The Olympics of American Idol in One Night

What could be as magical as an entire season of a reality singing competition combined with the international elements of the olympics all performed in one night?


Only the Eurovision Song Contest, of course!


So, for the Europeans reading this - as far as I can tell, there's really no middle ground, you either love it or you hate it - so you're probably thinking one of two things right now:

"OMG!! Best night ever!! SO MUCH FUN! Must stay up all night and vote and watch!!!"

or

 "wtf. Seriously? How embarrassing."

As for the non-Europeans, you're most likely thinking "uhh...?" So let me explain.

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Eurovision has it's origins back in the 1950's when someone, somewhere thought that an good old fashioned singing rivalry was just what post-war Europe needed to get everyone talking to each other again. It is held every year in May and takes place in the country of the previous year's winner (for example, in 2010 the contestant from Germany won, so in 2011 Eurovision was hosted by Germany). 

Each country selects one musical act to represent them on the big night. I think there is a days of semi-finals and trials and such, but the big event - everything that matters - happens on one night and lasts about 4 hours.

So how do you win this Olympiad of singing competitions? It's a pretty genius system really.  Each country scores their top 10 favorites (but you're no allowed to vote for your own country). The #1 favorite for any given country gets 12 points, #2 gets 10 points, #3 gets 8 points, and #4 - #10 get 7 down to 1 point respectively. But let's be honest, getting points in Eurovision is pretty much 75% crazy, flashy show, 15% political/social ties with other countries, and 10% actually quality of singing. Which, in my opinion, makes it all the better! 

Sounds pretty epic, doesn't it? So when can you catch Eurovision 2012? Well, you can't. It happened a couple weeks ago. But don't worry, there's always Eurovision 2013! And guess what everybody, it's going to be hosted by one of my favorite countries! That's right, Sweden, the country that can do no wrong, continues to get it all right with this, their winning Eurovision entry:

But guys, if you thought that was good, you're gonna be so disappointed that Russia only came in 2nd.