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Hi from Basel!
I’m a bit late with the newsletter, but hopefully it’s excusable. The Eurovision week has just started, and I already had a sleepless night right after the opening.
Oh, no, I didn’t go partying. Just me and my laptop, trying to bring you a fair report on what happened at the Turquoise Carpet event that opened the greatest music competition ever televised.
Already, a YouTube short showing pro-Palestine protests before the opening ceremony caused quite a stir among the commenters.
If you, however, want to get the full picture, I strongly recommend watching the newest Pipeaway Walks video, which follows the contestants who cross the town in trams, surrounded by fans and protesters requesting a Eurovision boycott over Israel‘s participation. Don’t make my sleepless editing night go in vain 🙂
Eurovision Song Contest continues to be a controversial competition, with actions that tend to ignore political realities. One of these is its flag policy, which, to avoid politics, makes rules that sometimes create more issues than solutions.
One of these rules is not allowing artists to carry any flags at the main ESC events besides the official flags of the country they represent. Fun fact: the organizers also claim that the artists represent broadcasters, not countries.
But these artists come with such diverse backgrounds that it’s becoming harder to label them, which national flags tend to do. Just take a look at who is representing whom at this meeting of post-national musicians! From Dutch-Congolese singing in French to Norwegians going all in for Ireland… Even the Swedish favorites are actually from – Finland!
The first Semi-Final is tonight (Tuesday), the second one on Thursday, and the winner will be chosen in the Grand Final on Saturday. Here’s where to follow the event even if you don’t have a ticket for the live shows.
If you happen to be in Basel this week, I’m attaching a few more resources on extraordinary things to see and do (that have nothing to do with the Eurovision):
– free things to do in Basel
– best museums in Basel
– Vitra Design Museum (if you want to hop over the border briefly, to Germany)
– Basel Zoo
Well, that’s it for now.
Have a Eurovisionary week!
Ivan Kralj
Pipeaway.com
This is the archived version of our free weekly newsletter. To start receiving it in your mailbox on the send-out day, join the newsletter list!
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