I'm Brooke Gladstone with On the Media's Midweek podcast.

This week we talk about a 70 year old global phenomenon involving music and politics about which

I knew absolutely nothing.

Well, recently I was asked by my old friend Charlie to take part in a new podcast,

born of his love of and obsession with Eurovision, an international song contest organized annually

by the European Broadcasting Union or E.B.U. with some reps from some 70 countries. Maybe you already knew that. But did you know that

exactly 50 years ago, Ava won the contest for the song Waterloo. Waterloo.

Waterloo couldn't escape by

want to do.

Now that I understand that what was once in fact a mystery to me actually means the world to tens

of millions of others.

I offer up this episode of the podcast Mysteries of the Euroverse because maybe some of you out there

will find this as intriguing and bizarre as I did. Here's my friend Charlie and

his friend, Magnus.

Something you're going to hear us reference a lot in this episode and future

episodes is Rule 271.

Yeah, that songs and acts need to be apolitical, right?

Eurovision was started in the aftermath of World War II,

and part of at least the self-myology of Eurovision

is that the goal of Eurovision

was to try and help stitch Europe back together.

You know what's the EBS favorite line?

...