Eurovision 2021

[alexocfp]

After a year‘s absence, the rehearsals start in a few hours.
Will be edition #18 for me.

Don‘t ask how someome born and raised in NYC watches this. Or went to the show in 2014. Haha

 

[anonymoose_au]

Don‘t ask how someome born and raised in NYC watches this. Or went to the show in 2014. Haha

Aww now I'm curious

 

[alexocfp]

Aww now I'm curious

You Australians are crazy too. I was at the venue hours before the doors opened and ther only people already there were Australians. Haha

It was all an accident.

Ok, so my parents were both born in a Greece and when they came here their English wasn’t good. So they only watched the only Greek language station at the time. Every May, that station (that was NY based) would air the Greek feed from the national broadcaster (ERT). I would look at the screen and see people dressed in crazy outfits, with crazy accents trying to sing in English. It was quire the spectacle to say the least.

I was mezmirized at this car wreck. And Ruslana won in 2004 and I was hooked. To this day I still haven’t figured out what the performance is supposed to be.

Greece won the next year and the Greek community blasted that song in their cars all summer. Haha

 

[norwegianfairytale]

Yes, a Eurovision thread! Count me in. I´m super ready for the first semi final 1 on Tuesday! This year I had a en extra eye on the different countries song, so I already heard most of the songs and i´m excited to see the final.

I just hope this year the jury votes won´t be such a anticlimax after the audience vote and there isn´t any mistakes made. I have not forgotten about all the drama in 2019.

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

For those of you that can receive RTÉ, as well as having LIVE coverage of the Semis and the Final, they will be showing the Eurovision-based film, "The Story Of Fire Saga", on Wednesday night.

I don't normally watch the RTÉ coverage. I will be doing what I usually do - taping the BBC coverage, and watching it the following morning. But, I will make sure to tape the film from RTÉ as well.

Below is the full schedule of Eurovision programmes on this week on the two national broadcasters in these islands.

CaroLiza_fan


BBC & RTÉ (All times BST)

Tuesday 18th May 2021
RTÉ2 19:30 - 20:00 Good Evening Europe
BBC4 20:00 - 22:05 Semi-Final 1
RTÉ2 20:00 - 22:15 Semi-Final 1

Wednesday 19th May 2021
TG4 20:30 - 21:00 Good Evening Europe Agus Anois An Eurovision
RTÉ1 21:35 - 23:50 The Story Of Fire Saga

Thursday 20th May 2021
BBC4 20:00 - 22:05 Semi-Final 2
RTÉ2 20:00 - 22:15 Semi-Final 2

Friday 21st May 2021
BBC4 21:00 - 22:00 The A-Z Of Eurovision
BBC4 22:00 - 23:30 Eurovision At 60

Saturday 22nd May 2021
BBC4 01:30 - 02:30 The A-Z Of Eurovision
RTÉ1 18:55 - 20:00 Marty's Magical Eurovision Moments
BBC1 20:00 - 23:45 Grand Final
RTÉ1 20:00 - 23:50 Grand Final

 

[Winnie_20]

Oh, yeah, yay, Eurovision... as you might imagine, that's been a Big Thing over here for the past, well, not just one but two years now! *face palm* I remember watching it with friends two years ago. That was the first time I ever actually watched the whole show, and my country won.
Does it really already start this week? Ugh, I always forget it runs in the same month as the Queen Elisabeth music competition, which (as a classically-educated pianist) is more my style, so I've been focused on that.
I guess Eurovision will be all over the Dutch TV channels these weeks, no need to look for TV listings.

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

I still don't understand why the organisers cancelled the contest completely last year. There was nothing to stop them just playing out the pre-recorded videos of each of the entries in the order they would have been performing, and getting the public to vote as normal on that.

Yes, I know that everybody that was competing last year has been invited back this year. But, this is supposed to be a song contest, rather than a singing contest. So, because the acts are performing different songs, we will undoubtedly get a different result to what we would have got with their original songs.

The only reason I can see for cancelling completely last year was so as to avoid the situation where the country that won in 2019 would miss out their "prize" of hosting the next contest. But, hey, it's not the first time that that scenario has happened.

You know, I think the reasons the EBU cancelled 2020 are all because it was the Netherlands that were the reigning Champions. Firstly, because it was so long since the Dutch entry last won (1975). And secondly because the Netherlands had already not hosted the contest a year that they were reigning Champions (the Dutch entry won in 1959, but the 1960 contest was held in London).

Personally, I am still not convinced that we should be holding a proper contest this year. We should have had 2 years of video tape contests.

But, we are where we are. And we will get a winner this year.

Looking forward to hearing what the songs are like. (I always avoid listening to the songs until they are performed in competition).

CaroLiza_fan

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

OK, so nosiness got the better of me last night. And I decided to investigate how many times somebody from Northern Ireland had competed in the Eurovision Song Contest.

So, I went onto Wikipedia's Eurovision pages listing the entries from Ireland and the UK, and checked where all of them came from. And made out a table of all entries from NI.

Northern Ireland At The Eurovision Song Contest​

Year​	Host City​	Artist​	Title​	Country​	Language​	Final​	Points​	Semi​	Points​
1962​	Luxembourg City	Ronnie Carroll	"Ring-A-Ding Girl"	UK​	English​	4​	10​	​	​
1963​	London	Ronnie Carroll	"Say Wonderful Things"	UK​	English​	4​	28​	​	​
1969​	Madrid	Muriel Day	"The Wages Of Love"	Ireland​	English​	7​	10​	​	​
1970​	Amsterdam	Dana	"All Kinds of Everything"	Ireland​	English​	1​	32​	​	​
1971​	Dublin	Clodagh Rodgers	"Jack In The Box"	UK​	English​	4​	98​	​	​
1980​	The Hague	Johnny Logan *	"What’s Another Year?"	Ireland​	English​	1​	143​	​	​
1981​	Ballsbridge	Sheeba **	"Horoscopes"	Ireland​	English​	5​	105​	​	​
1984​	Luxembourg City	Linda Martin	"Terminal 3"	Ireland​	English​	2​	137​	​	​
1986​	Bergen	Luv Bug	"You Can Count On Me"	Ireland​	English​	4​	96​	​	​
1987​	Brussels	Johnny Logan	"Hold Me Now"	Ireland​	English​	1​	172​	​	​
1992​	Malmö	Linda Martin	"Why Me?"	Ireland​	English​	1​	155​	​	​
1995​	Dublin	Eddie Friel	"Dreamin’"	Ireland​	English​	14​	44​	​	​
2006​	Athens	Brian Kennedy	"Every Song Is A Cry For Love": Semi; Final	Ireland​	English​	10​	93​	9​	79​
2013​	Malmö	Ryan Dolan	"Only Love Survives": Semi; Final	Ireland​	English​	26​	5​	8​	54​

* = Born in Australia, but his Dad is from Northern Ireland.
** = One of the members of the group, Francis Campbell, is from Northern Ireland.​

You know, it’s a pity there isn’t an act from NI at Eurovision this year, because we tend to do well when performing in the Low Countries. Three of our Gold Medals (out of a total of 4), our Silver Medal, and one of our 4th places (out of a total of 4) were achieved in the Low Countries.

Hey, after our most recent act (who is from my county) finished in last position in the Grand Final, we need a pick up!


Now, I should add, we have never had anybody at Junior Eurovision. Whilst this wasn’t a big surprise, I did get a couple of shocks. Firstly, the UK hasn’t entered Junior Eurovision since 2005! (I didn’t think the Junior contest had been going that long... ) And secondly, Ireland only started entering in 2015!

Until last night, I had no idea that Junior Eurovision had been going since as long ago as 2003!

2015 was the first time I came across the Junior contest, but the reason had nothing to do with Ireland entering for the first time. The reason was because Malta won that year, and the wee girl that won, Destiny Chukunyere, was interviewed at the next Senior contest. And when they showed her singing, she was amazing! Such a strong voice for her age.

And she was impressive again when she was on “Britain’s Got Talent” a couple of years later. But, unfortunately, there were a lot of good acts in her Semi Final, and she didn’t make it to the Final. :disapp:

But, she was selected to be the Maltese entry in the Senior contest last year / this year!

I haven’t heard the song she will be closing tonight’s Semi with yet. But, I really hope it is not one of these rubbish songs that you tend to get at Eurovision. Because she has such a strong voice, and deserves a song that will do it justice.

ALL THE BEST DESTINY!!!

(I am singling Destiny out because she is the only act that I already have an opinion of. There may be others that are better than her, but I just haven’t heard them yet).

CaroLiza_fan

 

[alexocfp]

I still don't understand why the organisers cancelled the contest completely last year. There was nothing to stop them just playing out the pre-recorded videos of each of the entries in the order they would have been performing, and getting the public to vote as normal on that.

Yes, I know that everybody that was competing last year has been invited back this year. But, this is supposed to be a song contest, rather than a singing contest. So, because the acts are performing different songs, we will undoubtedly get a different result to what we would have got with their original songs.

The only reason I can see for cancelling completely last year was so as to avoid the situation where the country that won in 2019 would miss out their "prize" of hosting the next contest. But, hey, it's not the first time that that scenario has happened.

You know, I think the reasons the EBU cancelled 2020 are all because it was the Netherlands that were the reigning Champions. Firstly, because it was so long since the Dutch entry last won (1975). And secondly because the Netherlands had already not hosted the contest a year that they were reigning Champions (the Dutch entry won in 1959, but the 1960 contest was held in London).

Personally, I am still not convinced that we should be holding a proper contest this year. We should have had 2 years of video tape contests.

But, we are where we are. And we will get a winner this year.

Looking forward to hearing what the songs are like. (I always avoid listening to the songs until they are performed in competition).

CaroLiza_fan

I think one of the official reasons was that they didn’t want to do remote from the studios contest because certain countries would have better production values than others.

Certain countries have advantages in budgets and attention no matter how it is held. Sweden is always going to get hype no matter what they send. And Australia was the shiny new toy for the first few editions too.

Moldova can send Sweden’s entry and still won’t score as well because they aren’t Sweden.

That being said, Euphoria is still the best winner ever.

 

[alexocfp]

Peacock, NBC’s streaming service, will have all 3 shows live. Probably were given the rights as a reward for getting the American Eurovision competition starting next year.

I can’t think of another time where the semis were shown live in America.

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

I think one of the official reasons was that they didn’t want to do remote from the studios contest because certain countries would have better production values than others.

Certain countries have advantages in budgets and attention no matter how it is held. Sweden is always going to get hype no matter what they send. And Australia was the shiny new toy for the first few editions too.

Moldova can send Sweden’s entry and still won’t score as well because they aren’t Sweden.

You've got some good points there. Some of the broadcasters are not as well funded as others and don't have the same quality of production facilities. Hey, you can see that when the Jury votes are being announced in the Grand Final! But you would like to think that the EBU would help those less well funded broadcasters out.

I don't subscribe to the widely held theory that Eurovision is awash with political voting. To me, it makes sense that neighbouring countries are likely to have similar tastes in music and, hence, would like each other's acts. Nothing to do with politics. The only times I can imagine that political voting comes in is if there are countries that have major issues with each other. But, when there are over 40 countries voting, and each country can only give points to 10 countries, then I can't see this having much of an impact on the overall results.

To be fair on Australia, they have had good songs every year since they arrived. So, I don't think them doing well is because of the novelty factor. It's because they deserved it!

Not sure you picked the best example with Moldova, given that they finished 3rd in their Semi / 10th in the Final in 2018, and 2nd in their Semi / 3rd in the Final in 2017. (I should add, I liked the 2017 song, but not the 2018 song). But, I do think you are right. I too get the impression that there is a reputation element to the jury judging.

...just like figure skating, then.

That being said, Euphoria is still the best winner ever.

I didn't like "Euphoria" at the time. But, I admit that it has grown on me a bit in the years since then. (Just a bit, though).

For me, "Rise Like A Phoenix" is without doubt the best Eurovision song ever. (Not just the best winner!)

And when the following happened, it put that belief beyond doubt:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTJ-q0ke0cE

Anyway, all the best to everybody competing tonight in Semi Final 1.

The action starts in about half an hour from now.

CaroLiza_fan

 

[Alegria]

My country is the only one that always qualified to final. I guess it's something to be proud of )))

 

[alexocfp]

My country is the only one that always qualified to final. I guess it's something to be proud of )))

Yup. Australia lost its 100% record yesterday.

 

[alexocfp]

Azerbaijan was pure fire, pardon the pun. Fantastic. Give the choreographer and wardrobe people a raise.

Also was happy for Israel and Norway. Tix is really easy to root for.

 

[alexocfp]

You've got some good points there. Some of the broadcasters are not as well funded as others and don't have the same quality of production facilities. Hey, you can see that when the Jury votes are being announced in the Grand Final! But you would like to think that the EBU would help those less well funded broadcasters out.

I don't subscribe to the widely held theory that Eurovision is awash with political voting. To me, it makes sense that neighbouring countries are likely to have similar tastes in music and, hence, would like each other's acts. Nothing to do with politics. The only times I can imagine that political voting comes in is if there are countries that have major issues with each other. But, when there are over 40 countries voting, and each country can only give points to 10 countries, then I can't see this having much of an impact on the overall results.

To be fair on Australia, they have had good songs every year since they arrived. So, I don't think them doing well is because of the novelty factor. It's because they deserved it!

Not sure you picked the best example with Moldova, given that they finished 3rd in their Semi / 10th in the Final in 2018, and 2nd in their Semi / 3rd in the Final in 2017. (I should add, I liked the 2017 song, but not the 2018 song). But, I do think you are right. I too get the impression that there is a reputation element to the jury judging.

...just like figure skating, then.



I didn't like "Euphoria" at the time. But, I admit that it has grown on me a bit in the years since then. (Just a bit, though).

For me, "Rise Like A Phoenix" is without doubt the best Eurovision song ever. (Not just the best winner!)

And when the following happened, it put that belief beyond doubt:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTJ-q0ke0cE

Anyway, all the best to everybody competing tonight in Semi Final 1.

The action starts in about half an hour from now.

CaroLiza_fan

I was there when Rise like a Phoenix won.

Political voting only means certain countries get automatic points. But you still need support from non neighbors to win.

There hasn’t been a repeat winner in decades. So political voting can only take you so far.

Russia may get 50 or 100 points from neighbors but it’s still not enough to win. It’s not like Russia wins every year, but they won’t ever finish last.

Even the standard Greece-Cyprus swap has never lead to a Cyprus win. Even all the Balkan countries exchanging votes won’t be enough to win it.

And when Greece won, Cyprus’ points made no difference anyway.

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

Well, my fears for Destiny Chukunyere were justified. She was indeed doing one of those typical silly songs that a lot of Eurovision fans like but I don’t. She did the best she could with what she was working with but, at the end of the day, the song wasn’t good enough to show just what her voice is capable of. Fortunately, last night’s voting public saw past the limitations of the song and, realising that Destiny is an amazing talent, put her through to the Final.

Since I’ve started talking about what I didn’t like, I may as well continue. And then tell you what I did like.

During the first verses of the Australian and Croatian songs, I was thinking “yes, these will go onto my list of songs I like”. But when we got to the choruses, I quickly changed my mind. The choruses were awful! Suffice to say, neither of them got through to the Final.

With Cyprus, it was the opposite. The verses were awful, but the chorus was absolutely brilliant. For me, the awfulness of the verses outweighed the brilliance of the chorus. That said, I am glad that the people voting decided to give Elena another chance.

Every year, I lament that there are so few songs that are sung in the singer’s own language. That so many are sung in English. Well, this Semi took the biscuit. There was only one song that was not in English. ONE!!! And, unfortunately, it was the worst song of the night! (The Ukrainian song still managed to get through to the Final, though).

My biggest disappointment of the night, though, was Russia. Given my penchant for Russian figure skaters, I always hope that their Eurovision act will do well. There were a couple of short bits that were sung in Russian, and I liked them. But, I didn’t like the rest of the song. She was rapping, and I don’t like rapping. (And I think the producers agreed with me, because they used one of the Russian bits in the recap when giving the voting details).

Anyway, onto the acts I did like.

Quick Reminder: what I do every year is print out the running order for each Semi, and put a mark beside the songs I like as we go along. And then when all the singing is finished, I go back and pick a Top 4. (For the Final, I pick a Top 6). Then when the results are announced, I put a “q” beside those that have qualified, and see how they compare with my choices.

So, here are my Top 4 from Semi Final 1:

1. Ana Soklič - "Amen"
2. Vasil - "Here I Stand"
3. TIX - "Fallen Angel" (q)
4. Tusse - "Voices" (q)

So, half of my favourites came from the former Yugoslavia, and the other half came from Scandinavia. An unusual combination, when you think of it like that. But, my country combinations are usually unusual!

And here are the other songs that I liked (in the order they performed):

• Lesley Roy - "MAPS"
• Hooverphonic - "The Wrong Place" (q)
• Eden Alene - "Set Me Free" (q)
• ROXEN - "Amnesia"
• Efendi - "Mata Hari" (q)

As you probably know by now, I am not the sort of person that blindly supports the acts from these islands. But, I did really like the Irish song this year, and was disappointed that it did not get through.

After mentioning him in my post about NI acts yesterday, it was so good to see Johnny Logan appearing heavily in the feature that the EBU showed during the interval. However, I got the impression that the BBC didn’t show the whole of the feature. That’s one thing I hate about the BBC – they only show some of the interval entertainment. They cut things out so that they can show silly sketches featuring the presenters / acts /officials, which are based on whatever the most popular TV drama of the year is. And it is infuriating!

And since I am complaining about the BBC, another thing I hate is the way that their commentators always talk the whole way through the recap on the Semi that the UK doesn’t vote in. Which means that for that Semi, I have to go back and re-watch the actual performances when trying to make up my mind of the order of my Top 4 positions.

I felt so uncomfortable watching Semi Final 1 this morning, seeing people in close proximity to each other both on stage and off.

I have to be honest, I have never liked the way that so much goes into the staging at Eurovision nowadays. I would prefer it to be like it was in the old days, when there was just the act on stage with a microphone and, if applicable, their instruments. And if they are not playing the music themselves, have an orchestra in the pit playing. No dancers or fancy sets or props or anything. Make it all about the song again.

Whilst I realised that it wouldn’t go that far back to basics, I was expecting the staging to be stripped back this year because of the pandemic. But, no, the staging was as big as it ever was.

Although the audience was lower than normal at 3,000, they were not spaced out at all. They were all sitting one next to another, and not a single mask to be seen. And it was not just the audience. In each of the country pods, the acts and their dancers / backing singers / management / whatever were all practically on top of each other.

If this doesn’t turn into a super-spreader, I will be amazed.

I know I said this all along, but seeing the first Semi has strengthened my belief that this year’s Eurovision should not be going ahead the way it is. It should have been done the same way I said last year’s should have been done – playing out the pre-recorded videos in the order that the acts were drawn to perform in. And then proceeding as normal with the public vote once all of that night’s videos had been broadcast.

But, they didn’t.

Rather than end on a negative note, I would like to say that I am looking forward to watching the Eurovision film that RTÉ is showing tonight, and then getting back to the real business with Semi Final 2 tomorrow night.

CaroLiza_fan

 

[alexocfp]

The Balkan girls they like to party like nobody indeed.

Serbia wasn’t fooling around. A classic, old school, unabashed Shake It. Right out of 2008. Haha

 

[anonymoose_au]

They're showing Semi-final 1 on SBS here in Australia at the moment, but I guess it's not live? And oh noes did I see a spoiler in the thread here about Aussieland not making it through? Booo

I liked Lithuania and Russia from what I've seen so far (like 5 acts).

In other news...never forget Plushy won Eurovision (I'm forever amused by this fact).

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

The Balkan girls they like to party like nobody indeed.

Oh, Alex! Why did you have to use that line?! Every time that song comes into my head, it takes hours to get it out again!!!

For newer viewers who are wondering what we are talking about, we are referring to the 2009 Romanian song:

Elena Gheorghe - "The Balkan Girls"

Suffice to say, I loved it!!!

But, just to prevent any confusion, the Macedonian singer that I gave my Semi Final 1 Small Silver Medal to is a bloke. And he didn’t get through to the Final. But (trying to word this in a way that doesn't prematurely reveal who was my favourite from Semi 2), both of my Small Gold Medals went to Balkan girls!

---

Sorry that I am only posting this now, on the day of the Final. Things were running really behind yesterday, so I only managed to watch as far as the end of the voting period. And then I watched the results this morning.

I’ll write this in a similar format to how I wrote about Semi Final 1. So, I’ll again start with the returning acts.

Because of her reverting to her real name, I didn’t twig that Senhit of San Marino was a returning act (Although, I probably should have, given that her real name is just a different spelling of the name she used previously! ) Suffice to say, I didn’t like her 2011 song, and I didn’t like her 2021 song either. Well, I liked the Middle Eastern backing music to her track, but that was it. And, as I said about the Russian song in Semi Final 1, I don’t like rapping. So, that section with Flo Rida just sealed my opinion. (That shouldn’t be allowed!)

As for Natalia Gordienko, who was returning for Moldova having previously finished 20th in 2006, although I recognised her name, that was all I remembered about her. Unfortunately, I only started keeping records in 2010, so I can’t say what I thought of her previous appearance in the context of the other acts. I didn’t like her song this time. But, she got through.

Although the Dutch representative is, of course, pre-qualified, we had a singer in Semi Final 2 who previously represented the Netherlands. Stefania Liberakakis was part of the group that finished 8th in the 2016 Junior Eurovision. (Hard to believe that she is still only 18 – she is so grown up!) Her song for Greece presented me with a real dilemma. I loved everything about it… except the chorus. If the chorus had been better, it would have been in my Top 4 without a doubt. But, it wasn’t. I really agonised over what to do about this song. To the extent, that I watched the performance four times! (And that I did that has nothing to do with Stefania being absolutely gorgeous. Honest!) In the end, I reluctantly left it out of the list of songs I liked. But, I am glad she qualified.

Another entry that gave me a dilemma was the one from Georgia. I liked the song. But, the singer didn’t have the best voice. And, given that we were told that Tornike Kipiani had won the Georgian versions of both “Pop Idol” and “The X Factor”, it doesn’t give me much faith about Georgian chances in the years to come. It didn’t get through to my list, and it didn’t get through to the Final either.

The Latvian entry was the opposite. Samanta Tīna was a great singer, but I just didn’t like the song. And she had the same fate as Mr. Kipiani.

After the disgrace of there only being one song not sung in English in Semi Final 1, I was delighted that there were 4 in Semi Final 2. And with the exception of one ( Serbia), I liked them all. In fact, one of them ( Albania) was my favourite entry of all the songs that I have heard so far. So, it was a massive relief when it was the first act announced to get through to the Final.

So, who joined Anxhela Peristeri in my Top 4 from Semi Final 2? Here they are:

1. Anxhela Peristeri - "Karma" (q)
2. Blind Channel - "Dark Side" (q)
3. Uku Suviste - "The Lucky One"
4. Vincent Bueno - "Amen"

OK, so since really wanted to put it into my Top 4, here is the Greek entry:

• Stefania - "Last Dance" (q)

And here are the other songs that I liked (in the order they performed):

• The Black Mamba - "Love Is On My Side" (q)
• VICTORIA - "Growing Up Is Getting Old" (q)
• Gjon’s Tears - "Tout l’Univers" (q)
• Fyr Og Flamme - "Øve Os På Hinanden"

I admit, the Danish song wasn’t the best. But, the whole 80’s nostalgia really made me smile.

Although there were more Entries in Semi Final 2 than Semi Final 1, there were fewer songs that I liked. BUT, the overall quality of the songs that I liked was better in Semi 2 than in Semi 1.

Looking forward to seeing what the Big 5 and host entries are like tonight.

ALL THE BEST EVERYBODY!!!

CaroLiza_fan

 

[anonymoose_au]

In other news... Ukraine reached PEAK Eurovision status with their song, half the time I was like "Are you OK, guys?" And the other half I was like dancing along.

And Australia didn't get through, which after I saw our entry I can't really complain about, where was the kitsch? I was disappoint.