An American case for watching Eurovision this weekend
Romcom trailer narration revival + a YA novel that made me feel things + surprise thirst traps
Kaley on the 5 ifs that mean Eurovisions should be your next cultural obsession
It’s my favorite time of year: the Eurovision Song Contest finals are here! This Saturday I’ll be hosting my second annual watch party, made up of me and the scant few loved ones I’ve convinced to watch with me. Each guest must bring a dish related to one of the 37 participating countries. My husband will hold it down with his excellent Swedish meatballs and I will bring the vibes. By vibes I mean shushing people during my favorite performances and providing way too much detail about the competition’s rules and this year’s intra-country drama. It’s so fun!!
For those uninitiated, Eurovision is an international song competition where each European country submits a song to compete against all the other countries’ songs. There’s a panel of judges and fans who vote from home, with one twist - you can’t vote for your home country. This year marks 69 years of the global competition, and though it was (pretty accurately) spoofed by Will Ferrell in 2020, it, like soccer, has struggled to gain a foothold stateside. But don’t let that stop you from joining in!
I got into Eurovision three years ago at the encouragement of my favorite pop culture podcast Who? Weekly and was immediately drawn in by the campy spectacle of music, fandom, and geopolitical drama. Also it produced ABBA so what’s not to love?!
For a full breakdown of each of the 37 song entries, Variety put out a great primer / ranking. You can also listen to the songs via this Spotify playlist. But none of this is really necessary to tune in for a fun time - you can go in pretty much totally blind, by watching live on YouTube THIS Saturday at 3pm or stream live or on demand on Peacock.
To further tempt you into jumping into this cultural treasure, here’s 5 more fun reasons to get in now:
If you wanna get in on the next biggest European cultural export since F1…
Eurovision is huge, and growing! Last year it was watched by 163 million TV viewers (that’s more than the Super Bowl!). TikToks with the #Eurovision2024 hashtag received over 6.5 billion views (1.7 billion year over year increase). It’s actually the most watched cultural event in the world.
If you love a sexy spectacle…
Multiple Eurovision frontrunners have been asked to tone it down this year, including Malta’s entry, which the European Broadcasting Union censored from “Kant” (which in Malta means “singing,” but sure sounds a lot like cunt!) to just “Serving.” (corny but it’s still a fun, catchy hyperpop bop!) and Finland’s entry “Ich Komme” (which translates to “I'm Coming”), performed by Erika Vikman who claimed the EBU is making her cover her butt (don’t worry, she’s still performs with a microphone that ejaculates fireworks!)
If you appreciate true creative genius…
The inspiration behind some of this year’s song entries is truly off the wall. For instance Croatia’s entry is called Poison Cake and it’s inspired by the poop cake in the book The Help. (🤷🏼♀️) And my current favorite is Ireland’s entry Laika Party about the Russian space dog Laika, imagining a world in which Laika didn’t die when she was launched into space in 1957 but has just been up in space having a party.If you’re tired of high stakes geopolitical drama and want to trade it for low stakes political drama…
Italy is trying to get Estonia’s song disqualified because they think it’s making fun of them (it definitely is). It’s called Espresso Macchiato, it’s extremely catchy, and lyrics include: “Mi money numeroso, I work around the clocko / That’s why I’m sweating like a mafioso” 🍝If you just like Europop and discovering new talent…
Beyond the aforementioned ”Laika Party” and “Serving,” my favorites are Netherland’s “C’est La Vie” performed by Claude, a Dutch Congolese singer with fun dance moves and Spain’s “Esa Diva” by Melody. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg - tune in with me and watch all the finalists vie for the title and the honor of hosting next year’s competition.
This Week In Cool Shiny Culture:
♥️ Megan’s Cool: RomComs with voiceover trailers
I’m beyond excited to go see Celine Song‘s The Materialists starring Dakota Johnson, Pedro Pascal, and Captain America Chris. The film stars Johnson as a matchmaker on a hot streak who finds herself in a love triangle between the “perfect” (rich & successful Pedro) guy and the one that got away (Chris). But what got me even more excited was the recent trailer which featured an old school voiceover narration. I’m bullish on my belief that in order to win back audiences, the film industry doesn’t need to innovate but rather return to the classics. And another rom com era–complete with voiceover narration ofc–is something I’d be excited to return to!
☀️ Kaley’s Cool: I Will Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson
I’ve come to the realization that my book reviews will never reach the entertaining and elegeic levels of Goodreads reviewers, like Chai who said this after finishing the YA novel about teenager twins Noah and Jude who drift after a series of unfortunate events:
And yet she still gave it just 4 stars! Incredible!! I tend to give everything I finished and liked 5 stars. Including this one, which captured the agony and ecstasy of first love, rejection, and artistic passions. Lots of morally gray behavior and highly specific characters makes this one another good book club pick!
🧙 Megan’s Shiny: The Four Seasons on Netflix
I am telling everyone I know that they should check out this 8-episode dramedy starring Tina Fey, Steve Carrell, Will Forte, Coleman Domingo, Kerri Kenney, and Marco Calvani. The series centers around a group of friends made up of 3 Gen X couples whose friendships date back to their college days. That is, until Nick–played by Carrell–decides to ask his wife Anne for a divorce and fundamentally changes the group dynamic forever. I highly recommend this poignant but funny weekend watch. It’s worth it if only for a particularly hilarious school play that satirizes Gen Z. Nick & Anne’s young adult daughter puts her emotions about their divorce on stage for the world to see and it’s fantastic.
☄️ Kaley’s Shiny: The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping’s creative casting announcements
My bestie and I have been obsessed with the slow trickle of casting announcements coming out for the movie adaptation of The Hunger Games prequel Sunrise on the Reaping. Starting just a month after the prequel’s book release, Lionsgate has been posting these short form video announcements that perfectly fit the vibe of the series and feed the fans who are eagerly awaiting the film. It’s a smart strategy for the studio, tapping into the conventions of the fantasy fan castings hugely popular on booktok while costing almost nothing to produce. Maybe a less smart strategy: announcing a release date for a movie that’s still in pre-production! ICYMI, see my review of the book here.
Marketing we appreciate: Final Destination out of home “death by lumber” truck
As with Kaley’s Shiny above, sometimes the simplest and most inexpensive marketing is the most effective. Case in point: Final Destination Bloodlines–out this week–is being called “genius” for their marketing after a video went viral that featured a fake logging truck advertising the film. If you’re over the age of 30, you are most likely deeply scarred by the infamous scene from the franchise's 2nd installment that saw the lethal consequences of loose logs. Warner Bros. should really offer us compensation.
Must see TT: “National Park accounts” go dark (romance)
The national park accounts are horny now??
A fun trend has popped up on TikTok: a parody account doing a very convincing job of playing Yellowstone National Park has seemingly “gone rogue,” posting thirst trap transitions with some of TikTok’s most popular creators who post sexy content for likes the female gaze.
Each post follows a similar format - starting with a thirst trap and then transitioning to a beautiful vista from Yellowstone. The captions contain fun facts about the park while the music overlay has the raunch level of Magic Mike.
The thirst trappers featured have gotten in on the joke and other “national park accounts” have followed the format. Beyond the obvious appeal, the trend is an especially delicious “fuck you” to the Trump administration’s gutting of the national parks system. We love to see it.
vote for Kant!
Megan & Kaley