Of late, I have been trying to give each month a music theme. March saw Classical Music, while April saw Terrible Music as voted by the general public. This month we are switching to the Eurovision Song Contest.

Background Information

For those of you who don't know (mainly those outside Europe), we Europeans have a musical contest during the month of May. It has been running for some 50+ years, and has expanded considerably over the last decade or so due to the inclusion of Eastern Europe. Each country that decides to participate that year sends a group with a song. It has gotten so large that we know have to have Semi-Finals in order to determine which countries go to the Final. Certain countries, like the hosts, the UK, Spain, France and Germany are in the Final automatically. Everyone else has to qualify for the remaining 20 places. The greatest debate and contraversary about Eurovision is the political nature of the voting. It definitely has come to fore since the Eastern European countries have been added.

Activities

Over the month, the Band of the Red Hand will be hosting many activities based on Eurovision. They include:

- 4 Tune or No Tunes, including this year's winner

- A general discussion on the Contest

- 2 "It's A Knockout" - one for recent winners, and another for the older songs, with the 2 winners going head-to-head

- For the 2 Semi-Finals and the Final (cricket depending), Corki's views on each contest, which you are more than welcome to get involved with

- Revisiting Corki's Top 10 flops and Top 10 winners

- Our own contest, as members of DM pick their winning songs in the manner of Eurovision voting

- Possible other threads depending on my studies for exams in June!

I hope you will take the time to get involved and make this event a success!

Corki

Marshal-General

Band of the Red Hand ORG Leader