The 2016 Eurovision Song Contest: The Stand Outs Pt. 4

A continuation of Part 3; http://watchitdie.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/the-2016-eurovision-song-contest-stand_7.html

Slovenia: As with the Netherlands their entry this year was very much in the Country music style. They were represented by ManuElla who is a young attractive blond haired, blue eyed woman.

The combination of Country music and an attractive blond woman is of course a reference to Taylor Swift. In case you didn't pick up on that in the postcard played before Slovenia's live performance ManuElla is show in a Majorette uniform doing a cheerleading routine. Almost exactly like Taylor Swift did in her "Shake It Off" video.

Last year the US used Taylor Swift and her song "Bad Blood" in an attempt to muscle in on the Song Contest. I'm sure that at some point they're going to live that down. Possibly in the next five to ten years.

However the video in support of the song seems to be shot backstage of a video/movie shoot with ManuElla often seen emerging from a caravan/trailer. Here she seems to resemble the actress Scarlett Johansson. Particularly in the commercial she is currently doing for the Huawei P9 smartphone.

This was Slovenia referencing Scarlett Johansson's 2014 Super Bowl commercial for Sodastream as it relates the Boycott Divestment Sanctions (BDS) campaign and her little known Jewish identity. It was also Slovenia sending Australia the message; "We know exactly what you're up to. We're not going to complain."

The song itself "Blue & Red" was Slovenia showing support for Russia over the US on a range of issues. Particularly Shamali Province.

It was based on the idea that both Russia and Slovenia have remarkably similar national flags featuring bands of Blue, White and Red. By ignoring the White Slovenia were taking the popular misconception that Russia is an all white nation and flipping it on its head.

In part of the video ManuElla is wears a black leather jacket with these white X's down the sleeve. In the context of Country music this was intended as a subtle reference to the Confederate flag from the American Civil War. This has recently been adopted as the flag of the ethnic Russian minority in Shamali Province's civil war causing major headaches all round.

Although it is similar to the naval flag of the Soviet Union the adoption of the Confederate flag has led some to conclude that the ethnic Russian side in Shamali Province's civil war are neo-Nazis and racists. As with the American Civil War the reality though is more complicated then that.

As the Apu character in The Simpsons episode "Much Apu About Nothing" tried to explain the American Civil War was caused by a variety of factors relating the rights of individual states in the Federal Union.

The economies of the Southern states tended to be based on agriculture meaning that they had relatively small populations with large areas of land set aside for farming. The economies of the Northern states however were based on industry meaning that they had relatively large populations. The Northern states tried to argue that because of their larger populations of voters they should have a larger number of representatives and therefore power in the national government.

It was the North's attempts to use this extra power to end the system of slavery that the South's economy relied upon that finally ignited the Civil War. However serious tensions had been bubbling along below the surface for a long time prior to that.

What everyone seems to forget about the American Civil War is that it was the Republicans in the Northern states who wanted to abolish slavery while it was the Democrats in the Southern states that wanted to preserve it. As such the Confederate flag is actually the battle flag of the Democrat Party of current US President Barack Obama.

As such the current Democrat campaign to have the Confederate flag erased from the history of the US - particularly in places like Charleston, South Carolina - demonstrates a rather poor relationship with reality on the part of much of the Democrat Party. Either that or its a concerted effort on their part to hide their true identity from voters.

So flying the battle flag of Obama's Democrat Party over the civil war in Shamali Province while the ethnic Russians fight for a Federal system based on racial equality does rather make a mockery of the US' increasingly bizarre pronouncements on the issue.

Slovenia's entry just continued that mockery.

When Taylor Swift released Shake It Off back in 2014 many parodies started to appear on the Internet. One of these featured it being overlayed with quotes by Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. After all it's a little bit funny to see if people can tell the difference between Taylor Swift lyrics and Adolf Hitler quotes.

Taylor Swift's lawyers did not see the funny side at all and very aggressively threatened to sue any website hosting the video. They did this knowing full well that this type of parody is legally protected under both free speech and copyright law. However the mere matter of the law didn't stop them trying to bully and intimidate ordinary Internet users.

Fortunately most Internet companies completely disregarded Taylor Swift's lawyers. And then the Internet took its revenge.

It is now a matter of established fact that Taylor Swift is a fully paid up, secret member of the American Nazi Party. She is merely waiting for Donald Trump to become US President so she can finally reveal her true beliefs and the ethnic purification of America can begin. As that day draws nearer Taylor Swift's recent break-up with Calvin Harris was because she doesn't want her status as a Aryan Goddess sullied by any further association with an unclean Celt.

Sung in the truthful voice of Nazi Princess Taylor Swift lyrics such as; "How can I mix red and blue together" and "'Cause blue is blue and red is red"  meant that Slovenia's entry sounded like a clarion call for racial segregation and ethnic purity.

The problem is that when you are subverting people's prejudices in order to mock them there is a significant risk that people simply will not get the joke. Those who do are likely to be a bit angry that they're being mocked.

This appears to be exactly what happened to Slovenia with them not making it through to the Grand Final. I strongly suspect that a lot of people assumed that they were copying rather than parodying Taylor Swift and where then legitimately calling for racial segregation.

Switzerland: Last year's Song Contest was pretty horrific. It was as if a battle line had been drawn down the centre of the arena and nations were being forced to line up on either side to show whether they supported or opposed the creation of Shamali Province.

Within the high pressure environment of the Song Contest trying to sustain this level of hostility and aggression for a full week without actual fist fights breaking out was extremely hardwork. So where there should have been silly little jokes like Slovenia provided this year amid a general glitzy celebration after about two days a lot of people just wanted it to end so they could go home.

Switzerland of course has a long and proud tradition of neutrality. As such this year their efforts were focused on avoiding a repeat of last year by providing a variety of other topics for people to talk about.

So for example Rykka who represented Switzerland this year began her career as a folk/alt-country artist before making the transition to pop music. That obviously touches on Taylor Swift's transition from Country to pop.

However you could also interpret as a reference to Ani DiFranco who is a seriously talented musican. Although it actually turned out to be quite diverse this year amid the endless parade of Europop sometimes at Eurovision it can be tempting to try and seek refuge in different genres of music. By referencing those different genres Switizerland was almost giving people permission to go an do that without breaking the informal "You May Only Talk About Eurovision" rule.

Likewise you could spin off the reference into a discussion about Lana Del Ray. Prior to creating the character of Lana Del Rey Elizabeth Grant first performed folk/alt-country songs under her own name before adopting the character of May Jailer and releasing similar music. When it was discovered that Elizabeth Grant's pop persona Lana Del Ray was just that - a persona - there was a small furore about her authenticity as an artist.

In the performance video in support of the song Rykka has quite tanned skin but dyed blond, almost white hair. Along with a small tattoo on her left bicep this gives her more than a slight resemblence to British popstar Rita Ora. You could say that Rita Ora is symptomatic of the UK's lack of respect for the Song Contest.

Although reasonably popular Rita Ora is hardly the sort of global superstar that would overwhelm the Song Contest. As such the UK saying that she is too talented to send to Eurovision can only be viewed as an insult. This is compounded by the fact that Rita Ora's career seems like an overly long Eurovision entry.

Rita Ora describes herself as Kosovan. In 2012 she released the song "Shine Ya Light" the video for which was filmed in Pristina, Kosovo and has even appeared at various diplomatic/UN events as an example of a famous Kosovan. This is all done as part of the UK and the US' attempts to have Serbia's southern Kosovo province recognised as a nation state.

As with the 1999 war against Serbia within Eurovision circles the UK is really in a minority of one when it comes to recognising Kosovo as a nation state. As a result Rita Ora is very much an example of the UK trying to promote an extreme political agenda while refusing to dicuss the matter with the group.

If there was a main political message to Switzerland's entry "The Last of Our Kind" it was to protest the immense pressure they're coming under - particularly from the Americans - to break their long tradition of neutrality and side with the US and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). This is probably best demonstrated in the world of international sport.

Due to Switzerland's long history of political neutrality a large number of the governing bodies for international sport are based in the country.

The exception to this rule is the International Tennis Federation (ITF) which is based in London, UK. However the ITF is not really considered a sporting body. Instead its purpose is to promote the political agenda of the Gulf States who fund it. Quite why the Williams sisters continue to be prepared to play the role of the monkey slaves who need to be civilised is a bit of a mystery to me. I guess they must really like money.

The prime example would the International Olympic Committee (IOC) which is based in Luasanne, Swtizerland. As with the Song Contest the Olympics has never really been about sport. Instead its purpose is to provide a forum for political discussion between nations. Due to the neutrality that comes from being based in Switzerland that is exactly what it is. All political views are represented and no individual viewpoint is promoted by the organisers.

However since the rise of ISIL the independence of the IOC has come under increasing threat. Recently the World Anti-Doping Authority (WADA) - located in Canada - conducted what it claimed was a massive investigation into the use of performance enhancing drugs in sport. However what it actually did was target only Russian athletes. Now WADA is putting pressure on the IOC to exclude Russia from the upcoming Olympics as punishment for Russia's opposition to ISIL.

The other prime example is FIFA which is also based in Switzerland. FIFA is a completely non-political organisation focused instead entirely on running the World's most popular sport - football. However even they recently just survived a coup attempt to remove the man who dared give the 2018 World Cup to ISIL oppossing Russia and install a man from the Gulf State of Bahrain to protect Qatar's hosting of the 2022 World Cup.

As such both the IOC and FIFA are in serious danger of losing their political neutrality and being turned into the ITF. The ITF of course is a joke.

This effort is being led by the US. What they are doing is using a federal probe into the Swiss banking system to blackmail the Swiss government into putting pressure on bodies like the IOC, FIFA and even the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) to fully support the US' political aims.

At around 16:50 on 8/6/16 (UK date) I'll try and finish up after dinner. Or possibly tomorrow.

Edited at around 18:55 on 8/6/16 (UK date) to add;

Despite aggressively defending their neutrality the Swiss did feel the need to speak out against one very important issue. The Paris Agreement and its destructive effect on efforts to combat climate change.

As with Agnete who represented Norway Rykka has quite dark white skin. Along with the sort of ice white motif of the video in support of the song this suggested that she might be one of the Scandanavian and Russian people who travelled north across the Arctic to Canada and down into the United States to become what are wrongly described as "Native Americans." Rykka herself is Canadian from the province of Vancouver.

Indigeneous rights particularly in South America is always a big issue within climate change negotiations. Through the Oregon standoff he US itself identified its getting sidetracked with Brazil over indegenous rights as a potential reason why the Paris Agreement is woefully insufficent to combat climate change. With Obama's Black Lives Matter (BLM) being wrongly convinced that Native Americans aren't white or caucasian this provides an easy way to mock Obama and his failure to combat climate change.

The song actually features the lyric; "Here we are at the end of the movie // It’s time to rise // We’re the last of our kind." This seemed to be Switzerland saying; "We know The Revenant won lots of Oscars. But we still don't have a plan to combat climate change. Please Mr Obama don't kill us all with your hubris."

With Rykka being Canadian the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also caught the sharp side of Swtizerland's tounge.

As I've already mentioned Canada actually has quite a large Ukrainian dispora population. This means its very easy for Canadian politicans to rail against "Russian Agression" in the old country without anyone really having much of an idea of what's actually going on in the old country. The song begins with the lyric; "Soldier, take off your armour // Show me your heart, this is home."

Another area where Trudeau has caused rather a lot annoyance is over his welcoming of Syrian refugees. At the same time that he is claiming to care so much about these Syrian civilians he is scaling back Canada's efforts to defeat ISIL and actively supporting them in Shamali Province.

As such you have to question whether Trudeau actually views these refugees as people in need of support or mere trinkets he can pose with - like Pandas - to show voters how caring and cuddly he is.

In her second semi-final and only live performance Rykka wore an elaborate dress that appeared to smoulder filling the arena with smoke as it if were about to burst into flames. I think orginally this was scripted as a reference to the fact that people in Rykka's native Vancouver have a reputation for growing and smoking a lot of Marijuana. As with the age of sexual consent drug policy is one of those safe staples of Eurovision discussion.

However it also very well served as a reference to the Fort McMurray wildfire in the neighbouring Canadian province of Alberta.

As with Obama Prime Minister Trudeau has been quick to declare that through the Paris Agreement he has helped saved the World from climate change. Put simply no-one trusts him on the issue. Instead it seems that he is supporting it as a barrier to meaningful action in order to protect Canada's Tar Sands Oil industry which is largely based in Alberta.

As such as an environmentalist it's quite hard not to be slightly amused by a wildfire caused in part by climate change shutting down Canada's Tar Sands industry. Albeit for a short time.

Also if you are a European nation that has seen its population grow by some 1.2% because of refugees fleeing from wars that Canada supports it's quite hard not to be amused at Canada suddenly being forced to deal with an internal refugee crisis of its own.

As it turns out although serious this year's Song Contest was nowhere near as direct and aggressive as last years. That meant there wasn't really any need for people to rely on the diverse range of topics Switizerland brought to the table.

Therefore even I sort of got the impression that while Switzerland's entry this year was very impressive it would sort of being taking up space in the Grand Final that was needed for someone to say something specific about this year's big topics.

19:40 on 8/6/16 (UK date).