Love it or loathe it, the Eurovision Song Contest always produces some hilarious commentary from the ever-witty Graham Norton, controversial political voting and, of course, those unforgettable entries.
In amongst the stress of exams, Eurovision is a great way to unwind and enjoy the sillier things in life, especially if you can get a few mates together to laugh your way through several hours of tuneless singing, weird lyrics and, from time to time, bearded women.
This morning, we spent too much time on YouTube to find our all-time favourite Eurovision songs.
Buranovskiye Babushki – “Party For Everybody” (Russia entry, 2012)
Who can resist sweet old grannies, singing out of tune, in stereotypical Russian dress? These six Babushkas – combined age of more than 700 years – sang their way into Europe’s hearts and finished in second place in 2012.
Teo – “Cheesecake” (Belarus entry, 2014)
Anyone who can sing a song seriously with such hilarious lyrics such as: “But I’m not Patrick Swayzee, You’re not Jennifer Gray,” and how their lover called them “my sweet cheesecake” gets our seal of approval. Singer Teo, real name Yuriy Vashchuk, had originally included lyrics about escaping from a woman on Google Maps, but he changed this to “all the maps”.
Lordi – “Hard Rock Hallelujah” (Finland entry, 2006)
Get some ogres from a Lord of the Rings production, and mash them up with some Iron Maiden music, and you get a pretty clear idea about Lordi. Their gruesome outfits, metal music and stunning pyrotechnical effects went down a storm among the Athens crowd and across Europe in 2006. A final total of 292 points remains one of the highest amounts ever achieved in a Eurovision song contest. And it didn’t end there for the rockers. Their song made the top 10 in dozens of European charts.
Verka Serduchka – “Dancing Lasha Tumbai” (Ukraine entry, 2007)
This is Eurovision classic. Catchy naughties-type dance song, bad singing, ridiculous outfits and crazy dance moves make this a clear stereotype of all things bizarre about this competition. The lead singer looks like Elton John in the 80’s with trademark huge specs who’s been caught in a tinfoil dispensing machine. Verka Serduchka almost clinched first place, but were piped to the post by Serbia who were competing for the first time as an independent nation.
Pirates of the Sea – “Wolves of the Sea” (Latvia entry, 2008)
“With a high-high ho and a high-high hey!” is the sing-along chorus of Latvia’s 2008 entry. Technically this is a Swedish song, which Latvia conveniently used and added a humorous nautical spin to. But did you know that Pirates of the Sea’s Aleksandra Kurusova was the winner of the Latvian edition of Strictly Come Dancing (undoubtedly helping with their choreography) while Janis Vaisla was an actual pirate, who had spent two years sailing around the world? Yarr me hearties!
The Eurovision song contest 2015 is in Vienna, May 23, and you can watch it on BBC One from 8pm tomorrow . For more information on Eurovision, visit: www.eurovision.tv
