in which I get all deep about Eurovision

I can’t even begin to count the number of times that I have heard the song since that victorious night, on car radios, at last night’s victory concert, sung by random passersby. I’m not sick of it yet. If you want to join in the fun and have this song become your constant companion, click here.

And it’s really hard to not get all deeper meaning about it, even though it makes me feel like an 8^th grader writing a book report. What does it mean that Europe picked a ballad in Serbian sung by a lesbian (The rumors have been confirmed.) as the best song and the runner up was a Ukranian drag queen? Sign of acceptance or a restriction of sexual minorities to The Annual Freak Parade (to steal JC's words)?

And what does it mean that Martti Ahtisaari, Finnish UN Special Envoy for the Kosovo Final Status Negotiations, made a special public congratulatory statement to Marija (the singer) and Marija herself talked about this victory being for a ‘new Serbia?’

Can a cheesy, but very good, pop song really be that significant?

And in probably my favorite bit of look, there is significance here, last night’s celebratory ‘Thank You, Marija’ event was at Belgrade City Hall, which is located more-or-less across the street from the Federal Assembly Building, where the Milošević memorial was held 14 months ago. Not only was the average age of the attendees at last night’s event decades younger than the average age at Milošević’s shindig, but they were all facing in the opposite direction. Look, it’s the new Serbia facing a new direction. So heavy-handed.

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A parting tip for future Eurovision watchers: while it may seem clever at first to have ‘every time they switch languages mid-song, have a drink’ be part of the evening’s festivities, I would advise against it. Inevitably, there will be a song like this year’s Romanian entrant; six guys, each of whom sing in a different language tell someone (the same someone?) that they love her. My glass was affixed to my cup for three solid minutes, only stopping to refill at the musical interlude.