Eurovision Song Contest: Inside the Gimmicks & Glamour

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
You're listening to Twenty Thousand Hertz, the stories behind the world's most recognizable and interesting sounds.

**Dallas Taylor** (0:10)
I'm Dallas Taylor.
A while back, I sat down with Grace East, our producer here at De Facto Sound, and Andrew Anderson, our resident European producer. Andrew grew up in England and loved sound and music from a very young age. For grad school, he moved to the US, specifically Indiana. There, he worked in public radio, even hosting a local segment of All Things Considered. Then, back in the UK, he was the editor-in-chief of an arts magazine, which is how I met him. Eventually, with his wife, he moved to Bulgaria, where he opened a local bookshop and became the lead singer in a post-punk band that was even featured on Bulgaria's Got Talent. But the purpose of this meeting was for Andrew to try and teach us bumbling Americans about something that we just can't grasp, but that millions of people across the pond are obsessed with. And that's Eurovision.
So, Andrew, you have been trying to convince the Twenty Thousand Hertz team that we should care about Eurovision. Is that right?

**Andrew Anderson** (1:12)
Well, for me, it's just one of those things that is so present growing up. Now, as a European person that lived in America for a while, I kind of have some experience with some of those things. I wasn't really aware growing up about what the Super Bowl was or the huge impact of it. And I kind of see Eurovision as being our Super Bowl. So this is kind of a cultural exchange where I'm going to give you our Super Bowl, which is Eurovision.

**Dallas Taylor** (1:36)
And what's your hope for how we feel about Eurovision once we finish this episode?

**Andrew Anderson** (1:40)
My hope is that you'll grow to love it, but maybe you'll also be inspired, America, to start adopting some of the Eurovision practices within the Super Bowl. So I'm thinking more glamorous costumes for the players.

**Grace East** (1:54)
A hundred percent on board.

**Andrew Anderson** (1:56)
You've got the half time songs, fine, but what if some of the players did some numbers? What about when you score a touchdown, you have to break out into a rap track? So I think my hope is that you'll kind of have an appreciation, both for the glory and pain that I had to live through hearing all of these songs over the years and having this as my cultural touchstones, but also that it maybe will have some positive influence of not taking things too seriously and kind of embracing the sillier side of pop culture for Americans.

**Grace East** (2:25)
Totally.

**Andrew Anderson** (2:26)
We should start by me asking what each of you knows about Eurovision. So the first person I want to turn to is our super producer, Grace. Grace, can you tell me what you know about Eurovision?

**Grace East** (2:37)
Sure thing. I have kind of a funny story about Eurovision, which is that my boyfriend and I were like, let's watch the Eurovision movie and see what it's all about. It looks kind of silly, but who knows?
All right, everyone.

**SPEAKER_5** (2:53)
I'm Lars. This is Secret. We are Fire Saga.

**SPEAKER_6** (2:56)
Who wants to hear Eurovision song?

**Grace East** (3:03)
Plot twist. I was crying by the end. It was way better than I expected. Then we had so much fun watching it. We were like, let's go watch the 2021 season on YouTube. So I watched a ton of music videos from artists that I'd never heard of, and then my boyfriend and I voted who we thought were the winners.

**Andrew Anderson** (3:27)
Did you get it right?

**Grace East** (3:28)
I was like, the Italian punk band was the best, but I don't think they're going to win. And then they did, and I was like, okay, that's pretty cool.

**Andrew Anderson** (3:41)
Dallas, how about you? What do you know about Eurovision?

**Dallas Taylor** (3:43)
I just think of tights, and big hair, and...

**Andrew Anderson** (3:48)
The 80s.

**Dallas Taylor** (3:49)
Theatrical flamboyance.

**Andrew Anderson** (3:52)
You're very on the right track there. I think all of those things do count as Eurovision.

**Paul Jordan** (3:55)
I think describing Eurovision is really difficult because it's something that in Europe we've all grown up with. And if you say the word Eurovision, people exactly know what you mean, and they love it or they hate it.
So my name is Paul Jordan. I'm also known as Dr. Eurovision, and I'm an expert in the Eurovision Song Contest. To describe Eurovision now is very different to how it was back in the day. So back in the day, I would say it was unique, it was chaotic. Now, I think it's a very, very slick show where countries enter, they compete in a friendly way to try and find the best song in Europe for that year. I think Eurovision, part of the appeal is looking at the best and the worst of what Europe has to offer. It's gimmicky, there's loads of costume changes, there's lots of novelty acts, but there's also a lot of great songs.