain takeoff with a serious message can be downloaded here (~22Mb mpeg).