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On May 26, when Sweden s Loreen Talhaoui took to the stage at the 57th annual EurovisionSong Contest in Baku, the lights fell and eventually the faux snowfollowed. Performing Euphoria, a clubby meditation on the powerof love, she howled into a wind machine and suggested that romancehelps us transcend everyday troubles: Forever and ever together,we sail into infinity, she sang. We re higher and higher andhigher, we re reaching for divinity. Her occasional writhing andjerky dance moves screamed "woman in a straightjacket." But the choreography also reflected the madness thatfrequently accompanies infatuation. The dance represents freedom,and not to have any rules, she said at a press conference after her landslide victory. Don t have any rules. Don t thinkso much. Just be whatever you want to be. It will work. And itdid. Eurovision, the pan-European singing contest that is watched bymore than 120 million viewers annually, has earned a reputation asa festival of kitsch where sex appeal and cleavage matter more thantalent. But Loreen s win represents a triumph of minimalism overgaudiness, and suggests Europe s mood has shifted during a time of austerity . Russia s Buranovskiye Babushki a group of six grandmothers with a combined age of nearly400 also played the simplicity card. They wore traditionalpeasant wear while dancing around a fake oven pretending to bakebread. The comforts of home and one rather adorable babushka whorepeatedly vogued for the camera helped them finish second withtheir number Party for Everybody. Typical euro-pop fluff didn't fare so well. EleftheriaEleftheriou, the 23-year-old Greek contestant, sang a song called Aphrodisiac while dancing in front of a giant clam. She wore iridescentpanties to match her iridescent dress, but only finished in17th place. ( MORE: Ukraine's Eurovision Selection Marred by Right-Wing Racism ) WATCH: For Azerbaijan, which won the right to host Eurovision by winning last year s contest , money wasn't an issue. Its economy has nearly tripled insize since 2006, owing mostly to large windfalls of oil and gas.Hoping to burnish its international image, and to distractattention from its spotty human rights record , officials sank at least $67 million into hosting the event more than double what host cities typically spend. They constructedthe stunning Crystal Hall Arena, the Eurovision venue designed toresemble a diamond necklace, in just eight months. "It s notonly an advertisement," Fakhraddin Gurbanov, Azerbaijan sambassador to Britain, told me recently . "It s the introduction of our country to the world. In its bid to portray itself as a modern country at ease with theWest, Baku imported thousands of London-style taxis and paintedthem with the Eurovision logo and its slogan Light your fire! (The drivers, eager to protect their new wheels, frequently placedshower caps on the head rests and bubble wrap on the floor.) Thecity also provided complimentary bus tours for the 1,600journalists in town to cover Eurovision. The four-hour excursiontook visitors past landmarks of Baku s burgeoning wealth, like theExcelsior Baku Hotel and the JW Marriott both of which opened intime for Eurovision. When the bus snaked past a row of shops thatincluded Gucci, Bulgari and Christian Dior, the guide articulatedwhat most visitors had already figured out. My country is verycapitalist, he said. His enthusiasm sometimes came off as athreat. You will not forget about Baku at the end of yourlife!" ( MORE: Monetary Break Dance: Eurovision Takes On the Euro-Zone Crisis ) Officials also gave each journalist a crystalline paper weight thatincluded an orb with Azeri oil in the middle. And they distributedcountless pamphlets. "All the promotional materials they gaveus weigh about 32 kilos. I can't take that on the plane, says Dean Vuletic , a historian and Eurovision authority at the European UniversityInstitute in Florence. "If anything it's made me morecritical of the state. None of it was very objective. Journalistsand fans alike scoured through copies of Baku a glossy magazine published by Cond Nast and edited by thePresident s daughter and a 14-page pamphlet that, among otherthings, discussed the country's "multipartydemocracy" and the Nagrono-Karabakh conflict in which Armenian secessionists began a bloody war which has resulted inthe occupation of roughly one-fifth of the territory ofAzerbaijan. Azerbaijan said it would guarantee the safety of Armeniancontestants at Eurovision. But Yerevan withdrew ahead of thecontest anyway amid security concerns . Fans and journalists alike left Baku understanding why theArmenians might have felt uncomfortable. Regional maps hung onwalls in the city depict all of Azerbaijan's neighbors including Iran and Turkey. But they leave the land mass that isArmenia blank. The Euroclub a focal point of every Eurovision,where fans dance the night away to past and present Eurovisionsongs turned political too. Authorities banned DJs, supplied byEurovision fan clubs, from playing Armenian Eurovision songs, whichalso happen to be some of the most popular of all time. Speaking toa group of Azeri 20-somethings during a rather loud performance oneevening, I told them I was American. Their brows furrowed and ascowl crept over each of their faces. Armenian? Misunderstandings like that are easily cleared up. More troublesomeare threats and perceived threats leveled againstEurovision's large fan base of gay men. Religious extremiststhreatened to kill homosexual visitors and to disrupt the songfestival. As one man wrote on a Russian news site in April: Eurovision is a nightmare for all Muslim people. Forces of Satan,perverts, and homosexuals of the world must know what they cannoteasily come to our land where righteous Muslims spilled their bloodand have as they want. They will be attacked for sure. Just lastweek, a group of hackers, worried that Baku would sanction a gaypride parade during Eurovision, brought down several Azeri Eurovision websites ahead of the contest. Gaysweren't the only folks running scared. Israel s delegationsent in swat teams to protect its Eurovision contestants. Since2009, Azeri officials have thwarted two attempted attacks on theIsraeli embassy in Baku one in 2009, the other earlier thisyear. ( MORE: Azerbaijan's Eurovision P.R. Blitz ) To prepare for such threats, Azeri security forces conducted secretoperations throughout the country, and detained members of illegalextremist groups in the months leading up to Eurovision. During theEurovision final and the two semifinals, hundreds ofplainclothes security forces were embedded in the audience.Forces in their military fatigues could be seen roaming the halls. The sight of armed forces didn't exactly fit withEurovision's mission to be Europe's Joy Factory. Butthe event went off without incident. Well, for fans anyway.Throughout the two weeks of rehearsals and the competition, thegovernment had no choice but to listen as journalists andcontestants raised concerns about human rights.Sweden's Loreen, the eventual winner, met withopposition politicians on two occasions. When a journalist askedabout those encounters, the Azeri M.C. suggested that that type ofquestion killed the atmosphere. The sea of Western journalistshissed and Loreen later pledged to help civil society any way she can. The most embarrassing moment for the government, however, cameduring the show's live broadcast, when representatives fromall 42 countries presented their results. The German presenter AnkeEngelke spoke directly to the people of Azerbaijan. "Tonight,nobody could vote for their own country, but it is good to be ableto vote and to have a choice," she said. "Good luck onyour journey, Azerbaijan. Europe is watching you." ( MORE: How Armenia and Azerbaijan Wage War Through Eurovision ) Adams is a staff writer at the London bureau of TIME . Find him on Twitter at @willyleeadams or on Facebook. You can also continue the discussion on TIME s Facebook page and on Twitter at @TIME . The e-commerce company in China offers quality products such as LED Lights For Bicycles , China Led Commercial Lighting Fixtures, and more. For more , please visit Industrial Lighting Fixture today!
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