Eurovision Songcontest 2012

The Eurovision Songcontest or ESC is a HUGE deal in Germany. Not so much in the UK, though. Maybe it's because we have cool representatives like Roman Lob:

and the UK has er nice gentleman like Engelbert Humperdinck singing for them?

This year I watched the spectacle with an American friend who had never seen the Concours Eurovision de la Chanson before. So I had to explain how the annual competition held among active member countries of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) works. Did you know for example that it takes place every year since 1956? And that Celine Dion won the contest for Switzerland in 1988? Yes, it has a long and interesting history.

My favourite part is the presentation of votes (my American friend didn't enjoy that part quite as much). After the interval act is over, when all the points have been calculated, the hosts of the show call upon each voting country in turn to invite them to announce the results of their vote. It takes forever and is also accompanied but the usual "Thanks so much for the great show tonight!". But that's also the part when unexpected things happen, for example the Finnish jury representative was dressed as a monster (?) this year, or Anke Engelke, the German jury representative, criticised the political regime in Azerbaijan by saying: "Tonight, nobody could vote for their own country, but it is good to be able to vote and it is good to have a choice. Good luck on your journey, Azerbaijan! Europe is watching you!" DANKE, ANKE!

Germany has always been very passionate about the Eurovision Songcontest and one man in particular. Stefan Raab wrote the music for the German entry in 1998, Guildo Horn's "Guildo hat Euch lieb!", and represented Germany in 2000 with "Wadde Hadde Dudde Da?".
In 2004, he created a spin-off to cast the German entry for the Eurovision Song Contest on his show. He called it "SSDSGPS" (Stefan sucht den Super-Grand-Prix-Star, Stefan seeks the super Grand-Prix star, mocking Deutschland sucht den Superstar - DSDS, the German version of  Pop Idol).
In 2005, Stefan came up with the "Bundesvision Song Contest". The contest featured representatives from each of the 16 German states (Bundesländer) and stipulated that their song had to be (at least partly) in German.
In 2010, he searched for the German representative with the show "Unser Star für Oslo" and found Lena Meyer-Landrut who ended up winning the Eurovision Songcontest in 2010:

I think the ESC is very popular in Germany, because Stefan Raab transformed it from an old-fashioned show only our parents would watch to a fresh, exciting, cool must-see event. Maybe that's possible in the UK too?

Another factor that made the ESC more attractive to a younger audience is the interaction with your European friends via facebook and twitter. Apart from sporting events, that's the only TV show everybody in Europe can watch at the same time and talk about it in real-time. So, I'm already looking forward to the next one in Sweden!