Europe’s biggest conflation of pop music, sheer spectacle and the ridiculously attractive begins this weekend for Eurovision 2012, when 26 nations square off in Baku, Azerbaijan for the the glory of being crowned ‘song everyone talks about ’til next year.’
Finalists include Ireland’s impossibly haired twins, Jedward, Hungary’s punningly named Compact Disco and Russian “ethno-pop band” Buranovskiye Babushki, an eight-strong collective of elderly woman who look like the titular Baboushka dolls, with their song, “Party for Everybody.”
But BBC News reports that Spanish contestant, Pastora Soler, has been urged by her fellow countrymen not to win.
The strange vouch of patriotic (anti-)support came after after the electro-flamenco diva admitted that her country would find hosting Eurovision a financial struggle if she was to claim victory in the competition. Under the rules of the contest, the public broadcaster of the nation that wins must host the competition the following year.
“If we won” Soler told reporters, “I think it would be impossible to stage the next edition because it costs so much money.”
She continued to mention how a meeting over her entry “Quédate conmigo (Stay With Me)”, in which directors of the Spanish public television network TVE, nervously joked to the singer, “please, don’t win!”
“I think it is not the moment, neither for Spain nor for Spanish public to win Eurovision” admitted Soler.
Hurriyet Daily noted in the same report that “the Spanish government had slashed spending in public television and raised taxes to reduce the nation’s public deficit.”
You can listen to Soler’s (hopefully) losing Eurovision entry, “Quédate conmigo (Stay With Me)” below
