Eurovision Song Contest

Thing is, that band just looks and sounds like normal everyday life in Estonia to me, so maybe Estonians thought it was too mundane to stand out.

Well, they are one of Estonia's most popular acts, after all, so it makes sense to vote for outsiders .

I'm gonna make a prediction:

Israel and Russia will be booed. I'm nearly sure of that.

And Poland sends the latter of singers for the now-defunct band Varius Manx. Since the tour van crash several years ago she's in a wheelchair, but at least she can sing, as opposed to the steaming pile of shite the dog dragged to the Eurovision last year.

Well, to be fair, yes, the song was shit, but at least you provided us with some... good moments.

And glad that the singer will be getting a chance, after the hardships she's been through.

Norway will be sending a dark ballad, not very unlike last year. According to experts, it's probably gonna fail since there are so many other ballads this year.

Then there's Finland's punk song, which I think will probably fare well, but more likely due reasons not related to the music itself.

edited 21st Mar '15 3:33:39 AM by Xeroop

So, who's gonna watch (and riff on) tonight's first semi final?

edited 19th May '15 1:17:13 PM by Quag15

Well, I just turned it on and it's fucking terrible.

But now I feel cheated because it was the last performance.

I watched them all to gauge the competition, but I must say I was mostly disappointed. So many downright dull entries this year. Lots of them have potential, but don't take it anywhere. Serbia is probably my favourite from this semi-final, but that's not saying much.

Looks like I'll only be able to watch it later (it's not live here).

I'm watching it live on YT, though. (listens to snippets) Yeah, apart from Finland, so much dullness.

edited 19th May '15 1:40:51 PM by Quag15

Oh, this happening? Final is Friday, right?

Saturday, I think.

EDIT: Yep, Saturday 23rd.

edited 19th May '15 1:48:07 PM by Xeroop

Hopefully it isn't on Saturday, as I won't be able to watch it then.

EDIT: Well, fuck.

edited 19th May '15 1:49:16 PM by Rosvo1

Ah, sorry. I was getting it mixed up with the Gay Marriage referendum.

I mean, it's pretty easy to mix up the two: they've both got camp and voting.

Not as many pyrotechnics, though.

Eh, there might be fireworks.

You have a point.

Ok, let's see who'll go through.

Albania, Armenia, Russia, Romania, Hungary, Greece, Estonia, Georgia, Serbia and Belgium go through.

No Finland, guys.

edited 19th May '15 2:02:13 PM by Quag15

Watched it. My favourites were Finland (to send a message, but also to get an additional style of music into Eurovision), Russia (their best song ever in my opinion), and Estonia (also with their best song ever and my favourite for this year).

I usually guess anywhere between 6 and 9 of the qualifying countries from each semifinal; this time I got 6. The biggest surprises for me were that Finland didn't get through, and that Georgia did. Oh, and the Netherlands, as well: I was absolutely certain they'd go through.

(My jokes about Eurovision are as poor as the songs, by the way; for instance, I thought the Dutch singers must've stubbed their toes before they went on stage because they were going "ai-ai-ai-ai"; and the Belarusian singer climaxed every time he said "thunder".)

The most boring songs for me were Armenia, Hungary, and Belgium - all of which went through. (I didn't think Hungary would but I got the other two right on the basis of "if I'm bored by it it'll probably get through".)

Greece is disappointing this year; the first 2 minutes of the song are so boring you forget them as soon as they're over, and the 3rd minute is actually quite good so you're left hoping that they would've started with that and built from there for a really exciting finish.

I sort of wish I could dislike Russia's song more, as it's very hypocritical of the most war-loving country in Europe to send in a song about peace and tolerance and so on. Especially with the video of the song it just reeks of blatant whitewashing that'll fool no-one.

Of the countries that qualify by default my favourites are Australia and the UK. I like both of their songs. I'm also pleased with Germany and Italy - their songs are fairly typical but at least they're better than the usual standard of those two countries. France and Spain I found disappointing and formulaic, even by those countries' standards (and those of Eurovision).

edited 19th May '15 2:21:53 PM by BestOf

The mere fact that Greece decided to participate bothers me. In the middle of such turbulent & difficult times, we can't really afford to spent money on such fanfare.

Participating in the Eurovision doesn't actually cost a whole lot. Hosting it is quite expensive for what amounts to a 3-day live TV spectacle, but for the amount of tourism it'll probably generate for the host in the long run I doubt it's actually all that expensive, either.

Can a country just not participate for a year?

Sure, no problem. Serbia skipped last year.

Lots of countries have decided against participating for various reasons. Sometimes it's because the competition has become unpopular (due to the country not doing well), sometimes it's money, sometimes it's political. You can always come back as long as you're a paying EBU member.

The competitions in Moscow and Baku cost about €30 million each, but they were always going to be the peak of Eurovision's inflation. There had been a build-up of ever expanding competitions before that but after Azerbaijan the EBU said they wanted the competition to scale down to a more sustainable level, and since then it's cost the host something like €15 million for each year. Participating countries probably cough up something like €100k or so on top of EBU membership fees; that's peanuts.

EDIT:

edited 19th May '15 2:46:45 PM by BestOf

Ukraine is absent from this year's competition due to their economic situation and the mess in Eastern Ukraine.