Eurovision

[MBH]

I actually saw some of the semi-final stages of Eurovision while I was sorting the papers of my home office out (all across the living room floor). Usual bunch of songs as far as I could tell.

When I happen to notice it on, I enjoy BGT in the 'heats' stage where you get all the crazy acts. I like 'variety shows', and you never know what's coming on next. YouTube is always handy for anything you hear about but didn't see (such as the Susan Boyle affair) - the links to 'related' can give some nice surprises such as the dance group "Flawless"

[Cenwulf]

So the hulking Eurovision bandwagon creaks its way out of Oslo and heads for Germany.
And the UK finishes bottom again.
Mainly because the National Judging Panel for each country is just as biased as the general public.
But also because the German song has been knocking around the airwaves of Europe for the past six weeks. I thought the songs weren't supposed to be freely available until after the contest.

Personally I think there should be no permanent places. Only the host should be an automatic finalist - everyone else should have to qualify through the semi-finals. At least then we would only be rejected by half of Europe rather than all of it.

It was another year of 'seeing someone singing the line before the one being heard' for me as I had pictures from muted BBC1 (Digital) and sound from Radio 2 with Ken Bruce (analogue).

[Laura]

My sisters did an alternative Eurovision, where countries were awarded points for quality of the staging, amount of flesh on show etc. with bonus points if you could tell when the key change was about to happen. Apparently Serbia won in their version.

[Cenwulf]

The Eurovision Roadshow hauls its way out of Dusseldorf. At least the UK did better this year than last year. But because we were never part of the USSR, it seems that we'll never even get close to winning. And next year it's in Azerbaijan, which is so far east it's actually in Asia. We'll be having China entering next year.

Or maybe Australia. It's popular Down Under, and they make a weekend of it.This is what might have happened this year...

"G'day from Canberra. Here is the result of the Australian voting"
Ukraine, 1 point: l'Ucraine, une point.
United Kingdom, 2 points: la Royaume-uni, deux points.
Denmark, 3 points: la Danmarc, trois points.
Sweden, 4 points : la Suede, quatre points.
Hungary, 5 points: l'Hongrie, cinq points.
Moldova, 6 points: la Moldovie, six points.
Bosnia & Herzegovina, 7 points: la Bosnie et Hercegovine, sept points.
Serbia, 8 points: la Serbie, huit points.
Greece, 10 points: la Grece, dix points.
Ireland, 12 points: l'Irlande, douze points.

[Scurra]

Test post to see what happens.

[LAT]

And what does happen?

[Wulfruna]

Test post to see what happens.

Well, I know you went to the opticians last week - so can you now see what happens?

[LAT]

Well maybe I need to go too so that I can see what happens.

[gill216]

Just to let you know I got that Scurra

[Bunnylump]

I'm SO confused...

[Cenwulf]

So the hulking great Eurovision bandwagon creaks its way out of Baku and heads for Sweden.
The Claudia Winkelman lookalike channeling Kate Bush has had her song in the charts in 14 different countries and top in four of them.
The only country not to give any points to the Swedes was Italy.

The Hump did his best but being first up is not the best place to win it. All we got were crumbs from the rich man's table. At least we weren't bottom - that was Norway's place.

[Bunnylump]

Oh, look...

They're using my "mate"*
http://www.eurovision.tv/page/news?id=b ... ed_kingdom
*Well, OK, I only met her once - she thought I was a backing singer (obviously never heard me sing!! ) A friend of ours has toured Europe with her on for years as a bass player. When it was his 50th birthday party, she suddenly materialised,unexpectedly, having flown over specially from Portugal just to give him a present.

I know we haven't heard anything much from her since the ghastly "Holding out for a Hero" here, but I have to say this lady is a very hard worker, and still sells out when touring in Europe. So I say good luck to her, even it if is a pretty rubbish song and IMHO a pretty pointless competition. She was a very nice lady, and at her age has a great deal of "oomph" to keep going like that with such enthusiasm and gusto over so many years.

[Cenwulf]

Well, that's the Annual cheesefest of Eurovision over for another year. And the UK does badly yet again, with a measly 5 points. Though this was more than France, Germany and Austria added together.
Rather pointed comment from one of the hostesses when people were booing Russia for being in the lead - she said it was about the music, not the politics. (But I bet people are relieved that it's going to Sweden rather than Russia!)

We'll be having China entering next year. Or maybe Australia.

Little did I know how accurate my comment would be... Australia enters as a wildcard and ends up in 5th place.
As for China, although they didn't enter, it was still shown live in Chinese TV.

[Scurra]

Again, I am convinced that not being in the semi-finals has a significant detrimental effect on the "big 5" who have routinely done very badly since they were introduced - the sole exception was the year when Germany won, and that was mainly because they decided that they were going to win that year, and did pretty much everything they could to ensure that they would! But having the song performed live in a semi-final clearly makes a difference, both in terms of recognition and in terms of performance. (I grant you that Italy did fairly well this year, although I have no idea why, even allowing for weird voting.)

I thought our entry was rather better than usual, but as well as the semi-final issue, it was also noticeably out-of-step with most of the rest of the entries - admittedly, this was because most of the entries tend to be attempts to do what did well last year rather than anything else, hence the excess of big female ballads; ironically Sweden probably won because it was their entry from last year that was being copied the most...

[SparkOut]

I did watch it, so I can have something to say. But then again, it was Eurovision, so that means it is compulsory to have a year's quota of alcohol in one night, so what I have to say may be berblerblerbrerfiggle but

Again, I am convinced that not being in the semi-finals has a significant detrimental effect on the "big 5" who have routinely done very badly since they were introduced <snip> But having the song performed live in a semi-final clearly makes a difference, both in terms of recognition and in terms of performance.

Interesting idea that I never thought of before (why would I, I try to avoid thinking about Eurovision) but now I agree.

(I grant you that Italy did fairly well this year, although I have no idea why, even allowing for weird voting.)

Apparently Italy would have won if the whole contest were decided by televoting alone. The song was fairly good as far as Eurovision goes, but the same as every tired pop-opera song since Il Divo emerged, the performance was the same as every tired pop-opera performance since... but they sang it well, the same as every...
I thought it was deserving of a highly placed result, but shouldn't have been a serious contender for the win.

I thought our entry was rather better than usual, but as well as the semi-final issue, it was also noticeably out-of-step with most of the rest of the entries

Yes, definitely. As you have said, Eurovision can turn up something unusual that works, but it didn't really hit this year's Eurovision target. Although the live vocals weren't really all that great either.

[Cenwulf]

I am convinced that not being in the semi-finals has a significant detrimental effect on the "big 5" who have routinely done very badly since they were introduced ... But having the song performed live in a semi-final clearly makes a difference, both in terms of recognition and in terms of performance.

We seem to be in agreement that the 'Big 5' (originally 'Big 4' until Italy decided to make a return after about 20 years) shouldn't have an automatic place in the final... though possibly for different reasons.

Personally I think there should be no permanent places. Only the host should be an automatic finalist - everyone else should have to qualify through the semi-finals. At least then we would only be rejected by half of Europe rather than all of it.