Long gone are the days when an european wide live broadcast of a music show was in itself a technical exploit. The Eurovision song contest was, in my youth, a big annual event. Many things have changed since, and I can't tell or recall any of the last 30 years winners (I need to go back to the 70's to remember any of the winning songs).
However, last night when I got home I found my wife watching this year's event. She was interested because apparently the portuguese music is a beautiful one (both the music itself and the lyrics). So I watched a bit and was shown whatever highlights my wife thought were interesting (funny how even TV broadcasts can be rewinded and put on pause like the videotapes of old).
And yes, ok the portuguese music is nice but there's something my wife told me that I almost couldn't believe. Ours was the ONLY of the 18 musics yesterday shown that wasn't sung in English!!!
I was under the impression that the Eurovision songs had to be sung in the languages of the respective contesting countries (and yes, I know that this is an handicap for non-english and non-french speaking contestants, but it is an acceptable one). But even if this isn't a rule I find it a bit odd (and sad) that the eurovision song contest has lost that "feel" that I remember about hearing songs in several languages (with the TV hosts explaining what the song was about before we got to hear it).
Anyway, beautiful song or not, I was "kind of" proud that the portuguese entry was sung in the portuguese language. And - as you all know - I have nothing against speaking other languages, namely English.
