Poland does a Kazakhstan over ‘dodgy’ slur
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“If my wife and I get a little bored, we call up a dodgy Pole.”
So sang Magnus Uggla in his pomp-laden entry into Melodifestivalen, the competition to find Sweden’s song for Europe.
Whatever happened to the slushy songs of hope and togetherness that characterised the Eurovision entries of yesteryear? And exactly how many points does Mr Uggla expect to get from Poland if his song is selected to represent Sweden?
Actually, it almost certainly won’t be selected. Partly because there are better songs in the competition, but also because Poland has taken offence to the song and made its feelings known through diplomatic channels.
Diplomats and foreign ministries should know better than to get themselves in a tizz about songs and films which are less than polite about their homeland. Have they learned nothing from Kazakhstan’s altercation with Borat?
That it is Poland making the fuss is particularly surprising. In 2005, after ‘the Polish plumber’ had come to characterise the influx of cheap labour from the new members of the EU, Poland responded with a saucy advertising campaign:
Now that’s how to deflect aspersions cast on your national character. Not by getting into a spat with a pop star in need of publicity.
March 6th, 2007 at 2:44 pm
I rather think their being offended was justified. Since when is it acceptable to be racist in Melodifestivalen?
You don’t hear Poles singing about nazis, or Latvians singing about the Soviet Union, or even about Swedes making money by selling weaponry to sketchy foreigners.
March 9th, 2007 at 8:55 am
To the Author of this dizzy article: there is sligtly different to say “dodgy Pole” and promote our workers abroad by this kind of post, that is actually marketing tool and it doesn t hurt anybody. don t you think ? do you feel small fcken difference??