2 out of 30 Million!

Tonight was a night that i wait every year. It was the night of the Eurovision Song Contest final, which was held in Belgrade this year.

This contest is never ever mentioned in the Arab media, for one specific reason, which is the participation of Israel in it every year. It is worth mentioning that Morocco participated in 1980 when the Eurovision was held in Holland, and only when Israel didn't participate. The 1980 Moroccan entry was the only Arab & African entry ever. It was sung by a singer who became one of the famous voices in the Arab World, Samira Said.

But anyways, one might wonder here how do i, a guy in Iraq, know about the Eurovision Song Contest?

Here is the answer:

A VHS video tape (do you remember them?) passed by me around the year 1989, and it was the Eurovision Song Contest of 1986 which was held in Norway. This was the first contact with the ESC. I didn't know much about it at that time, but thanks to the BBC Commentator Sir Terry Wogan on that contest, who gave valuable information about the previous contests, i managed to put together pieces of the Eurovision history. There was a long cut until the year 2003, when it was possible for the first time to own a satellite and watch the event live.

Well, this year, i watched the event along with my father, and i am absolutely sure that we were the only people watching this all across Iraq. I bet that nobody knew about it, except those who watch Spanish, Turkish, Russian, or other European channels that are not English speaking. And with the news addiction and/or localization (vs. globalization) that was and is sweeping Iraq, i really don't think that anyone have turned away from their nice NileSat, which has all the channels you'd need on a daily basis, and dug into any channel that carried the event. I assure you!

So, if the Iraqi jury (consisting of us 2) would have ever voted, then it would have strongly disagreed with the 43 countries that took part and voted, and made the Russian song that we didn't like much, win the Contest. My father picked Greece and Ukraine as second, while i picked Armenia and Spain as second.

Let's hope that a good song would make it as a winner in the Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow 2009!