The 2018 Eurovision Song Contest: Grand Finale Pt.6.

A direct continuation of Part 5; https://watchitdie.blogspot.co.uk/2018/05/the-2018-eurovision-song-contest-grand_17.html

At Eurovision it seems the ultimate taboo is saying that no not everybody is secretly gay. And no it's not always about gay rights.

This fixation of gay issues has left the Song Contest open to exploitation, manipulation and frankly looking quite stupid.

At the 2018 contest a prime example of this was provided by the Republic of Ireland. Although that was not their intention.

A break-up song Ireland's entry this year; "Together" by Ryan O'Shaughnessy was all about the anxiety surrounding Brexit. And the Troubles in the water (of the Irish Sea).

Brexit has actually been a minor theme this year made up of Britain, Ireland, Denmark and Romania. So I will cover Ireland's entry more fully as part of that theme. Although I should point out that the main thrust of Denmark and Romania's contribution to the discussion is that Brexit just isn't that interesting.

Ireland is the most successful nation in Eurovision history. They have won the Song Contest a total of seven times. However in recent years that crown has started to slip.

In 2005 Ireland failed to qualify for the Grand Final for the first time. They also failed to qualify in 2008 and 2009. In 2013 Ireland embarked on a particularly bad run failing to qualify in 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017.

This lack of success has really started to rankle with Ireland. Particularly as Sweden has started closing the gap on them recording its sixth victory in 2015.

So both the video and both stage performances of Ireland's song this year featured a young gay male couple, very much in love. Even though that had absolutely nothing to do with the song and in fact contradicted it.

This was Ireland going; "Ah, if we just stick some gay stuff in there the gays will be tricked into voting for us. And we'll finally make it through to the Grand Final."

Ireland actually did the same thing in 2015. They scheduled a referendum of legalising same-sex marriage for the day after the Second Semi-Final performance of their entry; "Playing With Numbers" by Molly Sterling. Again they cynically thought appealing to the gay vote would see them straight through to the Grand Final.

On that occasion Eurovision weren't taken in and Ireland were dumped out at the semi-final stage. However I like to think that with the implied consent of a certain Boston, US based band that defeat in the Song Contest was translated into victory in the referendum. Truly an example of Going Out In Style.

Ireland's entry this year was more an example of Going Through in Shame.

Such was Ireland's desperation to make it through to the 2018 Grand Final they didn't stop at simply including a gay couple. They also tried to capitalise on animosity towards Russia.

Ireland circulated entirely Fake News rumours claiming Russia would censor their First Semi-Final performance due to its gay propaganda. Russia did not censor Ireland's performance. However that did not stop Ireland begging for gay votes by circulating entirely Fake News that Russia had censored the performance.

San Marino and Italy actually staged a mocking protest against Ireland's behaviour. During the Second Semi-Final they accused each other of trying to damage their chances by spreading Fake News. In case you haven't noticed Italy and San Marino are the same country and therefore not the biggest of rivals.

The ease with which the gay community can be manipulated and taken for fools has particularly damaged relations with Russia. Both at the Eurovision Song Contest and more widely in terms of NATO's relationship with Russia.

Russia is a nation of 145 million people spread across eleven timezones. At the grass roots level a significant majority of those Russian citizens hold very homophobic views.

For example in January 2017 military police from the Russian region of Chechnya deployed to provide security to the newly liberated Syrian city of Aleppo. As surely as night follows day Sweden started circulating stories that Chechen police were rounding up and murdering gay men.

I should point out that Chechnya is a majority Muslim region of Russia. In order to prevent all going a bit too ISIL Chechnya was granted autonomy from Russia in 1995.

So Chechnya is not under the control of Russian President Vladimir Putin and there is often a lot of tension between the region and Russia proper. For example the February 2015 killing of Boris Nemstov was carried out by Chechens in order to put pressure on President Putin.

The head of the Chechen Republic is a Muslim by the name of Ramzan Kadyrov. He responded to the allegation that Chechen police were arresting gay people by saying something along the lines of; "Our police don't need to arrest gays. The families of these perverts would murder them themselves."

Appalling as that is given the levels of homophobia in Russia - particularly amongst the Muslim population - I have absolutely no problem believing that Kadyrov was telling the truth.

However not all in Russia support these homophobic beliefs. So in 2014 the global liberal conspiracy - including President Putin -  moved heaven and earth to have the Winter Olympics held in Russia's gay capital of Sochi.

The purpose of this was to provide an opportunity to constructively engage with and in doing so change Russia's homophobic attitudes. Thus creating an Olympic legacy of improved gay rights within Russia.  

With it being one of the main reasons they bid for the games in the first place the Russians did an awful lot of work to secure this legacy. The Olympic cauldron that year was in the unashamedly homoerotic shape of a giant, erect male penis.

Russia also went to great lengths to make a mess of the design and construction of the athletes village. This was intended as an in depth talking point about the biological origins of homosexuality.

From a strictly medical perspective homosexuality is nothing more than a birth defect. The only impairment caused by this birth defect is in the area of reproduction. Even then it's not as significant impairment as something like Mayer–Rokitansky–Küster–Hauser (MRKH) Syndrome where women are born without a womb.

Personally I don't find it particularly helpful to talk about homosexuality in these terms. However once people realise that homosexuality is no more a choice then your height, hair colour, skin colour etc they also realise that you can't catch homosexuality. Therefore laws against "gay propaganda" are utterly pointless.

The only people who weren't interested in improving gay rights in Russia were the 'progressive liberals' who claim to be so supportive of gay rights. Rather than engaging constructively they, led by former US President Obama, instead used it as a opportunity to hurl abuse at Russia because Russia opposes ISIL.

In doing so these 'progressive liberals' turned gay rights into anti-Russian propaganda. Further entrenching homophobia within Russian society and making the problem worse. 

The Eurovision community's seeming inability to see beyond gay issues and that fixation leads to it being so easily manipulated. Particularly where Russia is concerned. 

This makes it look like this feeble minded, brainwashed cult that is utterly obsessed with sex. As if it were some sort of mental disease. A key part of that brainwashing is a hostility towards Russia.

So right now the message being blinked out by the beacon for gay rights is that Russia homophobes are right. Homosexuality is a mental disorder so they'd best introduce laws to stop it being spread.

That goes to the fundamental question of activism; "Are you here to do good. Or are you simply here to feel better about yourself?"

The main theme of the 2018 Song Contest was how we have all managed to get it so wrong in recent years. Particularly in terms of NATO's relationship with Russia. So much of the contest took the form of;

The Trolling of the Gays:

Trolling is something which has got a bad reputation of late. It's all too often taken to mean being rude to or essentially bullying people on the Internet. Trolling existed long before the Internet and is actually the much more subtle art of winding people up.

A prime example would be responding to the election of Sadiq Khan as London's first Muslim Mayor by referring to the British capital as; "Khanistan." In the hope of being attacked as Islamaphobic by 'progressive liberals.'

'Progressive liberals' that have such a deep understanding of Islam and Islamic culture that they don't know that in Farsi the suffix; "-stan" means; "Land Of." So rather than being an Islamaphobic comment it's actually a joke about Sadiq Khan's ego that will really only be understood by Muslims. Or at least an attempt at one.

Finland: This year they were represented by Saara Alto with the song; "Monsters."

Saara Alto is reasonably well known to British viewers. She was a finalist in the 2016 season of the TV-talent Show; "X-Factor." Through this I have a bit of a history with her.

Physically she resembles a Finnish woman who I used to share a house with alongside her white South African boyfriend/fiancee. Although I think I should point out that dark hair, pale skin and breasts pretty much describes the entire female population of Finland.

The story of how the couple I knew got together is quite a funny one. Due to the UK Commonwealth link this South African was using Britain as a base to travel around Europe. One day he found himself in Finland without the money to get back to the UK. So he decided to punch a police officer knowing full well that Finland would respond by paying to deport him back to the UK.

This is something Finland duly did. Alongside banning him from Finland for the next five years. About two weeks later he met this Finnish woman and fell hopelessly in love. She then had to spend the next five years of Christmas' and birthday's explaining to her parents why her effectively fiancee couldn't come and visit them. The explanation that he's technically a criminal did not go over well.

Saara Alto's appearance on the UK X-Factor coincided with a period of debate in Finland over legalising same-sex marriage. The idea was that my story of a young heterosexual couple kept apart by cruel and unjust laws would help homophobic Finns empathise with same-sex couples. Same-sex marriage was legalised in Finland in March 2017.

Saara Alto herself is a lesbian. Although we talk about Eurovision having a large gay fanbase we are predominately talking about gay men.

Lesbians are women who are super into other women. Gay men are men who are super into other men. So although they're often lumped together under the term; "Gay" lesbians and gay men have this sort of mutual disgust of each other.

In 2013 the live performance for Finland's song "Marry Me" by Krista Siegfrids featured the first lesbian kiss ever shown at the Song Contest. This led to a lot of praise over how far tolerance had come. 

The joke was that we weren't talking about Europe's attitude towards homosexuality. We were talking about gay men's attitudes towards lesbians.

Both the video and live performances of Monsters featured male and female backing dancers. Quite feminine looking male dancers and quite masculine looking female dancers. This was a reference to; "Gender Fluidity" the extremely fashionable concept of the Snowflake generation.

However rather than being supportive of Gender Fluidity it was mocking the concept. It was essentially Saraa Alto going;

"Here I am. A lesbian with a proven track record of successful gay rights activism. Yet look at the crap even I have to put up with to be accepted by the bigots of Eurovision!"

The lyrics of the song are all about finally being brave enough to stand up to the monsters that haunt you. As such its easy to interpret it as a metaphor for Saara Alto's own coming out story. Finally being brave enough to accept her homosexuality and stand up to the monsters of homophobia.

Finland of course is physically attached to Russia. It gained independence from the Russia Empire during the 1917 Russian Revolutions. 2018 is officially the 100th Anniversary of Finland's independence. So when NATO talk about Russia's threat to its neighbours in eastern Europe Finland is exactly the sort of country they're referring to.

Therefore its not hard to also interpret the song as a reference to the monster of Russia and Russian homophobia. Not least because it was written by the team behind Sweden's extremely controversial 2015 entry "Heroes" by Mans Zelmerlow.

However if you'd supported Finland's entry for those reasons you'd have been made to look a fool. 

The song is really about making friends with the monsters and the main message is that Finland isn't scared. So it's actually quite a pro-Russian strong. It sort of compares the Russophobia of Eurovision with Homophobia declaring them to be the monsters.

As a package Finland's entry also comes on extremely strong. 

In 2006 Finland famously won the Song Contest with; "Hard Rock Hallelujah" by the horror metal band Lordi. They performed in these full body latex monster suits. So the reference to Monsters in the song along with Finland bringing along Lordi as part of the delegation gave the impression that Finland really wanted to win.

Although I don't spend much of my time worrying about Saara Alto I suppose you could say that her X-Factor success in 2016 was a result of her clambering over the bones of me and my friends. This along with the fact she was prepared to tolerate the Gender Fluidity nonsense gives the impression of someone who will do absolutely anything for fame.

That sort of blatant desperation is normally the sort of thing that gets you marked down. I don't think Finland would be at all upset if their lack of success was dismissed as a backlash from gay men against a lesbian.

Sweden: This year they were represented by Benjamin Ingrosso with the song; "Dance You Off."

The artists biography in support of the entry makes clear that Benjamin Ingrosso is influenced by black American artists such as Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder. One of the writers, K Nita, is based in LA in the US and works with artists such as Drake and Kanye West. 

As such Benjamin Ingrosso is a big fan of "The Black Music." Something which in the past has been used to signify support for former US President Obama and his policies. Particularly his decision to support the Waffen SS to create Shamali Province in the rough territory of Ukraine.

The video in support of the song made important contributions to the technical side of Eurovision. It features a mix of VHS-style Low Definition (LD) footage and digital High Definition (HD) footage. It also breaks-up, freezes and drops out completely. As if the Internet connection you were streaming it on was failing.

Along with the VHS-style LD footage the fashion of the clothing and general visual style also give the video a very early 1990's feel. This plays on the fact that when it comes to Russia Sweden seems that it would be much happier in the late 1980's and early 1990's when the Cold War was still going on. In fact you could say that Sweden would prefer it if the Berlin Wall was still standing.

This all gives an immediate impression of continued Swedish hostility towards Russia.

It turns out that being gay makes for an extremely tough life. Even without homophobia homosexuality is a birth defect that only affects around 3% of the population.

So if you are heterosexual and are looking for a fulfilling romantic life partner you have about 50% of the population to choose from. If you're gay you only have about 1% of the population to choose from.

This alone means that loneliness, misery and depression are common with the gay community. Rather than wallowing in its sorrow the gay community's collective response is to dance away all its problems and dance away all the people who are bringing you down.

The global anthem of this sort of attitude is the 2014 song; "Shake It Off" by Taylor Swift. Featuring lyrics such as; "Haters Gonna Hate."

Given the events of previous years I think it was easy to predict that the 2018 Song Contest would feature a lot of criticism of the gay community. Particularly in their hostility towards Russia.

So Sweden were trying to attract that vote. On the surface their song seems to be an anthem for all the gay fans who wish to dance off that criticism and those critics.

However the song is really making fun of exactly those people.

Taylor Swift once appeared in an episode of the US TV Show; "Family Guy." In the episode the son Chris asks the baby Stewie what a "hater" is in reference to the song.

You can watch the sequence here; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSG5wKbsIkw

Stewie responds by saying; "Haters is just something terrible people say to avoid having to work on their own flaws."

Incidentally I'm surprised Family Guy doesn't get more attention at Eurovision. It is a show which is certainly unafraid of a big song and dance number.

Shamali Province would certainly appreciate its relentless bashing of ethnically Russian Jews.

At around 17:00 on 21/5/18 (UK date) I've one more example to include.

Edited at around 14:25 on 22/5/18 (UK date) to add;

Slovenia: Their entry this years was "Hvala Ne! (Thanks No)" by Lea Sirk.

Slovenia is of course the native country of current US First Lady Melania Trump.

There used to be an unwritten rule that while you can attack a politicians as much as you like you leave their families out of it. However such is the 'progessive liberals' hatred of President Trump they have disregarded this rule and launched sustained attacks on both Melania Trump and her son Barron.

The main part of this has been the long running saga about President Trump having an affair with the porn star Stormy Daniels. Not only is this not true this story of "The President and the Porn Star" serves as a way to discuss the Democrats attempts to rig the 2016 Election by claiming Russian interference.

The former British spy at the heart of these claims is a man named Christopher Steele. As I'm sure a certain section of Eurovision fans are well aware Christopher Steele shares his name with a reasonably famous gay male, Texas based porn star. It's testament to just how inept the Democrat's Chris Steele is that he couldn't work out why people kept offering to show him mucky videos.

Obviously though it is not pleasant to have the TV news sharing lurid stories about your husband's supposed affair 24/7. Particularly when you're trying to help your 12 year old son settle into a new school.

America's 'progressive liberals' have not been content with constantly running the Stormy Daniels story. They've also used it to suggest that the Trump's marriage is in trouble, constantly speculating that Donald and Melania are not speaking to each other and travel apart. One of the most ludicrous claims is that the two have secretly divorced and Melania has been replaced with a body double.

I wouldn't say that this criticism of Melania Trump is a particularly gay thing. However it is driven by the stereotypically gay bitter, bitchy and spiteful mentality.

A mother of two Lea Sirk is actually a particularly accomplished musician. A flutist she has an MA in music performance from the Geneva Conservatory of music and has performed with numerous classical orchestras across Europe. At the 2005 Cologne International Music Festival she won the Most Promising Young Singer award.

Within Slovenia Lea Sirk is probably most famous for appearing on a TV Show called; "Znan obraz ima svoj glas (Your Face Sounds Familiar)." This is a bit like the US show; "Lip Sync Battle" where famous people pretend to be other famous singers. Your Face Sounds Familiar takes it much further though with the performers undergoing a full transformation to become the full body double of the person they're impersonating.

Lea Sirk is particularly famous for being the body double of Salvador Sobral. The Portuguese singer who won the 2017 Song Contest.

The song itself is very much in the style of a Beyonce like Girl Power anthem. It's about a woman who is constantly playing a character and is one step away from perfection and one step away from the light.

As such it presents itself as an anthem for all the people who believe that Melania Trump has been replaced with a body double. However it then rejects them by sort of going;

"Oh so you're one of those people. No Thanks!"

Slovenia's gimmick during their live performances in both the Second Semi-Final and the Grand Final was they featured a power cut as part of the act. That was a little dig at Shamali Province and the legitimate concerns they wouldn't be able to provide electricity for the 2017 Song Contest.

Further highlighting that no. This song was really not being supportive of the people who support Obama and the Democrats.

14:55 on 22/5/18 (UK date).