Eurovision Song Contest - General Discussion

[Cherpumple]

I'm terrible at predicting the winners and I never pay attention to pre-show buzz, so I was shocked that Italy won. I thought the the song was fine, but the costumes totally ruined it for me. They just looked so silly, in a classic Eurovision way.

The new-ish scoring system is wild. It's crazy watching half of the points come in bit by bit (like the old way), and feeling like you have a handle on who the frontrunners are, and then the public points come in in bulk and everything changes. It's an emotional roller coaster!

Overall I enjoyed the show, especially since I haven't watched it in a few years. I'm looking forward to next year already!

[Rosenrot]

Well, that went better than I had any audacity to hope. My favourite won, my second favourite came second, and my country finished 6th. Blimey. This was a good year.   

Pretty much the only thing that bugs me is that I was really hoping Lithuania to fare better. 8th place isn't bad by any means, but I thought the song was better than that. Oh well.

Now it's PED (Post-Eurovision Depression) until next year! 

7 hours ago, Cherpumple said:

It's an emotional roller coaster!

Oh my god, it really is! Such a thriller every time.

Edited May 23, 2021 by Rosenrot

[Aliferously]

France was robbed.  

I have been force fed Hooverphonic five times a day for three months and I I am not sorry they ended up where they did. They were never going to be better then mediocre. 

Someone somewhere thought the German entry was worth giving points. It baffles me. They didn't even try to send something decent! Countries who pull shit like that should be excluded for a year to think of the error of their ways, seriously.

I had no idea the UK even had sent a contestant until last Friday. Now I understand why. They should join Germany on the one year time out couch.

 

[aradia22]

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I had been hearing that Italy was the frontrunner and I didn't believe it only because to me Maneskin and Finland's Blind Channel sounded so much alike that I figured if people aren't vibing Blind Channel, they wouldn't go for Maneskin.  Now I like Maneskin but I really loved Blind Channel. 

The UK not getting any votes: Brexit or James Newman's song being too pedestrian. I say it's a bit of both. 

I think Finland was more hard rock metal and Italy was more classic rock/glam rock. I find classic rock much more tolerable than angry white guys shouting at me. But it was disappointing because even though we didn't have a lot of explicitly gay acts this year, I prefer the disco and dance pop acts to a rock win which just feels like snobby (usually white and male) music critics rejecting things that are fun and popular (and female and/or gay and/or not white). Though I also think that maybe Iceland and Lithuania split those votes. 

The UK often does poorly. It could have been Brexit because this was so much better than the songs they usually send. They've been starting to send increasingly legit acts. I think it was also hurt by the vocal performance though the song did grow on me the more it was repeated in the recap.

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I have been force fed Hooverphonic five times a day for three months and I I am not sorry they ended up where they did. They were never going to be better then mediocre. 

I did not like them at all but it was a little sad to see their immediate reaction. Just this acknowledgement of "yes, everyone hated our song."

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The new-ish scoring system is wild. It's crazy watching half of the points come in bit by bit (like the old way), and feeling like you have a handle on who the frontrunners are, and then the public points come in in bulk and everything changes. It's an emotional roller coaster!

tbh, my interest always wanes during the voting. It was a little better watching at home this year because I could get up and do other things. Are things being counted differently? I can't remember so many null points from the public vote and I don't remember each country just getting all their points at once before but maybe I'm misremembering it?

[vavera4ka]

I was rooting for Switzerland, Italy, Ukraine, Portugal, and Iceland.

im really glad all did well. It’s the best result for Eurovision in a long while. In terms of what it’ll do for the songs countries will bring in the next few years.

top 3 are non English songs. 4 out of top 5 are non English songs. The number of different genres that are not generic Swedish pop in the top 10 is amazing. 
 

and Italy has been my fav country since they came back. In the 10 years only one of their entries wasn’t in my top 10. Il Volo, Mahmud, Meta & Moro, Gabbani, and Måneskin were all in my top 3. Soldi is now my all time favorite Eurovision song. Robbed in 2019. Lost by 25 points. Funnily enough this year Italy won by 25 points lol

 

the craziness of four zero points was epic. I seem to have been one of the few who liked Germany lol it sucks. He actually did rather well in a lot of countries, finishing just outside of top 10.

Im looking at UK and Spain though to get a wake up call. Italy and France are not resting on an automatic qualification. Germany has had their moments in sending good stuff. UK and Spain… just give up your spots to countries that are trying every year and have to fight tooth and nail to get to the grand finale. Poor Croatia: 9th with televote, 10th with the juries, but 11th in the overall score and out of the Saturday show.

im glad Russia made it in the top 10. The amount of hate that girl was getting from her own country is disgusting. It’s also nice that both jury and televote pretty much agreed giving her 104 and 100 points respectively. I just hope Russia will stop sending generic love love peace peace ballads. With the popularity of Little Big last year and a very respectable result this time they should just take a page out of Italy’s or Portugal’s playbook. The two countries who don’t give a damn abut so called “format” and just send whatever is popular in their county. You like it? Awesome, thanks you don’t? Ah well, thanks anyway. 

[aradia22]

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I was rooting for Switzerland

I need someone to explain the appeal of Switzerland's song. Of course, I also didn't get why Arcade won. 

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Italy and France are not resting on an automatic qualification. 

I don't know... I feel like France is pretty lazy. Their recent songs all blur together for me until this one. And this song isn't special... it's just more melodic than a sad ballad or an adult contemporary power ballad. It's very... stereotypically French. I wasn't the only one to see the Edith Piaf influence. 

I feel like the UK is trying in that they stopped sending stuff like this...

 

[Cherpumple]

6 hours ago, aradia22 said:

I think Finland was more hard rock metal and Italy was more classic rock/glam rock.

That was my impression too. The Finnish entry sounded way too similar to Linkin Park for my personal taste.

4 hours ago, aradia22 said:

I need someone to explain the appeal of Switzerland's song.

 

4 hours ago, aradia22 said:

I don't know... I feel like France is pretty lazy.

I'm with you on both counts. I thought these songs were fine but nothing special, and was really surprised that they both did so well. But I tend to like the more over-the-top and unusual songs, so the slow power ballad types don't do much for me. I also tend to prefer the ones that tap into the actual history and/or culture of the individual countries, rather than generic pop sounds, so this year I think Ukraine was my favorite.

6 hours ago, vavera4ka said:

im glad Russia made it in the top 10. The amount of hate that girl was getting from her own country is disgusting. It’s also nice that both jury and televote pretty much agreed giving her 104 and 100 points respectively

I liked this one too! Again, it ticked my boxes of being unusual and also relevant to the country that it came from. I haven't followed any of the media around this, but unfortunately I'm not surprised that it's gotten some hate back home.

[SnideAsides]

If the UK's result was because of Brexit, we wouldn't have ended up with half of western Europe getting 0 from the televote (see also: "but politics!" vs Israel making the final). I think it was just a combination of so many other songs tapping into niches and drawing attention (the top five songs in the televote got more points from it than the other 21 combined), and the BBC's usual tendency to pick mediocrity and kill any momentum they could have had with half-assed staging so they can play into the local media's persecution complex.

The short answer on the Dutch entry flopping is nobody votes for songs in major keys nowadays (also, with that staging I feel like they didn't particularly want to have to pay for the thing three years in a row), but I'm happy they've come a long way since they nearly sent a sea shanty about how great the Dutch East India Company was and how the world should actually be grateful for their colonial past in the late nineties.

Overall a pretty good set of results this year, both in terms of the final and in which countries made it out of the semis at all. Like, Croatia should have gotten through after finishing in the top ten of both the jury and televote but their song would have gotten eaten alive in the final, but aside from that the only act I was really sad to lose was Denmark's brilliant tribute to Wham. This time last year I probably would've said North Macedonia too, but the song was significantly less good and honestly Vasil's THEATRE-ness wore on me during the extra year.

In conclusion, I would legit consider buying the hosts' inexplicable cover of the famous Eurovision song *checks notes* Venus, but also good on Nikkie for clearly telling the producers she was happy to do poetry but she was NOT going to sing. (Actually... best hosts ever? Maybe it's just because we've had some really bad hosts the last few years and the novelty of Petra and especially Måns has worn off, but I really can't remember the last time it felt like there was no dead wood. Like the closest we got to a crap host was Chantal, and that's clearly just nervous energy rather than actual incompetence. Any of these four could have hosted the show alone without ruining their careers, which is definitely not always the case.)

Edited May 24, 2021 by SnideAsides

[vavera4ka]

14 hours ago, aradia22 said:

I need someone to explain the appeal of Switzerland's song. Of course, I also didn't get why Arcade won. 

 

i wasn't a fan of Arcade (though it was in my top 10), my pic was Soldi in 2019. Why Gjon? i couldn't explain it to you, honestly. In general i prefer low male voices (Dadi from Iceland has some of the best low notes, they "tickle" your spinal chord)... but even last year, Switzerland was my top, and i didn't understand why. Same with this one. I just vibed with it.

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I don't know... I feel like France is pretty lazy. Their recent songs all blur together for me until this one. And this song isn't special... it's just more melodic than a sad ballad or an adult contemporary power ballad. It's very... stereotypically French. I wasn't the only one to see the Edith Piaf influence.

 

France at least has been trying to send stuff that is more likely to be on the radio today. Madam and Monsieur, Bilal... Germany too... with Schulte. but that seems more of an outlier for Germany.

This year France is pretty niche: classic French chanson, but that niche is very popular all over Europe, and more importantly in Eastern Europe, so i'm not surprised France got so many votes.

As for influence... that's how you appeal to the public. Finland went Linkin Park route, Cyprus decided to send "Gaga", Greece - Dua Lipa. 

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I feel like the UK is trying in that they stopped sending stuff like this...

Electro velvet is my fav UK entry in this century lol it's still in my playlist haha

I think what killed UK this time around is that they sent a songwriter, instead of an artist. He seemed like a good guy, but stage presence and vocals were so lacking... I think his brother would have gotten a few more points... but that wouldn't have helped him much... this year it seems there was a consensus on top 10-12 countries. So the rest got the scraps.

It was also nice to have no clear favorite, though Italy did lead in the odds at the end, but during the rehearsals and the semifinals, you could make an argument for 7-10 different countries winning it all. that was fun.

Edited May 24, 2021 by vavera4ka

[aradia22]

Yeah, I agree the hosts were very tolerable and Nikkie was a surprisingly good fit. I don't really watch her channel (I've seen one or two makeup tutorials/reviews but her makeup is not really my style) but youtube people can sometimes be awkward outside of youtube (and all the editing). I didn't watch all the extra content to know how she did with that but on the actual broadcast, she was very professional, like she's been a presenter for years. 

[Rosenrot]

56 minutes ago, vavera4ka said:

As for influence... that's how you appeal to the public. Finland went Linkin Park route, Cyprus decided to send "Gaga", Greece - Dua Lipa. 

And Bulgaria & Romania with Billie Eilish vibes. 

I completely get why Arcade won (it was one of my favorites, still listen to it a whole lot) and I loved Gjon's Répondez-moi last year, but I wasn't as awestruck this year, to be honest. It's an okay song but out of the favorites to win, it was my least favorite. I'm not sure why, but it just didn't have the same appeal. 

1 hour ago, vavera4ka said:

It was also nice to have no clear favorite, though Italy did lead in the odds at the end, but during the rehearsals and the semifinals, you could make an argument for 7-10 different countries winning it all. that was fun.

Yeah, it was exciting and really refreshing. I don't remember how it was in 2019, but some years you know exactly who's going to win. See: 2015 [gag].  

[Rosenrot]

(Sorry for the double post) 

17 hours ago, vavera4ka said:

and Italy has been my fav country since they came back. In the 10 years only one of their entries wasn’t in my top 10. Il Volo, Mahmud, Meta & Moro, Gabbani, and Måneskin were all in my top 3. Soldi is now my all time favorite Eurovision song.

Same, same and same. 😄 I'm so incredibly happy for Italy. No one deserved this win more.

Edited May 24, 2021 by Rosenrot

[SnideAsides]

Do you think the result would have changed if (1) Iceland wasn't in quarantine or if (2) the stadium was full? Like Iceland did very well anyway but the asterisk surrounding their rehearsal performance being used is always going to be one of the contest's great What Ifs now (I'd say the same about Australia's studio recording, but there was less than zero chance of that doing well), and I wonder whether the extra atmosphere another 10k people would bring would result in different acts connecting. Italy would absolutely still do well if the Ahoy was full, but I don't think France's on stage nervous breakdown would have been nearly as successful without the enforced intimacy of this year's contest.

 

[vavera4ka]

Idk how much higher Iceland would have been, honestly. Their gimmick was awkwardness, and it worked well regardless of whether it was live or pre-record. And the pre-record was done on the same stage as everyone else, so i bet a lot of people didn't even notice those few weird shots with empty audience and a camera man lol

Australia definitely was hurt by the recording. but it's also somewhat her fault to. there was no energy in her face or body at all. i get it. she wasn't even on stage with all the workers here and press in the next room to react to her and then give exposure to the staging and the performance. But... still... her eyes were dead in the live recording. can you suck it up and pretend this situation is not utterly and completely unfair for 3 minutes? I guess she couldn't... 

as for the arena being not full... again, not sure. i feel like everyone was so hungry for live audience it didn't matter it wasn't standing room only sell out. i liked how they filmed the arena, it looked like there was a lot more people there.

Edited May 25, 2021 by vavera4ka

[aradia22]

I know it's happening soon but I haven't worked up the energy to listen to the songs yet.

[iwantcookies]

Mane skin is my favorite new band. I got tickets to see them this year. They are so good! 

[SnideAsides]

On 4/13/2022 at 11:08 AM, aradia22 said:

I know it's happening soon but I haven't worked up the energy to listen to the songs yet.

It's definitely not as good overall as last year, but there's some really good stuff. Even the fucking UK tried this year.

I'm not interested in the winner so much this year - Ukraine will get a massive televote for obvious reasons (Russia's been banned for the same obvious reason, and their ally Belarus got kicked out of the EBU entirely a couple of years ago) and I suspect the juries will be subtly directed to tank their score so they don't have to worry about whether they can safely host next year, so we'll probably end up with a boring winner like Sweden's "Voila with a generic Scandinavian dance beat". I'm much more invested in which of the wacky entries will do best. Like I know we had quirky entries last year (and I hope they're working on a way to get Iceland's act into an interval somewhere, considering the Italians were pushing so hard for the 2020 acts who weren't chosen to come back - read, their own act who everyone was pretending was favourite but nobody actually liked - to be included last year) but this year we've got a Norwegian revisionist retelling of Little Red Riding Hood from a space wolf's perspective, an EXPLICIT "environmentalism makes me horny" allegory from Latvia, Moldova and France respectively finding yet another way to redefine what we thought it meant to be Peak Moldova and Peak France, a postmodern Serbian ode to hand sanitation, and Lithuanian Liza Minnelli. Of course that's more interesting than which sadboi ballad will scoop up enough jury votes to be dragged kicking and screaming into fourth place.

[aradia22]

I finally listened to (some of) each song. Serbia and Norway are my favorites so you know they're not going to win. Serbia is thoughtfully feminist in a way that Toy was not. Norway is undeniably delightful.

I agree about the UK actually trying. It's not great but they found a balance between sending something a little wacky (mainly in the music video) but still catchy/commercial.

I do like Moldova and Lithuania as well. France is tolerable but not weird enough. Ukraine's entry last year seemed much more organically witchy.

There are SO many breakup songs this year. I'll probably add some to my playlists but, Adele exists. I don't need these people.

As for the "message" songs. I did like Breathe with the context that it's about covid. I wish I liked Israel and Malta more but Israel has shaky lyrics even for a pop song and Malta is so generically abstract.

I hate the Latvia decision to pair environmentalism with sexism. It's barely a step up from I Don't Feel Hate from Germany for me. It would have been so easy to not include the sexism. It's so skeevy and it makes me hate the band for setting up that choice.

[Bill1978]

On 4/13/2022 at 11:08 AM, aradia22 said:

I know it's happening soon but I haven't worked up the energy to listen to the songs yet.

A couple of years back I set a rule to myself that I can't listen to the songs until May 1. Mainly to help prevent me truly attaching to a song that flops and also to help me not to be over the songs by the time the contest gets here.

I am keen to hear the songs from UK, Moldova, Lithuania, Sweden and Iceland. They are the 5 countries I'm always keen to hear what they send - for better or for worse.

I know of the songs and heard like 5 seconds snippet but I am looking forward to hearing them all very very soon. And I know any song I like will fail big time and I will be scratching my head at the favourites. It's almost guaranteed.

I just hope the public is more open to sharing the love around so we don't get a repeat of the 4 nuls votes from last year.

[aradia22]

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I am keen to hear the songs from UK, Moldova, Lithuania, Sweden and Iceland. They are the 5 countries I'm always keen to hear what they send - for better or for worse.

UK is sending increasingly credible entries. Like last year, this could be a lesser radio hit. 

Moldova is undeniably fun and their song was more explicitly political before they changed it.

Lithuania is a breakup song but gets points from me for style and genre.

Sweden is a breakup song but boring because she does not have a voice like Adele.

Iceland decided to send a non-English song. I'm not into the European interpretation of folk/country.

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And I know any song I like will fail big time and I will be scratching my head at the favourites. It's almost guaranteed.

Haha. Join the club. The last winner who was close to the top of my personal list was Jamala. I still listen to her music.

 

[Omeletsmom]

Anybody watching the semifinals today?

[Michichick]

2 hours ago, Omeletsmom said:

Anybody watching the semifinals today?

I am! I am all in on Norway, loved how wacky it is.

[AngieBee1]

I'm pushing for Italy or Slovenia.

[SnideAsides]

I object to Latvia not qualifying.

[aradia22]

A video about my favorite Eurovision entry this year

 

[Bill1978]

7 hours ago, SnideAsides said:

I object to Latvia not qualifying.

I am gutted they didn't make it. I honestly thought they had that right amount of memorability to get through. I'm actually surprised with how 'boring' the finalists are from semi-final. Not that they are bad songs, but I didn't expect Europe to embrace so many ballad-y songs. I expected most of the rockier songs to be ignored - due to the idea they are just copying last year's winner but I didn't expect the big swift to embracing the slow songs. 

Will be interesting to see what happens with Semi-Final 2.

I actually still need to watch Semi-Final one in full before I give a true critique of the performances from today, 5am on a workday does not work well for this Aussie. But I will say I am glad that Europe still loves the whacky and put through Give That Wolf A Banana.

My conceren for this year is Ukraine winning though the sentimental/supportive votes. The song is decent and I won't be disappointed if it did win but it's no SHUM that's for sure. My concern is that I am sure the actual country of Ukraine has other things they would prefer to spend money on then hosting a song contest at the moment (even if in means it is held in another country by defacto in a simialr vein to if Australia wins they would still need to cough up some money for the contest).

[SnideAsides]

I saw a theory on Twitter that basically suggested the jury and televote rankings were polar opposites so you got the absolute highest of each and then the rest were the filler acts that didn't really impress anyone. But I suspect it was probably the same kind of situation we had in the final last year that led to the nul point massacre - Ukraine and to a lesser extent Moldova and Norway hoovering up the televotes, so everyone else was fighting for scraps, and because the juries were more evenly divided the acts they liked better ended up with higher overall scores and qualified in the sixth-tenth range.

The one that fascinates me most here is Lithuania. Like I knew the song was coming and I liked it, but you could genuinely tell me it finished in any position between second and tenth in this semi and I would believe you. It's obviously not a normal year - both with the whole Ukraine situation and with the broken sun killing half the stagings - but it was the only one in this semi that felt like it'd be a winner contender in different circumstances.

[aradia22]

I hated Latvia so I'm cool with this. I hope Serbia makes it through in the next round. There are other songs I like in the second semi-final but nothing I feel that passionate about.

[SnideAsides]

Yeah that's where I'm at too. I do think we need songs like Ireland in the final now as a counterpoint to the ballads, but really none of the songs that could be decent at that are strong enough to get through. San Marino is terrible (but he's a HUGE star in Italy so the crowd cheers will be massive), Finland is in the same situation as Bulgaria where it's a perfectly good song that would have comfortably finished third in the early-mid 2000s but music has moved on since then, Romania has an earworm but the dude is definitely more of a dancer than a singer, and so on. Like I know songs like Australia and especially Sweden are absolutely going to qualify, but "more minor-key ballads" is the LAST thing we need after the results of the first semi.

I've seen tweets from the hardcore Eurovision fans that having so many acts draw first half after qualifying yesterday is going to be good for Sweden because it's probably going to draw second half and they'll be slotted right at the end to break it up, but honestly I feel like people are still going to be bored of ballads by then, and in any case "a more cynical Voila, with 90% of the raw emotion replaced by the most generic Swedish dance beat, sung worse" doesn't feel like the sort of thing that's going to hugely impress enough people to win?

First half at the moment: Armenia, France, Germany, Italy (who've been randomly assigned Slot #9), the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, and Ukraine; three slots left for semi 2 qualifiers. Second half: Greece, Iceland, Lithuania, Moldova, and the UK; seven slots left. Moldova is absolutely getting Slot #25 for a big finish, but I genuinely can't pick who'll be opening yet. Will they sacrifice a ballad to break up the later portion? Will it be Ukraine to get it over and done with (or will they get the Slot #2 curse to avoid the stress of having to find somewhere to host it next year)? Will it be something like Norway to keep people invested? I have no fucking clue.

Edited May 11, 2022 by SnideAsides

[SnideAsides]

Justice for Ireland. Losing that mediocre Katy Perry B-side in order to have yet more ballads (who qualified tenth? Was it Azerbaijan? I bet it was Azerbaijan) in the final is almost as much of a travesty as losing Latvia.

Grand Final running order:

1. Czech Republic
2. Romania
3. Portugal
4. Finland
5. Switzerland
6. France
7. Norway
8. Armenia
9. Italy
10. Spain
11. Netherlands
12. Ukraine
13. Germany
14. Lithuania
15. Azerbaijan
16. Belgium
17. Greece
18. Iceland
19. Moldova
20. Sweden
21. Australia
22. United Kingdom
23. Poland
24. Serbia
25. Estonia

It's obviously Ukraine (boo), but the big shock to me is they don't even feel like they're trying to make it tight. The next five favourites in the betting odds are the UK and Poland (back-to-back in a trio of similar songs with Australia that really should've been broken up), Spain and Italy (back-to-back in the first half), and Sweden (sandwiched between obvious televote vacuum Moldova and obvious jury vote vacuum Australia). Basically the only thing they've done that could prevent a runaway Ukraine win is give Moldova a decent slot rather than dumping it last in the running order like they usually do with the floorfiller-style songs that draw the second half.

Fun fact: Since producers started deciding the running orders in 2013, this is the fifth time the song performed first in the Grand Final was one of the last two performed in Semi Final 2.

[aradia22]

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It's obviously Ukraine (boo), but the big shock to me is they don't even feel like they're trying to make it tight. The next five favourites in the betting odds are the UK and Poland (back-to-back in a trio of similar songs with Australia that really should've been broken up), Spain and Italy (back-to-back in the first half), and Sweden (sandwiched between obvious televote vacuum Moldova and obvious jury vote vacuum Australia). 

Spain is a fine pop song. I remember UK more for the video than the song. Poland is the kind of boring Eurovision entry that I never understand placing high/winning. It is more hook-y than Arcade which was relentlessly dreary. Italy is boring. I didn't even like Ukraine and Sweden enough to add them to my personal playlist for this year.

I did like Ireland but I didn't love it. Just a boring year aside from Serbia and Norway.

[Michichick]

Watching the jury voting right now. Wow, the UK certainly has recovered nicely from last year.

[Bill1978]

You just know that the public are sitting back, patting themselves on the back for solving the current crisis in Ukraine. And now they can resume their lives having achieved world peace.

I am absolutely blown away with how well the UK did this year. Totally blown away. Shame that a war broke out cause it would have been incredible to see a country go from Zero points on year to winning it the next. Hopefully this is the wake up call the music industry in the UK needed in regards to this contest. I hope he finds genuine success on the UK charts.

After Dami Im scared Europe with almost winning the contest, it is very clear that while the Jury appreciates our efforts with our songs, the public is definitely over Australia being in the contest. And you know what, it wouldn't bother me if we weren't asked back after 2023. I still enjoy the Contest for what it is AND in fact I find it more enjoyable when we aren't in it. And truth be told, I stopped seeing what our points were once UK starting zooming to the top of the table.

And I always forget, until the public votes are revealed how out of sync I am with the Australian public's music taste.

[SnideAsides]

I do wonder if Australia would've done better if we hadn't changed the scoring format for Australia Decides and Voyager had been sent instead. Sheldon got swallowed up by all the ballads around him (though he did finish second in the semi; surprisingly, Sweden won Semi 2 by more than Ukraine won Semi 1), where as much as Voyager would've been seen as at attempt to redo Maneskin, it would've easily qualified in that weak semi and would have stood out much more in the final.

I'm disappointed that Latvia finished fourteenth (and somehow got more points from juries than televoters?) and Ireland fifteenth in their semis.

Worth noting though that there were big issues with the juries in Semi 2 that caused six of them (Azerbaijan, Georgia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, and San Marino) to be turfed and replaced with the "we calculate the average score of similar countries" points San Marino usually does for its non-existent televote. Seems to be probably Azerbaijan getting busted rigging the votes again like they were in pretty much these exact same countries a few years ago; they qualified in their semi without winning ANY televote points.

[aradia22]

I didn't go to the annual party around here so I skipped watching this year. I'm happy that Serbia at least placed 5th. Hopefully we can get some more thoughtful entries instead of just ballads. I still don't get the fascination with Sweden's song. I have very little patience for songs like this if the singers are unremarkable. UK and Spain sent credible pop songs. Stuff that might be on the radio. I'm still surprised that the UK placed so high though.

Australia's song was probably the best written of the vaguely self-empowering, pro LGBT songs (I.M from Israel, I Am What I Am from Malta).

I don't think too much about the order @SnideAsides but I wish the organizers weren't able to manipulate the vote that way.

Hoping for more bops and fewer ballads next year.

[Jan Spears]

On 5/14/2022 at 8:18 PM, Bill1978 said:

I am absolutely blown away with how well the UK did this year. Totally blown away. Shame that a war broke out cause it would have been incredible to see a country go from Zero points on year to winning it the next. Hopefully this is the wake up call the music industry in the UK needed in regards to this contest. I hope he finds genuine success on the UK charts.

The UK's success this year in the contest (best showing in 24 years) shows what can happen when (a) a country takes the competition seriously, and (b) puts up a talented performer who is actually enthusiastic about being in the contest. Hopefully, the UK's result will kill all the paranoid Brexit conspiracy theories.

I knew Ukraine would win. But there was this little piece of me that hoped the UK would pull out the win if for no other reason than it would have been the 25th anniversary of Katrina & the Waves winning Eurovision for the UK with "Love Shine a Light".

[aradia22]

 

[aradia22]

Is anyone following Eurovision this year? I feel like it's getting close but I'm not that excited. 

[Bill1978]

The 1st of May is when my excitement levels go through the roof for Eurovision. I've stuck to my guns and technically not listened to any of the entries. I admit to hearing snippets of them all and naturally have heard the ones that won any of the national finals I watched live.

This is the first time I've actually paid attention to national finals, probably cause the radio station I've started listening to has a weekly Eurovision show on Saturdays covering the finals. So I've come across some very enjoyable songs that didn't make the cut.

My enthusiasm is a little dampened already though cause of the outpouring of support for Sweden's entry on the socials. Which makes me think next year I need to make sure I'm not a part of those groups, cause based on the activity Sweden is a foregone conclusion of a winner. Which will be a shame, because I am not loving it at the moment and out of the possible entries Sweden could have sent I had it ranked 4th or 5th (depending on my mood with another song). But hey, my track record of liking the winning song is very low. The last one I truly was happy with was Heroes.

[SnideAsides]

The only winning songs in the last like twenty years I've actually liked are Rise Like a Phoenix and Arcade, and I fully admit the latter is like 90% because my family is Dutch and I was thrilled for them to finally have a good result for once.

I'm also disappointed that Sweden seems to be firming up as the defacto winner, because not only is it a not great song that's only doing as well as it because of who's singing it, it feels very similar to Euphoria and it would be a massive step back to just reward something that would have won ten years ago. Like at least when Ireland was winning every damn year in the 1990s they all felt like different songs that justified the result.

I don't think it's helped this year that a lot of the countries that chose their song internally clearly thought Ukraine was going to romp home with it again and decided to just aim for getting through to the final and maybe end up on the left side of the board if they're lucky, rather than the usual "well, top five is good yeah?" result in case they finish second and still have to host the thing like the UK is.

The thing that's going to be interesting this year is after all the rigged juries that got themselves disqualified and made them keep cutting to Not Jon Ola Sand to read the votes last year, and all the embarassingly low televote results since they split the reveal, they've removed juries from the semis entirely and the qualifiers will be determined by public vote only. So songs like the last few years of Swedish entries that do gangbusters with juries but nobody actually likes aren't guaranteed to get through this time around.

[Bill1978]

6 hours ago, SnideAsides said:

I'm also disappointed that Sweden seems to be firming up as the defacto winner, because not only is it a not great song that's only doing as well as it because of who's singing it, it feels very similar to Euphoria and it would be a massive step back to just reward something that would have won ten years ago.

I'm one of those Eurovision fans that doesn't think Euphoria is the greatest Eurovision song of all time. And that seems to be what is driving the support, that the fans seem to think Loreen deserves to join the ranks of Johnny Logan and win it twice. Considering Loreen isn't allowed the sandwich press from Melodifestivalen (which her teram apparently knew before hand so I wonder why they still chose to present it that way) and has to restage it will be interesting to see if that changes her odds.

[aradia22]

Quote

But hey, my track record of liking the winning song is very low.

Since I started paying attention in 2009, Jamala has been the only one I've genuinely liked. Netta and Kalush Orchestra were tolerable. At least I didn't actively dislike them.

I'm going alphabetically and so far I've listened up to Latvia so I'll chime back in when I've heard all the songs. 

[vavera4ka]

On 4/4/2023 at 12:33 AM, aradia22 said:

Is anyone following Eurovision this year? I feel like it's getting close but I'm not that excited. 

I'm actually quite excited, since I'm going... and I was able to win in the ticketmaster fight and get a ticket to the evening preview for Semi 2.

I also like how this year has so many different options in genres. You can get 5 friends name their top 10, and there will hardly be many similarities. and probably just 1 or two songs in all 5 top 10s. And it's more likely to be Finland than Sweden LOL

 

 

[aradia22]

1st tier songs: Czechia, Finland, and France

2nd tier songs: Israel, Belgium, Denmark, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, Ukraine, UK

OK, this is my final list.

 

Edited April 19, 2023 by aradia22
finished listening to every entry

[SnideAsides]

Some of the grand acts have been announced (there's usually stuff we don't find out until the night, like Love Love Peace Peace; even Madonna was only announced a couple of days earlier because the billionaire who bankrolled her appearance fee leaked it):

Spoiler

Sam Ryder on his own, plus a whole gaggle of recent past Eurovision acts (Mahmood, Cornelia Jakobs, Dadi Freyr, Netta, Duncan Laurence) and the UK's locally-born 1993 representative Sonia covering some of the best-known songs to come out of Liverpool. Also past Ukrainian acts will be doing the music for the silly Olympics knockoff flag parade bit they do every year now.

 

[vavera4ka]

Latvia😍😍😍

 

 

 

 

Finland
Austria
UK
Australia
Moldova
Czechia
Slovenia
Switzerland
Italy

[Bill1978]

After watching Semi Final 1, I still don't understand why the Eurovision community is totally gaga over Tattoo. Yes, it's a quality song, but it still sounds like a cheap knock off of Euphoria and the performance left me feeling almost cold. Compared to something like Cha Cha Cha that was just bursting with energy or the song from Malta that just felt fun. I know Tattoo isn't a 'fun' song, but Switzerland managed to make their song have emotion whereas Tattoo felt routine and Loreen just going through the emotion. I think Finland is putting everything into their performance to try to win, while Sweden is resting on the presumption, they have it locked in the bag.

There were a few songs that lost some of their energy live compared to their recorded version - Ireland's singer looked exhausted, Latvia lost something in their live translation and Norway felt like a totally different song.

Out of the qualifying songs, I am stoked Switzerland went through. I was worried with the semis being 100% televoting that it would get lost amongst the fun/crazy songs. It felt the most like a song the jury would lap up and the public would be 'eh its good but I'm not voting for it'

[carrier76]

I don’t care for “Tattoo” either. I just don’t get it. This is only my 2nd year watching, so I’m not super familiar with all of the history (other than random YouTube videos).

My nine year old son and I picked Austria’s entry as our favorite, so I’ll be very excited to enjoy “Who the hell is Edgar?” live.

[Bill1978]

7 hours ago, carrier76 said:

My nine year old son and I picked Austria’s entry as our favorite, so I’ll be very excited to enjoy “Who the hell is Edgar?” live.

I have been pumping that song on my car stereo all week, its such a banger. My only concern is it doesn't translate to a live performance. Fingers crossed it achieves what Cha Cha Cha did live. Cause if it does, the crowd will go off I reckon.

[carrier76]

3 hours ago, Bill1978 said:

I have been pumping that song on my car stereo all week, its such a banger. My only concern is it doesn't translate to a live performance. Fingers crossed it achieves what Cha Cha Cha did live. Cause if it does, the crowd will go off I reckon.

I did not care for Cha Cha Cha when I watched the music video, but the live performance made me a fan.