There was the man from Azerbaijan dressed as an angel, singing in castrato, as the feathers of his wings wafted in a fake breeze.The Latvians came tricked out as pirates, complete with skull-and-crossbones headscarves and plastic swords.Spain's competitor was an Elvis on steroids whose lyrics - El Chiki Chiki is a Reaggetton / Dance in Argentina, Serbia and Oregon - set new standards for Euro-daftness.France's heavily bearded chanteur had backup singers sporting identical beards ... and they were female. Ireland's entry wasn't even human. It was a puppet called Dustin the Turkey.As you may know, the Eurovision song contest has hardly been the true benchmark for judging the world's cultural epicentre.Europe gave the globe Mozart, Shakespeare and haute couture. But when it comes to the annual Eurovision, you can expect three chords, coma-inducing lyrics and more camp than a field full of tents.This year's contest, though, has become suddenly as high in drama as it was predictably low in brow.
The win by a bare-chested Russian crooner, Dima Bilan, has sparked all manner of hissy-fits. There is talk of loaded voting, of national prejudice and bias, even of an "Iron Curtain" separating Old Europe, which started up the annual cringefest in 1956, from the newly-democratic upstarts of the Soviet bloc.The accusation is that all the little states that emerged from the breakup of the Soviet Union and the Balkans in the 1990s vote for each other.As a result, out of the last five contests, three have been won by easterners - Ukraine, Serbia and Russia. Western countries that once ruled the Euro-roost, such as France, Britain and Ireland, are ending up with "nul points" on the victory board.Veteran BBC presenter Sir Terry Wogan describes the contest as a "yearly debacle" and says Russia won this year because its neighbours were afraid of it."You have various blocs voting. We've got nobody to vote for us ... The voting used to be about the songs. Now it's about national prejudices."Wogan said it was time for Britain to reconsider its participation in the contest. Germany's sole Eurovision winner, Nicole, who won in 1982, said Germany should pull out. A British Liberal Democrat MP, Richard Younger-Ross, has gone so far as to table a motion in the House of Commons critical of the voting system."It is clear that the voting system is based on countries either supporting their friends or not voting for those they dislike," says Younger-Ross. "The BBC is one of the four main funders of the competition and should withdraw their contribution until a time when there is a fair voting system."
