It's not often you get an Olympic champion anywhere near the Eurovision Song Contest. However, this year, one helped win it. Meet Evgeny Plyushenko, the 2006 men's Figure Skating Gold Medallist and backing dancer for this year's Eurovision champ, Dima Bilan. At the after-party, Mr Plyushenko repeated his routine on dry land. Never seen a triple salchow on carpet before but the boy pulled it off beautifully.
It was only a matter of time before Russia won, and they picked a massive star this year to be their representative. Not his first time, either (he came 2nd in 2006). Just to be extra sure, the song was produced by Timbaland. At the press conference after Russia came through Tuesday’s semi-final, Plyushenko said "It’s like the Olympic Games here, there are so many people here. I skated for you guys." So there.
This was my first live Eurovision after a 2 year break and I’d forgotten just how euphoric the atmosphere is. Maybe not everyone learns the songs in advance (although I know it’s not just me) but everyone was on their feet singing, cheering and waving random flags (San Marino, anyone?) throughout the 3 hour 20 minute show. The atmosphere was fantastic, as were the energy levels. Even the voting flies past when you’re there, in the arena, living every douze points.
Why do I love it? Because it’s a scream. I get to meet up with friends who live in different countries (we all started in Moscow), dress up, dance, sing and generally blast away any stress. If I don’t lose my voice, I haven’t done it properly. Going to Eurovision is like being part of a club with people you’ve never met from (at least) 42 other countries. Everyone wants to win but they mainly want to enjoy the week-long party atmosphere and make new friends. It’s not about just one night of music. The publicity campaigns by the various countries try to out do one another every year (my Dima Bilan stickers and Azerbaijan show DVDs are really special) and in the end, nobody knows who’s going to win. I always get it blissfully wrong – this year, my money was on Georgia and Portugal.
Conceived back in the 1950s as an interesting challenge for live TV broadcasting across territories, and now attracting 43 competing countries, the Eurovision Song Contest is very much about the taking part, but let’s not forget the winning. Russia’s been runner-up so many times in recent years, it was really only a matter of time before they took the top spot. My friends’ 6 year-old daughter predicted the result correctly (and collected her winnings). And so, our crowd is returning to Moscow in 2009 from exile. Sir Terry may or may not be there to help BBC viewers through it all. But we can be sure of an amazing time.
How it relates to the 2012 Games? The Eurovision Song Contest is an enormous, annual cultural festival and television broadcast which takes a lot of planning and brings together people from pretty much all over the world. Not unlike the Cultural Olympiad will be. People who wouldn’t normally visit, say, Belgrade come and experience the best the city has to offer, as well as throwing themselves into the week-long party that is the event itself. The host country can show off to a worldwide television audience of millions and around 50,000 visitors. It’s a very big deal.
It’s not a political event (I know what you’re thinking). It’s about the power of sharing culture. This year we had Olympic ice skaters, knitting brides, pirates, golf buggies and giant mirror boxes. If we capture half the energy, goodwill and friendship-generation that the Eurovision manages every year, our Cultural Olympiad will be remembered for years to come.
