Sunday, May 22, 2005

The heart of Europe (boom bang-a boom)

Last night's Eurovision Song Contest was fascinating. I don't mean the songs - it is always a mistake to watch the songs - but the voting.

As Terry Wogan pointed out, the bottom four places were occupied by Spain, the United Kingdom, France and Germany, who just happen to be the four largest financial contributors to the European Broadcasting Union. As a picture of how Europe now operates, it could not be bettered.

Progressive Britons used to imagine that if they joined the original six members of the EEC then they would have arrived at the heart of Europe. It now seems that the heart has moved elsewhere.

It's not just that there are the power blocs of Balkan and Baltic states which vote for one another with ruthless discipline. As well as there being this geographic shift there has been a cultural one.

When the UK chose Javine's "Touch my Fire" we probably thought we were being rather daring choosing a song with such a Bollywood sound. As it happened there was nothing daring about it at all. Europe's heart has moved a long way to the east, and now everyone sounds something like that. If anything, her song was lost in the crowd.

This suggests that the old arguments about a shared Western European culture will no longer wash. The European Union is going to be a far more diverse and interesting place than we had once imagined, though for how much longer Western European voters will want to go on funding it remains to be seen.

So where does the UK go from here in Eurovision? That Moldovan grandmother with her drum put me in mind of the British group Lieutenant Pigeon from the early 1970s and their classic "Mouldy Old Dough". That had the leader's mother playing second piano.

Their oompah sound may be just what we need to gain some Central European votes next time. I wonder if they are still playing?

No comments: