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Advent 2019

There were no Advent Calendar videos on the 1st or 2nd. That's because either the pizza hygiene was bad, or there was something in it that my stomach had a strong reaction to. Either way, I was not well on Sunday evening, and up through a lot of the night. But since this sometimes happens (I seem to have inherited some of mom's weird food intolerances), I got up on Monday and went to work. And, just to rub salt into a wound, I have come down with a cold. Yay December...

Anyway, here's the video for the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd:

And here is the one for today:

I won't be updating my site daily like in previous years. Instead, you can follow the YouTube playlist:

(or the link on the right bar in desktop view)

 

Ireland's Junior Eurovision Song

I have to say, this one is the standout for me. And the performer, Anna Kearney, makes Irish sound such a lovely language. And, as an aside, I learned that "banshee" is actually properly written "bean sí".
I was thinking, while at work, that the only two things that the performance missed in its Irishness was somebody in a cape, and a black horse charging along a beach.

The "official video" does not disappoint (subtitles available in English and Irish):

 

A woman (the banshee?) in a hooded cape:

Anna, wearing a rather lovely red lace dress under... yup... she gets a cape too!

and:

And, of course, the black horse. It's a bit random stuffing this into the video, but, dammit, there had to be a black horse on a beach so here it is:

The video itself, however, is a bit creepy. You see, forget all the Hollywood bollocks about banshees making people's heads explode by wailing. A proper authentic banshee is simply wailing/singing/mourning the death of somebody. But, since it's folklore and folklore needs to be freaky, the banshee mourns the recently deceased before they have died.

So... we have a young girl (what is she, twelve or something?) who is singing Ná bí scanraíthe faoin mbean sí which basically means "don't be afraid of the banshee".
She sings this, while variously standing on an embankment like a Ghibli girl and... while running through random forest, running away from the banshee.

But at the end of the song she meets the woman in the cape on the beach, takes her hand, and they both walk away together.

Um... Is this symbolism to imply that the girl... just died?

If so... damn!
That's pretty heavy for Eurovision, never mind the Junior one!

 

 

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Last read at 16:28 on 2024/10/13.

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