Eurovision Day: Oh Happy Day!

Translated during the ESC from the article in French written at noon.

The most motivating day of the year: the Saturday of the Eurovision Song Contest final!

A competition superbly ignored by most of the French, idolized almost everywhere else in Europe, down (or up if you're from there) to Australia, and, now, by a paid tv channel in the United States.

A week of rehearsals, semi-finals and the big party... before politicking came back tomorrow.

Motto, key-picture and logotype of the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 (via the Wikipédia in English).

So important, that postal operators issued stamps at the effigy of their former Eurovision winners: four stamps for Norway in 2010 for example.

Alexander Rybak, Norwegian ESC 2009 winner, on a stamp from the 18 May 2010 series, on a postcard received via Postcrossing (thank you Jörg, cancelled 3 June 2010).

Last year winner, the Swede Måns Zelmerlöw was awarded a 20 personalised stamp sheet by Austria Post (with a premium of almost 6 euros... by an operator that sell luxuous vacuum cleaner too)... For the first 2016 semi-final he sung the new scenic version of Heroes interpreted now with actual children. Even if the animated ones were artistic too.

The special sheet by Austria Post - a collector would be the name in France (to the product).

No stamp this year from the Swedish part of PostNord ; after all, Austria Post was an official partner of the 2015 contest. Moreover, the Swedish philatelic program seems light and balanced: watch the  2015 and 2016 issues still available.

A default though: most stamps need to be bought by booklet or strip of ten... even at the WOPA agency.

Obviously, the stamp promoting equal rights for lesbian, bisexual, homosexual and transgender people may have attract many of the Eurovision public to the post offices of Stockholm, being issued May 4th, a week before the semi-finals.

Issued the week before the contest and opening the Pride season in the Free World (PostNord.se)

However, a musical series was issued 15 January 2015 to acknowledge the celebrity and success of six Swedish pop artists: soprano turned popstar Robyn, disc jockey Avicii, Seinabo Sey for soul pop, singer and producer Max Martin and folk duo First Aid Kit.

Two of the 2015 stamps celebrating Swedish pop (philatelic bulletin of PostNord).

The series is pleasant to watch as it is drawn with a pen by Jenny Mörtsell, a common tool of illustration.

Now, what song has touched my ears or my reflexion during the promotions and the semi-finals? Every ones that are pop or rock... obviously or I won't be watching the show right now!

Austria again with Zoë who sings her fearytale à la Disney Classics and in French... Yes, something is not quite Eurovisionesque there ;) Pupil at the French high school of Vienna, the whole of her first album is in French. And Austrians like it since she's the winner of the national public competition. Et ça plaît en Autriche puisqu'elle est issue du télé-crochet national.

Zoë, Loin d'ici, semi-final 2016 on youTube.

In the topic: let's party but lest not forget... The Ukrainian singer Jamala commemorates the Crimean Tatars deported in 1944 by the Soviet government... Born in Kyrgyzstan from a Crimean Tatar father and an Armenian mother, her family came back to Ukraine only after the dislocation of the Soviet Union in 1991. Like France last year with the centenary of the Great War, the goal is not to win but to send a message... Will he hear it ?

Jamala, 1944, semi finale 2016 on youTube.

And finally, surprise: has France Télévision put some cash aside or win the lottery to host the 2017 edition, right between to two rounds of the French presidential (and tumultuous) election on Sundays 23 April and 7 May?

Imagine: a bilingual song any European can understand, lively, and the final broadcast on the main public channel... Something's fishy here.

Amir, J'ai cherché, the song clip.

Let's hope because he will alone on the scene. Even with the magic screens, it can lack of show. But, since 2010, the entertaining Jessy Matador and his dansers, French know that some Central and Eastern European jurys and televoters have some difficulties with the multicultural live in Western Europe.

Jessy Matador, Allez Ola Olé, final 2010 on youTube.

Anyway:

We are the heroes of our time...

But we dance with the demons in our mind...

We are the heroes...