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Eurovision song contest
It's that time of year again: we always watch the Eurovision Song Contest, a peculiar tradition that I find quite irresistible for being a concise presentation of a range of strangeness from around the continent. I have learned not to tackle it entirely sober: this time I fortified my senses by imbibing 20g of vodka and 32g of whisky which amounts to maybe around 2½ UK units. Now I've moved on to tea as I always try to follow alcohol with plenty of other drinks.
This year the acts in the contest are doing quite a lot with the staging. They have fancy screens as backdrop and floor and whatnot and some acts really make the most of them. I am also noticing that a lot of countries are now singing a significant fraction of the song in English even if they also sing in their native language: this mix is perhaps a good strategy to balance national pride against wider popularity.
This year the acts in the contest are doing quite a lot with the staging. They have fancy screens as backdrop and floor and whatnot and some acts really make the most of them. I am also noticing that a lot of countries are now singing a significant fraction of the song in English even if they also sing in their native language: this mix is perhaps a good strategy to balance national pride against wider popularity.