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Eurovision week....Bonsoir l'Europe!

Andalublue

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I thought of putting this in the Leisure Activities section but then I thought there's nothing more political than Eurovision, so here it is, where it belongs, in the Europe sub-forum.

Anyone got a favourite? Any gossip or ridiculously trite observations on Eurovision 2016? God knows there's little enough that we all share as Europeans, but this is one thing we have and... I love it! If you've got a favourite song from this year's selection, please post it. I've got a few. This year's a really excellent year, IMHO. Here are my favourite 3 entries, may they all do well...

The Netherlands


Cyprus


Italy
 
To satisfy the trite angle, I love music.

That's why I never bother with the ESC.

:mrgreen:
 
To satisfy the trite angle, I love music.

That's why I never bother with the ESC.

:mrgreen:

Watch the videos, or alternatively, post something better.

ESC rocks!
 
Watch the videos, or alternatively, post something better.

ESC rocks!
True Rockers don't turn up at the ESC.

Which performance there ever went on to making a lasting and long lived impressions in the charts? Let alone internationally?

Apart from Abba, a couple of centuries ago, I can't think of anything or anyone off hand.
 
True Rockers don't turn up at the ESC.

Which performance there ever went on to making a lasting and long lived impressions in the charts? Let alone internationally?

Apart from Abba, a couple of centuries ago, I can't think of anything or anyone off hand.

It's a matter of opinion.

Celine Dion?
 
It's a matter of opinion.

Celine Dion?
Granted (I forgot her).

In fact I forget about the Canada Goose whenever I can. :mrgreen:

Of course arguing music tastes is completely pointless but I still can't stand her and never could.

But I digress.

In general I haven't seen many ESC winners contribute lastingly to the overall music scene. Most musicians that ever made a name ignored the whole thing completely.
 


They have just announced the results of the first semi-final and Russia and Austria qualified for the final along with 8 others. I expect Austria would win again this year with ZOË - Loin D'ici but Russia may not get too far because of the political climate in the EU.

 
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Italy, France, Austria, Bulgaria, Australia... in that order. The rest are awful as usual, the level certainly goes down with each year.
If Russia and Sweden finish at the top 2 again they should end this competition.
 
Italy, France, Austria, Bulgaria, Australia... in that order. The rest are awful as usual, the level certainly goes down with each year.
If Russia and Sweden finish at the top 2 again they should end this competition.

Austria? Eurgh! That girl looks positively insane. I quite like Italy and Australia. France's song's pretty god, but it's so similar stylistically to last year's winner that it's almost plagiarism. Talking of which...


 
I like Australia, Belgium, Italy and France. And I'm with Andy, that Austrian girl gives me the creeps. :shock:

That's a good list. Having watched the semis, I now have a few favourites.

Georgia, Cyprus, Netherlands and Italy are it for me.
 
I like Australia, Belgium, Italy and France. And I'm with Andy, that Austrian girl gives me the creeps. :shock:

If anyone gives me the creeps it's that Belgian girl actually.

Austria? Eurgh! That girl looks positively insane.

Maybe, but the song itself isn't half bad. It has a catchy tune, it's simple, and it's in French which is always better.
Seriously though compared with the utter crap that is the majority of the songs there this year (Latvia, Denmark, Norway...) this one is actually alright.

I quite like Italy and Australia. France's song's pretty god, but it's so similar stylistically to last year's winner that it's almost plagiarism. Talking of which...

The Italian song is several levels above the rest. The singer is also a more accomplished one than the rest of the singers this year, she has another song which is a huge hit. She's also the prettiest one but that's beside the point.
The Australian one is quite decent and I like it, although I wouldn't say it can win, it really can't. But imagine if it did, what would they do about the time difference?

About France, the singer, Amir Hadad, is an Israeli-French guy who failed at the local version of "American Idol" here several years ago and dropped out at an early stage, it'll be weird to see him actually win it, I agree about it being similar in its style to the previous winner from Sweden but the song is actually quite different, I like it a lot, only Italy has a better entry.
 
The Italian song is several levels above the rest. The singer is also a more accomplished one than the rest of the singers this year, she has another song which is a huge hit. She's also the prettiest one but that's beside the point.
I'd never heard of her, but she certainly has stage presence, which a lot of the entrants don't have. I like it.

The Australian one is quite decent and I like it, although I wouldn't say it can win, it really can't. But imagine if it did, what would they do about the time difference?
Terrific voice, but the song's a bit ho-hum and a bit too repetitive.

About France, the singer, Amir Hadad, is an Israeli-French guy who failed at the local version of "American Idol" here several years ago and dropped out at an early stage, it'll be weird to see him actually win it, I agree about it being similar in its style to the previous winner from Sweden but the song is actually quite different, I like it a lot, only Italy has a better entry.
Don't get me wrong, I really like it, but I just think it would be better for something quite different to win it this year - a ballad or a song from a non-pop genre.
 
What the ****.
 
In my opinion, this eurovision was a disaster. All the excitment was taken away by the new system, and the jury screwed Russia and Poland over.

Why do they have this jury in the first place?
 
In my opinion, this eurovision was a disaster. All the excitment was taken away by the new system, and the jury screwed Russia and Poland over.

Why do they have this jury in the first place?

Nonsense. That was a terrific innovation. The new system really kept the tension going to the very end. I say get rid of the televote, go back to jury-only voting since it was only the juries that seemed to vote according to some kind of musical merit, albeit few of them agreed on the 12-pointers. To have all that eastern European buddy-buddy voting is frankly just an embarrassment for Eurovision.

I'd introduce a new rule next year saying that a country cannot award 12 points to any other country that it has awarded 12 points to more than 3 times in the previous 10 contests. Russia would immediately lose a third of its vote; Sweden, Denmark and Norway would suddenly drop and there'd be no Greek-Cyprus/Turkey-Azerbaijan nonsense.

I didn't agree with the result tonight (bit of an overwrought, over-blown dirge IMHO) but boy, it was a dramatic finale.
 
In my opinion, this eurovision was a disaster. All the excitment was taken away by the new system, and the jury screwed Russia and Poland over.

Why do they have this jury in the first place?

They've always had the jury, until 2016 however the televotes from each country were combined with the votes of their repsective jury and the points for the top 10 countries according to the these combined votes were allocated accordingly. (12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1) Since 2016 the jury have their own votes and the televotes are on their own, and points are given twice - once from the jury and once from the televotes, each carrying the same weight.
 
Nonsense. That was a terrific innovation. The new system really kept the tension going to the very end. I say get rid of the televote, go back to jury-only voting since it was only the juries that seemed to vote according to some kind of musical merit, albeit few of them agreed on the 12-pointers. To have all that eastern European buddy-buddy voting is frankly just an embarrassment for Eurovision.

I'd introduce a new rule next year saying that a country cannot award 12 points to any other country that it has awarded 12 points to more than 3 times in the previous 10 contests. Russia would immediately lose a third of its vote; Sweden, Denmark and Norway would suddenly drop and there'd be no Greek-Cyprus/Turkey-Azerbaijan nonsense.

I didn't agree with the result tonight (bit of an overwrought, over-blown dirge IMHO) but boy, it was a dramatic finale.

"Didn't agree" will be an understatement in my case. The Ukrainian girl has great vocal abilities and the song wasn't bad at all but overall it didn't really deserve a top 10 spot, let alone win the competition. Italy finishing 17th was just absurd and bizzarre - it was a winner. Russia and Sweden also didn't deserve such high positions, Australia did deserve top 5 maybe but that many points? Seriously? Meh.
 
They've always had the jury, until 2016 however the televotes from each country were combined with the votes of their repsective jury and the points for the top 10 countries according to the these combined votes were allocated accordingly. (12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1) Since 2016 the jury have their own votes and the televotes are on their own, and points are given twice - once from the jury and once from the televotes, each carrying the same weight.
Yeah, I know they always had the jury, but it suddenly became very obvious with the new system.

I bet they are pretty pissed off in Russia.

Nonsense. That was a terrific innovation. The new system really kept the tension going to the very end. I say get rid of the televote, go back to jury-only voting since it was only the juries that seemed to vote according to some kind of musical merit, albeit few of them agreed on the 12-pointers. To have all that eastern European buddy-buddy voting is frankly just an embarrassment for Eurovision.
What tension, we already knew it was Ukraine at the end. And this is not just my opinion, on a Swedish forum I saw hundreds of people complaining.

I think buddy voting is mostly a result of similar music taste. So why be embarrased about it? And I liked the Russian song, so it is not just eastern europeans who like it.
 
Yeah, I know they always had the jury, but it suddenly became very obvious with the new system.
It was exclusively jury voting until the 1990s, and was a much better system IMHO.

I bet they are pretty pissed off in Russia.
Who cares? They came 3rd. For such a mediocre song, I think that was way better than it deserved.


What tension, we already knew it was Ukraine at the end.
We did not know until the Polish televote was announced. Last year we knew Sweden were going to win about a third of the way into the voting.

And this is not just my opinion, on a Swedish forum I saw hundreds of people complaining.
Eurovision fans will complain about anything and everything.
I think buddy voting is mostly a result of similar music taste.
I seriously doubt it.

And I liked the Russian song, so it is not just eastern europeans who like it.
Well, I think you've presented yourself as a Kiwi, a Scandinavian, and a Brit in the past, so how would we know?
 
"Didn't agree" will be an understatement in my case. The Ukrainian girl has great vocal abilities and the song wasn't bad at all but overall it didn't really deserve a top 10 spot, let alone win the competition. Italy finishing 17th was just absurd and bizzarre - it was a winner. Russia and Sweden also didn't deserve such high positions, Australia did deserve top 5 maybe but that many points? Seriously? Meh.

Yeah, you're right, it really didn't deserve to win. I thought Netherlands, Georgia and Cyprus were the best three songs by a distance but then, I haven't predicted the winner of Eurovision correctly since Alexander Rybak.
 
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