Fun:Eurovision Song Contest

The Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) is an annual event where the European countries can let out all the suppressed nationalism they would otherwise vent in association football matches or war. It is the weirdest thing you will ever see. And it is amazing.

Voting and nationalism
While the ESC is in theory a competition to elect the best performance, the fact that 50% of the points are awarded through telephone-voting and 50% through national juries allows politics and ethnic diasporas to influence voting much more than the quality of performance.

Cyprus will give twelve points (the maximum) to Greece. There is a good chance that the Nordic countries vote for each other. Andorra always supports its neighbor Spain. Germany, which has a large population of Turkish migrants, tends to award Turkey with high scores usually to the ire of German commentators assigned to the event on public television. And Russia once complained because Azerbaijan gave them "not enough points".

LGBT
Eurovision has been known as one of the highlights of European LGBT culture even prior to 's "Rise Like a Phoenix".

It should really come as no surprise that this event has come under criticism from right wing "protectors of family values" who hate the fact that it is very popular with LGBT Europeans. Russian homophobes hate the ESC because it is a "gay" event in their minds. Even Putin himself complained about Conchita Wurst.