Eurovision Song Contest - General Discussion

[Guest]

This topic replaces the old Eurovision Song Contest forum which has been vaulted at the location below:  http://forums.previously.tv/forum/782-eurovision-song-contest-v/

[SnideAsides]

Madonna and a stage magician are this year's interval acts.

Hoping Iceland's operatic death metal BDSM show wins, just to stick it to Russia and all the other homophobes.

[vavera4ka]

Don't understand the hype of Iceland or Portugal.

When I was listening to Hattari I turned it off after 30 seconds. Just any noise isn't music. I love Rammstein, their industrial metal has melody even in their screaming and yelling". Later from discussions and reactions I found out that there IS a melodic part to Icelandic entry, but I got so tired of the noise that I couldn't make it to the chorus. 

The only cool and interesting part of Portugal's entry is the dancer. I LIVE for that dancer. But it's a song contest... there's no song there. There's art, for sure, but not song. Also... I can't get rid of a thought that a lot of people say they like it only because it's cool to like smth like this.

Russia will have an epic staging and I'm excited to see it. Also Sergei is a great live performer. I'm against mixing politics and art. Again it's not an agenda contest, it's a song and performance contest. The song gives me musical theater vibes. If the staging lifts it to the first spot, I won't mind. It helps that Sergey himself is very charming and likeable.

San Marino is such a dated bop, but, damn, Serhat has charisma for days. The song makes me smile and want to sing along. First semi is boring. I'd be happier if he made it over 70% of the entries.

Czechia is ok I guess, but that woman saying "i'm just a friend" is like nails on a chalkboard. ugh.

Netherlands bore me. There are some interesting parts for sure, but it didn't hit me like it apparently did so many other people.

N. Macedonia is interesting. My brain understands that she is using a popular theme, trying to hype on it, but I can't help it. I get goosebumps, I get tears in my eyes... She has so much power and emotion in her voice... 

Albania is a vocal powerhouse as always. I appreciate folky feel to it.

Israel is awesome, but I feel like it's too intimate for a stage. It sounds like a prayer of some sort for me.

Switzerland is a bop, but he butchered it live in Amsterdam... Hopefully he'll be better in May.

In general for me this year is worse than last year, and WAY worse than year before. 14-17 were so good, I think I got spoiled.

My favs are Italy and Slovenia. Italy deserves to win based on the overall quality they've been sending since they came back. Long overdue. Slovenia is hypnotizing. 

Edited April 11, 2019 by vavera4ka

[SnideAsides]

On 4/12/2019 at 1:31 AM, vavera4ka said:

Israel is awesome, but I feel like it's too intimate for a stage. It sounds like a prayer of some sort for me.

It's absolutely going to get the same kind of overblown staging France tried when they sent a Corsican opera song a few years ago.

[Rosenrot]

I was pleasantly surprised to notice a Eurovision board here! Well played, Primetimer! 😄 

On ‎4‎/‎11‎/‎2019 at 6:31 PM, vavera4ka said:

Italy deserves to win based on the overall quality they've been sending since they came back.

100% agreed. A couple of misses, but otherwise, nothing but prime. 

On ‎4‎/‎10‎/‎2019 at 1:02 AM, SnideAsides said:

Hoping Iceland's operatic death metal BDSM show wins, just to stick it to Russia and all the other homophobes.

To be honest, I don't think it will even get pass the semifinals, but I'm really hoping I'm wrong. It's a ballsy move from Iceland, and I hope it pays off. Love that song. 

Faves this year: Italy, Iceland, Netherlands (+ Ukraine, had it not withdrawn). Guilty pleasures: Australia & Poland. (And of course I have to somewhat root for Finland since I'm Finnish, but I don't like our entry a lot.) That's… about it. Kind of a crappy year for me personally, at least compared to last year - when I ended up with at least 12 noteworthy songs on my playlist -, but oh well. This year seems… bland… but maybe that's just me. 

Madonna on the ESC stage fascinates me. 

[SnideAsides]

Madonna being the interval act is even funnier when you remember she got name-checked in the Czech entry last year.

[Rosenrot]

On ‎4‎/‎23‎/‎2019 at 6:13 PM, Rosenrot said:

To be honest, I don't think it will even get pass the semifinals

Glad to have been wrong. 😄 GO ICELAND!

[vavera4ka]

Australia's performance was mindblowing.

I want it to win now.

that or let's just go full on WTF and crown Serhat LMAO

ETA: it looks like there will be an American version of Eurovision. Target premiere is 2021.

Edited May 16, 2019 by vavera4ka

[Rosenrot]

Australia was awesome. It isn't even a guilty pleasure anymore, just a pleasure. 

[SnideAsides]

Grand Final running order.

Poor Spain. Nobody's going to remember them as the one act after Australia, especially as an auto-qualifier.

[vavera4ka]

It's gonna be a visual on how to do an OTT staging and how not to do it lol

Australia is crazy, but crazy awesome. it looks effortless while it's anything but.

Spain... well... they tried lol too much.

[SnideAsides]

Yeah. Judging from the preview clips we saw during the semis, it's amazing how much all the auto-qualifiers (especially France, which was favourite to win at one point) biffed their staging so badly that the UK has gone from unquestionably the worst of those six to unquestionably the best.

[Rosenrot]

Judging from the previews, it seems that at least Italy has yet again fucked up their staging (see also: 2017). I still love Soldi, but I'll be damned if it'll work on the stage on any level. Apparently I'm again going to have to bury my dreams of Italy's victory. [sigh]

Oh well. It means more room for Iceland in the beginning of the scoreboard!

Edited May 17, 2019 by Rosenrot

[vavera4ka]

I agree. Italy is my sorrow. Ever since they came back they’ve been sending quality  songs one after another. And they manage to f it up every single time. Well, Grande Amore was robbed, unforgivably sunk by judges. But everything else is on Italy. 

Soldi is still my top. As is Chameleon. And Sebi. 

But Statue of Liberty on a po-go stick FTW!!!

Edited May 18, 2019 by vavera4ka

[SnideAsides]

And apparently, the Swedish producer who makes the running orders and conveniently keeps giving Sweden spectacularly good positions every damn year fucked up so badly they had to add an extra commercial break between Australia and Spain in the jury final because it took them too long to replace the bendy poles with Spain's stupid IKEA Presents Hollywood Squares set.

[Rosenrot]

I was wondering about that. If they knew it takes time to get the women off of the poles and get Spain's set in, in fact so much time that it requires a break… why place those two countries last and second to last? Just before the last entry is a weird place for a break. I can only think of one reason: they really want Australia to win. Luckily I, at the moment, do not have a problem with that. (But on a general level, I think it is wholeheartedly stupid that the running order is decided, and even more so that it is a Swede deciding it.)

8 hours ago, vavera4ka said:

But Statue of Liberty on a po-go stick FTW!!!

YES!!

Edited May 18, 2019 by Rosenrot

[vavera4ka]

Actually they Australia barely needs any time to prep. They are ready long before their time. Ladies climb up, secure themselves, and wait. They are being rolled out on stage in seconds. And then rolled off. Btw Kate climbs in a body suit. They later pass her the skirt on a wire.

Spain takes forever with their house and mannequin. 

[die Frau]

The performers are done and there is so much filler! Why does Madonna need to be there? 

As for the performers, it's hard to know if I'll remember any of them next year. I didn't care for Spain's staging. The puppet almost looked like it wandered on stage by mistake. The song seems like it might grow on me though.

Norway was also kind of catchy, but the bald guy lost me a bit at the end.

Denmark and Russia were alright to watch. Denmark's song didn't sound like the rest and the Russian singer had a nice voice. I'm not sure if I would need to hear the songs multiple times, though. 

The Israeli singer was fantastic, but I don't remember the song besides the clip.

As for the “favorites“ to win, I would prefer The Netherlands. It wasn't my favorite entry from them. I still listen to “Birds“(2013) and “The Calm Before the Storm“ (2015), so my expectations for them are pretty high.

Speaking of ...low expectations, I hope Germany doesn't come in dead last, but I don't see it placing well. The German competition was really weak. The male competitors and female competitors all sounded alike and cancelled each other out. Sisters won for being “different.“ I hope the competitors are more diverse next year.

Why is Madonna wearing an eye patch?

I hope the voting results begin soon.

[aradia22]

I went to a viewing party. This is the first year in a while where I didn't know any of the songs beforehand but I know the performer from Australia so I rooted for her. 

I would have been cool with any number of winners but the Netherlands was BAFFLING. That song was so basic.

[aradia22]

I liked the song from Spain and the staging from whatever country that was basically like a knockoff Florence + the Machine. Everyone else was pretty forgettable besides Iceland and their amazing trolling. The Palestine thing. I can't. 

[Rosenrot]

Very satisfying results. The final battle between Sweden, Netherlands and North-Macedonia was a fucking THRILLER. Thank god Netherlands won. Russia had no business finishing 3rd, but oh well, at least they didn't win. Italy finished higher than I expected, but I'm glad they did. Iceland did good. ❤️ 

[Rosenrot]

6 minutes ago, aradia22 said:

Everyone else was pretty forgettable besides Iceland and their amazing trolling. The Palestine thing. I can't. 

They were such trolls. I wonder if there will be repercussions, though...

[aradia22]

Random question... you know the jury voting for each country? Does anyone know who the guy was for (I think) Malta? He was very attractive. He looked like someone they'd cast for The Bachelor. 

[eyechart]

I managed to watch it on a Swedish TV feed,  While I LIVED for the Australian performance, the song itself wasn't nearly up to that level.  As a song, Netherlands deserved the win.  I found the discrepancies between fan and judges votes interesting; Norway I believe won the fan vote but were well back in judges, whereas the North Macedonian song was the second-highest judge score but the fans didn't care for it much.  I did laugh when Germany got 0 fan votes and UK had 3.  The bottom three (those two with Belarus) deserved their low placements. 

But they were still better than Madonna.  WTF!?!?!?!?!?!?  She was wretchedly, painfully bad!  Even Verka Serduchka sounded better doing "Toy".  And Quavo throwing shade by saying how his mom listened to her.  OOF!

Cyprus should've been kicked out for that ripoff of "Fuego".  But Mans Zelmerlow singing it?  Had me en fuego!

[SnideAsides]

15 minutes ago, eyechart said:

I managed to watch it on a Swedish TV feed,  While I LIVED for the Australian performance, the song itself wasn't nearly up to that level.  As a song, Netherlands deserved the win.  I found the discrepancies between fan and judges votes interesting; Norway I believe won the fan vote but were well back in judges, whereas the North Macedonian song was the second-highest judge score but the fans didn't care for it much.  I did laugh when Germany got 0 fan votes and UK had 3.  The bottom three (those two with Belarus) deserved their low placements. 

But they were still better than Madonna.  WTF!?!?!?!?!?!?  She was wretchedly, painfully bad!  Even Verka Serduchka sounded better doing "Toy".  And Quavo throwing shade by saying how his mom listened to her.  OOF!

Automatic qualifier placements: 2nd, 14th, 22nd, 23rd, 24th, 26th.

At least we now know what the exact opposite of "Queen at Wembley" is though. Thanks, Madge!

[Bill1978]

40 minutes ago, aradia22 said:

Does anyone know who the guy was for (I think) Malta? He was very attractive. He looked like someone they'd cast for The Bachelor. 

He is Ben Camille. He hosted Junior Eurovision when Malta held it and he is the host of X Factor Malta.

[SnideAsides]

Just for fun, the televote results sorted by performance order:

20 - Malta
47 - Albania
7 - Czech Republic
0 - Germany
244 - Russia
51 - Denmark
65 - Serhat'n' Monetta
58 - The Entrant Formerly Known As The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
93 - Zzzzzzweden
59 - Slovenia
32 - Cyprus
261 - Netherlands
24 - Greece
35 - Israel
291 - Norway
3 - United Kingdom
186 - Iceland
48 - Estonia
13 - Belarus
100 - Azerbaijan
38 - France
253 - Italy
54 - Serbia
212 - Switzerland
131 - Statue of Liberty on a Pogo Stick
53 - Spain

So basically, Sweden probably got hindered by the running order but the contest having the weakest opening in a LONG time REALLY helped Russia. I think the Netherlands also got assisted by being sandwiched between two entries that were popular beforehand but totally flopped on stage. Literally cannot explain Switzerland doing so much better than Statue of Liberty on a Pogo Stick though.

[aradia22]

I thought Madonna sounded fine but then I was in a very loud bar (as in the noise level of the bar itself) with Eurovision blaring so all the singers sounded a bit off and I'm always happy to hear Like a Prayer. Also, I'd been watching hours of Eurovision at that point. 

[aradia22]

Statue of Liberty on a pogo stick (seriously though, check out Kate Miller-Heidke's music if you haven't, I genuinely love her) was engineered like they thought Eurovision was being voted on by teenage girls

Icy blond hair, light blue dress, and winter theming like Elsa from Frozen - CHECK

Song with the word gravity and flying high above the stage like Elphaba in Wicked - CHECK

[Bill1978]

55 minutes ago, aradia22 said:

Song with the word gravity and flying high above the stage like Elphaba in Wicked - CHECK

I did tweet to Kate that the song seemed like Glinda's response to Elphaba's Defying Gravity in a soon to be released Wicked 2: Oz Wins Eurovision.

She liked the tweet. Made my night.

[SnideAsides]

24 minutes ago, Bill1978 said:

I did tweet to Kate that the song seemed like Glinda's response to Elphaba's Defying Gravity in a soon to be released Wicked 2: Oz Wins Eurovision.

She liked the tweet. Made my night.

When I saw the interval medley was going to be the same old artists we've come to expect (and make no mistake, they're going to keep shoving Eleni down our throats now), I tweeted that it would have been more fun with Dami Im, Lordi, Lulu, Sakis Rouvas, and Ott Lepland. Dami liked the idea. ❤️

Also how weird was it for them to include Verka when Ukraine withdrew after their act boycotted?

[doesntworkonwood]

Madonna was awful. I wasn't happy with her being the interval act, but I thought she'd at least put on a decent show. And then she didn't. It was just so awkward and bad. 

The running order was absolute shite this year. It started off so boring, and then they put all of the more popular songs towards then end rather than spreading it out a bit more. 

The worst Eurovision in a while. Hopefully The Netherlands will put on a better show next year. 

[SnideAsides]

I have faith in the Netherlands, mostly because they already stage the biggest preshow concert every year and they're not the sort of country who's going to ask Sweden for advice and get steamrolled like all of the other non-Portugal hosts since 2012 have been.

The ridiculously long interval gave me the shits, so I decided to go back through the old Eurovision finals (starting with the last Israel year, which was also the first year with commercials) and see how it actually compared. The two Denmark years are inaccurate because I could only find edited replays for them, but... like, there's no reason this contest needs to be an hour longer than it was 20 years ago when there's only three extra countries and you're not reading every single vote any more. It's ridiculous. (For the record, the infamously draggy 2012 Olympics opening ceremony was 3:59:50 long.)

[aradia22]

Quote

When I saw the interval medley was going to be the same old artists we've come to expect (and make no mistake, they're going to keep shoving Eleni down our throats now), I tweeted that it would have been more fun with Dami Im, Lordi, Lulu, Sakis Rouvas, and Ott Lepland. Dami liked the idea. ❤️

I watched some of the videos from last year but I was on vacation during Eurovision so I missed the actual contest. The interval acts were confusing to me. Conchita is fine. I like the Thunder and Lightning guy. And silver Christmas tree is fun. The others? Idk. Why not get more winners? Were they really that busy? 

Where was JAMALA!?!

I'm still pro-Madonna. And Europe loves her even if she did have moments when she felt like everyone's collective grandma trying to be cool (like when she forced them to say one of her lyrics in unison). But if they REALLY want to top her appearance, they'll find a way to convince ABBA to perform now that they've reunited.

[Rosenrot]

I thought Madonna sounded OK, but then, I'm completely tone deaf and my friend said she sounded off-tune (and so did numerous Finnish newspapers today, with screaming headlines "WHAT HAPPENED, MADONNA?!?" etc.) 

I thought Norway was hideous, but apparently the rest of the Europe thought otherwise… 

LOL @ Sweden's televote results. 

I didn't mind the duration of the show. It's a once-in-a-year event; I probably would't mind if it lasted six hours, because I enjoy it so. 

12 hours ago, SnideAsides said:

Also how weird was it for them to include Verka when Ukraine withdrew after their act boycotted?

Their withdrewal didn't have anything to do with Israel, though. Ukraine didn't want to send them because the band had been touring in Russia or something of the like. 

Edited May 19, 2019 by Rosenrot
forgot a word

[vavera4ka]

Madonna sounded awful. Next to her Serhat was a MF Pavarotti. lol

Netherlands wasn't my choice (it honestly wasn't in my top 10) but i guess it's an OK winner. We "survived" El & Nicki win, we "survived" Heroes win, we'll survive this.

I'm glad Italy got so high. btw only 27 pts behind Arcade... so close. Maybe next year you won't f things up, Italy... (totally my fav country in the contest, but it frustrates me how bad they are with staging)

The way juries were trying to make Sweden or N Macedonia happen was ugly. It baffles me. Jury was created to potentially offset diaspora vote and "bad taste" of the audience... When Soviet block countries give Russia 12 points everyone boo's, when Cyprus and Greece exchange 12 pts - everyone boo's, but when the whole Scandinavian peninsula and adjacent continent countries give 12 points to Swedish, though professionally made, generic song? it's fine. we all cheer. hey, he's got voice and quality production, right? Russia had voice too, high quality staging. Same generic song, just as Sweden. But... had the "wrong flag". At least N Macedonia on top of good voice had a relevant message... even if it was speculation on a popular topic. Netta hopped on "me too" train last year, Italy on "terrorism"... France on refugees... i guess all is fair in love and war... But i see how some people would connect to a song that is reflecting current social and/or political issues. Sweden... a love song. Russia... overcoming childhood fears... quite basic too. But it's ok to drag that flag up... and then watch audience pummel it down with 93 points. kinda hypocritical, if you ask me. 

I'm not sure how i feel about jury at all. It's a contest for the public. They are paying out of their own pocket to vote for their fav. If it's Norway, let it be so. How can 5 random (and in a lot of countries they ARE quite random) people suddenly represent the whole country at the same level as the public, literally millions of people. There's more manipulation and politics happening in jury voting than in public. If there is a GREAT song it will win regardless. If the songs are kinda ok and there are a handful of pretty much similarly good songs, where the top depends solely on your taste, let the public decide. Or make juries have less weight (say, 25%).

I'm not sure about how well the contest will be done. I keep hearing that the stereotype is that Dutch ppl are even stingier and more pedantic with money than Germans... I guess we'll see. 

Belarus (my homecountry) jury got disqualified for essentially revealing their votes for semifinal, so the organizers selected bottom feeders for the points and threw a bone to home country: 12 points to Israel, so they don't go home with 0... 

[aradia22]

Quote

At least N Macedonia on top of good voice had a relevant message... even if it was speculation on a popular topic. Netta hopped on "me too" train last year, Italy on "terrorism"... France on refugees... i guess all is fair in love and war... 

That reminds me. Another reason the Netherlands was a baffling win was because it was a depressing break up song. I don't expect every song to be pop-y and inspiring but it could be political or thoughtful or something. I do not understand what would attract someone to this song. Especially since pop music is already plenty depressing and there are much better songs out there so it's not like this fills a void in the marketplace.

[SnideAsides]

I think the problem wasn't so much viewers having bad taste (I'd argue the only real dud winner of the pure televote era was Estonia's, and most are now Eurovision classics) as much as it is the cultural voting blocs being so uneven it was basically a game of Which Ex-Communist Country Will Win This Year. Like in 2007, *none* of the western European countries who had to go through the semi final qualified. That's insane, and unquestionably the result of political voting, especially given the quality of most songs that year.

[vavera4ka]

But the block voting exists in Balkan countries. In Germanic countries, in Scandinavia but its only wrong for some reason in ex Soviet ones. 

Juries still block vote. 

It solves nothing. It just highlights the problems that existed and will exist. At least people are paying to block-vote...

[Miles]

Ugh, what has this contest come to? I mean the netherlands had a good song and the singer is good, but that stuff isn't what I watch the ESC for. I want a good show. I think australia and norway delivered in that regard while still having good songs. The crowd went wild for both of them.

Iceland at least had a great show.

But the netherlands... white guy on a piano. Almost as bad as the plague of white guy with acustic guitar.

I say that as somebody who is half dutch and has the height to prove it.

I even would have liked italy over the netherlands. At least that performance had some life to it.

Worst thing this ESC is probably russia getting third. That was a boring ass song, the singer was mediocre and the stage performance was crap. But of course all the former soviet countries vote for russia, so what are you going to do?

I would have given the win to Norway. Good balance of really good song, great performance and great job at hyping up the crowd.

In general, I sorely miss the fun-weird entries. I think every ESC should have at least one Guildo hat euch lieb.

[Miles]

22 hours ago, SnideAsides said:

Just for fun, the televote results sorted by performance order:

20 - Malta
47 - Albania
7 - Czech Republic
0 - Germany
244 - Russia
51 - Denmark
65 - Serhat'n' Monetta
58 - The Entrant Formerly Known As The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
93 - Zzzzzzweden
59 - Slovenia
32 - Cyprus
261 - Netherlands
24 - Greece
35 - Israel
291 - Norway
3 - United Kingdom
186 - Iceland
48 - Estonia
13 - Belarus
100 - Azerbaijan
38 - France
253 - Italy
54 - Serbia
212 - Switzerland
131 - Statue of Liberty on a Pogo Stick
53 - Spain 

So what you are saying is, that the people of europe (and the middle east and australia) have good taste and it's the "professional" juries that are the problem? Figures...

2 hours ago, SnideAsides said:

I think the problem wasn't so much viewers having bad taste [..] as much as it is the cultural voting blocs being so uneven it was basically a game of Which Ex-Communist Country Will Win This Year.

But it seems like with the jurys we have the same problem. It's actually worse. Russia would have gotten fourth with pure televoting, with the jury included, it got third.

If the juries don't make it better or even make it worse, just let the people decide.

Edited May 20, 2019 by Miles

[SnideAsides]

I think Germany sent a solid song (though the weakest of the auto-qualifiers; I wasn't a fan of Bigger Than Us but Michael Rice did an incredible job with poor material), but viewers typically don't vote for a song that's like their sixth or seventh favourite. Juries have to rank everybody.

I'd also note that even though the Czech Republic laid an egg on the scoreboard too, being sandwiched between their vibrant performance and Russia (which only got four points less on the televote than all of the other entries before Sweden COMBINED) hurt them.

I wonder if going back to a random draw for the running order would work. It certainly seems like it's basically been a glorified coronation of the pre-contest favourite the last few years. I don't think Duncan wins if a random draw has everything else the same but switches him with Germany.

[Miles]

10 minutes ago, SnideAsides said:

I think Germany sent a solid song

The song was crap, the singing okay at best and the stage show was atrocious. I think I already expressed that the later is probably the most important part for me, when it comes to the ESC.

I think we can do better and should do better. Maybe we should pay Steffan Raab a few billion to come out of retirement. His stuff is never going to win, but at least he always puts on a great show.

[aradia22]

Quote

Worst thing this ESC is probably russia getting third. That was a boring ass song, the singer was mediocre and the stage performance was crap. But of course all the former soviet countries vote for russia, so what are you going to do?

Russia placing high made complete sense to me. Again, I was in a loud bar and could barely hear the songs properly. But just the fact that he was a repeat contestant who had placed high the first time (and I like his first song) it made sense for him to do well again. I know it doesn't work well for everyone but it's the same thinking behind sending Rybak again. 

[doesntworkonwood]

6 hours ago, SnideAsides said:

I wonder if going back to a random draw for the running order would work. It certainly seems like it's basically been a glorified coronation of the pre-contest favourite the last few years. I don't think Duncan wins if a random draw has everything else the same but switches him with Germany.

I agree with you. I get why they changed it to an actual running order, to make sure that people didn't get tired of watching ten ballads in a row, but it's clear to me that this years order was so awful that I can't see how a random order wouldn't have topped it. 

I'm not trying to claim that the UK's entry was amazing, but being sandwiched between Norway and Iceland certainly didn't help. From what I saw on social media, most people seemed to agree that the show started off really boring, and didn't get interesting until the end. I'm using interesting lightly though because to be honest most of the songs were awful this year.

The interval act wasn't great either. I don't understand why the got Madonna. The thing that most people remember from the 2016 interval was Petra and Mans singing Love Love Peace Peace, not Justin Timberlake. (I didn't even remember that they happened in the same year until I saw someone mention it). The Eurovision interval act should be something that celebrates Eurovision and the host country, not spends excessive amounts of money on an American act. Especially when said act isn't very good. 

[vavera4ka]

Spotify shows us the true winner. Soldi, soldi *clap clap*

It's not even close!

Quote

51 471 781 Mahmood    "Soldi"
16 976 725 John Lundvik    "Too Late for Love"
16 889 954 Duncan Laurence "Arcade"
9 667 223 Bilal Hassani "Roi"
8 308 776 Miki "La Venda"
6 099 974 KEiiNO "Spirit in the Sky"
4 075 898 Luca Hänni    "She Got Me"
2 260 185 Victor Crone "Storm"
3 200 475 Tamta "Replay"
1 976 957 Hatari "Hatrið mun sigra"
1 860 318 Leonora "Love Is Forever"
1 633 120 Kate Miller-Heidke "Zero Gravity"
1 512 098 Katerine Duska "Better Love"
1 492 649 Lake Malawi "Friend of a Friend"
1 458 954 Michela "Chameleon"
1 373 237 Sergey Lazarev    "Scream"
1 316 132 Michael Rice "Bigger than Us"
1 276 864 S!sters "Sister"
1 143 353 Chingiz "Truth"
1 086 098 Zala Kralj & Gašper Šantl    "Sebi"
829 490 ZENA "Like It"
816 386 Serhat "Say Na Na Na"
667 411 Jonida Maliqi "Ktheju tokës"
641 422 Tamara Todevska "Proud"
575 597 Kobi Marimi "Home"
508 728 Nevena Božović "Kruna"

(keep in mind that there is no Spotify in ex-USSR countries and a lot of Balkan and ex-Yugoslavia)

[doesntworkonwood]

Sorry to keep banging on about Madonna, but it seems she's being a bit naughty. She's uploaded an autotuned version of her performance onto Youtube. 

Here's a BBC article about it. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/entertainment-arts-48342109/eurovision-2019-what-happened-to-madonna-s-performance

[SnideAsides]

Turns out Belarus's weird jury results were because the jury hot fired after the semis, the EBU used the average of the other countries in their semi-final allocation pot, and they accidentally sorted the results from worst to best instead of from best to worst. So now one of the jurors is suing the EBU for damaging Belarus's international relations because the stuff-up meant they didn't give Russia any points.

Also apparently Bigger Than Us is #20 on UK iTunes, which makes it the most commercially successful British song in the UK in, like, twenty years.

[vavera4ka]

Also Czech juror reversed her results by mistake and this effected the qualification. Poland would have gotten 10 from Czechia in the semi and advanced into the finale instead of Belarus.

Something similar happened to two other jurors in two other countries, I believe from 2nd semi.

What's the point of the jury if they can't:

1. keep their mouths shut, as dictated in the rules

2. read the instructions on HOW TO EFFIN VOTE?

[vavera4ka]

19 minutes ago, SnideAsides said:

Also apparently Bigger Than Us is #20 on UK iTunes, which makes it the most commercially successful British song in the UK in, like, twenty years.

I'm so confused by UK. So. Much. Good. Music.

yet year after year the question is whether it'll be last or second to last place...

I know, Engelbert Humperdinck, Bonnie Tyler, and Blue flopped, but has UK tried to send anyone who has charted in the world in the previous 3-5 years?