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Eurovision Song Contest 2019 |OT| The place where joiking, dead drops, dentists and bondage come together.
- Thread starter Red Arremer
- Start date
But there is good pop music. That's what I want.
The idea that Eurovision is always crap is pretty dumb for a contest that has spanned this many years and produced tons of classic pop songs.
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Oh I know. It's also why there was like a decade of only Eastern European and Nordic countries winning - they actually took the contest seriously and sent good stuff, while the Western countries kept weaving conspiracy theories about bloc voting and diaspora and even accusing the contest of being straight up rigged, completely ignoring the fact that almost the entire selection of songs from these countries were trash at best.
But since after Germany won, the quality of songs steadily increased, and I would argue in 2014 (when Conchita won), and especially after Conchita's victory was when it was proven that any country could win the contest, even if there's no bloc or diaspora, provided the song is good enough - so 2015 onwards, the quality of songs from Western countries spiked up and even though of course there's going to be stinkers (either just bad songs or performers that completely fail live), I would argue that at this point, the majority of songs are, at least, decent, if not good.
There are probably more songs from the Western countries in the past 5 or so years that I enjoyed than like, in the entire span of 20 years between 1994 and 2014.
And, let's also not forget that the bloc/diaspora stuff doesn't help out any country either if the song is shite. In recent years absolute juggernauts at the contest like Russia, Azerbaijan, Serbia, Greece, Romania and Poland failed to qualify to the finals at least once, while countries like Cyprus, Portugal, Malta and even San Marino(! - in a semi without Italy voting in it, no less) have qualified and even won or close to it in recent years.
Watched yesterday with the wife. I am Portuguese and she is Polish so... sniff sniff, I guess.
Oh, and the San Marino guy? Don't want to sound mean but I have to say that he looks like just some millionaire who paid the right people to be there.
Oh, and the San Marino guy? Don't want to sound mean but I have to say that he looks like just some millionaire who paid the right people to be there.
Hopefully Conan's result won't impact the budget for our own festival. We have had some amazing songs from the qualifiers after they rebooted the show (the reboot gave us Salvador) but a last place and now not even qualifying might make a dent in things.
And it's a shame because our qualifiers these past few years have had really good Portuguese performers and composers. It's such big step from from the years prior to that (00s onwards). Let's see but to have all that lost for a meme song would suck so much.
I still hear that bloc stuff so conspiracy hasn't really disappeared. There's still a lot of that.
But I agree that Western countries are definitely trying more again. The 00s were a really bad decade for some countries in the festival. But even then there have always been good (even amazing) songs. And the diversity is always very cool to see.
It just bums me out how this narrative of "Eurovision is memes and bad music" was created since that is hardly the case despite the odd performances (which it what gives it charm too!). Especially when I feel it's just a cool thing how all these countries get together for this event and usually there's always such a positive message and it's a friendly competition between countries that less than 100 years ago were in a literal war against each other (and some are still today!).
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And it's a shame because our qualifiers these past few years have had really good Portuguese performers and composers. It's such big step from from the years prior to that (00s onwards). Let's see but to have all that lost for a meme song would suck so much.
I still hear that bloc stuff so conspiracy hasn't really disappeared. There's still a lot of that.
But I agree that Western countries are definitely trying more again. The 00s were a really bad decade for some countries in the festival. But even then there have always been good (even amazing) songs. And the diversity is always very cool to see.
It just bums me out how this narrative of "Eurovision is memes and bad music" was created since that is hardly the case despite the odd performances (which it what gives it charm too!). Especially when I feel it's just a cool thing how all these countries get together for this event and usually there's always such a positive message and it's a friendly competition between countries that less than 100 years ago were in a literal war against each other (and some are still today!).
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I don't think Portugal's delegation is going to stop doing the Festival da Cancao in the same format they've been doing just cause of the last place while hosting (which is still not as bad as Austria getting a whopping 0 points when hosting - a Eurovision record, nobody ever managed that) and not qualifying once. The results prior to the reboot were just as bad, and the new format did give Portugal its first win in Eurovision history. We don't even know the placement of Conan in the semi - for all we know, he could have been 11th and missed the finals by a couple of points.
The performance itself also was excellent and Portugal definitely can be proud of what they've done. But what happened with Conan is the risk you always run into if you send a divisive, avantgarde entry, especially considering this semi basically had all the wacky and divisive songs all lined up.
Before the actual show, I would've figured Australia was going to be the weirdo entry that didn't make it, but holy shit that staging was just absolutely gorgeous, while Conan's staging at Festival da Cancao was a lot better, so he fell off a lot more, imo.
The performance itself also was excellent and Portugal definitely can be proud of what they've done. But what happened with Conan is the risk you always run into if you send a divisive, avantgarde entry, especially considering this semi basically had all the wacky and divisive songs all lined up.
Before the actual show, I would've figured Australia was going to be the weirdo entry that didn't make it, but holy shit that staging was just absolutely gorgeous, while Conan's staging at Festival da Cancao was a lot better, so he fell off a lot more, imo.
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Australia went wayyyy up with the bookies. It hovered around 10ish, but now it sprung up into 3rd. The only other massive jump like that was Azerbaijan after the first rehearsal.
Oh jeez. That was probably Portugal or Poland. Guarantee.
Oh jeez. That was probably Portugal or Poland. Guarantee.
Watching SF 1 again to refresh my memory - that Slovenia track is absymal. The lyrics must have meant something to the voters because the music was dire. I would gladly have taken Poland over it.
Missed it live, here's my reactions as I was catching up:
-Cyprus: lyrics made it feel like it was a rejected Rihanna song from like '06, wasn't too impressed
-Montenegro: cringe
-Finland: Hey, it's Darude! Song sounded off to me, can't quite put my finger on it.
-Poland: I liked half the song but hated the other half, also thumbs up for traditional dress
-Slovenia: I like the song, and the idea of a close up, intimate performance is good, but I feel like the performers needed to do more acting through their face to pull it off, and it came across as a bit tired.
-Czech Republic: LOL, did he just casually turn on a British accent? Seems to be going for that Olly Murs demographic, not for me but I can see it being successful.
-Hungary: Seems fine, didn't keep my interest
-Belarus: Felt like a polished X-Factor act, close to being a great act.
-Serbia: Power ballad works well for these events.
-Belgium: Wow, this guy had low confidence. I think they said he was like 19 or so, it was almost like he was overcome by the grandeur of the event.
-Georgia: Unlike the previous dude, this guy had conviction. Thumbs up for that alone.
-Australia: Oh yeah, this is the over-the-top-ness that will get a lot of fans. I could see this being top 5.
-Iceland: I don't even know. The blonde dude's voice was a bit off, I know he was trying to go for a delicate touch but it came off as being frail.
-Estonia: Generic
-Portugal: Prosthetic beard; I feel they're being weird just to be weird.
-Greece: It seems like it is something that would do well, between the outfit, staging, music and dancers.
-San Marino: I had to laugh, I think it is the cheesy, campy thing that a lot of people watch Eurovision for, and will be one of those acts people vote for just out of sheer entertainment value.
My personal preference is: Australia > ?Iceland? > Greece > Serbia > Belarus > Slovenia > the rest.
And seeing the results . . . yeh, as is expected. Georgia could've got through if they had a better song, but whatever.
Also saw this article about the group from Iceland and I kind of want to see them win just to see what kind of things they will say in their winning speech.
-Cyprus: lyrics made it feel like it was a rejected Rihanna song from like '06, wasn't too impressed
-Montenegro: cringe
-Finland: Hey, it's Darude! Song sounded off to me, can't quite put my finger on it.
-Poland: I liked half the song but hated the other half, also thumbs up for traditional dress
-Slovenia: I like the song, and the idea of a close up, intimate performance is good, but I feel like the performers needed to do more acting through their face to pull it off, and it came across as a bit tired.
-Czech Republic: LOL, did he just casually turn on a British accent? Seems to be going for that Olly Murs demographic, not for me but I can see it being successful.
-Hungary: Seems fine, didn't keep my interest
-Belarus: Felt like a polished X-Factor act, close to being a great act.
-Serbia: Power ballad works well for these events.
-Belgium: Wow, this guy had low confidence. I think they said he was like 19 or so, it was almost like he was overcome by the grandeur of the event.
-Georgia: Unlike the previous dude, this guy had conviction. Thumbs up for that alone.
-Australia: Oh yeah, this is the over-the-top-ness that will get a lot of fans. I could see this being top 5.
-Iceland: I don't even know. The blonde dude's voice was a bit off, I know he was trying to go for a delicate touch but it came off as being frail.
-Estonia: Generic
-Portugal: Prosthetic beard; I feel they're being weird just to be weird.
-Greece: It seems like it is something that would do well, between the outfit, staging, music and dancers.
-San Marino: I had to laugh, I think it is the cheesy, campy thing that a lot of people watch Eurovision for, and will be one of those acts people vote for just out of sheer entertainment value.
My personal preference is: Australia > ?Iceland? > Greece > Serbia > Belarus > Slovenia > the rest.
And seeing the results . . . yeh, as is expected. Georgia could've got through if they had a better song, but whatever.
Also saw this article about the group from Iceland and I kind of want to see them win just to see what kind of things they will say in their winning speech.
Ha that's amazing. Low key dark horse.
The Netherlands plays tonight. We've been the favorite with the bookies with double digits for months now. Which, for a country that hasn't won since the 70s, feels pretty weird. I'm sure we'll mess up and lose to San Marino in the end. I'm not a big fan of the song, and the staging is dependably awful, though he admittedly has a very good live voice. Also, he sings about video games, and as currently We Live in a Society, that's sure to give us a leg up.
Edit: as I checked win chance of the Netherlands went up from 26% to 39%, gosh
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Without being too patriotic, Sweden's number is just pure class with a great singer and a badass all women-choir. That's never a guarenteed win, but the difference in quality compared to some of the acts in semifinal number 1 is just astonishing. I'd be really surprised if it lands outside top 5 on saturday. Also, in contrast to the young Belgian kid who didn't look like he wanted to be there, John Lundvik is a born performer who eats that stage for breakfast.
Netherlands, Sweden, Russia, Azerbaijan, Switzerland and Malta are all playing tonight if I'm correct. Tuesday was only Australia and Iceland, so a much better seed this time round.
Another favorite, Italy, is an automatic qualifier and will have a portion of its song shown after the acts compete just like the first three automatic qualifiers had some promo on Tuesday.
Albania will be the only song entirely sung without any English.
Without spoiling, the staging in this SF will focus more on playing with lighting and visual effects than SF1's fire and outer space.
This SF is widely considered the more predictable of the two; most think as many as 7-8 acts are locks to qualify and the rest are competing for the last few slots. But shocks can and will happen!
Albania will be the only song entirely sung without any English.
Without spoiling, the staging in this SF will focus more on playing with lighting and visual effects than SF1's fire and outer space.
This SF is widely considered the more predictable of the two; most think as many as 7-8 acts are locks to qualify and the rest are competing for the last few slots. But shocks can and will happen!
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The more I watch Zero Gravity, the more I want it to win. It's such a massive improvement over the national selection, where the staging was really awful.
Also, link again to the Icelandic broadcaster's English commentary show for our NA friends:
https://www.ruv.is/sjonvarp/beint?channel=ruv2
Also, link again to the Icelandic broadcaster's English commentary show for our NA friends:
https://www.ruv.is/sjonvarp/beint?channel=ruv2
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I really like this.
I'll admit to being highly susceptible to blondes in skintight clothing tho.
I'll admit to being highly susceptible to blondes in skintight clothing tho.
