I Have A Vision...And It's In Euro!

Last night, Matt and I had the opportunity to go to a live television extravaganza at the BBC studios. Our friends had two extra tickets to this live extravaganza and we couldn't resist the pull of the bright lights and glamor of show business. It's always fun to see how things work on tv, and yes, we do sound very cool when we casually mention our night out at the Beeb. But there was another reason we were excited. Well, at least why Matt was excited. See, the live televised extravaganza wasn't just any ordinary show...oh no...it was to narrow down with act would represent the UK in the Eurovision competition.

Eurovision? You're thinking to yourself. That sounds like a 3D show you'd see at Disneyland or something! Trust me, I know. Before moving here, I'd never heard of it either. And since moving here, I'd heard of it, but kind of thought it was cheesy and a really weird waste of time and money. Let me give you a little history, Eurovision has been going on for years, like since 1956 and is one of the longest running programs in the world. It's also one of the highest watched non sporting events in the world (thank you wikipedia). Traditionally, the acts are kind of cheesy and usually the winner might do okay in their country and in some areas around Europe, but rarely do they make it really 'big'. the most notable Eurovision winners who have won are Abba, and Celine Dion (who interestingly enough was representing Switzerland, not sure why since she's French Canadian). And that's it. Like I said, in recent years, the Eurovision contestants have been kind of cheesy and laughable (in my opinion, Matt completely disagrees).

The UK hasn't won a Eurovision contest since 1976...at least that's the impression they gave us last night at the live extravaganza, but according to wikipedia and the official Eurovision website, the UK actually took first in 1981 and 1997...so I'm not sure what's up with the lies we were led to believe.

Anyway, no matter when the UK last won, they are determined to win it again (which made much more sense if they hadn't won for 30 years, not so much now). Andrew Lloyd Webber the musical genius who wrote Phantom of the Opera, Evita, Cats, Jesus Christ Superstar and a whole bunch of other musicals, is writing the song that the winning act will perform at Eurovision. He's teamed up with a really talented (American) lyricist who's name I can't remember, but has written a bunch of songs we've all heard of (Rhythm of the night, Nothing's going to stop us now etc).

The live extravaganza is called "Your Country Needs You" and consists of six acts total, one is eliminated each week. The public votes for who they like and the lowest two are in the 'danger zone' and ALW gets to save one of the acts. So yeah, it's like American Idol or X factor...except the voting lines are only open for about 20 minutes and you know that same night who will get sent home. Last night narrowed the acts down from five to four.

So yeah, that's how we spent our Saturday night. It was fun to see all the behind the scenes moments of a live broadcast. We didn't realize that our tickets were just for standing room. We'd already been standing in line and whatnot for about 2 hours and to stand for another 2 hours and dance or whatever (right by the stage) was not ideal for an almost 6 month pregnant woman. Matt flagged an official person and asked if there was a spare chair available (which were reserved for friends and family and people who know important people) and they were able find an empty seat for just me. So I sat with the cool kids, while Matt and our friends hung out down below and danced the night away. It suited all of us just fine!

So because of last night we can add to our list of celebrities we've actually seen with our own eyes and in Matt's case, he was literally two or three feet from them (since he was right between the stage and the judges area).

We have Andrew Lloyd Webber:

Graham Norton (he hosted):

Duncan (from the defunct group Blue, he's a UK celeb):

And of course, one of the potential Eurovision winners. Maybe they'll make it huge and we can say we knew them when...

Jealous? It's okay...you can live vicariously through us.