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PaperclipPerfector  6d ago (text post)   2657 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for May 16, 2025

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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Boy, have I ever got some bad news for you.

What's the reasoning behind this? Did they just decide that it's good business to keep expanding the contest year after year? Is it eventually going to turn into a worldwide contest?

Despite the name, the contest has nothing to do with the European Union. Any countries which are members of the European Broadcasting Union (itself, counter-intuitively, not limited only to European broadcasters) are eligible to enter. At various points, entries from China, Kazakhstan and Qatar have been considered.

Cool, thanks. That's the first time I've ever heard of the European Broadcasting Union.

Seems like the US is also a member!

Nah, Turkey's got that little bit to the NW of Istanbul that I think counts, so partial credit. I guess historically it's more a production of the "European Broadcasting Union" as a media co-op, but still, what sell-outs

Azerbaijan is also considered to be partially in Europe, due to the funky way Europe's usually defined (part of it is north of the Greater Caucasus, and Europe is defined with the boundary being Urals-Caspian Sea-Greater Caucasus-Black Sea).

@FtttG

Hot take: "Europe" is only a separate continent because geographers have a very eurocentric view in drawing the lines. Every other continent has a pretty clear separation from its neighbors by sea or at least small isthmus. "Eurasia" makes more sense from the map.

Not Eurocentric; Med-centric. This one goes back to Ancient Greece, and when you're a maritime civilisation in the Mediterranean there are three big lumps of land of relatively-similar coastline around it: Europe, Africa, and (West) Asia. From the Med's point of view, Europe and Asia are separate, because of the Turkish Straits; it's only if you know/care about the far shore of the Black Sea that they seem connected.

EDIT: It's dubious how much relevance this has to history, but it should be noted that there have been times within human habitation that the Caspian Sea has become connected to the Black Sea. There may be again, if we melt the Antarctic Ice Sheet. With the Caspian connected to the Black, and thus the Med, Europe starts looking considerably more like its own thing.

Tired: Europe is a continent

Wired: Europe is not a continent

Inspired: Europe is a continent, and so is India

Yeah, admittedly Turkey and Azerbaijan are edge cases as far as geography goes. Culturally, on the other hand...

Might as well add bangaldesh at this point.

I think a Bollywood dance number could really liven the thing up. Something like this would make for a nice change of pace from the monotony of sombre ballads, Eurodisco and reggaeton.

Is the melody that is played on the strings the same in many Indian songs? You know, how The Ink Spots started every song with the same tune or how Johnny Cash used the same two chords for like half of his songs?

Or is the timbre of this instrument so distinctive it overrides my perception of the melody?

It's probably different lol. Though people use the same sample in most pop music on various regional TV channels is different.

@FtttG do people in the west mostly see Indian pop music? Indian exports at one point were more classical in nature.

I guess this song is simply so memetic that I must have heard samples of it a gorillion times in various videos.

I think it was used in that movie The Dictator.

Honestly, I didn't even know Indian classical music was a thing before reading your comment.

I know extremely little about music from that part of the world so I can't comment. @self_made_human, @mrvanillasky, care to weigh in?

I'm far from an expert, but this is a quintessentially Punjabi melody/beat.

It's far more representative of India as perceived by non-Indian, but the former is the association that one of us who isn't irony poisoned would make. I think very similar beats are in vogue for mid 2000s Punjabi music, not so much so today.

Lol, my aunts a popular folk singer, the kind of dance we have is quite mellow, ghoomar since Rajasthan is hyper conservative.

Are there any performances that you really liked in any eurovisions?

https://youtube.com/watch?v=w07N2nfB7KY

I haven't watched it for about twenty years. Of the performances last night my favourites were Germany and Latvia. I can actually see myself listening to the German entry for pleasure, which is unprecedented for me I think.

Ban them! BAN THEM ALL!

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