Originally published at: Fans claim Finnish Eurovision contestant Käärijä was 'robbed' of win after wild, crowd-favorite act | Boing Boing
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There’s no accounting for some people’s taste. Loreen’s song definitely deserved the win over this absolutely forgettable light snack.
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The most public votes went to Käärijä… so most people’s taste 
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I (facetiously, but earnestly) said as much in the comments of the previous post about the forgettable Swedish belter’s win. Finland’s song and Käärijä’s performance reflected everything that is best about Eurovision. It was camp, fun, weird, and catchy.
I don’t subscribe to it, but do enjoy the going conspiracy theory that the jury wants the competition hosted in Sweden next year on the 50th anniversary of ABBA’s historic win.
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Yeah, fair enough. It’s just my personal opinion.
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everything that is best about Eurovision. It was camp, fun, weird, and catchy.
If that’s what’s best about Eurovision, then yeah, maybe I would agree. It’s really the first time I’ve paid any attention to the competition, but I spent a bit of time watching clips from past years. It does seem like short, loud and dramatic is the preferred tone. I don’t think it really leads to great music a lot of the time, but again, to each their own. I will note that in past years a number of ballads have won. Niamh Kavanagh’s “In Your Eyes” from 1993 is a real standout - she’s got an absolutely incredible voice.
That performance video is from the Finnish national finals, not the grand final. Not that it isn’t spectacular in its own right, but they definitely stepped it up a few notches for the grand finals:
Seriously, the face work he puts in during the latter half of that performance is sublime. That blank stare, the hollow smile, and the … sadness? beneath it all? All to a (mostly) nu metal track reportedly about partying? Sheer perfection.
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EUR-pallets Finnish uses the same word lava for pallet and stage. So that was Eurolave [Euro Stage].
According to a Finnish conspiracy theory Sweden won because next year is the 50th anniversary of ABBA winning Euroviisut.
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He’s Finnish sadness is the baseline and the song is quite true a Finn can’t dance (or have much fun) if they aren’t shitfaced. He has a lot of energy for guy without a large intestine.
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Really ? Is that an actaul fact? Its to strange not to be, but i am not going to google it, I will just do the very British thing of adding “apparently” to any one i tell, to let them know i have not bothered googling it my self…
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I would agree with that, they seem to want to make up for her song, with back story and historic moments, as if she deserved to win for history rather than cos she was good.
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Yeah he had life-threatening ulcerative colitis in 2014 and had it removed in an emergency surgery.
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Helen Zaltzman’s great podcast The Allusionist just did two episodes talking about Eurovision and language, and it was great to hear the history of how they’ve dealt with the languages over the last fifty or so years. At various times, ever since Sweden entered with a song in English (pre-Abba!) there’s been a tussle back and forth between a language free-for-all position and “entries must be in an official language spoken in the entry’s state” line. The Francophile nations have strongly pushed the latter, while the Nordic countries have pushed for more relaxed rules, partly because of their worry that Nordic languages (especially Finnish) don’t sound “musical” to native speakers of other languages
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That video is unfortunately not available in all countries. I’ve been wanting to share the semi-final and grand final with everyone, but those videos are blocked from the US.
Her song and performance were competent, just nothing special. Some people even say it sounds too much like her 2012 winning song. I haven’t followed the ESC for very long, but it’s not the first time politicking has ever come into play. It’s that weird little bit that makes the whole thing more than just a frivolous song contest. For better or worse.
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Its all way been political, there is a good youtube video about the homononationalism used to white wash less tolerant countries…
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That young, and it wasn’t Crohn’s Disease instead of Ulcerative Colitis? But yeah, reading the progression of the illness, somehow he developed UC decades before normal. Sounds like it was an extremely aggressive case all around.
But how did he get rid of the stoma after 5 months? Supposedly, once the large intestine is gone, there’s no other way.
Sorry, totally off-topic, but this really is a much more major difficulty to overcome than most people ever have to deal with, and he was so young. He’s a success story in many ways, despite not officially winning Eurovision this year.
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I’m by no means a stoma expert even if I’ve been living with a colostomy for three years, but AFAIK it’s (often/typically) possible to remove a stoma as long as the colon remains in good condition - though having entirely removed the large intestine will obviously have a significant impact on bowel function and toilet habits.
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Oh really? That’s a crying shame, the performance is really amazingly good.
