American Idol vs. Eurovision

The hype in the U.S. still keeps up. As far as a season long adventure goes on at Hollywood studios. In many other countries Freemantle syndicated shows went on and off and mostly lasted only a few seasons. In the U.S. the Idol is enjoying its eighth season. Despite many critics branding it as the worst season ever, I still believe in teenage power. The immense authority we witnessed in the personality of Kelly Clarkson, disappointment-turned-stardom in the case of Jennifer Hudson and many more like Underwood justified usefulness of the show. However, Americans taking the show too seriously need a reality check and listen to the age old experience of their European friends.

Europeans have been witnessing popular music vote for almost four decades now. First started as a network link check among national TV broadcasters in Europe, Eurovision Song Contest is one of the yearly favorite shows on this continent. Despite incredible rule changes over time it still attracts the attention of viewers from Armenia to Portugal; from Iceland to Israel. Major TV network of each country selects a song by different means and sends the contestant to an event taken care of by the last year's winner country and people vote by text messages and phones during the event. Every year as the neighbors vote for neighbors, one song stands out and wins the whole thing. Then the discussion starts. If you use Facebook (how blasé) and have a few European friends you must have noticed the YouTube videos they've been pushing and the opinions galore lately. It's been the event.

Across the Atlantic, season eight of the Idol is wrapping up this week. My personal favorite Allison Iraheta eliminated just before the finals, what is left for me to watch is the irrelevant and the self-indulgent as an Idol candidate. Nevertheless the enormous turn-out of the votes shows that the public is still interested.

On the other hand Eurovision has lost the interest of its European audience over the years and EBU (the organizing unit) have been introducing Eurovisions of dancing, of kids and new countries as far as mid-Asia. And with no surprise this year a Norwegian youngster with a simplistic tune about fairies won and made his tribute to the year of Stephenie Meyers! And by doing so he beat International stars like Patricia Kaas (representing France), an Andrew Lloyd Webber tune (representing United Kingdom), and Sakis Rouvas of Greece by a difference of overwhelming votes. This used to be a very unlikely case.

To cut the long story short, Idol is still delivering its promise. I, at least really hope that Iraheta would be a rock star. She has all the makings of. I'm sure Adam Lambert can find a ticket for Broadway. I have no idea what Kris Allen is doing on the last two, but I guess there are many stuff concerning reality shows that evade me.

Eurovision would go another series of rule changes and would include countries like Canada, or maybe even Australia, and try to produce likes of Abba in the future. But I'm sure both shows keep on serving their promise of promoting popular music and affect the lives of young people by bringing them alternatives in the sounds that they tune into.