Last weekend, I was watching the finals from the popular
song contest Eurovision 2007 . Yes, the one that ABBA won back in 1974. When I’ve heard last Summer that Ukraine (I was born there) is planning to send Verka Serduchka to represent the country, I thought it was a joke.
Verka Serduchka looks like a typical middle-age Ukrainian woman, but she’s actually a young man, Andrey Danilko (no, he’s not gay). Verka is very popular in Ukraine and in Russia, and I’ve been to her concert here in the USA about 5 years ago. She looks funny, her language is funny because she speaks like a large portion of women in Ukrainian villages. Her lyrics and music are simple, but it goes well in any typical party especially in the Russian restaurants where people eat, drink and dance. If you haven't had this experience yet, go there… once. The parties on weekends start late, and you’ll be surprised by a variety of food on the table that is served at the same time (they call this setup "bratskaya mogila," which means "mass grave"). After five shots of straight vodka you can enjoy a Broadway-type show, and then more drinks and food.
Anyway, sending Verka to represent any country did not sound too serious, but they did send her there.
Youtube has a video of this song .
The fact that she sang “Russia Good buy” added some spices to the performance – I’ve been listening to the TV host from Russia who was commenting on every performer, and this reminded me the Communists era, “Hmm, she’s going to sing Russia Good Bye even though she says that it’s lasha tumbai, let’s see who’s she trying to full “ .
Verka was singing Russia Good Bye? She does not want to remember that only five yeas ago she was poor as a church mouse, went to Moscow, and now she’s rich and does not need Russia anymore? In this song she states, “Ukraina eto klevo – Ukraine is cool”.
Voting for the winners was live too – European citizens were calling or sending messages. The Russian commentator was not happy, “Hmm, Latvia did not give Russian group Serebro any points… interesting…”. I hope they won’t try to invade Latvia again for this.
Anyway, Verka put up a good show, she was fun and energizing - she won the second place. This is unbelievable, but I’m happy for her, especially after the fifth shot.
1974 was not a bad year though. Not at all.
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Judging from posted Youtube video and previous one, only Japanese/Chinese
could mishear word 'lasha' for 'Russia'.
