"Eurovision is the granddaddy of all talent shows and the Super Bowl of singing"

I don't know where to start in explaining how mistaken that is.

Don't be knocking the Eurovision. The only thing wrong with that statement is that it doesn't capture the IMMENSE MAGNITUDE AND AWESOME NINJA POWER of the competition.

Here's hoping the States do it properly. Remember, people don't want life stories and *heart*, they want a bunch of songs they can vote on. They want to feel robbed when they don't win. They want to vote according to centuries old enmities. They want to be able to laugh at the Polish presenter as she gives her vote. They want to give each other that eyebrow raising thing when Greece gives Cyprus 12 points.

How does Eurovision account for differences in the voting population of the member countries? Or is it just judges?

Each country gets the same voting privileges. So, France get to give 11 of the other countries 12, 10, 9, 8 .. 1 votes. How a country allocates points depends on the country. It used to be that most countries had a judging panel that allocated the votes, but now its more likely to allocate based on popularity in the home country based on phone votes.

The other great thing about Eurovision is that it happens over one night only. It's perfect for a yearly party of friends, beer, dips etc. I'll hear the swedish entry once before the voting. Only Once. If they try and turn it into a series, then they're going to take some of the fun out of it.

I thought American Idol was our Eurovision. Oh, this means more of the same? Then just shoot me now.

And the voting is always highly partisan. Greece and Turkey never give each other any votes. The UK tries to avoid giving any votes for Germany.

It's actually a songwriter's competition, the winner is the songwriter, although that's usually lost somewhere along the way.

The winning song is hardly ever memorable (except for being truly awful Euro-pap). The best songs to win it were 'Waterloo' by Abba and 'What's Another Year', a finely-crafted song performed by Ireland's Johnny Logan.

This might be a good time for talented people to move from Califonia to Wymoning, where the preliminary competition won't be nearly as heavy. (They got like 14 people living in that state?)

Famous entrants in eurovision: Abba (duh!), Celine Dion for Switzerland and I seem to recall that Olivia Newton-John sneaked in too.

The reason a Canadian can enter is because (as seany mentioned) it's about the song not the singer. In fact Britain's last victory was performed by Katrina & the Waves (isn't she a Canadian?).

I hate to say this but I doubt a cross-state competition will be as interesting as the Eurovision. There's too much common ground and too little cultural disparity to make it interesting. Still, I think it's worth a go.

I am totally going to watch this.