Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Eurovision and Moldova's amazing hats

For those of you unfamiliar with Eurovision (i.e. most of the world other than Europe), it's an annual song contest in which several European countries compete for the best original song, performed live. It's also the contest that brought the world ABBA. I watched Eurovision for the first time this year and it is oh so much more ridiculous and entertaining than I ever imagined. The costumes, the variety of music, the over the top performances, the fact that the voting is unabashedly biased (Finland votes for Norway, the eastern European countries all vote for each other, etc...), the whole thing is amazing. There were way too many cheesy ballads, but aside from those we were treated to the likes of Jedward- Ireland's ridiculous twin singers and Icelandic men in vests.


But the country who stole my heart was Moldova, with their ska music, a girl in a fairy costume riding a unicycle, and the tall, pointy gnome hats. Behold the hats:



I fell in love with the hats, and I wasn't the only one to appreciate their awesomeness, as this photo soon circulated around the internet. Moldova hats are the new Aretha inauguration hat! YES!


My friend Maria, clearly a photoshop genius, made these for me.





5 comments:

Unknown said...

I was introduced to Eurovision while staying in Ireland with Eileen Garvey. It is awesome!

Kevin said...

Great post, Eileen. Glad to see you're bringing Eurovision to the masses. Wasn't it an awkward time for you to watch it? Eurovision's kitschiness (sp?) is making it very popular these days. In the UK, it's all about the host making snide comments at every turn as well, as the UK doesn't take it too serious (as they have sucked the past few years and decided to bring in some ringers this year). That photo link of the Moldovan hats in the situation room is awesome.

Suldog said...

I think everybody should wear a hat that makes them 7 feet tall!

promotional said...

Thanks for your insight for the great written piece. I am glad I have taken the time to read this.

Yasunori said...

I happened to catch Eurovision while in Norway and my impressions were almost identical! Great article. They had Celine Dion wannabes, Bond opening sequence songs, milk-toast folk songs, Manhattan Transfer a capella, that Pink chick, and what is up with those bouncy Irish twins?? My emotional favourites were those Moldovans with the giant hats and the random unicyclist, though I doubted they would win. They were like a weird Marge Simpson nightmare.