{"id":4855,"date":"2006-05-18T08:15:23","date_gmt":"2006-05-18T12:15:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=4855"},"modified":"2010-07-15T08:50:47","modified_gmt":"2010-07-15T12:50:47","slug":"mona-ya-guppeeeee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=4855","title":{"rendered":"Eurovision: “Mona ya Guppeeeee”"},"content":{"rendered":"

To my siblings: A huge article about the Eurovision song contest<\/a>. Which SO obsessed us when we were in Ireland as kids. Or – maybe I should say it obsessed Jean and me. Brendan was too busy accidentally putting salt on his corn flakes, and taking naps, and Siobhan was 4 years old, screaming at Irish children who stared at us inappropriately in the library. YOU GO, SIOBHAN! STICK UP FOR YOUR SISTER! You are only 2 feet tall, but you have dignity!!<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Jean and I became so wrapped up in the Eurovision song contest that we would hijack the television at whatever B &B we were staying in. “We have to get back from the monastery we’re looking at by 8 pm because Eurovision is on!!” we would plead with our parents. Monastery shmonastery. Let’s see some pop music! Sung in languages we do not understand!<\/p>\n

Our two favorite songs were performed by Sweden and Cypress. We did not understand the language. But to this day, we can still sing the tune … and our made-up lyrics.<\/p>\n

Song from Sweden – sung by two blonde hottie women:<\/p>\n

“Dag after dag
\nGoin’ for a long way I can say
\nDag after dag
\nGoin’ for a long way I can say-ayyyy
\nAnd when I wake up this mornin’
\nI know where I am goin’
\nWho’s got it all?
\nNeww-ewww Yo-ork
\nDag after dag”<\/p>\n

What the hell? As our family careened over the Burren in our tiny car, Jean and I, scrunched in the back seat, would sing that “song” at the top of our lungs.<\/p>\n

Then there was some gorgeous dark-haired woman from Cypress – who would stand totally still onstage, a la Katherine McPhee …<\/p>\n

I only remember the title, and this is in our own butchered interpretation of what she was saying in her native tongue:<\/p>\n

Mona ya Guppee<\/p>\n

That was her song. Her big hit. Mona ya Guppee. Don’t ask me what it means, but it was very melancholy.<\/p>\n

Eurovision is not known by Americans at all – however, it was responsible for launching Riverdance – but the O’Malley kids have HUGE memories of the time in Ireland when the song contest took over our entire lives. We were SO. INTO. IT.<\/p>\n

Peteb has made a joke that – because whoever wins the Eurovision song contest (whatever country, I mean) – then has to host the contest the next year – and for the last 30 years (hahahaha, whatever) Ireland has won – for many years, the announcer would open the contest saying, “Here we are, broadcasting yet again<\/i> from Dublin …”<\/p>\n

I have always wished they would broadcast the thing here – and now it looks like that might happen. <\/a><\/p>\n

And when I wake up this morning
\nI know where I am going
\nWho’s got it all?
\nNew-ew Yoo-ork
\nDag after dag ….<\/p>\n

Words to live by, people, words to live by.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To my siblings: A huge article about the Eurovision song contest. Which SO obsessed us when we were in Ireland as kids. Or – maybe I should say it obsessed Jean and me. Brendan was too busy accidentally putting salt … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[39,3],"tags":[1101],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4855"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4855"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4855\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20652,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4855\/revisions\/20652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}