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As for the UK, well, until the organisers start to take it more seriously then it'll be quite a while before we will win again. Send jokey, gimmicky, type songs, is not what Eurovision is about. In times gone by, it could be argued that that is what Eurovision was about but, now, it just isn't. We need to look at this before next year, otherwise the same will happen again, I fear.
Good on Australia too. Excellent result.
Belgium above Latvia is just ridiculous.
Anyway, congratulations to Russia for having Kara Milovy representing them.
Congratulations to Georgia for getting Magica de Spell.
Congratulations to the Serbian singer for swallowing a gas pellet without exploding.
Indeed, and later we got an excerpt from Gustav Mahler's second syphony! That was the highlight of the evening for me!
And yes, @Gustav_Graves, I did end up watching the whole thing. I was invited to a Eurovision party and couldn't say no... The music was pretty rubbish as expected, but I guess it was kind of entertaining still.
And I quite liked that Belgian kid born in 1997 (!!!). He seemed quite talented.
Funny from the moment i have seen Sweden i am thinking there going to win or in top 5. That also count for Estonia. But i expect more from Hungury who was earlier better then in the final and this also count for Azerbaijan who i also predict a big change to win. Albania inprove in the final, whyle i already like her sing last Thuesday but she inspecialy inprove her hair. Spain preview was better then final result, it was not dark enough. It don't get any points and that suprise me. Very funny from Edsilia she wearing Trijntje her dress.
Overall you can see i am happy with Sweden, Russia have great song too, Italy was not bad at all and Australia proofs that we should have send Alan Clark. Camera Angle of Trijntje earlier sucks.
I think there may have been a backlash against Russia and Eastern Europe this year and, at least regarding Russia, deservedly so (I know Eurovision is not meant to be political, but giving a price to a country which government voted homophobic laws, bullies its neighbours and once ordered the murder of a political opponent in London kind of sickens me.)
Great job Austria in hosting the show. People forget Vienna is also one of the most beautiful European cities. The intro was great, up until those three disco witches of eastwick attention seekers and the bearded lady appeared on stage.
I wish they'd bring back the live orchestra and actually use it during the performances, but I guess that's never gonna happen if you know what most modern music sounds like. And quit with the cheap sentiments and values expressed throughout the show. It's a competition! I actually laughed aloud when the Estonian woman shed a tear. They also need to stop with this big five thing, the French and British songs have been awful for years now.
No, I didn't watch the spectacle. Same reason why I don't listen to the radio: if they play 50 songs, I might perhaps like 5 of those. Eurosong would mostly just be a waste of time for me. ;-)
We played a game to see which song title would make a good Bond movie title, we spotted four..
Well, you can't say they voted political;-)
I am not surprised how badly UK did, but I am about France: even when their songs are rubbish (and they often are dreadful), they usually do fairly better. The UK now makes an habit of being pathetic.
Eurovision 2013: Malmö, Sweden
Eurovision 2014: Copenhagen, Denmark:
Eurovision 2015: Vienna, Austria:
Conclusion: Western Europe has been really taking over the contest in the past three years. On the whole, the "classic" Eurovision nations, like...
--> Denmark (first participation 1957),
--> Norway (first participation 1960),
--> Austria (first participation 1957),
--> The Netherlands (first participation 1956),
--> Sweden (first participation 1958),
--> Belgium (first participation 1956), and
--> Italy (first participation 1956)
...were doing very well during the past three editions. They all scored a TOP 5 in the past three years. Except one country: The United Kingdom.
Actually, ever since 2010 only the "classic" Eurovision nations have won the contest. With one exception: Azerbaijan won in 2011. But still:
--> Norway won in 2009
--> Germany won in 2010
--> Sweden won in 2012
--> Denmark won in 2013
--> Austria won in 2014
--> Sweden won in 2015
Can I give the UK one small bit of advice? Stop participating in the grand final, and instead compete in the semi-finals. I personally think the elite BIG 5 (France, Germany, United Kingdom, Italy, Spain) need to proof their elite status much better. If Germany and Italy can do well, why not United Kingdom.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/may/25/eurovision-song-contest-time-for-brexit?CMP=fb_gu
I heard the Sunday Times was even harsher than that.
Pretty much my feeling.
As a child I was ignorant enough to watch and enjoy Eurosong and act like a devoted patriot for one night. But as I grew older, I began to notice how terribly bad many if not most of the songs were. As I stated before, Eurosong is mostly a waste of time for me; but perhaps I'm hard to please in the music department.
Still, let's look at the songs that do win. Almost always do I feel like they're basically just copying the kind of music that was hot about ten year ago. Take Lordi's Hard Rock Hallelujah for example. The 80s and 90s are littered with that kind of hard rock music. Apart from the obvious theatrics, there was nothing - absolutely NOTHING special about that song!
I'm not going to ding them all. Nocturne is still a personal favorite. But the majority of songs in the Eurosong contest comes off as just trailing ridiculously far behind trends that were hot yesteryear.
Furthermore, the cultural element quickly vanished ever since it was no longer required to sing in the native tongue. I understand why they changed that rule; more often than not the lyrics made no sense since few people speak more than 4 or 5 languages. Also, the commercial value of a song - and money is still the big driving force behind these events, make no mistake about that - increases in certain markets if it is sung in English.
Lastly, Europe has become rather 'big', wouldn't you say. I wonder if half the participating countries even qualifies as European. And obviously I'm not just talking geography.
I often get the sense that people watch Eurosong because for some weird reason they feel obliged to do so. Like it's that annual big event every loyal European citizen needs to participate on. When I tell my colleagues I couldn't care less about it and that I much rather watch the entire Hellraiser series again, they give me the bug eyes like I committed the highest form of treason or something. But frankly, what's my incentive? The vast majority of songs is simply awful (at least for my taste), the cultural happening has for many years lost its appeal, the political hypocrisy is absolutely annoying and the reason "you have to see it because... well, because you have to" is just not good enough.
*end of rant*
And as the 43 participating countries slowly become known through national internal selections or national finals, it is already interesting to have a look at some countries who have some potential to win the Festival overall.
At the moment of writing, 23 countries out of 43 are known now. And here are some of my favourites so far:
--> LATVIA: Justs with "Heartbeat":
For if you like a good song ;-)
--> FRANCE: Amir with "J'ai Cherché":
For if you like Dotan ;-)
--> AUSTRIA: Zoë with "Loin D'ici":
For if you like Vanessa Paradis ;-)
--> GERMANY: Jamie-Lee Kriewitz with "Ghost":
For if you like Korean K-Pop ;-)
--> UKRAINE: Jamala with "1944":
For if you like Kate Bush ;-)
--> UNITED KINGDOM: Joe & Jake with "You're Not Alone":
For if you like One Direction ;-)
Then other 17 known entries don't have my interest that much. But beware, 20 more countries are going to choose their entrant in the upcoming three weeks :-). Friday it's time for my country Les Pays Bas.......The Netherlands!
Down below an impression on how the actual voting works:
2014 Eurovision voting:
2015 Eurovision voting:
You forgot the best entry by far up to now: Ireland
<iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hEZuf-M4a64"; frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
"61st EUROVISION SONG CONTEST, Stockholm, Sweden (10th, 12th & 14th May, 2016)"
Thank you :-P. By the way, I find Ireland rather lackluster.ok-song, but no winner. And perhaps struggling for a TOP 15 spot in the final. Most of that is because of Nicky Byrne's lackluster live performances so far of the entry.
Where are those beautiful celtic and ethnic folk ballads that once made Ireland big? Enya for example....
Please?
Probably you're a Brit :-).
Up to now...because...enter Jason Bond, HUGE fan (nerd) of the ESC :))
By the way I guessed every winner correctly since 2003 (except for Lordi :)) ).
Last year I knew Il Volo would win and they won in a landslide victory in the televote. Sadly as we know the idiotic Jury system showed its ugly flaws and put Il Volo to No 3.
Not that I don't like this: A worthy winner of course, just not want the audience wanted.
<iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5sGOwFVUU0I"; frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
You know why the jury's were introduced no?
The "official" version is different of course.
The ironic thing is that since they introduced the juries, they had to repeatedly disqualify jury votes time and time again, last year as well.
The juries don't work. It's that simple. The shifting points around to neighbors is even worse now (Imho). That problem will anyway never be solvable.
Now for transparence they altered the way the points will be announced. First the Jury votes, then the televote. At least that's a small step in the right direction.