Blaise Tapp: Eurovision fever has reached an all-time high at Chez Tapp
For many of a similar persuasion to me, May is arguably the greatest of all the months due to the sheer number of sporting events which fall within it.
The climax of both the football and the rugby seasons, the FA Cup finals - in our house, the women’s final is just as important as the men’s - not to mention the culmination of the Champion’s League, mean that this is the month when weeding and any other tedious household chores are put on the back burner. Even if you’re not a fan of watching professional athletes do their thing, May also heralds the start of summer and the beginning of barbecue season but, perhaps most importantly, is also when the greatest showbiz spectacle on the planet is beamed into our living rooms, and I’m not talking about Britain’s Got Talent.
While Eurovision might not be everybody’s mug of PG Tips, it’s popularity endures, with a staggering 163 million people watching last year’s final and semi final shows, and this weekend’s event promises to be just as big and as flamboyant.
Eurovision fever is at an all-time high in Chez Tapp, with flags and a selection of snacks from various European nations currently on order. Apart from Christmas and possibly Halloween, it’s hard to remember a time of year when our nine year old gets more excited than he is right now. Unlike the vast majority of people who will tune in on Saturday night, we’re already well across the acts who will be taking to the stage in Basel, thanks to a never ending running commentary from our music loving boy, who has watched all 37 entries on repeat.
Call it naivety, call it wishful thinking, he thinks the UK entry from the group Remember Monday will walk away with the title this weekend, overlooking the reality of bloc voting and the fact that we’ve become the Millwall FC of Europop - no one likes us and we don’t really care. But, I won’t burst his bubble just yet because there’s genuine joy to be gained from watching a bright-eyed primary schooler sing along to every tune, even the really dire ones, of which there will be many. Why spoil it all by giving him an unwanted lesson in recent history.
There remains an awful lot of anti-Eurovision snobbery, largely from those who’ve never watched it and therefore haven’t experienced the sheer madness of it all. All I know is that come Saturday night we’ll be filling in our homemade scorecards while stuffing our faces with Tapas, chocolate eclairs and whatever Swiss delicacies I can find down at our local supermarket.