SOTEU (short for Sound Of The European Union) is the most successful musical of the EU BubbleThe EU Bubble is a term used to indicate a reality distortion generated by the peculiar set of people that inhabit the Brussels' European District. A Bubble resident typically uses sentences like: "We should burst the bubble!", "We need to break silos", "Reach the citizens" and "engage the voters". The... More. It is performed once a year in front of the whole European Parliament, usually in StrasbourgJournalists and relatives often confuse Strasbourg with Brussels (they are about 500 kilometres apart). This created lots of panic during the Strasbourg shooting in December 2018 Strasbourg (abbr. STR) is the place you don't want to go to. It is also one of the seats of the European Parliament (together... More, though SOTEU 2020 was held in BrusselsThe efficient Belgian administration Brussels (abbr. BRU, French: Bruxelles; Dutch: Brussel), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (French: Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; Dutch: Brussels Hoofdstedelijk Gewest), is a region of Belgium comprising 19 municipalities, including the City of Brussels, which is the capital of Belgium. The Brussels-Capital Region is located in the central... More because of covid pandemics and because almost nobody wanted to go there.
The solo singer is the President of the European Commission, which is accompanied in the background by cabinet members, policy desks, speechwriters, spokespeople, Representations in Member StatesMember State (abbr. MS) is how eurocrats call a country which is part of the European Union. Clear writing guidelines recommend using EU country or EU countries instead, but some habits are hard to die. More and many other actors.
This inspiring tradition started under the Barroso II Commission in 2010 and it is supposed to increase the Commission’s transparency and accountability. It also gives a chance to the President to vent out, in singing form, the stress from the previous year and to prepare the audience for the stress of the year to come. The lyrics of SOTEU varies from year to year, but they usually rhyme with resilient, sustainable, concerned, fair, gender-balanced and prosperous.
The many peons who are not invited to the plenary usually follow the SOTEU performance in streaming from their offices or from the common rooms; this creates an electrically charged atmosphere very similar to the FIFA World Cup finale.
SOTEU’s format is inspired by the SOTU (State Of The Union), an annual message delivered by the President of the United States to the Congress. Take this as the first hint of federalism.
The most famous song of SOTEU is My Favourite Things (EU Version), that every president can customize at will. Here we report the version sung by Ursula von der Leyen in 2020.
MY FAVOURITE THINGS (2021, EU Version)
Rainbows in Poland and climate ambitions
Bright female leaders and digital visions
Going to StrasbourgJournalists and relatives often confuse Strasbourg with Brussels (they are about 500 kilometres apart). This created lots of panic during the Strasbourg shooting in December 2018 Strasbourg (abbr. STR) is the place you don't want to go to. It is also one of the seats of the European Parliament (together... More for big gatherings
These are a few of my favourite things!
Free-trade agreements with Asian partners
Repatriate tourists from Thailand with charters
Beating Vladimir producing vaccines
These are a few of my favourite things!
Hiring consultants and wiping off phones
pretending kick-offs are already milestones
engulfing the Web with useless controls
These are a few of my least-liked goals!
UK provokes
and Novi chokes
Oh, it drives me mad!
But then I remember my favourite things,
And then I don’t feel so bad!
Green-coloured energy pumped through our pipelines
Lithium batteries from our own mines
Stop climate change and see young Greta smile
These are the things that I hope to provide.
DAWN TO DUSK (2022, Uschi Parton)
Jump outta bed, tick in Sysper my presence
Pour myself a cup of resilience
That’s my European way of Life.
Skipping the shower, can’t afford the heating
Rush away to yet another meeting
With folks like me who work from dawn to dusk.
Working dawn to dusk for the European values
It’s a daunting task, but I aim for raving reviews
Handing out the cash, but they never give you credit
I might keep it if your courts of law aren’t legit.
Dawn to dusk for equality and justice
come on citizens, show me now what trust is
I will give you all a vision for the future
Where all are equal, none will persecute ya’
The growing piles of the files on my desk
reflects a world getting more Kafkaesque
but I can tell who‘s friend and who is foe
facing adversity we’re standing tall
big on big things though I may look small
And the tide’s gonna turn
thanks to EU, but most thanks to Joe
Working day and night
Which is in my job description
working hard for me is just like an addiction
and to do what’s right
stop Stolichnaya and blini
Flinten-Uschi goes “Slava Ukraini”
Day and night
The staff is all behind me
Follow my baton
Be the union constructors
Thierry and Frans
Are just semi-conductors
Margrethe too with her online infrastructures
Day and night
A Team of Twenty-seven
In the golden cage
In eurocratic heaven
Only me on stage
Leave the others in my shadow
Or maybe just let Valdis get a cameo