Cónal Creedon: Eurovision, the zeitgeist barometer

To dismiss the pop music extravaganza as trite would be an error of judgement — it is a snapshot of what it means to be European at any given moment in time

The Kalush Orchestra pose onstage with the winner's trophy and Ukraine's flags after winning last year's Eurovision Song contest. Picture: Marco Bertorello/AFP via Getty Images

Anyone with even a passing interest in Eurovision will have come across Will Ferrell’s The Story Of Fire Saga on Netflix. 

In a narrative fuelled by an obsession for the Icelandic nonsense-lyric, Ja Ja Ding Dong, the Eurovision Song Contest is exposed as a cliché-ridden parody of itself — a frivolous, evanescent, inconsequential popular music feast of glitz, glam and glitter.