What Do You Mean “Forgotten”?
The internet is a great resource that allows us to find information just like that! But not all of it is easy to find! If you want exact breakdowns of Eurovision results for example, many of the sites from then no longer exist/have broken links and it is our mission at ESC Essence to keep much of (well the essence of) the show’s history available! Even as recent a year as 2009 (at time of writing) risks having many of its stories lost and forgotten.
Today (in this potential series) I would like to take you on a trip down memory lane to explore Eurovision 2009 through the eyes of UKGameShows.com’s commentary at the time! It’s a bit of a random topic but its worth a dive.
Let’s Get The Forgotten Controversy Out Of The Way
The site being UK based, of course has a very anglocentric viewpoint towards the contest. This bias however makes it very interesting for me as a Brit to read and reflect back on. Are the dramas that I remember vaguely from viewing as a nine year old, what was really penetrating into the mind’s of the UK public and are they still the same old dramas that come up time and time again, never to be forgotten?
Forgotten Issue No.1 Homophobia
Being the first (and so far only) Russian hosted contest, brought about a number of concerns regarding LGBTQ+ rights at the contest. By 2009, the contest had for a fair few years had been associated with the LGBTQ+ community and having a high number of LGBTQ+ fans. Dana International had won the show as an openly transgender woman way back in 1998 and the contest’s image of tolerance had only grown in the time since. It is therefore unsurprising that with many of the laws that exist in Russia, fans across the globe had their concerns on the safety of LGBTQ+ contestants and fans at the event.
‘”How’s Moscow treating you?” asked Ivan Urgent. Don’t ask, it would be rude to mention how the police treated a small group of protesters.’
Whilst inside the venue international fans lucky enough to have obtained tickets could be themselves, the reality for the average citizen was very different. Of course, such media attention as Eurovision was going to bring the perfect opportunity to highlight this disparity and people took to the streets to protest for more LGBTQ+ rights. It is of note that a gameshow blog from the time commented on the police intervention towards these protests almost immediately, as it shows just how big an issue this was for the contest. At the same time Russia was hosting a tremendous show, my personal favourite of all time, so nowadays much of that controversy remains forgotten but it certainly was a major issue for the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) at the time.
Forgotten Issue No.2 Disputed Territories
And that wasn’t the only issue the EBU would have wanted dealt with back then! Oh no, political borders were as much of an issue as they are now. Sure, Crimea was not on anyone’s radar as a cause for Eurodrama back then but other unresolved borders certainly were. Georgia had ultimately withdrawn from the contest over disputes with hosts Russia. In protest of the border conflicts between Georgia and Russia, amongst other political issues, Tamara Gachechiladze (Georgia 2017) as a part of the group Stephane & 3g won Georgia’s national selection. Their song “We Don’t Wanna Put In” being very similar to the phrase “We Don’t Want A Putin” of course referring to Russian leader Vladimir Putin, was disqualified by the EBU. In protest of their protest song being denied, Georgia simply withdrew from the contest altogether. In the long run, I’d say such a move was certainly very memorable but it goes completely unnoticed by the more casual commentary from UK Gameshows.
Instead the writers highlight the Azerbaijan/Armenia tensions surrounding the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, which Armenia showed pictures of via their spokesperson in political protest. Nowadays, most people remember the 2009 contest as the edition in which Armenia gave Azerbaijan a point but it is interesting that back in 2009 audiences seemingly only really saw the political protest going on between the nations (if they understood the symbolism behind the imagery of course).
Forgotten Issue No.3 Block Voting
It wouldn’t be a UK based Eurovision commentary without complaints of block voting now, would it? Whilst being fairly positive towards the new jury based voting system I guess, the writers are quick to point out how the neighbour voting patterns persist. Surprisingly, they put a lot of effort into working out these voting patterns and I take my hat off to them!
A point of interest is they comment on a potential Icelandic/Hungarian voting link, which is particularly curious and perplexing. I don’t know anyone who has particularly looked into links between these countries at Eurovision but hey it may well be worth doing, the particularly odd thing here however is the low Icelandic population and lack of linguistic similarities makes for no obvious connections. I do wonder if this is merely a coincidence from the 2005-9 period! The main point of course is even with the rule changes people were clearly still skeptical and hadn’t forgotten about block voting. Is this still the case? Well yes the UK media (particularly with our last two contestants coming last) is rampant with “it’s all political” narrative but in a wider context, I’m not so sure. If anything I think more people than not would suggest that block voting has reduced in the 2009-present era, from what it had been.
Forgotten Issue No.4 badly Behaved Big 4
Two stories I’d never heard of before, relate to the Big 4’s coverage of this edition of Eurovision. The big 4 of course being France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom (the highest financial contributors to the 2009 contest alongside hosting Russia). Apparently Spain did not actually air the semi they were voting in live (and so did not have a valid televote). Another claim in the article is that France did not broadcast the full Moldovan entry in the final because they allowed for an interview with their participant to run over. Partially because I’d never heard these stories and partially because any repercussions seem to have been next to non-existent, I’m lead to believe money talks!
Other Interesting Perspectives
Of course the article is not all forgotten dramas! There are many song reviews (reflecting music tastes at the time) and the article is well worth a read! It is of course linked, so when you are finished reading here, go on give it a go if you haven’t forgotten!
Commentary
Not only were juries reintroduced in 2009 but the UK commentator changed too. Eurofans are always rightly skeptical of the comedic approach taken by UK commentators and its effect on the contest. Even to this day I have seen a fair few tweets wishing for Graham Norton to step down for being too Wogan-esque.
However, Graham Norton is nowhere near as controversial a commentator as Terry Wogan. Wogan had resigned in 2008 following the UKs last placing that year and his continued disillusionment in the voting procedures of the contest. Whilst Wogan may have done a lot of good for the contest: drawing audiences, highlighting suspicious voting and successfully co-hosting the 1998 edition; his legacy was that of immense reputation loss for the Eurovision brand. By the end of his spell as UK commentator it was commonplace for him to interrupt songs, insult other delegations/hosts and bash any non-positive result for Commonwealth nations as the result of politics. This escalated to the point where the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) found themselves having to issue apologies to their fellow EBU broadcasters and the EBU allegedly having to prepare other national commentators with the tools to debunk Wogan’s claims.
Of course having such a reputation as Wogan did, it is no wonder the folks back in 2009 hadn’t forgotten him and were making comparisons between him and Norton! Largely their review seems favourable, even if they do somewhat bizzarely accuse him of having “very nearly crashed the voting”. I would suggest that claim needs further evidence, as a segment in the UK broadcast impacting every other European broadcast seems highly unlikely. It does also lead me to ask just how accurate this account is, even if it does provide the sentiment from 2009.
Inaccuracies
The accuracy of this article is something which is pretty hard to verify. Malena Ernman (real name Sara Magdalena Ernman) is referred to in the text as Marlene. Is this a typo or one of her knick-names, who knows? However the research gone into the piece is also undeniable. It is really refreshing to see people take the time to look up the meaning behind the lyrical content of songs and to have knowledge of historic point distribution from countries. Ultimately, I think we just have to forgive a little exaggeration here and there as writer’s license and can be thankful that they preserved these stories into the modern day.
Take Home
Asides from re-establishing my belief that we need to record our Eurovision experiences as they provide valuable insight to future fans, it is also worth noting that some things never change. Eurovision is not a perfect formula and issues that the EBU has struggled to solve reoccur every now and again. However, equally the contest has a long legacy behind it now and we have the benefit of hindsight. Let’s strive to keep information in the hands of people and not forgotten. Using this information to modernise and progress the wonderful contest which is Eurovision!
You made it to the end of another article, thank you! As always feel free to comment your thoughts, chat with us on social media and if you would be super kind, give the article a share. All you have to do is click a button. It’s as easy as that!