The only real innovation was indeed Australia’s participation (that nearly stole the show) and the new voting system of splitting the juries in two distinctive bodies: the professional juries that had voted before and the public national votes that were cast after the show as usual. This dual procedure added a new level of excitement for hundreds of millions of viewers in Europe and beyond. With a political thriller at the end.

But now to the real issue. As the world goes global, should this European song contest do the same? There might be some organizational constraints, and also a few political false singers out there wanting to keep it all within fortress Europe. But wouldn’t it be truly refreshing and really innovative to open the competition to all countries in the world (like the FIFA does with soccer, but then with less corruption, please!)? Imagine song and dance performances featuring genuine world music, including Latin American salsa and the like, Antilles reggae, African folk music, Arabic raï, and not to forget Indian Bollywood acts and modern Chinese opera! I’d go for it; how about you?

And why not let TU/e as a microcosm of the world take up the role of starting this process. There is so much (artistic) talent within our international community that it would be easy to showcase performances in our next international fair on campus or during the coming intro week. Let’s all dream (now) and dare again (next) and create our new TU/e-vision! Unity through (artistic) diversity. No doubt it’d be good for the rankings…