I have always wondered why SBS keeps broadcasting the Eurovision song contest year after year. How would any sane person survive a whole evening watching weirdly dressed Ukrainian folk singers, Moldovan punk rockers or Israeli transvestites? Who cares for cringeworthy presenters in glitter suits that were not even fashionable when they were invented? And I haven’t even mentioned the absurdly tedious scoring system.
For an Australian audience watching this bizarre extravaganza from afar, once again this weekend, there can only be one explanation. It is sheer schadenfreude. Australians, who all too often get belittled for a seeming lack of high culture that is supposedly ruling in Europe, the Eurovision demonstrates that not all that glitters on the old continent is gold either.
However, apart from the cultural reassurance that the European song contest provides, it also offers viewers some valuable insights into the state of the continent.