I’m a fan of Julia Zemiro, host of SBS’s RocKwiz, so it was a sublime pleasure to see her play the “beautiful and beguiling” co-host Bronya, “the face of modern Bosnia-Herzegovina,” in the Eurovision send-up stage show Eürobeat on Thursday night.
Julia is Bronya and, with the delightfully self-conscious Sergei (Jason Geary), brings us the the stilted, tacky presentation we come to know and love from the “real” contest. The rest of the cast captures perfectly the gamut of eurotrash — from the UK’s cheesey duo Rayne & Sheiner’s I Love To Love To Love (Love) and Russian boy-band KGBoys with Ice Queen (“She’s frozen my heart.”) to Iceland’s Björk-esque Gert Grollmersdetter and Love Ballad #3A.
Many good words have already been written about this show, including an article in the Sydney Morning Herald. And I agree, this is all great fun. Yes, plenty of jokes about goats, and turnips. But this is Eurovision: cliché is compulsory.
There’s merchandise to be bought, and the value-for-money $7 programme even includes useful Bosnian phrases. “Here’s one for you, Stilgherrian,” said my accomplice for the night. “I want to rent a goat: Zelin da iznajmin koza.” Ta muchly.
Eürobeat is a perfect vehicle for Julia Zermiro. Her superbly-timed ad libs in RocKwiz are the best I’ve seen, and she uses to skills again as Bronya handles the sometimes-rowdy audience. If Eürobeat does end up touring internationally — and apparently there were overseas producers in the audience on Thursday night — I’m hoping she’ll continue in the role.
Eürobeat is at Sydney’s State Theatre until 24 September. Bookings at Ticketmaster. Please go and vote, because currently Russia is winning and I’ve a soft spot for the entry from Lichtenstein.
I should also mention that I met Julia Zemiro after the show and was able to pass on my praise personally. She _did_ touch me too — hence the headline of the post. A new series of _RocKwiz_ starts production soon — and I’m thinking it might be sufficient motivation for another visit to Melbourne.
Julia Zemiro is great. Why aren’t there more women hosting game shows?
Richard, it’s because the TV industry is still riddled with old-fashioned sexist values. TV presenters fulfill gender-based archtypical roles — which I touched upon in my posting on the Commonwealth Games TV commentary.
A game show must be hosted by a man because men project credibility and wisdom. They are counterbalanced by the woman who points to the prize package (or is part of the prize package).
Thanks a lot, mate. Since you posted the Eurovision thing I fear I have developed a full-blown crush on Ms Zemiro.
I’m confiding in you; this email won’t get onto your blog will it?
No, Richard, it’s OK. No-one will ever see what you write.