> the US version of the song contest To no-one's surprise, they didn't capture the true genius of ESC, because they focused on the contest part, and they had a

> the US version of the song contest To no-one's surprise, they didn't capture the true genius of ESC, because they focused on the contest part, and they had a single body that evaluated all contestants. No, that's not what it's about. Every country participating in ESC selects their contestant any way they want, without oversight or common rules or anything. This leads to the following: 1) Occasionally, a country will send a bat-shit crazy contestant. 2) For a given year, you have no idea which countries are sending serious contestants, and which countries are sending something bat-shit crazy. 3) Occasionally, a bat-shit crazy contestant wins. Anyone can do a competition between competent, serious, contestant. Whatever. It's the crazy that gets people hooked on it. Imagine the Olympics, but a few countries just say "fuck this shit" and send a team of monkeys in lycra instead of a team of athletes. Sometimes the monkeys win. That's Eurovision!