59th Eurovision Song Contest

~Pamina~ said:

Yes, the final is on Saturday. But it's already after midnight so technically it's already Friday which means tomorrow is Saturday and...... ok, ok, I made a mistake, I shouldn't have said tomorrow my bad

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Haha, no problem

I have no clue how Eurovision became so popular in Australia but I know they've been even doing their own top of the songs for the last years. Their appearance last night was very fun, I loved them.

Also, it seems like Romania decided to send Paula Seling & Ovi every time the Winter Olympics are held (first time was in 2010)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUsJi8nKsj0

This year's Australia interval act...I'm crying

GF2445 said:

And @Pamina- Malta was boring??? :confused2:

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kinda, yes
no offense, just my opinion I don't like it. Doesn't mean anything.
(tbh, this happens quite often with the Greek entries. People go nuts about it, like yesterday, only I get the sudden urge to stuff something in my ears)

Sorry that this is later than I intended, but I was out this morning. For the first time, my town was hosting a Continental Market.

Here is my verdict on last night’s Semi.



As I suspected, the usual trend for the Semis continued – there was one Semi with a whole pile of good acts (in this case, Tuesday), and one with not so many (Thursday).

For me, there were 2 acts in Semi Final 2 that were head and shoulders above the rest – Austria and Slovenia. And I hate to admit it, but of everybody who performed last night, the bloke in the dress was my favourite. He was by far the best singer without doubt.

My third favourite was Finland (hey, I’m a rocker at heart!) Of the other acts I liked, they were all much of a muchness. So, I went for Ireland!

I was VERY disappointed in Paula and Ovi. The singing was good enough, but the song itself was hopeless. They were a shadow of what we saw in 2010.

You remember the other day I was telling you that I prefer not to hear the entries beforehand, so that I can base my judgement on the performances on the night. Well, I heard the UK entry on the radio yesterday. And I didn’t like it.

Also, during the intervals, BBC3 does an analysis of the performances we have just seen, and usually has one of the entries from the other Semi as a guest analyst. On Tuesday, they had the Macedonian entry, Tijana. And I took an instant dislike to her. She came across as having a really bad attitude. So, when she came on stage last night, I had already a bias against her. Mind you, during the analysis last night, both the “expert” and the guest (the girl from the Latvian group) said that Tijana was out of tune. So, that made me feel a bit better.

~Pamina~ said:

Poland - not really my thing but at least it wasn't boring (and the sideshow girls were hilarious. I was honestly expecting them to turn this into a wet-t-shirt-contest)

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I was thinking the same about the Polish dancers! Particularly the one with the scrubbing board (was it just me, or did she look like a more buxom version of Viktoria Sinitsina?)

But, it brought about a priceless Eurovision moment during the analysis during the interval.

The BBC presenter, Scott Mills, asked the Latvian girl what she thought of the Polish performance and she said “I just saw a lot of boobies. Isn’t this show… children watching it?” She then continued “It’s an interesting way to show your, um, Slavic girls. If all girls are like that, it would be interesting to see them.”

Scott then tried to explain that “it was showing Polish chores like churning butter, etc.” But then the Latvian girl interrupted “But I’m a woman and I know, with this big chest it’s hard to…” [and she demonstrates trying to use a scrubbing board] “If you have that big décolletage it’s hard to work…”

At this point Scott changed the subject. But, she had a point. And she should know...

~Pamina~ said:

I agree about Suzy's singing. Quite underwhelming. But that gave me more time to figure out if she was actually wearing some kind of clothing or if those flower thingies were glued onto her body... I'm still not sure.

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And, while we are on the subject of upper torsos, having studied Suzy in detail on Tuesday night (hey, I’m a guy, after all!), I came to the conclusion that the flowery thingies were indeed stuck directly onto her.

GF2445 said:

Also, Well Done Jessica Mauboy, smashing it for Australia in the Interval.

#TeamAustralia

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Finally, may I just say that I would have definitely put that Aussie girl through to the Final! She was absolutely brilliant – even better than the Austrian bloke in the dress!

CaroLiza_fan

CaroLiza_fan said:

And I hate to admit it, but of everybody who performed last night, the bloke in the dress was my favourite. He was by far the best singer without doubt.

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aaahhh it's ok, the Wurst rules!

CaroLiza_fan said:

And, while we are on the subject of upper torsos, having studied Suzy in detail on Tuesday night (hey, I’m a guy, after all!), I came to the conclusion that the flowery thingies were indeed stuck directly onto her.

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thank you so much for taking it upon yourself to do this tedious work and have a closer look I'm sure you went through hell

Sorry, I forgot to add a couple of things.

Firstly, i got a massive shock when I was reading a story on Wednesday morning about the Russians getting booed when the results were announced on Tuesday night.

I never realised those twins were only 17!!! To have such strong voices at such a young age. I'm even more impressed with them now!

~Pamina~ said:

Malta - boring version of Mumford&Sons

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The BBC announcers made the same comparison!

GF2445 said:

Im really happy that Malta made it to the finals. It's a great song.
And @Pamina- Malta was boring??? :confused2:

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Well, I thought the song had potential, but the singing wasn't great. Normally when you get a group made up of siblings, the voices gel effortlessly. Just take The Corrs, or The Carpenters.

But, the voices of the two that were doing the lead vocals on the Maltese song just did not go together well at all.

Silvia451 said:

Norway - in my opinion, by far the best song this year

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I enjoyed the second half of the Norwegian song. The problem I had was that he was singing so quietly in the first half of the song that the music drowned him out. So I don’t know if he was any good or not early on!!!


Does anybody know why there was a delay in announcing the results on Thursday night?

Looking forward to tonight's final, and in particular hearing the Spanish entry.

GOOD LUCK RUTH!!!!!

CaroLiza_fan

Just a wee reminder that the Final kicks off in just FIVE minutes (20:00 BST / 21:00 CEST)

Good luck everybody...

...but particularly Ruth Lorenzo! I really hope your song is as good as you are! (You can tell I've been a fan of Ruth for a long time - nearly 6 years!)

CaroLiza_fan

Omg Ricky Gervais just tweeted that Softengine is his favourite

spoiler alert!








yeeees, the Wurst won, I love it!
I'm totally going to the ESC next year since it's gonna be practically next door (I refused to go when it was in Germany because of... well, reasons)

And as always there are things I understand and things I don't get at all

Top 5
Austria: love it! (saw parts of the press conference afterwards online. love the guy, love the woman, love them both )
The Netherlands: my favorite from the first Semi.
Sweden: not bad, but actually not that far up my personal list.
Armenia: didn't exactly blow me away but it's a decent song that grows on you.
Hungary: ok, why not.

As for the rest:
Germany made top 20. I can live with that since I was actually ok with our entry this year (could have been much worse. We proved that last year with Cascada *still feeling ashamed we made you listen to that*)
Glad Norway at least made Top 10, loved that song.
France - I kinda get why they ended up in the last place because the song and the singing were, well... pretty bad. But I had a good laugh thanks to their acid-inspired performance.
Slovenia second to last?? Seriously? Did not see that coming.
What was up with Italy? I saw the music video online, that's a good song. But that live performance and that outfit (eyes still hurt) - you kinda shot yourself in the foot here, you didn't have to be that far down the list (even those very pretty legs and the upskirt shots didn't help)

You can now also look at the detailed split jury and televoting results online.
I had a look at the German votes for the Grand Final and sometimes there's somewhat of a discrepancy
Denmark: avg. jury rank 1, Televoting rank 10
Austria: avg. jury rank 11, Televoting rank 1
UK: avg. jury rank 8, Televoting rank 19
Azerbaijan: avg. jury rank 9, Televoting rank 25
Greece: avg. jury rank 22, Televoting rank 4

So, when is the Wurst touring Russia?

That was a great contest.
I did like the winner's song, it was grand, lush in sound and was jamesbond-esque. In saying that, this song had such political influence and backing by Europeans, that Conchita was bound to win anyway.

WeakAnkles said:

So, when is the Wurst touring Russia?

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Oh, golly. After all the yelling by Russian posters at the "decadent" U.S.--Europe is far edgier in these matters than the U.S. I doubt this could happen in the States right now, but apparently it's old hat in Europe. I wonder what the effect of this will be now.

Right, here is my final table, for the 6 countries that were pre-qualified for the Final


For the first time since I started taking notes (2010), my order based on the performances in the Final were very different compared to what I had chosen in the Semi’s. Specifically, my choices from Semi Final 1.

My top 6 from the Final were:

1. Austria
2. Spain
3. Russia
4. Sweden
5. Slovenia
6. Ukraine

So, for the first time, like, EVER… MY FAVOURITE WON!!!!!!

OK, so I know I was already biased when it came to Ruth. But when I saw her performance, I really did think that it was going to be a battle between her and Conchita for the win. They were definitely the two that stood out for me. And I was torn as to which to choose to win.

Do I go with the song I prefer? (Conchita)

Or do I go with who I though sung better? (Ruth)

In the end, I went with the song, and won! But Ruth deserved to get a LOT more than only 74 points.


As for the results as a whole, what a joke!

Yes, the top 11 were all entries that I liked, and I was pleased that a lot of the songs I liked did better than I thought.

But, I take back everything I said about the voting not being political. Russia was FAR better than only 89 points. Those two wee Russian girls did not deserve to go through what they did last night. Especially since they were one of the best acts in the competition. That booing every time Russia was mentioned was disgraceful.

THIS IS A SINGING CONTEST. NOT A POPULARITY OF COUNTRY CONTEST!!!!

~Pamina~ said:

France - I kinda get why they ended up in the last place because the song and the singing were, well... pretty bad. But I had a good laugh thanks to their acid-inspired performance.
Slovenia second to last?? Seriously? Did not see that coming.

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Yes, France deserved to be last. But Slovenia just above them???!!! That was my 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] favourite from Semi 2, and my 6[SUP]th[/SUP] favourite from the Final!!!

~Pamina~ said:

What was up with Italy? I saw the music video online, that's a good song. But that live performance and that outfit (eyes still hurt) - you kinda shot yourself in the foot here, you didn't have to be that far down the list (even those very pretty legs and the upskirt shots didn't help)

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And Italy 22[SUP]nd[/SUP]?! I loved their song! In fact, I was dithering between Italy and Slovenia for my 6[SUP]th[/SUP] place!

Haven’t seen any of the music videos, so I don’t know what Italy’s was like. But I agree, I hated the outfit too. Didn’t actually notice the pretty legs and the upskirt shots. Maybe I need to go back and watch again…


I wasn’t surprised that the UK was well down the order. I didn’t like either the song, or Molly’s voice. But I was surprised that she got as high as 17[SUP]th[/SUP]. Especially when Germany was 18[SUP]th[/SUP]. Although it was not one of my absolute favourites, I did like the German entry.

~Pamina~ said:

Germany made top 20. I can live with that since I was actually ok with our entry this year (could have been much worse. We proved that last year with Cascada *still feeling ashamed we made you listen to that*)

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As a rule, I don’t like Dance music, and I didn’t like Germany’s entry last year. But, I do actually like Natalie Horler as a singer. It may normally be hidden behind the dance music that Cascada are known for, but she does have a VERY strong voice.


On reflection, I thought I had been unfair to put Montenegro and Hungary above all those good female solo singers that had been in Semi 1. I admit, I was probably a bit too generous to them on Tuesday, particularly with Montenegro.

Although I demoted Montenegro from my favourites from Semi 1, I was shocked that he only finished 19[SUP]th[/SUP] in the Final. Yes, the skating was awful (Bring back Plushy!!!!) But, the singing was still good. And he was definitely better than quite a few of the ones above him.

Yes, I am feeling a bit sheepish for demoting Hungary, who then went on to finish 5[SUP]th[/SUP]. I still liked the song a lot, and so was delighted with it being up near the top in both the Semi (3[SUP]rd[/SUP]) and the Final (5[SUP]th[/SUP]).

Generally speaking, I’m not fussed on country music, but the Dutch entry was one of those country songs that I do like. Nevertheless, I was surprised that they won their Semi, and came 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] in the Final. So, unfortunately, I bet there will be more country music next year on the back of that result…


Overall, a good result for the entries I liked. But, it was spoiled and overshadowed by the treatment of those lovely wee Russian twins.

Don’t take it personally girls.

CaroLiza_fan

I thought it was mostly a pretty blah group of songs with no real standouts.

I think Austria won for.... political and not musical reasons (honestly I thought the song and performance were both kind of so so, it's hard to imagine people listening to the song without the visuals).

I liked the Netherlands song the most but it was a leetle too close to 'Every Breath you Take" for comfort.

Not enough weirdness and nothing very inspiring or jaw droppingly awful (what's Eurovisian without a few singing train wrecks? boring!)

And why wasn't Cyprus there to award Greece douze points?

^ Cyprus didn't sign up for this year's Eurovision at all. Only the countries that were in the competition (including those that didn't make it to the final) were able to vote.

As for the winner, Conchita has an incredible voice and the stage effects were beautiful but I can't help wishing the song was a little better than that? It seemed like a variation of Adele's Skyfall. Just my opinion of course. :think: But worse songs have won the contest in the past so I guess it's fair and square in the end.

I also think its a joke. How brainwashed a lot of the West is to have hate for Russia is really disturbing.

I don't completely understand the voting but it looks like some countries purposely screwed Russia with the jury voting. http://www.eurovision.tv/page/results

Latvia for example, Russia was #1 in the televoting there. But the jury put them #20. Estonia same thing. #24 in jury voting, #2 in televoting.

My final impressions

Austria- amazing voice, good song, well-deserved award (I'm happy that Sweden didn't win, I don't like that kind of typical Eurovision song)
The Netherlands- they were very cute, I loved their performance (+her dress), but it wasn't a "wow" song
Armenia - my favourite voice this year, but the song wasn't that good
Norway- I'm disappointed that people didn't like it, I think it should have been in top 5; still my favourite song from the competition
Hungary- it's ok, MTV song; it will probably become very popular

Russia placed 7th in the end, all things considered. I think it was a fair placement for that song. It's hard to tell if the juries purposely screwed them over because it's not the first time in the contest when televoting and jury completely disagree. There were many other countries in the past that were #1 in televoting and lower than #20 in jury voting.

If Russia placed #24 or something like that overall then maybe it would have been enough reason to consider it suspicious but #7 is deserved. They were #16 at the 2011 Eurovision and there were no controversies back then so they did way better in 2014.
There was no need for all the booing in the arena though, Eurovision is supposed to be a singing contest and not politics. Those teenage girls have no fault.

Olympia said:

Oh, golly. After all the yelling by Russian posters at the "decadent" U.S.--Europe is far edgier in these matters than the U.S. I doubt this could happen in the States right now, but apparently it's old hat in Europe. I wonder what the effect of this will be now.

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There's already been a trans Eurovision winner (Dana International in 1998) so Conchita is simply continuing a great tradition.

Fabulous performance, good song. I approve of this win

Wow Austria came in first in the televotes and was placed 1st by all of the judges in Finland!

I often feel like I don't want to live here or on this earth in general when I'm faced with such unimaginable hatred and prejudice as seems to be the norm these days. But today I feel slightly better about humanity. I just have to make sure I don't go and look at any Conchita-related FB comment threads, they would bring me right down again.

For what it's worth, even Russia placed Austria 3rd in the televotes!

Also agree that the booing was unnecessary. If they wanted to protest, they could have booed when Russia was giving their votes since that at least would not have been such a personal attack!