It’s been a while since I paid any attention to the European Broadcasting Union’s annual international “Battle of the Bands”. Not knowing much (or caring much) about the contemporary music scene, either here in the US or in Europe, there really isn’t much to attract my interest.

I thought I’d give things a look and see if there was anything in this year’s crop of Official Music Videos that stood out….

Here’s the annual “sampler reel” of the videos:

Well, it’s all pretty standard Top 40 stuff. So let’s do the usual thing and poke genial fun at the videos.

AUSTRALIA: I really don’t know what’s going on here. Two people of “ambiguous” (is it OK to use that term?) “gender identity” just being there, smiling, and kissing once while the lyrics (at least I think those are the lyrics) are displayed over them.

AUSTRIA: This looks like it could have been on one of those late night cable TV shows back in the 80s; the kind that got one network the nickname “Skinemax”….

I don’t know who’s got the sillier name. Croatia’s “Baby Lasagna” or Finland’s “Windows95Man”…..

DENMARK: I think you overdid it on the lighting…..

GREECE: This video is brought to you by the Athens Tourism Board. “Visit Athens! We’ve Got….Stuff!”

IRELAND’s Bambie Thug honestly frightens me.

MOLDOVA: “Natalia Barbu” is actually a synchronized group of five identical androids…

NETHERLANDS: OK, I have to admit this one is actually fun.

SAN MARINO: The real-life Duchy of Grand Fenwick hired a punk rock band to represent them, and it’s AWESOME!

SLOVENIA’s Raiven and POLAND’s Luna were separated at birth, right?

SWEDEN: This is what happens when you have a party in the server room.

Yeah, that’s all I got. The songs are decent enough; we’ll see how things go with the actual performances. I will probably be doing something else during the actual competition – I don’t expect to miss much.