Dear all,

Tonight the Eurovision Songcontest was held in the Estonian capital Tallin. It was another great succes of European television broadcasting. Neighbouring country Latvia has won the contest with 176 points. Apart from the fact that this contest is one of the gay highlight events in Europe, the country where the songcontest was held is also a great place to visit.

Estonia is a small country in Northern Europe, close to the Russian city of St.Petersburg, Finland and Latvia. Only 1.4 million people live in this country which has roughly the size of Denmark or the Netherlands.

Tallin is the capital city. It is one of Europe's finest preserved old cities, with enclosing walls, medieval streets and houses, churches.

Although there is not so much nightlife for our kind of people, the "old town" is still very much worth a visit!

Tallin can be reached by air from/via various cities in Europe, notably Frankfurt, Helsinki, London and Stockholm.

(this message is posted in this forum as the songcontest is very popular among European gays, and that event was held in Estonia this year).

Daniel

More info on the songcontest:

http://www.eurovision.tv/

It sounds delightfully trashy!

I hadn't opened the thread in the OMNI forum about it, as I hadn't heard of it before, but wish I'd had the chance to tune in!

My vote goes to Slovenia (http://www.eurovision.tv/en/contestants/slovenia/artist/index.php)

http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttravel_forum/smile.gif

I had never heard of this contest before I saw the link by Droneklax in Omni. While his argument for Slovenia is compelling, I found the Russian's profile (http://www.eurovision.tv/en/contestants/russia/artist/) interesting as well:

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Prime Minister came together in 1999 and were seen as Russia's answer to Western groups like Take That and Boyzone.</font>

Uh huh.

Royalwing - thanks for the information on Estonia.

Well I have to confess getting up at 6 am on a Sunday to watch the live webcast of the contest - growing up gay in Finland kinda does that for you http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttravel_forum/biggrin.gif

Excellent quality live streaming sound & picture, shame about the winning song.

From a purely gay aesthetic point of view, the Russian 'boyband' was a huge disappointment, the guys from Cyprus and the cutie from Austria got my nice-to-look-at-vote http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttravel_forum/wink.gif

I voted (several times) for Slovenia too. The UK gave them 6 points which was one of the highest they got.

Cutest singer of the night award (from my perspective) went to Mr Austria,#.

Stephen

Blair, you might want to take a look at Liberation's hilarious article here (http://www.liberation.com/page.php?Article=29324).

I think those guys from Slovenia had the guts to do it, and for that reason alone they deserved it ! Can you imagine a group of transvestites representing the US in an international contest? !!

Russia was obviously getting my second vote (Russia, ten points; Russie, dix points). They were sooooooo bad.

Anyhow, my love of the second degree is pretty solid (see Libé's article), so I had a great time.


[This message has been edited by Droneklax (edited 05-26-2002).]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">D'ailleurs, on ne résiste pas au plaisir de vous livrer le texte de présentation de la France : «Il paraît que la France est le seul pays au monde où un ouvrier serait capable, au milieu du brouhaha des conversations dans un café, de réciter des poèmes ou citer des classiques.» Autre perle : «Il est fort possible que des hommes d'affaires qui se rencontrent lors d'un colloque préfèrent parler de la recette d'une sauce aux champignons plutôt que des élections.» Un aspect auquel les analystes politiques n'avaient sans doute pas pensé lors de leurs commentaires des résultats du premier tour de la présidentielle.</font>

ROFL! http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttravel_forum/biggrin.gif

Thanks for the link, Dr1K - I am still laughing ("France Gall chantant (déjà) faux Poupée de cire, poupée de son de Gainsbourg"!)

While I am a cunning linguist, I have trouble enough with English. Translation anyone?

Sorry, Comicwoman! Though I don't doubt your linguistic gifts, allow me to explain:

The passage above was taken from the portion of the article in which the journalist discussed (tongue firmly in cheek) the "post cards" used to describe each country. One stated how France is the only country in the world where a factory worker is capable of reciting poetry or discussing the "classics" in the middle of a crowded café. The other described France as a country where it is entirely possible that businessmen at a conference prefer discussing recipes for mushroom sauce rather than current politics (something political analysts must have overlooked during their commentary on the results of the first round of voting in France's recent presidential election).

Thank you for the translation.

So, in watching this thread and the one in omni, it appears that I wasn't too late at the tme, but I am now

Was this broadcast in the U.S.?

robb:

I doubt it.

We had a hoot of a time at a party at a friends house. Slovenia was robbed (no pun intended robb http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttravel_forum/smile.gif )

If you have broad band, suggest you check out the eurovision link above as they have video clips. Must say the Slovenians did give the liveliest performance. And IMHO, La Grèce - Nul Points! They were dreadful!

It was on satellite.

I taped it for a friend, Robb http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttravel_forum/wink.gif. Glad to lend you a copy if you really want to go through the ordeal.

Also, I suspect the Slovenia team used to work for TAROM.


[This message has been edited by Droneklax (edited 05-26-2002).]

I watched this at a gay bar in London (complete with drag queens adding their own comentary to the show) and it was a blast... the audience really got into it and was clearly cheering for Slovenia. It was a shame they didn't win.

Well worth the time to watch this show.