By Amit Epstein | 27/05/2010
Every year Israel gets a chance to fulfill an old dream and make-believe it IS a part of Europe, after all; at the Eurovision song contest.
Just like the famous song's title "the lady is a tramp", the grand prix (as it is called here in Germany) is a trap...
Primary, one must divide the era in which this contest had a value (artistically and politically) – probably until the mid eighties – and the era that followed, in which it has slowly yet unquestionably became a laughingstock, a parody-paraphrase on its glorious days - since "glorious" doesn't necessarily means Payettes. On the other side, never the less, one should not take away or ignore the sub-context of this sub-contest all together; it still has a way of pointing out (and showing off) a few tendencies of the continent, socially as well as culturally. It is an aging debate, the theme of Euro-trash, still when talking about this parade of schmaltz and kitsch, one has to re-think the so-called European standards of culture. Indeed, the value of entertainment is not a thing to be disregarded – especially in the time of reality shows and star-dust as a target (not even metaphorically speaking, in most cases).
The Eurovision song contest, therefore, was quick to obey and so it became a stage for the winners (or almost-winners) of the local TV talent shows in the format of "American Idol". On a larger scale, the political element of the national voting became so obvious and pre-determined that it has lost it's seismographic quality almost completely, besides – maybe – for the eastern Europeans countries, who somewhere still believe it is some kind of athletic competition from the USSR age.
If we try to find a possibly positive argument for watching the contest, then the latest changes in the voting
system, based now on direct and private SMS (who said reality show..?) is actually an interesting option to regain some socio-political parameter to this debacle-spectacle. True, on the national level giving a Douze-Point is far from a peace-offering, but as a public opinion affinity (not only on the national-politics level, but more on the social tendencies) it can definitely be taken (half) seriously…
People used to say the Eurovision is being ridiculed by all, yet watched by all – just for the mere fact, it was
lots of fun mocking it. I'm not sure even that is still valid. I myself used to organize Eurovision get-togethers, taken ironically sober, with charts and all that jazz. I've stopped a few years after Dana International won – I couldn't aspire for more then a Sephardic transgender to bring the ceremony to Jerusalem. Just to tell you, Europe knows who we are, and took its chance to concretely illustrate our place in their hierarchy by challenging our weakest point – Mediterranean enlightened wannabes.
We didn't get it – we keep on trying, but it became too dull to watch. 
