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Tuesday 19 May 2009

Brief Refrain: Ukraine

In the end Eurovision was won by a lad with a fiddle from Norway. My own vote went to plucky Azerbaijan, who finished a creditable third.

The songs weren't great, but there was some eccentric choreography to compensate. A lot of attention has been paid to the Albanian entry, which featured a young girl singing while what appeared to be a green Spiderman and two midgets in Ben Stiller masks gyrated around her (you can see some of this in a compendium of clips Mr F has put up on F-Life! - see links on the right).

But my personal vote for most bonkers choreography went to the Ukraine for this effort:



Roman Soldiers! Women on Stilts! Giant Metal Things! It had everything going for it except a tune. Which is a bit of a handicap, and not something that could be said of the piece of Ukrainian music I bring you tonight.

When in Odessa a few years ago I picked up a CD by a band called Vopli Vidopliassova. Most of it was fairly dreary rock, but tucked away near the end was this marvellous bit of martial loopiness. Roman soldiers would really work with this, maybe with a few buxom wenches in traditional Ukrainian costume. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you "Pidmanula".

http://www.box.net/shared/tjsz9dhf1a

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