Bucharest city tales: Cheer up Romania – no. 13 at the Eurovision is not bad

Columnist Eleonore af Schaumburg-Lippe writes in her weekly column about life as an expat in Romania. This week she looks at the Eurovision Song Contest, that was recently held in Sweden, where Denmark won and Romania came out in 13th place. Don’t worry, this is not an article about Denmark winning and Romania not winning at the Eurovision song contest. I am of course proud that Denmark won, it makes my nationalistic heart beat with joy, but cheer up, Romania, this is only the third time that Denmark has won in the history of the show, many times we have ranked much lower than 13, which was the place Romania got. In 1957 Denmark participated for the first time in the contest, and we almost won, but in the end ranked in 3rd place. The Danish duet caused quite a scandal, when on live TV they finished the song by kissing each other, which at that time was not appropriate on TV. Times have indeed changed since then. Then we won in 1963 with Dansevisen, in 2000 with Wings of Love and now in 2013 with Emmelie de Forest and Only Teardrops. Before we have been placed from bottom to among the top 5. And we have been OK with that, thinking: better luck next year. The highest ranking I know of Romania has got was number 4 in 2010 with the catchy song Playing with Fire, which was my personal favorite that year. I personally really liked this year’s song from Romania by Cezar It's my Life. I predicted that it would be in the top 5 or maybe even win the contest. So I don’t think that Romanians should complain about the value of the song or the ranking of number 13, this contribution is not in my mind out of sync with Europe, especially because Romania was not afraid to stand out from the crowd, which is a good thing. It was different, and no matter the views on his style and sound, his talent and voice couldn’t be questioned. And it was something new and different from the typical contest songs. I must admit that I have been fan of the shows for years, and usually in Denmark, we throw a party and vote for our favorite songs, and gamble about who will be in the top 5. So it is sort of a tradition to see the show. My interest in the show was higher before, when singers were only allowed to sing songs in their own mother tongue, which I liked as it was an opportunity to see and hear music from different cultures, and the introduction movie from the country was a great way to see a little snapshot of the country. Today the participants can sing in what language they want and this means most sing in English, but still I remain a dedicated fan. Something magical happens, when a whole world gathers around to see the show, the atmosphere and the music generates something, where everybody join together in a peaceful atmosphere and enjoy. The sad thing is that this year, I didn’t see the show for the first time in my life, and then Denmark wins, how typical. But I must admit that in the days before and the days after I have followed the comments on the show. The talk about point giving, and the so called neighbor countries giving points to each other, this is a discussion that has been going on for years and years. My personal opinion is that it happened more in the days when the participants had to sing in their mother tongue, of course that meant a point giving to and from the countries in the same region as they understood the language better. Seen in a retro perspective of the many years the competition has been going on, it has always been the song that was most catchy, most original or most in the style of a true Eurovision song that won and the winners have been very different and represented many countries. The points discussion usually happens after a winner has been chosen and is started by a country that did not win, this is a discussion that is part of the after show. Like each year another country will claim that the winner song is a copy of another countries song, this also happened this year with the Danish song, where a Dutch group said that it was a copy of their song, which personally I don’t agree with, after listening to the two songs. What I believe is the most important, is the music and this event where families all over Europe join together with friends and enjoy a cozy evening listening to music and being together.