this week is the finale of american idol, and i don't much care. the interesting contestants (like chris daughtry) are long gone, tyler hicks is too spazzy for me, and katherine is only in the finals because she is a hot female (thus drawing both the female vote and the whoa-she-is-hot vote). big whoop.

in europe, though, the world of the televised "battle of the bands" is going differently. europe has a show called eurovision which is a sort of a group version of idol, typically filled with the same kind of pap that fills idol, but this year something different happened:

Dressed as bloodthirsty orcs and warning Europe to "get ready to get scared" the rockers from Arctic Lapland took the stage as Eurovision outsiders and left as winners who had taken the contest to what Terry Wogan described as a new level of foolishness with their song Hard Rock Hallelujah.

the band is called lordi. they dress a bit like gwar, though their sound is closer to kiss meets motorhead.

eurovision actually predates american idol... by decades. the show has been around since 1956 and previous winners include the likes of ABBA and celine dion.

take a look at the new abba, performing their song "hard rock hallelujah" on eurovision:



here's the music video for the same song:


it's been a decade since i gave a damn about hard rock or metal, but a band like lordi winning a contest like eurovision is freaking awesome.¶