Eurovision Song Contest 2015 - Vienna, Austria

This forum is to learn about foreign cultures and habits, because language skills are not everything you need as a world citizen...

Moderator:Forum Administrators

User avatar
Luís
Forum Administrator
Posts:7874
Joined:2002-07-12, 22:44
Location:Lisboa
Country:PTPortugal (Portugal)
Eurovision Song Contest 2015 - Vienna, Austria

Postby Luís » 2015-04-12, 10:16

Still no topic this year, so I decided to create it :)

You can listen to all the songs here.

So, which ones are your favorite?
Quot linguas calles, tot homines vales

User avatar
Levike
Posts:6153
Joined:2013-04-22, 19:26
Real Name:Levi
Gender:male
Location:Budapest
Country:HUHungary (Magyarország)

Re: Eurovision Song Contest 2015 - Vienna, Austria

Postby Levike » 2015-04-12, 10:41

Is it just me or does it seems that all songs have the same genre?

In the sense that none of them stands out.

Патрислав Андреевич

Re: Eurovision Song Contest 2015 - Vienna, Austria

Postby Патрислав Андреевич » 2015-04-12, 11:13

I said it somewhere already but this year Eurovision is so shitty. It’s gonna be so boring. :?

Nothing stands out, almost all songs are the same genre and in English. Finland stands out, but I don’t really like the song itself. :lol: At least it’s Finnish. And big points to Romania, Montenegro (hvala Crna Goro!), Portugal, France, Italy, and Spain for singing in their own languages (technically the English-speaking countries, too). Others can GTFO, not interesting.

Oh, why do I even bother.. this contest is IMO a big pile of crap. :roll:

User avatar
loqu
Posts:11891
Joined:2007-08-15, 21:12
Real Name:Daniel
Gender:male
Location:Barcelona, Catalonia

Re: Eurovision Song Contest 2015 - Vienna, Austria

Postby loqu » 2015-04-12, 12:34

Luís wrote:Still no topic this year, so I decided to create it :)

You can listen to all the songs here.

So, which ones are your favorite?

Germany and Estonia are my absolute favourites, but I also like Switzerland, Slovenia, Georgia and the UK. It's going to be a very interesting contest!
Нека људи уживају у стварима.
Let people enjoy things.

IpseDixit

Re: Eurovision Song Contest 2015 - Vienna, Austria

Postby IpseDixit » 2015-04-12, 13:19

Belarus FTW! I also like Australia, Belgium and Moldova though.

vijayjohn
Language Forum Moderator
Posts:27056
Joined:2013-01-10, 8:49
Real Name:Vijay John
Gender:male
Location:Austin, Texas, USA
Country:USUnited States (United States)
Contact:

Re: Eurovision Song Contest 2015 - Vienna, Austria

Postby vijayjohn » 2015-04-12, 15:55

Патрислав Андреевич wrote:big points to Romania, Montenegro (hvala Crna Goro!), Portugal, France, Italy, and Spain for singing in their own languages (technically the English-speaking countries, too).

Huh, I didn't know all of those countries were singing in their own languages! (Is it the whole song or only part of it? Does that depend on which country?)

User avatar
Yasna
Posts:2672
Joined:2011-09-12, 1:17
Country:USUnited States (United States)

Re: Eurovision Song Contest 2015 - Vienna, Austria

Postby Yasna » 2015-04-12, 16:56

Shame on Russia and the German speaking countries for not choosing songs in their own language.
Ein Buch muß die Axt sein für das gefrorene Meer in uns. - Kafka

IpseDixit

Re: Eurovision Song Contest 2015 - Vienna, Austria

Postby IpseDixit » 2015-04-12, 17:52

Yasna wrote:Shame on Russia and the German speaking countries for not choosing songs in their own language.

Why shame only on them and not on all other countries which have decided not to use their language?

User avatar
Johanna
Language Forum Moderator
Posts:6679
Joined:2006-09-17, 18:05
Real Name:Johanna
Gender:female
Location:Lidköping, Westrogothia
Country:SESweden (Sverige)

Re: Eurovision Song Contest 2015 - Vienna, Austria

Postby Johanna » 2015-04-12, 19:16

As usual, at least for one year I think English should be banned altogether in the ESC.

As for the countries where English is an official or a de facto official language, the UK has four Celtic languages to choose from, Ireland has Irish, and Malta has Maltese. So it's not like the two predominantly English-speaking countries don't have alternatives at all, and in the case of Malta, my understanding is that Maltese is the overwhelmingly dominant language, it's just that they've never sent anything in that since the 70's for tactical reasons.
Swedish (sv) native; English (en) good; Norwegian (no) read fluently, understand well, speak badly; Danish (dk) read fluently, understand badly, can't speak; Faroese (fo) read some, understand a bit, speak a few sentences; German (de) French (fr) Spanish (es) forgetting; heritage language.

User avatar
razlem
Posts:2291
Joined:2011-01-10, 3:28
Real Name:Ben
Gender:male
Location:San Francisco
Country:USUnited States (United States)

Re: Eurovision Song Contest 2015 - Vienna, Austria

Postby razlem » 2015-04-12, 19:22

I have mixed feelings about singers singing in English if it's not their native language. A lot of times the lyrics and prosody are just cringe-worthy (*cough* Estonia's entry) . You have exceptional cases, of course, and it's not to say that all native English singers are great by any means, but I feel like a lot of these artists are just selling out to the English-speaking audience.
American English (en-us)::German (de)::Standard Spanish (es) Swedish (sv) Mandarin (zh)::Choctaw (cho) Finnish (fi) Irish (ir) Arabic (ar)
Image wia wi nehas-kolwatos lae angos! Check out my IAL Angos
Image Contributor to the Houma Language Project
I have a YouTube channel! I talk about languages and stuff: Ben DuMonde

User avatar
Yasna
Posts:2672
Joined:2011-09-12, 1:17
Country:USUnited States (United States)

Re: Eurovision Song Contest 2015 - Vienna, Austria

Postby Yasna » 2015-04-12, 19:47

IpseDixit wrote:Why shame only on them and not on all other countries which have decided not to use their language?

For countries like Estonia I could understand that they might feel bad about singing in their own language because only about 1% of the viewers would understand the song. For medium sized languages like Polish I can understand them going either way. But for languages like Russian and German, there is no excuse.
Ein Buch muß die Axt sein für das gefrorene Meer in uns. - Kafka

IpseDixit

Re: Eurovision Song Contest 2015 - Vienna, Austria

Postby IpseDixit » 2015-04-12, 20:39

Yasna wrote:
IpseDixit wrote:Why shame only on them and not on all other countries which have decided not to use their language?

For countries like Estonia I could understand that they might feel bad about singing in their own language because only about 1% of the viewers would understand the song. For medium sized languages like Polish I can understand them going either way. But for languages like Russian and German, there is no excuse.

Well, I don't know. Is the lyrics that important, especially considering that many of them are just a bunch of banalities? Also, how much expressiveness are those singers losing for not singing in their mother-tongue? And how many people are really able to follow the entire English lyrics throughout the song anyway? Y'know, the majority of Europeans actually aren't really proficient in English.

And in any case wouldn't it be nicer if ESC promoted linguistic diversity rather than homogenization?

User avatar
Levike
Posts:6153
Joined:2013-04-22, 19:26
Real Name:Levi
Gender:male
Location:Budapest
Country:HUHungary (Magyarország)

Re: Eurovision Song Contest 2015 - Vienna, Austria

Postby Levike » 2015-04-12, 20:47

It's just a song contest, not a "let's promote our culture" contest.

And let's not forget that every country voted for the songs they sent.

I don't mind if they all sing in English, as long as they don't make it sound weird.
I mean as long as they don't have a bad pronunciation.

User avatar
Johanna
Language Forum Moderator
Posts:6679
Joined:2006-09-17, 18:05
Real Name:Johanna
Gender:female
Location:Lidköping, Westrogothia
Country:SESweden (Sverige)

Re: Eurovision Song Contest 2015 - Vienna, Austria

Postby Johanna » 2015-04-12, 20:51

I don't think that the problem is that more people can understand English lyrics, it's that they are used to songs in that language, so it's easier on the ears even for those who don't understand.

No other language in Europe has this advantage I think, not throughout the entire continent.
Swedish (sv) native; English (en) good; Norwegian (no) read fluently, understand well, speak badly; Danish (dk) read fluently, understand badly, can't speak; Faroese (fo) read some, understand a bit, speak a few sentences; German (de) French (fr) Spanish (es) forgetting; heritage language.

IpseDixit

Re: Eurovision Song Contest 2015 - Vienna, Austria

Postby IpseDixit » 2015-04-12, 20:54

Levike wrote:It's just a song contest, not a "let's promote our culture" contest.

I can't really wrap my head around that.

---

Levike wrote:I don't mind if they all sing in English, as long as they don't make it sound weird.
I mean as long as they don't have a phony pronunciation.

razlem wrote:I have mixed feelings about singers singing in English if it's not their native language. A lot of times the lyrics and prosody are just cringe-worthy (*cough* Estonia's entry) .

User avatar
razlem
Posts:2291
Joined:2011-01-10, 3:28
Real Name:Ben
Gender:male
Location:San Francisco
Country:USUnited States (United States)

Re: Eurovision Song Contest 2015 - Vienna, Austria

Postby razlem » 2015-04-12, 21:07

Maybe it's just weird for me as an American. But I know that I feel the same way when an English singer tries singing in German. It just lacks the depth and understanding of the use of the language compared to a native speaker.
American English (en-us)::German (de)::Standard Spanish (es) Swedish (sv) Mandarin (zh)::Choctaw (cho) Finnish (fi) Irish (ir) Arabic (ar)
Image wia wi nehas-kolwatos lae angos! Check out my IAL Angos
Image Contributor to the Houma Language Project
I have a YouTube channel! I talk about languages and stuff: Ben DuMonde

User avatar
Yasna
Posts:2672
Joined:2011-09-12, 1:17
Country:USUnited States (United States)

Re: Eurovision Song Contest 2015 - Vienna, Austria

Postby Yasna » 2015-04-12, 21:13

IpseDixit wrote:Well, I don't know. Is the lyrics that important, especially considering that many of them are just a bunch of banalities? Also, how much expressiveness are those singers losing for not singing in their mother-tongue? And how many people are really able to follow the entire English lyrics throughout the song anyway? Y'know, the majority of Europeans actually aren't really proficient in English.

And in any case wouldn't it be nicer if ESC promoted linguistic diversity rather than homogenization?

As a language enthusiast, of course I wouldn't mind if every country sang in their own language. I don't know that most of the viewers would like that though. All I ask is that at least the countries which speak a widespread language use it.

But no matter what language they sing in, most of the songs are bland, unoriginal cookie-cutter pop, so I still wouldn't care much to watch it. So whatever.
Ein Buch muß die Axt sein für das gefrorene Meer in uns. - Kafka

User avatar
Levike
Posts:6153
Joined:2013-04-22, 19:26
Real Name:Levi
Gender:male
Location:Budapest
Country:HUHungary (Magyarország)

Re: Eurovision Song Contest 2015 - Vienna, Austria

Postby Levike » 2015-04-12, 21:28

I just listened to the Spanish entry, the most likeable until now.
I kind of like it, but its video looks like a commercial, I always expect a brand appearing at the end.

Germany's also okay.

The Portuguese song though is something you would expect at a bar, for me it's the worst of them all. :lol:

User avatar
OldBoring
Language Forum Moderator
Posts:6152
Joined:2012-12-08, 7:19
Real Name:Francesco
Gender:male
Location:Milan
Country:ITItaly (Italia)
Contact:

Re: Eurovision Song Contest 2015 - Vienna, Austria

Postby OldBoring » 2015-04-13, 3:08

Levike wrote:It's just a song contest, not a "let's promote our culture" contest.

If culture and language are not important, you could as well watch MTV music awards, or The Voice, lol.
I thought the special thing about Eurovision was that each European country participated with a song that represents them.

User avatar
loqu
Posts:11891
Joined:2007-08-15, 21:12
Real Name:Daniel
Gender:male
Location:Barcelona, Catalonia

Re: Eurovision Song Contest 2015 - Vienna, Austria

Postby loqu » 2015-04-13, 13:40

For the record, I love the Estonian lyrics!

I don't know why I usually prefer heartbreak songs over love ones.
Нека људи уживају у стварима.
Let people enjoy things.


Return to “Culture”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 7 guests