If you're in America that is. If you're in Europe you've seen it as the main story for the last week. I'm talking of the Eurovision Song Contest which was Tuesday, Thursday, & Saturday of this past week. And this year was extraordinary. For those that haven't seen Eurovision, here's what you missed - an amazing set of songs, incredibly talented performers, and the largest flashmob every (I think).

Eurovision is sort-of a American Idol combined with the Olympics. Each of the 39 participating countries sends one group to the contest. First off, they can send anyone. That means the groups range from teenagers (Lena from Germany, who won, just graduated from High School) just getting started to experienced professionals (Niamh Kavanagh from Ireland who won the contest in '93). The only limits are that the song must be new and under 3 minutes.

The voting system is so complex it makes the U.S. Presidential primary seem simple by comparison (explained below). But each country has an identical number of votes so Cyprus counts as much as Germany. 34 countries go through a semi-final that reduces them to 20 while 5 countries go straight to the final. Each country decides how to pick their entry. Most have contests within their countries, but some use other systems. They most unusual this year was Cyprus which hired individuals, most from England, to create a group for their entry.

Ok, so why do 125 million people tune in to this. Well first off, no one knows what kind of song will win. Last year the winner was a classical trained violinist from Norway sounding a bit like Charley Daniels - and he won with the highest total votes ever. This year again a number of the expected top finishers ended up in the middle. So you watch the entire contest with no idea who will win.

Second, the level of talent is amazing. Countries are sending their best. Well, occasionally a country sends a group so bad you wonder - what were they thinking. And one person's "great" is another person's tacky stage show or overwrought rendition.

Third, it's a decent variety of music. Yes there's a lot of pop of various types, but also hard rock, ballads, folk and some that defy categorization. I have no idea how to define the song from Serbia - but it is really fun to listen to. The variety makes it a lot more entertaining, and makes it much harder to say one group is "better" than another. There were 4 performers I wanted to win - because they were all the best for the type of song they sung.