A Swede who lives in Finland and who is lost in Euroland - the wonderful world of Eurovision
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Sunday, March 6, 2011

Portugal and the Struggle

One must understand the Portuguese - after three successful years in a row it easily gets a bit tedious to always be in the final. It is easy to long for the bad old days when nobody understood what you were up to and you could enjoy feeling sorry for yourself as you failed to score.

I suppose that is what happened on Saturday night as Homens da Luta knocked out all competition and won the golden ticket to Düsseldorf.



Homens da Luta - Luta è alegria (Portugal 2011)

The title roughly means that the struggle will bring you joy. Good, because struggle they will.

This comedy group has made it their special thing to parody the special brand of culture that appeared following the 1974 revolution. Possibly a bit fun if you were around at that time. And very informed about the domestic matters of Portugal.

For the rest of us, this contains absolutely nothing. No much tune, no much fun. Even the singing is pretty flat.

The only tiny amusement I can find is that the lead singer looks a bit like this former Portuguese participant:



Duarte Mendes - Madrugada (Portugal 1975)

But in no way does that make up for the three minutes the Portuguese take off my life and that I will never get back.

Humour almost never works in Eurovision, since it is usually very local. What makes people laugh in Portugal will not make other people laugh.

Can everyone please take notes for future reference, please?

3 comments:

  1. Well you should understand that:

    - Portugal never won the festival anyway . So in the end at least we have fun sending someone like this;
    - This music along with other one, is being transformed in the official hymns of the young unemployed people in the country. Not so much for its quality, but as a message of what they feel. Of course for the rest of the Europeans this doesn't say much, but, locally it does. When voting on "Os Homens da Luta", people were sending a message to the politicians, and not really choosing someone for the Euroconstest, which we know we would loose anyway.

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  2. Well, I do understand all of this. But sending a joke to a song contest is as useful as sending a cow to a cat exhibition. Maybe it is fun for you, but you are wasting everyone's time as well as your own money.

    As for Portugal never being able to win... I live in Finland, who believed the same about themselves until they won.

    In a competition you take part to win, or you could just as well stay at home.

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  3. I wonder if they will translate this song into English. I'm afraid that it would be even less funny that way. I try not to think about what Eläkeläiset with their "Hulluna humpasta" translated to English would have sounded and looked like in Oslo.

    Mikko

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