One of the guys at work told me that I cannot considered myself integrated into Dutch life until I have watched my first Eurovision Song Contest.

The Dutch appear to be absolutely crazy over the competition, even though the local entry did not work out for them, not making the final round, much like the last 6 or 7 years before.

This is surprising, since it appears that the vast majority of Dutch TV is devoted to local talent and singing contests.

So I settled down to watch the finals, which I would find hard to miss, as it was broadcast on three of my available channels.
Out of 43 countries entered, 26 had made it to the final.

My musical tastes cannot be considered hip, since most of my favourite music is 200 years old (classical and opera, in case you working that out – but I do love rock and light jazz too), so many of the acts all sounded rather boring and boy-band like, but there were a few really interesting performances inbetween, my favourites being France and Italy.

The judging system is rather tedious and you have to sit through all 43 countries tell you who they liked the most, which this year turned out to be Azerbaijan.

People clearly seemed to like them, but the voting clearly showed to me that I have absolutely no clue as to what is happening on the music scene in Europe.

And, can someone please explain me why on earth Isreal enters a European song contest…..

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