After writing about the mathematics of Borda count voting systems as applied to the Eurovision contest, I realized I never posted the Russian performance, presented by the virginal 17-year old Tolmachevy Sisters. Bask in the symbolism of both the staging and the orchestration choices. Those of you with a history or music background will spot it right away.
Marketing genius Clotaire Rapaille must be shedding a tear at the subconscious appeals to Russia’s unspoken culture code. (And in some places, it’s not even subtle – e.g., the sudden color change to the old Soviet Union flag at the height of the song (2:38) as the orchestration steadily slams tubular bells with hammers and the lyrics talk about a rising sun doesn’t require you to reach very far to understand what is being evoked). It’s like something a psychologist would have staged, which impresses me.
Some in the media are reporting it was the first time in almost 60 years any country’s representatives have been audibly booed, as well as any country casting a vote for them, and not everyone in the west is happy about it as they feel it was unfair to ruin what is one of, if not the, biggest night of these girls’ lives in front of a live audience of hundreds of millions of people to protest policies over which they have no control.
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