The Eurovision Song Contest - FunTrivia Edition! Quiz

Answer: The Knights of Saint John

Malta has had a turbulent history, both in Eurovision and 'real' life. Owned by the Spanish, the British, then made independent, Malta have entered the Eurovision Song Contest many times, although the highest they have ever come is second (which they have attained twice). They routinely come in the top ten, however.

Answer: The flag of Poland has a horizontal white band along the top, with an equally sized red band on the bottom.

Poland is both a large and historical country. In fact, it was first conceived in the tenth century. With two long rivers (the Oder and the Vistula) which could be used as waterways, and a coastline on the Baltic Sea, Poland had its hey-day in the 16th century, but everything soon went downhill.

In the 1700's, Poland was sectioned off and shared between the more powerful countries of Russia, Prussia, and Austria. As soon as it had regained independence in 1918, it was overrun by Nazis, and then turned into a Soviet satellite state. Even though it has recently undergone a 'shock therapy' programme to make it one of the biggest economies in Eastern Europe, it still suffers high unemployment and low income.

Answer: Well, it's Finland, isn't it? The name comes from the Swedish name for the country, 'Fenland'.

Finland, or 'Fenland', is so named because of the large numbers of swamps and marshes that the country has during the summer months. In fact, a 'fen' is also the English word for a marsh area. The name given to Finland by the locals, however, is 'Suomen Tasavalta', or 'Republic of the Suomi'.

Answer: Iceland

Iceland is very much an oddity in Europe. The language uses characters that are not present in any other European languages, and family names in Iceland are patronymous (children use their father's first name and their gender as their surnames).

Iceland boasts the world's oldest legislative assembly, in the form of the Althing, and although the country has been devastated in the past by the fallout of volcanic eruptions (from the Askja and the Heimaey volcanoes), literacy, longevity, and income are some of the highest in the world. And I am kidding - I do in fact love Björk!

Answer: Toblerone, the pointy chocolate bar.

Toblerone, the pointy chocolate bar, has often been an object of criticism, because it's actually quite difficult to eat it without injuring yourself. For those who haven't had the pleasure of eating a Toblerone, it is milk chocolate with honey-nougat pieces, but the makers of the confection (Tobler) decided to shape it to resemble the Alps. Of course, the other answers in this question are related to Belgium (witloof), the Netherlands (Gouda), and Greece/Luxembourg (Nana Mouskouri).

Answer: Congo (Zaïre)

Belgium is famous for being dull in Europe, although it is not quite as waffle-and-witloof oriented as most people think. It became independent from the Netherlands in 1830, and proceeded to take large amounts of land from what was then a large area known as Luxembourg. Recently, Belgium has been split into two autonomous regions, known as Wallonia and Flanders, because the Flemings and the Walloons have such a dislike for each other.

Answer: An arboretum, founded in 1498

The boomerang shaped country broke free from Yugoslavia in 1991, and almost surrounds the formerly war stricken land of Bosnia-Herzegovina. The republic of Dubrovnik, which was also known as Ragusa, had a white flag featuring Saint Blais, who is known as Sv. Vlaho in Croat.

Dubrovnik was a republic of firsts. Not only was the first arboretum founded in the city, but also the first orphanage, and the small country was the first place in Europe to abolish slavery in 1432.

Answer: That would be the blue Danube, made famous by Strauss.

OK, so I cheated a little bit. Hungary has only ever entered the Eurovision Song Contest once, but it is an interesting country, and deserved a question.

Formerly part of the polyglot Austro-Hungarian Empire, it became a Soviet satellite and fell under Communist rule after World War II. A revolt in Hungary led to the country leaving the Warsaw Pact, which then led to military intervention by Moscow. Under Kadar, Hungary began developing its own version of Communism, similar to what China currently has. The economy was soon liberalised, and began to grow stronger, and their brand of liberal Communism was soon labelled 'Ghoulash Communism'.

Answer: 'I am looking for a fish!'

To 'feel like a pickle' in Turkish is to be tired. Turkey is a strangely situated country, as one of its principal cities, Istanbul, is both in Europe and Asia. Geographically, anything west of Bosporus, the strait that allows water from the Sea of Marmara into the Black Sea, is Europe.

Turkey has borders on the Aegean Sea, the Sea of Marmara, and the Black Sea, and both the Euphrates and Tigris rivers start in Turkey. There is also a large lake near to the Turkish border with Iran, known as Lake Van.

Answer: Yes

The song was about Luxembourg. Luxembourg is a small European country that has a tendency to steal singers from other countries and use them for their own Eurovision entries. With no seaports and no artificial waterways, Luxembourg is a fairly isolated country with most of its large settlements in the south. Of course, Liechtenstein are the ones that export false teeth. Denturific.

A grand Duchy, this country used to be part of the Netherlands until 1815, and although it lost a lot of it's territory to Belgium in 1839, it gained a much more autonomy because of this.

Answer: The mobile phone company Nokia, which is officially the world leader in mobile phone communications.

Portugal would probably not get twelve points from Spain. They have never been the best of friends. Timor-Leste was once a Portuguese colony in Indonesia, although Indonesia was mainly ruled by the Dutch. Ferdinand Magellan was Portuguese born and bred, and the wine/cake are both called Madeira - Madeira island is owned by Portugal. Nokia is of course a Finnish company.

Their headquarters are in Espoo, near Helsinki.

Answer: He forced blood supplies to be tested, because needle sharing was a commonplace occurrence in Romania, especially with the high numbers of institutionalised children.

Nicolae Ceausescu would never have been that considerate. The testing of blood supplies was outlawed because of the tendency to needle-share, and this led to one of the highest rates of HIV and AIDS infection in Europe. Other laws passed by the Ceausescu regime meant that contraceptives were illegal, and women had to have a certain number of children.

This led to large numbers of children being sent to orphanages because the parents could not cope. Money was difficult to come by, because Ceausescu forced farmers into providing for the country, but only paid them one third of what they should have been paid. As a result, the large numbers of orphans led to Orphanages 1-3 being set up in Bucharest.

Answer: Athena, the goddess of wisdom.

According to Greek mythology, Athena sprung out of Zeus's head. It was her mother, Metis, who Zeus actually impregnated. Metis was desperate to avoid Zeus after he had got her 'up the duff', and so she metamorphosises into animals, trying to escape him. When she turned into a fly, however, Zeus ate her, and this was how Athena came to be inside Zeus's skull.

After suffering headaches so bad that 'all the earth could hear his cries', Hermes called Hephaestus, and ordered him to take a wedge and split open Zeus's skull. As he did this, Athena sprang out, and it is said that her method of birth is how she became to rule over all things intellectual.

Answer: County Antrim, Northern Ireland

The Giant's Causeway is on the coast, and is always depicted as being by the sea. County Antrim is the only one of these four options that has a significant coastline. County Leix and County Cavan are both landlocked counties, and County Leitrim has a very small stretch of coastline on the border between Eire and Northern Ireland.

Answer: latvia

Latvia is the second largest of the three Baltic States, the other two being Lithuania and Estonia. The capital, Riga, is located on the only large river in the country, the Daugava, and has its own gulf named after it. Latvia, along with its fellow Baltic States, became independent in 1991 following the break up of the Soviet Union. It was, of course, an independent country before 1940, when it was originally annexed by the superpower.

The Schenger border rules have not yet been implemented by Latvia, which has become an issue since they have become a part of the European Union, and despite being independent for over a decade, Latvia still has issues with their neighbours, Lithuania. As both countries have reservations over allowing the other to explore for oil, neither have ratified a maritime border treaty yet.

Answer: Lillehammer

The Lillehammer 1994 Winter Olympics were interesting, because it was the only time that the Winter Olympics were held two years after the last ones. This is because in 1986, it was decided that the Summer Olympics and the Winter Olympics should not be held on the same year, but on alternating even-numbered years. This came into effect after the 1992 Winter Olympic games in Albertville, France.

Lillehammer beat off stiff competition from Anchorage, Östersund/Åre (in Sweden), and Sofia (capital of Bulgaria) to host the Winter Olympics in 1994. There were 67 countries competing, and a total of 1737 participants in 61 events (in six sports).

Answer: Orange - the family name of the Dutch royal family is van Oranje Nassau. The Dutch royal family is also known as the House of Orange to English speakers.

At the time of this quiz's creation (June 2005), the Dutch monarch is Queen Beatrice, who appears on the back of the Dutch Euro coins, as well as on the back of the Netherlands Antilles Guilder. Almost infamous for appearing sideways on her country's coins, she is often mistaken for a mountain range by uneducated travellers.

Contrary to popular belief, prostitution is not legal in the Netherlands, but the police forces turn a blind eye to it. It is an important source of revenue for some people, after all. As well as Switzerland, the Netherlands is one of the few countries where euthanasia is legal.

Answer: Kypros comes from the Greek word for 'copper', as copper is one of the most abundant natural resources.

It is closer to Turkey, and it is the largest island that the Greeks had inhabited, but it is not massively different from the other Greek islands. If you read the hint, then the answer should have been easy!

The Cypriots are very proud of their Greek past, and they have taken a shine to the Greek Gods, whose likenesses can be seen on coins and banknotes, in mosaics and paintings, and even on commemorative mugs (I have one right here!). They even have a tribute to the home of the Greek Gods right in the middle of the island. The highest mountain in Cyprus is called Mount Olympus!

Answer: The Republic of Bosnia and the Srpske Republic

Bosnia and Srpske were both independent countries when Yugoslavia broke up originally, but this did not last long, and they were soon reunited. Srpske even put out its own currency into circulation for a few months, and these notes are now highly sought after by collectors.

The capital of Bosnia Herzegovina was also the site of the shooting of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the man whose assassination started the First World War.

Answer: Slovenia was the last country to become independent from Yugoslavia, in 1999.

Surely any avid Eurovision fan remembers Sestré, the now infamous transvestite air-hostesses from Slovenia. They only came 16th in the competition, but they had every talking for a long time afterwards! Slovenia became independent in 1991, along with the Baltic states, and is now a successful donor country for the World Bank.




CREDITS

All songs written by Flynn_17 except for the following:
Songs 11, 12, and 17, written by emj23
Songs 3, 5, and 8, written by MaggieG5
Songs 6, 13, and 15 written by blethar
Song 14 was a collaboration between emj23, blethar, and Flynn_17

Expressed consent was given by all Funtrivia users mentioned in this quiz, particularly MaggieG5, who seemed worryingly excited about it. Any similarities or likenesses to actual people or events would be fairly horrific, but we have blatantly ripped off the Eurovision Song Contest. Oh well.

And finally, a thousand apologies to the wonderful Miss Nana Mouskouri. We love you really, we just needed a running joke. It was you or Ann Widdecombe. (And yes, I have spelt that right. There isn't an 'e' on the end of 'Ann'.)

A 'Life at Lawndale' production.