BowAndArrowMan

Sweden's Loreen: Last night's Eurovision Song Contest, held in the Swedish city of  Malmö,  was quite a strange affair. It was most unEurovision-like. The previous year's winners always host the next contest - last year was won by Sweden's Loreen. Eurovision, the most watched non-sporting contest in the world, usually tries to keep politics out of its proceedings. The idea behind Eurovision, which started in 1956, was and still is to bring Europeans (and more latterly Israelis and Australians) together through music. But this year's Eurovision, rightly or wrongly, was very political. Two years ago, following its invasion of Ukraine and continued occupation of large parts of the country, Russia was banned from participating in Eurovision. Three years ago, Belarus was banned for submitting an entry mocking anti-government protests in its country. This year's Eurovision was largely overshadowed by demonstrations against Israel's occupation of Gaza. All songs en...