Song of the Day 5/15: Loreen, “Tattoo”
Most Americans know little and care less about Eurovision, the annual international music contest that’s sort of a cross between the Olympics and a Simon Cowell sing-off.
Each participating country — there are nearly two dozen, and the United States isn’t among them — is represented by a performance of an original song. The winner is chosen through three rounds of competition through ranked voting by the other countries. This process hasn’t produced a song you’ve heard of since 1974, when Abba won with “Waterloo.”
Each year’s contest is held in the home country of the last winner. But the 2022 winner was Ukraine, so Liverpool hosted the finals instead. The finals on Saturday drew 11 million viewers in Britain, the most ever. The winner was Loreen, a Swedish singer of Moroccan heritage who also won Eurovision in 2012.
This is terrible. No wonder she’s still entering contests 11 years later. I guess it works OK as kind of a sex show; we have plenty of that passing for music over here too. Give me Abba (it’s all relative).
John Lydon, aka Johnny Rotten, was edged out for the honor of representing Ireland.
Glad you added that disclaimer.
Robert Christgau wrote perhaps the definitive one-sentence review of Abba:
“We have met the enemy, and it is them.”