The Eurovision Song Contest Thread

[vijayjohn]

Israel's was not so great, but my God, that is the gayest Eurovision song I have ever seen (important contextual note: I have seen very few Eurovision songs)

Then you probably missed Conchita?

Yeah, I have seen a picture or two of Conchita but probably only on Wikipedia and never in an actual song.

I think the song would have fared better if Andromache sang fully in Greek.

I would have loved it if she had sung fully in Greek and instantly given it more points! (I might even have ranked it over Moldova).

As for Israel, I'll be very happy if they gave the Israeli broadcaster a year's suspension from the competition. Apparently Michael Ben David has been extremely disruptive on and off stage and made a lot of people uncomfortable with what seems to sometimes border on sexual harassment. It was certainly satisfying to see him flop in the semifinal.

Oof!

[Naava]

Israel's was not so great, but my God, that is the gayest Eurovision song I have ever seen (important contextual note: I have seen very few Eurovision songs)

Then you probably missed Conchita?

Yeah, I have seen a picture or two of Conchita but probably only on Wikipedia and never in an actual song.

You should listen to Rise like a phoenix, people loved it.

Okay, md0, I normally completely ignore Eurovision, but your list got me too curious (and entertained) to do that this time. I watched at least parts of some of the songs. If I was voting, I would've given France top points just for singing in Breton, mostly just because I am so fucking sick of everyone singing in English and this is only the third time in the contest's entire history that anyone has sung a song in a Celtic language (but it also sounds like a really good song!). Of course I loved Moldova's song, but I also liked Slovenia's, Iceland's, Cyprus's, and, to be honest, even Portugal's. Portugal's is in English, but at least it's about something culturally specific. (Cyprus's is also mostly in English, but hey, it has Greek in it!).

I'm so glad to hear I'm not the only one who liked France, Iceland, and Cyprus! I'm still shocked how little love they got from the public & juries.

Apparently there were shenanigans with the jury vote in six countries.

They couldn't contact them for live feed for some reason. I saw someone joke about it online, saying it was easier to get in contact with someone in space than those six countries in Europe [in the Eurovision sense].

Also, you were right md0: there was something shady going on:

[vijayjohn]

Israel's was not so great, but my God, that is the gayest Eurovision song I have ever seen (important contextual note: I have seen very few Eurovision songs)

Then you probably missed Conchita?

Yeah, I have seen a picture or two of Conchita but probably only on Wikipedia and never in an actual song.

You should listen to Rise like a phoenix, people loved it.

Okay, I listened to most of it just now. It's a good song, but it doesn't look gay to me at all. (Perhaps I'm not watching the right video of the song?)

I'm so glad to hear I'm not the only one who liked France, Iceland, and Cyprus! I'm still shocked how little love they got from the public & juries.

I didn't realize even France got so little love. I'm pretty sure one of my friends outside of UniLang really hates France's policies regarding minority languages, and I remember she's said more than once that she finds France even worse about racism than both the US and the UK. She was taken by surprise when I told her that France's entry was in Breton, probably not knowing that it has actually had entries that were at least partly in minority languages several times already.

[md0]

Yeah, describing it as a gay performance or song is not really accurate. Conchita is the drag persona of a cis gay man, but it's not "gay" in the same way Israel's song this year was.

[vijayjohn]

Yeah, exactly! This one is just dripping with clichés in mainstream Western gay culture. The ripped jock with the backwards cap, the cute nude men smiling at the camera, the hiiigh-piiitched pop song, the twirling...

[OldBoring]

Youse are too passionate for Eurovision for being non-Europeans.

[md0]

Last night was Germany's national final and hell must have frozen over because they (well, we, I voted) chose a good song.
I didn't know Lord Of The Lost before, but I went through their back-catalogue, and they are totally my jam

Winner's reprise: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsfAWzQiA44

Original performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNQAhxwY0XY

Studio version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5I9CYu668jA

With that, I declare it an open season on ESC 2023 and will start catching up with what other countries are doing for this year.

[Linguaphile]

Estonia's entry:
Alika - Bridges
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ojjpvhti2gE

Ukraine's:
Tvorchi - Heart of Steel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxDEwIyJap8

And Spain's:
Blanca Paloma - Eaea
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8W7qWM80UU

[md0]

This year I didn't get to follow ESC in the lead up to the actual competition, so I'm way less invested into the songs.

Still, I'm pleased as punch that the following will be competing in the final
Who The Hell Is Edgar? | Austria 🇦🇹(My favourite, I think)
Promise | Australia 🇦🇺 (For the first time AU is so good that I cannot pretend they are not part of this)
Duje | 🇦🇱 Albania (AL Always representing our shared musical heritage in a technically solid way)
I Wrote A Song | United Kingdom 🇬🇧 (I don't know why UK last year did so well, but it finally made them care and it's worth it)
Carpe Diem | Slovenia 🇸🇮 (Not my favourite song, but the qualification that pleased me the most. Those guys where having so much fun on stage, they deserve their spot in the final)
Soarele şi Luna | Moldova 🇲🇩 (Wild Pagan vibes and the usual Moldovan attention to what the people, not juries, want)
Queen of Kings | Norway 🇳🇴 (The lyrics are only a step up from Finland's last year to be honest, but a better overall performance)
Samo Mi Se Spava | Serbia 🇷🇸 (One of this year's dark horses, in my opinion, could repeat last year's fifth place. Serbia is on track for another win in this decade, I'm sure)
Blood & Glitter | Germany 🇩🇪 (Germany's best song in my lifetime and Chris Harms one of the most competent singers this year. I loved the band's back catalogue and listened to many older interviews of the guy and he's such a nice person. Would be my favourite if it wasn't for Austria stealing Germany's thunder again)
Cha Cha Cha | Finland 🇫🇮 (Techno is not my thing, but this guy is such a sweetheart and gives a very good show on stage)

We lost two greats along the way. Malta and Latvia did very well, but their semifinal was extremely competitive while the other semifinal barely had 5 good songs.

[Tim Julius]

I'm shocked to find out that we don't already have an active ESC thread. I was a lapsed Eurovision fan until last year, but now I follow the competition again.

This year the contest is taking place in Italy on the 10th, 12th, and 14th of May. A few countries already selected their entries, and some national competitions will take place in the coming weeks.

My hope for this year is to see both more linguistic diversity and less radio-friendliness. Last year's Top 5 included four songs in languages other than English and some less represented music genres.

Of the songs currently nominated, I only liked Moldova's three minutes of pure honorarily-Balkan fun
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLq5i8ng4KLzN3mYsOsvhCeJV8YHnaShoI

Expecting something really good from Finland, as mentioned in the music thread. Fingers crossed for Ram pam pam (it first has to win Finland's national competition).

What are your hopes and thoughts on this year's Eurovision entries, especially regarding linguistic diversity and less mainstream genres?

[loqu]

What do you mean hopes in this year's entries? The contest was three months ago.

[Multiturquoise]

What do you mean hopes in this year's entries? The contest was three months ago.

This year's contest had become the focus of strict criticism because of the EBU allowing Israel to participate while they were attacking innocent people in Gaza. By the way, I wasted my money by voting for "Pedestal" by Aiko (Czechia) forty times (two different cards) in the second semi-final; however, it ended up being eleventh, therefore it couldn't make it to the Grand Final. "11:11" by Megara (a Spanish band representing San Marino), was a really great song, too, but they ended up even worse than Czechia did

The winner of the contest, Nemo, seems so sympathetic and cute, and I'm really proud they won.

[Linguaphile]

How does voting for Eurovision work? I watch the results but honestly I have no clue about how the voting takes place. I thought it was a jury or panel of voters for each country. So...

I wasted my money by voting for "Pedestal" by Aiko (Czechia) forty times (two different cards) in the second semi-final

You pay money to vote? You can vote forty times??

[loqu]

In the latest contests, the voting is made like this:

• Each competing country has a jury vote and a public vote.
• The jury vote is the result of the votes of 5 people chosen by the broadcasting organization of each country. Every one of those 5 people prepares a whole ranking of the songs, from the one they liked the best to worst. It will be made public after the contest, but anonymously (it is known who was in the jury and what the votes were, but not who made each of the 5 rankings).
• The public vote or televote is the sum of all calls and SMS messages from the audience. Each phone number can vote up to 20 times and yes, each vote has a price, established by the broadcaster and the telecom company of the country (for example, in Spain it's like 2 euros each vote, while in Serbia it's 50 dinars, less than 0,50 €).
• After the voting period, and within each country, the jury rankings are counted and sorted so that the song that pleased jurors the most will get 12 points; the second one 10 points, the third one 8 points, the fourth one 7 points and so on until the tenth one, which will get 1 point. To the songs from the eleventh one on, no points are awarded.
• The same way, after the voting period, the SMS and calls are counted so that within each country, the song that received the most SMS and calls gets 12 points, the second one 10 points, and so on.
• On the show, first you see that the points from the juries are awarded, country by country, by connecting with the spokesperson in each country. Then, after that, the hosts of the show say the televote points altogether (not country by country, even though you can check the official website after the show to see the detailed result).

Hope I've been clear but if anything isn't just ask!

[Linguaphile]

Hope I've been clear but if anything isn't just ask!

You have! Thank you!