Eurovision Song Contest: Athens 2006
Rating: E
Running Time: 6+ hours
Distributor: CMC



Barely was I able to contain my excitement upon spotting this delectable offering in the dB office. Having caught a tantalising glimpse of this year's competition when it'd screened on SBS, I'd been wondering what musical and visual delights I may have missed out on when I hadn't been watching; at last, I realised, I'd be able to find out! What joy!

Comprising of two discs, 'Eurovision' contains what I assume is the complete telecast of this year's competition, right down to the voting at the end (though without the caustic commentary of Terry Wogan, unfortunately). Much of its content admittedly consists of stuff that you probably wouldn't want to sit through more than once (the hosts, for example, come across as a pair of annoying airheads, while the aforementioned vote-counting bit seems rather pointless given that you already know who won); what more than redeems it, however, is the acts. Exquisite!

No, seriously. Long ago I may have sold my soul to the Gods of Metal, but that still doesn't mean that I don't appreciate a good piece of pop, particularly not when it's disgustingly catchy and performed by delicious pieces of eye-candy, as is often the case here. Unfortunately, it'd be impossible to give every act I liked the praise it deserves; the ones that really impressed me, though, were those of Finland (of course!); Turkey (whose singer could have been Gwen Stefani's double and whose risque antics no doubt had the Islamic fundamentalists back home reaching for the C-4); and the UK (which featured a white rapper called Daz Sampson performing with a troupe of very cute schoolgirls; actually, that one looked a bit creepy come to think of it...).

Even more mind-blowingly awesome than these, however, was Lithuania's unashamed exercise in egotism, We Are The Winners.

Of course, there were a few performances that weren't nearly as much fun to sit through, although these were thankfully in the minority. One deserving of such a dishonourable mention was that of the Latvian entrants (very, very weird), while another was the Russian one, a thoroughly mediocre act that, for some unfathomable reason, ended up taking second place. Still, I suppose it's heartening to see that the collapse of communism seems to have finally given the youth of Russia the freedom to um... sport mullets.

Verily, it did my cynical, shrivelled-up heart good to watch this and expose myself to music whose lyrics did not, for once, revolve around death, destruction, doom and despair. I can't wait to see what next year's competition holds in store!

James Brazel