Here in the Eurovision Fam we want to feature YOU! No, not all of you, but a few YOUs in the Eurovision Song Contest fandom. We’re reviving a well-loved past feature format, where we highlight and center the voices of individual fans who are not from Eurovision participating countries.
This is the third installment where our audience gets to know a little more of each member of the current Eurovision Fam team. Today, we’re featuring Brooke, who is part of our editorial team!
Check out the latest Eurovision Family Member:
Brooke
Where are you from?
USA
When and how did you discover the Eurovision Song Contest?
20-some years ago, one of my close friends from the UK would tell me about Eurovision as it happened each year, and her stories of the contest stuck with me as something that was exactly my thing. During the pandemic, I remembered her stories, discovered old contests lived on YouTube, watched 2021 live and basically made ESC 40% of my personality from that point on.
What is your all-time favorite Eurovision Song?
My all-time favorite song, periodt, is “Brividi” (Italy 2022) and you can miss me with negative comments about the grand final performance. The jury show was perfect, the studio track is perfect, and I’ll always have the absolutely electric Sanremo performances.
And while I have your attention, the greatest song in the history of the universe (I don’t count it as my favorite, because it transcends human things like favorites) is “Fai Rumore” and I sincerely believe that song is older than the earth itself and Diodato was simply chosen by the universe to share it with us all. There’s a Jeff Tweedy quote from his recent book where he says, “There are some songs so perfect it’s impossible to imagine them ever not existing. Melodies so seamless that it makes no sense to contemplate how they were constructed. Miniature suns and moons. Here long before us, and sure to survive long after we’re gone. Music that arrives not as something new but as something that finally has a name. This song feels like it’s been a part of me for as long as I’ve had me to feel.” A friend sent me a picture of that paragraph from his book after having heard me go on and on saying this much less eloquently about “Fai Rumore” for a couple of years.
Who is your favorite Eurovision winner and why?
“Molitva” I could listen to that song on repeat for hours. It just soars in all the right ways.
What is your favorite Eurovision Contest year and why?
2014 – because it’s got an absolutely iconic winner in Conchita Wurst, one of my favorite stage set-ups, and, as a sincere supporter of women’s wrongs, it also gave me my favorite Polish entry ever.
Also, if I’m truly and completely honest, my favorite year is always the current year! Recency bias has a grip on me, so once I’m immersed in the songs they’re always my favorites.
If you could change one thing about the Eurovision Song Contest what would it be and why?
Probably nothing, but selfishly, I might make an argument for raising the age of participants, mostly because I stress out and can’t enjoy myself when an actual child is on stage.
What do you LOVE about being in the Eurovision fan community?
The passion of the fans! If you’re a part of this community you love ESC deeply and obsessively. Whether we agree on songs or styles or staging doesn’t matter, because we love the show and want it to be a success. Rarely do I encounter someone rooting for a specific song to flop. Usually, everyone is cheering hard for their favorite and still hoping for all of the other acts to put on a great and entertaining show! What’s not to love about that energy?
What is the hardest thing about being a fan NOT from a participating country?
Nothing, now that the rest of the world has a vote! Fans in North and South America kind of have the best of both worlds. We get to vote and we get to watch the show in the afternoon and still have the rest of the evening to watch it again!
