Eurovision 2019: ASIE: The App Pt.3

A direct continuation of Part 2; https://watchitdie.blogspot.com/2019/05/eurovision-2019-asie-app-pt2.html

The Czech Republic: This year they were represented by Lake Malawi. With the song; "Friend of a Friend."

Taken on its own this was a strange little song which didn't make much sense at all.

It began as a boyfriend talking to his girlfriend. Initially they were hearing the sounds of another couple having sex. Either in another room or another apartment. He was complaining that their relationship was no longer as passionate as the couple they were overhearing.

Then the boyfriend starting talking about another woman. Who may or may not have been the woman in the couple they were overhearing. He was explaining to his girlfriend that this other woman was someone he used to know a long time ago. Possibly while they were at school together. Or she's the friend of a friend of his.

It was only once you watched the video in support of the entry that things started to make sense. This was made up of fans, particularly female fans, of the band singing along to the song. In short video clips of the sort you get on social media such as Instagram and Facebook.

So the song was really about a boyfriend who has been caught by his girlfriend. Liking pictures of other women and secretly sending them direct messages on social media. Sliding into their Direct Messages (DM's). This has very much emerged as the modern form of relationship cheating in the social media age.

The boyfriend in the song is the ultimate Distracted Boyfriend. A meme that recently became very popular based around a stock photograph of a young man holding his girlfriend's hand. Only he's checking out another woman behind her back, she's just noticed and is not happy.

The Czech Republic's entry obviously touches on the emergence of this sort of social media cheating. It also touches on the Israel/Palestine Conflict. By urging people to listen to what's going on behind the wall (between Israel and the West Bank).

The main focus of the Czech Republic's entry this year was the;

Directive (EU) 2019/790 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 April 2019 on copyright and related rights in the Digital Single Market and amending Directives 96/9/EC and 2001/29/EC.

The title of a piece of EU legislation which itself would probably take up much of a three minute song.

ED 2019/790 was passed by the EU Parliament on March 26th 2019 (26/3/19). Amid the noise of Brexit it was quietly adopted that the April 15th 2019 (15/4/19) EU Council (EUCO) Summit. All EU member states are now obligated to adopt it as domestic law within the next two years.

It should certainly be fun watching British MP's try to adopt ED 2019/790 by passing domestic legislation. Normally they wouldn't have to worry their pretty little heads about something like that. Replaced as they were by the 1972 European Communities Act.

The purpose of ED 2019/790 is to provide universal protection to copyright holders online. Across the EU.

ED 2019/790 has been particularly supported by songwriters and music publishers. A group which is well represented at the Eurovision Song Contest.

They object to large tech companies such as Facebook and particularly YouTube allowing copyrighted material to be uploaded to their platforms. The big tech companies then make money from this copyrighted material through adverts and subscriptions. Without paying the copyright holders their fair share of that money.

Big news organisations also support ED 2019/790. They particularly object to big tech companies, mainly Facebook, including copyrighted articles written by their journalists on people's news feeds. Then making money from that copyrighted material through adverts and subscriptions. Without paying the copyright holders their fair share of that money.

The big tech companies are obviously very opposed to ED 2019/790. It prevents them from profiting from other people's copyrighted material.

It also obligates them to spend money to remove copyrighted material from their platforms. Where it is uploaded without the copyright holders permission.

ED 2019/790 has also met with opposition from ordinary Internet users. They're concerned that it will affect things like memes. The Distracted Boyfriend meme is based on a stock photograph which is presumably protected by copyright.

Although it is intended to target the unearned profits of big tech companies ED 2019/790 could well make it illegal to post things like the Distracted Boyfriend meme. With tech companies forced to tag the image and automatically remove it. They same as they do with child pornography or terrorist propaganda.

Even the band's name "Lake Malawi" sounds like a possible copyright violation. Copied as it was from a song of the same name by the band Bon Iver.

The Republic of Ireland: This year they were represented by Sarah McTernan. With the song "22."

This also touched on ED 2019/790. It could easily be mistaken for a violation of the copyright on the 2012 Taylor Swift song; "22."

In the history of Internet meme wars Taylor Swift has a special place.

Around 2013 some Internet users started producing memes featuring Taylor Swift songs set to video of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler giving speeches. Presumably for no other reason than they thought it was funny.

Taylor Swift's lawyers did not see the funny side. So they very aggressively threatened to sue the Internet users who made the memes along with the tech companies which hosted them for breach of copyright.

Despite the fact that, as they well knew, the use of small amounts of copyrighted material is permitted for the purpose of parody. A form of protected speech under the 1st Amendment of the US Constitution and Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

You suspect that Taylor Swift didn't know much about this. Instead her lawyers were motivated only by a desire to send Taylor Swift a large bill for all the work they'd done threatening innocent Internet users.

Either way the Internet took its revenge.

It quickly became a matter of established Internet fact that Taylor Swift is a fully fledged Nazi and White Supremacist. She was merely waiting for Donald Trump to become US President so she could proudly let her true beliefs be known.

To her credit even Taylor Swift got in on the joke. The artwork for her 2017 Reputation album included lots of references to the Nazi style. Such as rune type lettering.

It's testament to how utterly insane US leftists have become that after releasing the album Taylor Swift was met with demands to publicly denounce Trump and White Supremacists.

In a nice touch Taylor Swift's lawyers responded by threatening to sue.

At around 15:45 on 31/5/19 (UK date) I'll pick this up later.

Edited at around 11:40 on 2/6/19 (UK date) to copy & paste from another window;

The Taylor Swift song 22 is about being aged 22.

The 22 in the Sarah McTernan refers to a house number. Home to a boy with whom she did something she now regrets.

Amongst Song Contest viewers there is a popular game called; "Eurovision Bingo."

Rather than matching randomly drawn numbers to a scorecard you try and match Song Contest cliches. Such as someone singing a song about love, someone singing a song about peace. Someone using fire as part of their stage show or someone using a rain machine.

In traditional bingo, particularly in the UK and Ireland the numbers have their own little nicknames based on their appearence. Such as 88 being known as; "Two Fat Ladies" or 11 being known as; "Legs Eleven."

22 is known as; "Two Little Ducks."

So the main message of Ireland's 2019 entry was to remind everyone of Ireland's 2018 entry. "Together" by Ryan O'Shaughnessy.

That song was all about Brexit. Particularly the effect it would have on both Ireland's economy and on the cross-border trade between Ireland and Northern Ireland which is so important the 1998 Belfast Agreement.

So it was a really vicious and bitter break-up song.

Except in the middle of the staging you had a young gay couple, very much in love. Which made absolutely no sense.

No sense until you realise that the Song Contest has a very large gay and gay friendly fanbase. Once on of the most successful nations as Eurovision Ireland were absolutely desperate to qualify for the Grand-Finale, after years of falling short.

So Ireland simply included this gay couple in the cynical hope that Eurovision fans would vote them through.

Since then this practice has become so widespread that it's developed its own name; "Queer Baiting." When celebrities and corporations tease the idea that they might be gay in order to con gay people out of their money.

Now we're into June, Gay Pride Month, this is something you'll see a lot. Particularly from alcohol companies such as Absolute Vodka.

Even before you get into the prejudice and discrimination being gay can be pretty miserable.

Only about 3% of the population are gay. So when it comes to finding a life partner straight people have around 50% of the population to choose from. Gay people only have around 1.5% of the population to chose from. Making the chances of success much lower.

As a result the gay community experiences much higher levels of loneliness, depression, drug and alcohol abuse.

When big alcohol companies announce that they are supporting Pride Month it's not because they support gay people. It's because they want to profit from their misery.

The 2019 Eurovision Song Contest was of course held in Tel Aviv, Israel. Leading to calls for it to be boycotted over Israel's role in the Israel/Palestine Conflict.

One of the largest Palestinian political parties is Fatah. They were founders of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO).

A Revolutionary Socialist organisation the PLO was part of the Cold War Arc of Resistance. Made up of groups like the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in Turkey and the Irish Republican Socialist Party/Irish National Liberation Army (IRSP/INLA) in Ireland/Northern Ireland.

This has meant there have long been deep links of solidarity between Palestinians and Irish Republicans. Meaning that the Republic of Ireland was under particularly pressure to boycott the 2019 Song Contest.

Rather than boycotting the Republic of Ireland decided to attend.

But used their song to remind everyone of the really offensive thing they did last year. In the hope of being voted out at the earliest possible opportunity.

It worked.

11:50 on 2/6/19 (UK date).