Can someone tell me what all that was about during the Song for Europe festival?

I’m referring to the second half where Rachel Attard from Bondiplus regaled us with what was supposed to be a tongue-in-cheek feature about Lou Bondi’s life and his abhorrence of the Eurovision. Then Ray Calleja came out in his taxi driver character to poke more fun at Lou Bondi’s loathing of the festival.

OK, we got it – the guy thinks the whole thing is cheesy and he is above it. So, pardon me for asking, why did he accept to be a part of it?

Oh, now I get it... he only accepted on condition that he could stay aloof from it, dressing down in his cool jeans and T-shirt worn with a blazer as if to say, ‘I may be here but I have nothing do with it really’. Let’s face it, as he has often told us, the whole idea of a song festival is beneath him.

So what was he doing there?

The whole set-up was curious, for wont of a better word. Eileen Montesin and Josef Bonnello got to do all the boring bits introducing the songs, a thankless task which doesn’t allow much room for creativity. (I really wish they would do away with scripting heavy-handed jokes for the presenters – they fell as flat as the proverbial pancake.)

But our Lou was having none of the usual, “and now it’s time for the sixth song” rubbish.

“His” half of the show was dedicated to a Beatles tribute in which four of our best singers gave an excellent performance. This in itself was a good idea and it worked but did we really need to have Lou on centre stage playing the guitar? You could be forgiven for thinking he was the only musician there since the rest of the band was practically ignored in the close-ups.

What annoyed a lot of people is that this popular festival seems to have been hijacked in order to give Lou the opportunity to realise his unfulfilled dream of becoming a rock star.

I think someone’s ego needs to be scaled down a notch or 20.

What must have been more irritating for Eileen and Josef was that Lou then completely took over the most important bit by hogging the stage and announcing the winners. For someone who thinks the festival is unbelievably corny, he is sure media-savvy enough to know when to steal the spotlight. The whole thing lacked a sense of grace.

From the remarks I’ve heard, the hypocrisy between pouring scorn over something and than lapping up all the publicity was a bit too much for the public to stomach.

You may hate the festival, you may think it’s kitsch beyond words, you may think the songs never measure up, but hey, no one is making you watch it.

There are those, like Lou, who sneer at it, but there are also those who love it. What I have come to understand from years of reporting and commenting about it, is that much like the real Eurovision from which it was spawned, the Song for Europe has a loyal cult following.

Funnily enough, even those who profess to detest it somehow end up watching it, even if it is to sit around with friends eating nachos and howling with laughter at the over-the-top outfits and Las Vegas style gimmicks.

Like football, politics and illegal immigrants, an event like this festival gives us something to get all hot under the collar. Give us a controversy about the lines being jammed and SMSs not getting through and we are in argumentation heaven (incidentally, what did the organisers expect when they only allowed 10 minutes for voting? Of course, the lines would be jammed – it’s like trying to send a Happy New Year message on the stroke of midnight).

In this respect, maybe the fact that Lou Bondi actually consented to take part in this festival and ended up upstaging everybody has given us something else to talk about.

While the idea of his being a co-host might have sounded ingenious on paper, in reality it was like asking Jennifer Aniston to be a bridesmaid at Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s wedding.

The temptation to stick her foot out to trip the bride as she walks down the aisle would simply be too overwhelming.