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Eurovision, Chapter One: A Ridiculous Origin Story -- and A Smash Success · Ridiculous History

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Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to
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Speaker 1: the show, fellow Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so
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Speaker 1: much for tuning in. Let's hear it for the man,
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Speaker 1: the myth our super producer Max Uh think about things, Williams.
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Speaker 2: What what? What? What? What? Max? The more you know Williams. Wait, No, Ben,
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Speaker 2: you were referencing a Doddy FREYERTI oh, yes, our Dotti
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Speaker 2: from the Nordic climbs of Iceland. Way No, Iceland's the
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Speaker 2: Green One, Greenland's the Cold One.
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Speaker 1: Ah Yes, classic bait and switch. I am Ben bowling
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Speaker 1: for the purposes of this show, that is, mister Noel Brown.
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Speaker 1: We are talking about something as very exciting for us
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Speaker 1: and may well end up being a two part series. Guys, Guys, Eurovision.
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Speaker 2: Is this like a special pair of glasses that makes
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Speaker 2: everyone look like they're eating bars of chocolate and smoking cigarettes?
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Speaker 1: I mean, I think I think we're still in the
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Speaker 1: brainstorming phase. That's pretty cool.
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Speaker 2: I like that, bitch.
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Speaker 1: We also know it as the Eurovision Song Contest.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, folks stateside who maybe aren't familiar and maybe the
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Speaker 2: closest analog over here might be something in the neighborhood
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Speaker 2: of American Idol, a talent show extravaganza featuring performances by
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Speaker 2: various artists, in this case singing original songs, and then
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Speaker 2: they are judged. But I believe in euro Vision, man,
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Speaker 2: it is a much more of a democratic process rather
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Speaker 2: than Simon Cowell or Randy what's his face just telling
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Speaker 2: you he's not feeling a dog.
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Speaker 1: Oh. Democratic, What an interesting word to use for this.
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Speaker 1: Also known as the Colkus Revision de la Chanceon, it's
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Speaker 1: a huge deal across the pond. Almost every year since
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Speaker 1: nineteen fifty six, various countries, not all of which are
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Speaker 1: in Europe, submit an original song that is supposed to
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Speaker 1: represent their culture, and it has performed and broadcast live
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Speaker 1: via the Eurovision and euro Radio networks. Noel, this thing
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Speaker 1: is nuts. It is way before the autre spectacles of
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Speaker 1: American performance shows like The Voice or America's Got Talent
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Speaker 1: or that other one you mentioned, what was that.
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Speaker 2: Again, American Idol, which I've always found funny. The idea
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Speaker 2: of a pop idol, it just seems very inherently sacrilegious,
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Speaker 2: especially being that we are such a you know, a
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Speaker 2: religious country these days. We're not supposed to worship idols right.
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Speaker 1: Right now, Far before these American performance shows, Eurovision brought
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Speaker 1: this stunning, electric, occasionally downright bizarre music to the masses,
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Speaker 1: and we're going to argue that it has gone far
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Speaker 1: beyond your typical songwriting or talent show.
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Speaker 2: Now.
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Speaker 1: It is an acknowledged example of what we call soft diplomacy.
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Speaker 2: Soft diplomacy. Indeed, it is a way of reaching across
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Speaker 2: geographical and ideological barriers in order to you know, mend
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Speaker 2: fences and to make peace, not war, at least in theory.
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Speaker 1: In theory, in theory, right yeah, just like communism. It's
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Speaker 1: great and let's get into it. While Eurovision officially launched
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Speaker 1: way back in nineteen fifty six, we can argue the
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Speaker 1: real story begins a few years earlier in son Remo,
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Speaker 1: Italy or son Remo Italy if you want to be that.
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Speaker 2: Guy about it.
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Speaker 1: That is the home of the son Remo Musical Festival
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Speaker 1: or music festival.
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Speaker 2: I do love a good music band ben the San
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Speaker 2: Ramo Music Festival. The first edition of this fest in
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Speaker 2: San Ramo, Italy was held between the twenty ninth and
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Speaker 2: thirty first of January in nineteen fifty one, and ever
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Speaker 2: since then it has happened more or less every single year,
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Speaker 2: making it the longest running annual television music competitions and
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Speaker 2: one of the longest running TV programs overall in the world.
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Speaker 1: Isn't that crazy?
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Speaker 2: It's pretty cool, man, I think it's pretty Italians did
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Speaker 2: it first.
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Speaker 1: The Italians. Italians do it better, it in a more
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Speaker 1: stylish way. The Italian contest highlights composers rather than singers themselves,
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Speaker 1: and it captivated regional audiences. It also inspired a ton
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Speaker 1: of people in the media landscape, especially a guy named
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Speaker 1: Marcel Besencolt. He's a Swiss journalist. He's a medium mogle,
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Speaker 1: he's top brass. He's the director of the European Broadcasting
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Speaker 1: Union between nineteen fifty four and nineteen seventy, so he's
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Speaker 1: kind of liked their Lorne Michaels.
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Speaker 2: Well, it's interesting, Ben, because the idea of the early
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Speaker 2: versions of what we're talking about today featuring composers makes
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Speaker 2: a whole lot of sense. In the fifties, especially in Europe,
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Speaker 2: but even in the United States. I mean, composers were
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Speaker 2: kind of the first rock stars, kind of the first
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Speaker 2: pop stars, and classical music, even contemporary classical music was
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Speaker 2: you know, occupying a similar space to what we think
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Speaker 2: of today, as you know the top forty hits. Right,
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Speaker 2: oh yeah, just so, And if.
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Speaker 3: I can jump in here real quick, I've just gone
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Speaker 3: down a rabbit hole recently watching old Simpson's clips and
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Speaker 3: it's really enjoyablecause you remember how great the show is.
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Speaker 3: And there's one from like I guess it was like
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Speaker 3: they saw spinal Tap play and there's a riot afterwards,
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Speaker 3: and the Natives reporter Ken Brockman's like, so, like, you know,
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Speaker 3: here's my two cents on this is rock concert. Why
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Speaker 3: we have riots? No, people were rioting from mostart back
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Speaker 3: in the day. So my solution, let's ban all music.
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Speaker 2: Right classic Ken, He walked down the street for that one.
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Speaker 2: But I mean no, he's referencing, of course, the riots
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Speaker 2: that took place like during the Rights of Spring by Stravinsky,
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Speaker 2: which was famously such an alarmingly ooh tree, an outlandish
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Speaker 2: piece of modern classical music that went against all of
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Speaker 2: the kind of traditional standards that people were used to
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Speaker 2: for classical music, like atonality and having a lot more
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Speaker 2: dissonance and you know, just kind of aggressive, you know,
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Speaker 2: music that also had some pretty aggressive dancing that went
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Speaker 2: along with it. It did lead to riots when it
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Speaker 2: was premiered.
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Speaker 1: Right, it also calls to mind the phenomenon of Listomania.
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Speaker 1: Shout out to Phoenix another Europe France and in nineteen
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Speaker 1: fifty four, the year hour Pal Marcel becomes the director
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Speaker 1: of the European Broadcasting Union. He arrives at this new
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Speaker 1: position with a preloaded pitch. He says, why not take
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Speaker 1: what they're doing at San Remo and go bigger with it? Now,
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Speaker 1: to Marcel, this has a huge profit motivation because if
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Speaker 1: they can make a show like What's happening in Italy
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Speaker 1: and they can broadcast it throughout Europe, then they're going
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Speaker 1: to save a lot of money because now they have
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Speaker 1: the same program right, so that they don't have to
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Speaker 1: pay extra one per one. They just have to send
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Speaker 1: this thing out to wherever they can. And he also
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Speaker 1: he got a little bit on a soapbox about this,
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Speaker 1: and he was saying, hey, guys, we're gonna make a
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Speaker 1: lot of money, We're gonna save a lot of money.
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Speaker 1: But this is more than a neat television program. This
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Speaker 1: is a way for us to unite the nations of
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Speaker 1: post war Europe again. Nineteen fifty four. Right, so World
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Speaker 1: War two has already happened. But we need to keep
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Speaker 1: in mind that even a decade pasted the end of
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Speaker 1: World War Two, Europe was still pretty much wrecked. Like
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Speaker 1: it was not ideal, No, no, it was definitely a yeah.
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Speaker 1: When they say post war, they get it was in
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Speaker 1: the shambles. The infrastructure was, you know, very very significantly.
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Speaker 2: Damaged, as was morale. So people needed something, you know,
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Speaker 2: something peppy enough beat to focus on, and something that
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Speaker 2: could potentially unite the different countries in Europe that maybe
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Speaker 2: had some beef with one another. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
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Speaker 1: We have to recall that unlike the United States, which
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Speaker 1: managed to preserve the vast majority of its infrastructure and economy,
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Speaker 1: the Great War of World War Two left a lot
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Speaker 1: of Europe just absolutely wrecked and demolished. People are still
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Speaker 1: trying to rebuild by the mid nineteen fifties. And there
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Speaker 1: are countries that have been enemies during the war. There
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Speaker 1: are countries that had also historically been dixed to each
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Speaker 1: other for centuries before. It's not as if an official
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Speaker 1: peace treaty he suddenly made all these folks BFFs.
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Speaker 2: No, No, absolutely not. And a lot of these simmering resentments,
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Speaker 2: of course, remained, and what better to get some folks
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Speaker 2: to simmer down from some of those resentments than to
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Speaker 2: unite them through song. At least that's what Marcel was thinking.
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Speaker 2: He was looking at this situation as a kind of
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Speaker 2: win win. There's a lot of power in unifying people
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Speaker 2: through the shared love of music. And of course he
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Speaker 2: was not blind to the potential profits that there were
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Speaker 2: to make bling.
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Speaker 1: Bling every time time I come around your city. Right,
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Speaker 1: So the first official Eurovision conte Oh spoiler, Marcel's plan works.
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Speaker 1: So the first official Eurovision contest takes place on May
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Speaker 1: twenty fourth in Switzerland in nineteen fifty six. And this
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Speaker 1: is historic for multiple reasons, the chief of which is
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Speaker 1: that it was one of the earliest attempts in all
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Speaker 1: of history to broadcast a live, televised event to a
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Speaker 1: huge international market. Now, this is not the Eurovision that
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Speaker 1: you're going to see in twenty twenty seven or anything
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Speaker 1: like that. There were only a few countries that took
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Speaker 1: part in the contest. Nol And there's some of our favorites.
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Speaker 1: There's Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg. What are you guys
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Speaker 1: doing the scamps, the Netherlands and swits Ridge, I know,
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Speaker 1: right also, but we got to think about this. Nineteen
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Speaker 1: fifty six Germany like the main bad guys of World
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Speaker 1: War two.
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Speaker 2: Bad they were the baddies.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, and now they're going, well, let's see if Vickan
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Speaker 1: sing a song, they can.
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Speaker 2: Yeah. The journal has a lovely, lovely tradition of song.
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Speaker 2: So the first.
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Speaker 1: Edition again is so different from the spectacle we know today.
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Speaker 1: You could not have a musical group. So if Max
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Speaker 1: mill yours truly and all our fellow ridiculous historians to
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Speaker 1: get together and we have a banger song representing the Netherlands,
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Speaker 1: they're not going to let us in. It can only
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Speaker 1: be for the first year a single singer. The song
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Speaker 1: cannot be longer than three and a half minutes. And
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Speaker 1: as sort of a fig leaf for an olive branch,
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Speaker 1: you get a twenty four piece orchestra accompanying you. You
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Speaker 1: also get two chances. You get two chances.
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Speaker 2: Yeah. This is also back in the day where like
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Speaker 2: you know, you had symphony orchestras associated with different broadcast
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Speaker 2: companies and you know, like the RCA Radio Orchestra, and
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Speaker 2: so much of this stuff was performed live, and again,
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Speaker 2: we are still very much in the heyday of classical
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Speaker 2: music being king, you know, and I mean a lot
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Speaker 2: of times like these pop songs or early sort of
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Speaker 2: proto versions of pop songs were kind of looked down upon.
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Speaker 2: So we're starting to kind of see a combination of
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Speaker 2: those things, and we're starting to see the earliest emergence
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Speaker 2: of the singer songwriters solo pop kind of persona.
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Speaker 1: Sure. Yeah, again, the demi gods, the idols. Right in
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Speaker 1: a secular world where you know, spirits and gods are
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Speaker 1: not necessarily real, what do you worship celebrities? They took
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Speaker 1: that position in society. You also in your nineteen fifty
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Speaker 1: six inaugural Eurovision and uh, you get to submit as
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Speaker 1: a country two songs, but they don't have to be
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Speaker 1: performed by the same artists. So I could have Max
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Speaker 1: Vogan Flu name I made up for you, Max, especially.
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Speaker 3: Maxic that actually birth names so low.
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Speaker 2: But you know what, good eye you buddy, So.
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Speaker 1: We could have You're welcome buckeroo, we could have we
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Speaker 1: could have Vogan Flu do uh two songs by himself
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Speaker 1: with the orchestra, or we could have Max do one
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Speaker 1: song and then we could pull another you know, up
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Speaker 1: and comer uh to a second song. And the contestants
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Speaker 1: originally get evaluated by a bunch of reps from these
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Speaker 1: different countries, and they give you points for each performance.
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Speaker 1: Each country sends two jury members over to watch the
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Speaker 1: show in Switzerland and they cast their votes in secret. Noel,
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Speaker 1: but it's super biased.
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Speaker 2: For sure. And I'd love to just correct a statement
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Speaker 2: that I made earlier. Less than the American Idol heads
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Speaker 2: out there are yelling at their podcast device, there is,
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Speaker 2: of course a voting, a viewer voting component to American Idol.
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Speaker 2: I made it sound like it was all about Randy
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Speaker 2: and Simon and you know whatever, Paula, you know, make
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Speaker 2: him the call. Ultimately, they are the ones that call
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Speaker 2: the herd, let's just say, you know, and they're the
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Speaker 2: ones that are kicking folks to the curb who don't
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Speaker 2: have what it takes to make the finals. Once we
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Speaker 2: have that you know, crew assembled of the finalists, then
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Speaker 2: I believe every episode involves in the ability to vote
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Speaker 2: from home.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, to jump in here, since we're talking about American Idol,
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Speaker 3: can y'all. You know, they just revived American Idol, can y'all,
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Speaker 3: name the judges. Hell, no, no, Carrie Underwood, Luke Bryan
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Speaker 3: and Lionel Ritchie.
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Speaker 2: They're both country people two thirds of the country, folks.
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Speaker 1: Is that a real name?
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Speaker 2: Luke Bryan is a is a famous country singer? On purpose? Huh?
15:08
Speaker 2: On purpose?
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Speaker 1: Oh cool?
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Speaker 2: Lionel Richie, though I've not this is no, no, that's
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Speaker 2: I don't have the greatest confidence in this paneling judges. Guys.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, he's been He's been doing a lot of stuff
15:20
Speaker 1: as young Lionel.
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Speaker 2: It just it just feels like a bit of a
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Speaker 2: half hearted reboot, is what I'm getting at.
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Speaker 3: I mean, Ryan Seacrest is still there. And I don't
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Speaker 3: know how I've told you all this, but I I
15:32
Speaker 3: graduated from the same high school that Ryan Seacrest went to.
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Speaker 2: That's like he's our co he's our coworker by they.
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Speaker 3: Technically technically yeah, that's like, that's like my high school's
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Speaker 3: like one claim to fame they have. At least when
15:44
Speaker 3: I was there, they had football jersey up in the
15:46
Speaker 3: lot in the weight room, people like when you played football,
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Speaker 3: and like, yeah, I honestly think he was the kicker.
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Speaker 2: He is a handsome man with the gift of gab
15:54
Speaker 2: and it's uh, it's cool.
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Speaker 1: To find success in entertainment, it's difficult. So in nineteen
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Speaker 1: fifty six, these seven participating countries and their broadcast arms.
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Speaker 1: They're saying, we're going to cast our votes. We're going
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Speaker 1: to cast our votes in secret. So at this point
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Speaker 1: the audience is not chiming in even though this is
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Speaker 1: a televised event. And get this, our lovable scamps over
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Speaker 1: in Luxembourg are not able to make it to the show.
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Speaker 1: I think they were too rich or something with their scheduling.
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Speaker 1: So their friends, the Swiss representatives, voted on Luxembourg's behalf.
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Speaker 1: This was very much a biased affair because these jury
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Speaker 1: members were allowed to vote for their own entries. And
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Speaker 1: as a result of this, there is a conspiracy see
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Speaker 1: that begins in the very first year of Eurovision. People
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Speaker 1: still wonder how the votes went, how they should have gone.
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Speaker 1: Was the voting rigged the winner was?
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Speaker 2: Yeah, a question that's kinda continue and to the president.
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Speaker 2: We're gonna get to that in part two of this series.
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Speaker 2: But Ben, what was the issue up front? They're already
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Speaker 2: having scandal. It's literally year one of Eurovision and there's
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Speaker 2: already a problem with this whole idea of soft diplomacy
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Speaker 2: through song.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, exactly. So hypothetically, think of it this way.
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Speaker 1: We have a country named, in a burst of humility, Benvania, right,
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Speaker 1: and the country of Benvania sends its top brass, its
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Speaker 1: best and brightest.
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Speaker 2: It's envoy.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, the two envoys, Noel von Brown and Max
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Speaker 1: what was that name? What was your birth name? Again
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Speaker 1: it's lost to history. Okay, Well, it sends these two
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Speaker 1: guys to vote on Eurovision, but there's nothing stopping them
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Speaker 1: from saying, we're gonna vote Benvania and we're going to
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Speaker 1: screw up the whole election. Either way, Switzerland wins the
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Speaker 1: first one.
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Speaker 2: Ah, the Swiss.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, the host country as well.
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Speaker 2: Ghost country. Aren't they traditionally kind of known as being
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Speaker 2: diplomatically neutral, Yes, they are the neutral country. Issues come
18:36
Speaker 2: up already challenging that neutrality. It seems that there's what's
18:39
Speaker 2: the opposite of neutrality, bias? Yeah, a little bit of that. Yeah,
18:43
Speaker 2: well put.
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Speaker 1: The first winner of Eurovision is now known as the
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Speaker 1: ground Dome of Eurovision, lis Acia. She performed two songs
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Speaker 1: for Switzerland. One was called the Old Carousel. It is
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Speaker 1: a German language and Noel, could you do me a
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Speaker 1: favor and help us out with the pronunciation?
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Speaker 2: Ah Ben, you honor me with the opportunity to pronounce
19:06
Speaker 2: something in my native tongue. As you know, I was
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Speaker 2: once a small German boy. The old carousel or does
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Speaker 2: alta carousel? Okay, cahoussell, Let's see if we can find
19:17
Speaker 2: a clip.
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Speaker 1: Yeah yeah yeah. Also, while you're looking for the clip, King,
19:20
Speaker 1: give us that German one more time. But if you
19:23
Speaker 1: can more emphatic.
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Speaker 2: Oh man, thank you so much for the second opportunity
19:30
Speaker 2: to overpronounce something in my native tongue. As you know,
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Speaker 2: I was once a German boy. That's alta cows clip.
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Speaker 2: Let's roll the clip. We got it, We got it,
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Speaker 2: guys by Liz already see how this is like much
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Speaker 2: more like a classical piece.
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Speaker 1: Definitely sounds yeah, it definitely sounds like. There's twenty four
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Speaker 1: people in the orchestra.
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Speaker 4: N s ferchib.
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Speaker 1: So this is again, as you said, No, this is
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Speaker 1: dos alte Carousel, the old Carousel. This is one of
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Speaker 1: the two songs that the Grand Dame of Eurovision submits,
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Speaker 1: but it is not the one that wins the day.
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Speaker 1: Her winning entry is a song in the French language,
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Speaker 1: because you know German and French or common languages in Switzerland.
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Speaker 1: This is a ballad called refrain, So let's play a
20:59
Speaker 1: little bit of that.
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Speaker 2: That one, isn't that a little redundant? Is about like refrain.
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Speaker 2: It just refers to like the chorus. I think that's
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Speaker 2: so funny. Let's see if we can find.
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Speaker 1: Here we go, same guys in the orchestra, y'all.
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Speaker 2: I can see why this one won the day though,
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Speaker 2: because it's a lot more upbeat. That last one was
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Speaker 2: kind of a bummer, a little bit of a you know,
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Speaker 2: like a wistful, you know, reflection on the past. This
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Speaker 2: one kind of bops. Yeah, it's a little sweeter, hotjazz,
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Speaker 2: whatever the ear version of mouthfeel is. You know, it's
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Speaker 2: a little nicer. And then from there Eurovision is off
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Speaker 2: to the races, or in this case, the microphone. More
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Speaker 2: and more countries are becoming involved with the show from
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Speaker 2: nineteen fifty six and the format kept changing. Right now,
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Speaker 2: over forty countries compete, and so the show involves a
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Speaker 2: lot of knockout rounds or semi finals we could call them,
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Speaker 2: before the finals night occurs. The final night, as we
22:22
Speaker 2: can tell you because we have been watching a lot
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Speaker 2: of Eurovision. The final night is pretty long. It's twenty
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Speaker 2: six acts at no more than three minutes each. Getting
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Speaker 2: a shot on stage can be complicated, but luckily the
22:39
Speaker 2: rules to qualify for your performance are pretty simple. They've
22:43
Speaker 2: got five rules, and they break the fifth one all
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Speaker 2: the time. They sure do, Ben, they sure do. Here
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Speaker 2: we go. Rule number one is it must be a
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Speaker 2: new song tune, the musical composition and the lyrical content
23:05
Speaker 2: the libretto right.
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Speaker 1: Right, So sorry, Estonia, Norway, there's no death metal version
23:12
Speaker 1: of Mary had a little lamb that you can pull off. Yeah, no,
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Speaker 1: that'd be fun though.
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Speaker 2: And can I just add to that, we're not gonna
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Speaker 2: play clips throughout this entire series. I think it was
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Speaker 2: important that we were able to kind of show you
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Speaker 2: how it progresses a little bit with some of these
23:26
Speaker 2: vintage clips. But of course this would get closer and
23:28
Speaker 2: closer to the modern day. We're gonna be hit with
23:30
Speaker 2: copyright strikes, so we're gonna do our best to demonstrate
23:33
Speaker 2: some of the evolution without you know, playing too too
23:36
Speaker 2: many clips.
23:37
Speaker 1: Maybe with some bad impressions. Everybody tune in. Also funny, Yeah,
23:42
Speaker 1: The second rule sacer sanct is that your performance must
23:46
Speaker 1: be no longer than three minutes.
23:50
Speaker 2: And I will die on this hill. No good pop
23:52
Speaker 2: song worth its salt should be and movies should be
23:56
Speaker 2: no more than one point five hours. WHOA, really, I'm
23:59
Speaker 2: just kidding, but like you know, I do love you know, brevity, man, brevity, brevity,
24:04
Speaker 2: so the soul of wit.
24:06
Speaker 3: I was talking to my dad about two thousand and
24:08
Speaker 3: one of Space House and I'm like, Dad, you know
24:09
Speaker 3: it's like fifteen movies, it's like forty eight hours longest.
24:12
Speaker 3: Like it's not my voice four hours longest.
24:14
Speaker 2: Well, that it is. Yes.
24:16
Speaker 1: I remember when Gettysburg, the not the Battle, the film
24:22
Speaker 1: based on the battle, was out in theaters and they
24:25
Speaker 1: had an intermission and I thought we could leave, but
24:29
Speaker 1: my creepy family made me stay.
24:31
Speaker 2: Oh man, I do remember the good old days where
24:34
Speaker 2: movies like that of that length had to be served
24:37
Speaker 2: up to you on two rubber banded VHS tapes that
24:40
Speaker 2: would like flop together. That's right.
24:42
Speaker 1: Oh did I ever tell you guys? My first time
24:45
Speaker 1: seeing The Godfather's series was through VHS tape and it
24:52
Speaker 1: was it was exactly what you're describing, Nol. This was
24:56
Speaker 1: blockbuster for anybody who was also old at last video. Yeah,
25:00
Speaker 1: and they had the two VHS tapes and of rubber
25:03
Speaker 1: banded together, but they put the tapes in the wrong order.
25:07
Speaker 1: So I'm watching this, I'm thinking, whoa, this is so nonlinear.
25:11
Speaker 1: This is groundbreaking, crazy artistry in the forefront. What's going
25:17
Speaker 1: to happen has already happened. And then later one of
25:21
Speaker 1: my friends said, hey, man, you know they have a
25:26
Speaker 1: little sticker on the tapes. One one says number one
25:30
Speaker 1: and the other says number two.
25:31
Speaker 2: It's sad that we're not going to make that kind
25:34
Speaker 2: of mistake so much anymore, you know. In the well, actually,
25:37
Speaker 2: that's not true. I have accidentally started watching the last
25:40
Speaker 2: episode of a series on streaming before and not understand
25:44
Speaker 2: that that's what was happening, And then also had a
25:46
Speaker 2: similar thought, whoa, this is wild. They're just dropping me
25:49
Speaker 2: in and Minie Rres I'm supposed to like, No, I
25:51
Speaker 2: don't know this is I'm here for it, but I
25:53
Speaker 2: have I have spoiled a handful of series for myself
25:56
Speaker 2: that way. Where are we at with rules?
25:59
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, the main thing is, just like podcasting, you
26:03
Speaker 1: cannot do lip syncing, so vast apologies to Kid Rock.
26:09
Speaker 1: All the song shots fired, Brosby sung live, Oh No,
26:13
Speaker 1: you're right, performed live. I wouldn't call what he does singing.
26:18
Speaker 2: No, my god, Ben, who hurt you? Was it? Kid Rock?
26:21
Speaker 2: Where is Kid?
26:22
Speaker 1: Where is Kid? He's definitely not at Eurovision because no
26:26
Speaker 1: lip syncing is allowed and no are tripling. Our fourth
26:31
Speaker 1: rule is our fourth rule is I think probably? I
26:39
Speaker 1: think it's an apology to the backstage production.
26:42
Speaker 2: I get it. And this is also the kind of
26:44
Speaker 2: thing that could evolves as a show, and a production
26:47
Speaker 2: like this evolves because as we know, of course, big
26:51
Speaker 2: you know, singing groups, boy bands, girl groups, things like
26:54
Speaker 2: that became very in vogue. But initially they had the
26:57
Speaker 2: rule of no more than six people on stage, which
27:00
Speaker 2: seemed to beat to your point, Ben, a way of
27:02
Speaker 2: mitigating chaos and nightmarish you know, changeovers between sets.
27:08
Speaker 1: And this brings us to the number five rule, the
27:13
Speaker 1: most important one, which is also the slipperiest and also
27:17
Speaker 1: the rule that is most broken most years. No politics.
27:24
Speaker 1: All right, So if we're Chechia, or if we're hungry,
27:29
Speaker 1: or the United Kingdom or Israel, which we'll get to
27:31
Speaker 1: in part two, then your stuff is supposed to be
27:35
Speaker 1: a political It's just supposed to be a cool bop
27:38
Speaker 1: that is not more than three minutes long.
27:41
Speaker 2: I mean, let's be real, man, this is an unrealistic
27:44
Speaker 2: and unreasonable expectation for a competition that was started with
27:50
Speaker 2: the acknowledgment that these countries, many of which did not
27:54
Speaker 2: like each other, were meant to compete together. You know
27:57
Speaker 2: what I mean. I get the sentiments. Heart is in
28:01
Speaker 2: the right place, but it's also a little bit pie
28:04
Speaker 2: in the sky. So while Eurovision was always intended to
28:07
Speaker 2: be a political there have been many scandals and trends
28:14
Speaker 2: towards political voting, where countries vote for their neighbors and
28:18
Speaker 2: shun nations that they'd had issues within the past. This
28:22
Speaker 2: has been combated to a certain degree by introducing more
28:25
Speaker 2: national juries who have their professional judgment added in with
28:28
Speaker 2: the public vote. But let's be real, man, Whenever there's
28:32
Speaker 2: voting involvement, it's called voting. If politics baby.
28:36
Speaker 1: Right, exactly, Yeah, it's called voting. I love that, actually, Max,
28:42
Speaker 1: Can you do me a favor and play that back
28:44
Speaker 1: as a clip of Noel saying that nol, I'm going
28:46
Speaker 1: to make you hear yourself.
28:48
Speaker 2: It's called voting.
28:50
Speaker 1: It's called voting brilliant exactly.
28:53
Speaker 2: Yeah, I coined the term, by the way.
29:02
Speaker 1: And so with that, folks, we have to tell you
29:05
Speaker 1: a little bit about how Eurovision works now and with
29:10
Speaker 1: great affection, with profound love, we want you to know
29:16
Speaker 1: this is kind of ridiculous. So every country that participates
29:21
Speaker 1: in Eurovision has their own sort of bush league or
29:25
Speaker 1: farm league selection process. That's how they choose one original song,
29:30
Speaker 1: one act. It can take a couple of different forms,
29:33
Speaker 1: like there may be regionally or nationally known artist who
29:39
Speaker 1: gets approached by that country's government and that government says, hey,
29:44
Speaker 1: you're the you know, you're the hottest ticket in Romania.
29:48
Speaker 1: You should sing your song that you did earlier. That'll
29:52
Speaker 1: represent us in Eurovision. Or it might be the next
29:55
Speaker 1: step for an artist who wins their country's own song compy,
30:00
Speaker 1: because a lot of them have them at this point.
30:02
Speaker 1: So for example, if you are Italian and you win
30:06
Speaker 1: the San Remo Music Festival, you get what we call
30:09
Speaker 1: the first right of refusal to participate in Eurovision.
30:15
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I mean, obviously it's a great honor to
30:17
Speaker 2: be asked, but and most people would, of course, you know,
30:21
Speaker 2: jump at the chance to represent their country in Eurovision,
30:25
Speaker 2: but it also doesn't necessarily mean like it's not the
30:30
Speaker 2: same as American Idol in this respect, American Idol is
30:33
Speaker 2: about kind of being an unknown and then being elevated
30:37
Speaker 2: to pop star status, whereas Eurovision the varying degrees of fame,
30:44
Speaker 2: of pre existing fame. They are kind of pre existing
30:47
Speaker 2: acts or groups that are then seen as a representative
30:50
Speaker 2: of that particular nation, and they may well be incredibly popular,
30:54
Speaker 2: but typically that popularity would not extend far beyond the
30:58
Speaker 2: borders of that particuleicular country.
31:01
Speaker 1: Right, you got to have your stripes at least for
31:03
Speaker 1: your country.
31:04
Speaker 2: We're going to get into some of our personal favorites
31:06
Speaker 2: as well. Yeah, some that we've actually seen.
31:08
Speaker 1: Live, similar to the Olympics, which is kind of what
31:13
Speaker 1: this is. You might not be the best poll vaulter
31:18
Speaker 1: in the world yet, but you kind of have to
31:21
Speaker 1: be the best poll vaulter in Poland to get into.
31:25
Speaker 2: Where all good pole vaulters come from. It's right there
31:27
Speaker 2: in the name.
31:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, yep, yep, they do call it Poland. So the
31:32
Speaker 1: composition of the act has also evolved. It's much broader
31:36
Speaker 1: than it was originally. So as we said the first
31:39
Speaker 1: contest they only have solo artists. The next year, nineteen
31:44
Speaker 1: fifty seven, they allow duos. They get a little you know,
31:47
Speaker 1: Simon and Garfunkel with it, and they continually open the
31:51
Speaker 1: door to more and more types of acts. So today
31:55
Speaker 1: you might see a solo singer, you might see a band,
31:58
Speaker 1: You might see a nominal dancing turkey puppet, which weirdly enough,
32:04
Speaker 1: was from Ireland. I wish we could play a clip,
32:09
Speaker 1: but it's not going to translate to audio.
32:11
Speaker 2: No, Now that's weird, though I don't really think of
32:13
Speaker 2: Ireland as being the land of dancing turkeys.
32:16
Speaker 1: You got to check out the show Man and so
32:19
Speaker 1: the only real rules that hold are a song must
32:22
Speaker 1: be brand new, it must be under three minutes, it
32:25
Speaker 1: has to be sung live on stage. After that, it's
32:29
Speaker 1: all about spectacle, creativity, showmanship.
32:33
Speaker 2: May we say or may I say? And you may
32:35
Speaker 2: feel free to agree or disagree with me, Ben and Max,
32:38
Speaker 2: But I think the live stand component is so cool
32:41
Speaker 2: and so unique, even to this day, where we have
32:44
Speaker 2: had a lot made out of another incredibly popular music
32:50
Speaker 2: show out of Europe called Top of the Pops, oh
32:53
Speaker 2: where famously it's great but famously all the band's lip
32:57
Speaker 2: sync because of the logistics of the production and if
33:01
Speaker 2: you're interested in checking out some folks kind of pushing
33:03
Speaker 2: back against that. There is an incredible performance of Nirvana
33:07
Speaker 2: on Top of the Pops where like he just I
33:10
Speaker 2: think Kurt is just like pretending to play guitar, like,
33:14
Speaker 2: oh my god, he's got like he's like a straight
33:16
Speaker 2: hand while strumming the guitar and just kind of like
33:19
Speaker 2: basically is just saying blah blah blah and marble mouth
33:22
Speaker 2: mumbling kind of to the to the playback of smells
33:26
Speaker 2: like teen Spirits. So the live singing aspect is super
33:30
Speaker 2: important and relatively rare for live music television shows in Europe.
33:36
Speaker 1: Now you can have a backing band. At this point,
33:39
Speaker 1: the twenty four piece orchestra is gone.
33:42
Speaker 2: Yeah you can. You can have that.
33:43
Speaker 1: You could have backing you could have a backing track
33:46
Speaker 1: back in track pop Star, but you will have to
33:50
Speaker 1: actually be singing. And I also want to give a
33:52
Speaker 1: shout out to the Jules Holland show. Do you guys
33:55
Speaker 1: remember him?
33:56
Speaker 2: Incredible, incredible, some fabulous performances. It's called Late Night with
34:01
Speaker 2: Later with Jules Holland. Late it's not on. Yeah, it's
34:05
Speaker 2: called Later with Jules Holland, and you can see incredible
34:10
Speaker 2: performances of bands from the nineties, I think up through
34:14
Speaker 2: the two thousand. The Sun is really really fabulous and
34:17
Speaker 2: they are incredibly well produced and entirely live. Jules Holland
34:24
Speaker 2: himself was actually a weird sort of niche pop artist
34:28
Speaker 2: in the UK. He's a piano player. And there is
34:31
Speaker 2: a pretty interesting film, a music film called erg a
34:34
Speaker 2: Music War, which highlights a couple of interesting scenes in
34:39
Speaker 2: the eighties, one from Los Angeles and one from London
34:42
Speaker 2: where you've got bands like the Dead Milkman, Oingo Bueno
34:45
Speaker 2: featuring Danny Elfman, who of course went on to become
34:47
Speaker 2: a super famous film composer, and Jules Holland is featured
34:50
Speaker 2: in that as well. So yeah, there's an incredible tradition
34:54
Speaker 2: of music performance shows and the music and art documentary
35:00
Speaker 2: trees that are produced. A lot of these things you
35:01
Speaker 2: can find on YouTube, but just had to make the
35:03
Speaker 2: Top of the Pops comparison. How some of these music shows,
35:07
Speaker 2: because of production logistics, did not allow for actual live performance.
35:12
Speaker 2: So it's a pretty big deal that from its earliest
35:14
Speaker 2: days where production technology wasn't nearly where it got to.
35:20
Speaker 2: Eurovision was all about that live element.
35:22
Speaker 1: And Eurovision when it reaches its apex every year, it
35:28
Speaker 1: takes place over three big nights. The thing is a
35:32
Speaker 1: lot of work goes into selecting those songs in advance,
35:36
Speaker 1: so well before those three nights, countries will randomly draw
35:42
Speaker 1: lots to determine which semi final they are in, and
35:46
Speaker 1: then which half of that semi final they are in.
35:50
Speaker 1: From there, it all goes to our producers, our showrunners.
35:54
Speaker 1: They arrange the acts in the way that they feel
35:59
Speaker 1: has the best pay you know what I mean. So
36:01
Speaker 1: they don't want to really slow solo singer ballads one
36:07
Speaker 1: after the other. Right, they want to paste it out.
36:10
Speaker 1: They want to put in their dancing Turkey puppet to
36:13
Speaker 1: liven things up. So you might be Ireland and you
36:16
Speaker 1: might get you might randomly get assigned semi final two
36:22
Speaker 1: and first half of that semi final. That means you
36:25
Speaker 1: are performing earlier in the show that night, but you
36:29
Speaker 1: don't know exactly where you're placed until the showrunners tell you,
36:33
Speaker 1: until they mandate it. And so in each of these
36:36
Speaker 1: semi finals, they're also mixing up the countries, right only
36:41
Speaker 1: the top acts advance to the big night, the grand finale.
36:46
Speaker 1: There are some exceptions to this, we'll get to them
36:49
Speaker 1: in a moment, But that makes sense, right, just from
36:53
Speaker 1: a production standpoint, like if the if the four of us,
36:57
Speaker 1: Max Noll yours truly and you, fellow ridiculous historian, if
37:01
Speaker 1: we're the four people who are running the show. We
37:05
Speaker 1: wanted to have a good vibe, right, like we want
37:07
Speaker 1: to curate it. We want to DJ a little for sure.
37:10
Speaker 2: Yeah, we don't want to do any have any train
37:12
Speaker 2: wreck moments, right, that's what they call it when a
37:15
Speaker 2: DJ screws up the tree? Is that really what they
37:17
Speaker 2: call it? Have you seen? Maybe that's a colloquialism that
37:21
Speaker 2: it was only in my circles, but it makes sense.
37:24
Speaker 2: You can picture it right when you do a bad
37:26
Speaker 2: beat match, or you do everything screeching to all God forbid,
37:31
Speaker 2: you have dead air, you know?
37:32
Speaker 1: Oh right? Yeah, And that's what that's what these show
37:37
Speaker 1: runners are terrified of as well. So, okay, we got
37:41
Speaker 1: two nights, we got all these semi finals occurring after
37:44
Speaker 1: everybody votes, and we'll get to the voting in part two.
37:47
Speaker 1: The big day arrives and this is the main event.
37:52
Speaker 1: This is where the best of the best caveat Asterisk
37:57
Speaker 1: compete for ultimate bragging rights. You get a really cool trophy,
38:01
Speaker 1: you get a place in music history. And as we
38:04
Speaker 1: could tell you folks, the performances are galvanizing. The energy
38:10
Speaker 1: is electric. It's a very kinetic sort of situation. Be
38:14
Speaker 1: amazing to go there live. They have pyrotechnics, you know
38:18
Speaker 1: what I mean, Like they have puppetry, they have like
38:22
Speaker 1: they have people in the air.
38:23
Speaker 2: It's pretty, of course. No, it's a spectacle, man, it's
38:25
Speaker 2: a regular there. We are a regular Empire of the
38:29
Speaker 2: Sun and then insert any other theatrical type performance. But
38:33
Speaker 2: it's cool. It has become known as much for its
38:37
Speaker 2: music and tunefulness and you know, singing prowass on display
38:42
Speaker 2: as it has for its spectacle.
38:44
Speaker 1: Absolutely one hundred percent. And with this we're going to
38:48
Speaker 1: pause on a bit of a cliffhanger. So we've given
38:52
Speaker 1: you the ridiculous, well intentioned history and origin story of Eurovision.
38:58
Speaker 1: But we have questions to explore in chapter two of
39:03
Speaker 1: this series. How does the voting actually work? What did
39:06
Speaker 1: we mean when we said soft diplomacy. What's up with
39:10
Speaker 1: all these controversies that the guys are referring to and
39:14
Speaker 1: what are the weirdest songs from Eurovision? We can't wait
39:18
Speaker 1: for you to join us in our second episode on
39:22
Speaker 1: the ridiculous history of Eurovision. Big big thanks to our
39:26
Speaker 1: super producer, mister Max Williams. Max, do you have a
39:30
Speaker 1: favorite Eurovision song?
39:33
Speaker 4: Yeah?
39:33
Speaker 3: I can't remember the name of it. I got two
39:35
Speaker 3: they're from the same Eurovision, but it's the one with
39:37
Speaker 3: the Norwegian guys singing about bananas.
39:40
Speaker 2: That's probably my favorite one classic. I love a Norwegian
39:44
Speaker 2: singing about a banana that is not native to their region.
39:48
Speaker 1: Yeah, very strange, A pivotal piece of Norwegian culture, as
39:53
Speaker 1: you can imagine. Big thanks to Alex Williams, our own
39:56
Speaker 1: in house composer.
39:58
Speaker 2: Now that you have to be able to grow a
39:59
Speaker 2: banana to sing about a banana, I'm not Yeah.
40:01
Speaker 1: We're not gatekeeping bananas, no nol.
40:04
Speaker 2: You've got you and I. We can't grow bananas here.
40:06
Speaker 2: I mean it's fine.
40:08
Speaker 1: You and I both have a lot of weird favorite
40:11
Speaker 1: Eurovision hits. We're going to get to in chapter two.
40:14
Speaker 1: But he got one off the top that just really
40:16
Speaker 1: sings to you.
40:17
Speaker 2: I reserve the right to hold there. We response until
40:21
Speaker 2: part two when we talk about my guy. But man,
40:24
Speaker 2: this is super fun. I think it makes a whole
40:25
Speaker 2: lot of sense to pair the voting part with the
40:27
Speaker 2: controversy part, because they are quite related, as we've already
40:30
Speaker 2: alluded to with some of the biased voting. And boy
40:35
Speaker 2: are we going to get into how this has been
40:37
Speaker 2: incredibly politicized and weaponized.
40:39
Speaker 1: Yeah too, Yeah, And speaking of weaponized and politicized, not
40:45
Speaker 1: a thank you but a chilly civil formal acknowledgment of
40:50
Speaker 1: Jonathan Strickland aka the Quister.
40:54
Speaker 2: I think I see, how do you?
40:56
Speaker 1: I think it was in Eurovision one time I could
40:59
Speaker 1: see bald, Yeah, I can see, I can see the performance.
41:03
Speaker 2: Big thing was blinding.
41:06
Speaker 1: He did a cover blinded by the light and the
41:09
Speaker 1: judges kicked him out because it has to be an
41:11
Speaker 1: original composition. Strix one to grow on big thanks to
41:16
Speaker 1: Chris raassiotis Eve's Jeffcoat.
41:17
Speaker 2: Who else? They're here in spirit and also huge things
41:20
Speaker 2: as you said to you know whatever, a chili at Chili,
41:23
Speaker 2: how do you do to Jonathan Strickland the quizz or
41:25
Speaker 2: a j Bahamas Jacobs the Puzzler, Because we got to
41:27
Speaker 2: thank them in the same breath, because that's just how
41:29
Speaker 2: it goes. Alex Williams, our own Eurovision star who composed
41:34
Speaker 2: this bangin bop that you hear in your very ears
41:38
Speaker 2: that could well have held its own in a Eurovision
41:41
Speaker 2: Asque competition.
41:42
Speaker 1: Absolutely Now we just need the lyrics and big thanks
41:46
Speaker 1: to the rude dudes of Ridiculous Crime. If you dig us,
41:50
Speaker 1: you will love them, so tune in get THEE to
41:54
Speaker 1: thy podcast platform of choice. I have been our research
41:57
Speaker 1: associate for this series and Noel, thanks to you, man,
42:01
Speaker 1: I can't wait for part two of this.
42:03
Speaker 2: It's gonna get so weird. Same, See you next time, folks.
42:14
Speaker 2: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
42:18
Speaker 2: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows