Eurovision 2014

No no, the winner is going to be "Il Volo" (disclaimer: not a fan)

 

Maybe we and/or I should start a Eurovision 2015 thread.....?

 

The real scandal was, that this singer was invited into the German preselection. No doubt he is a great singer. He was "discovered" in a casting show as a kind of "talented outsider". And even there it became obvious very soon, that he has the talent, but not the mental strength for dealing with the music business and huge media publicity. Everyone knew that - including himself. And he obviously has hoped not to win. But then he won and his only escape was rejecting being the winner. Which was the best he could do, it would have been a much bigger "scandal" if he had disappeared in Vienna on the day of the show.....

 

Costs us currently about 1/2 a million to compete and as we are one of the largest funders to the EBU thenI can't see it happening.

 

I don't even know why the UK insists on the humiliation of participating in this showbiz travesty anymore. Since all the former Eastern block countries have joined up, it's just an excuse for each country to vote for and pat its neighbours on the back. It's got nothing to do with the songs anymore. The UK comes nowhere these days and unless the voting system is changed it never will again. We need another 10 million Poles here to change things and then that'd only work if we could convince them to vote for their host nation and not the home country!

 

These are the only countries that still care about the contest. For them it's still a big deal.

In Western Europe most people consider it more like a joke

 

When did Australia enter Europe?

 

You Aussies are a one off this year. I don't think you'll be in next year.

My tip for the win is Norway.

 

Are we in the competition proper?

 

Yeah, I wondered that too! It seems no one is bothering to explain this anomaly. Maybe most of the people involved are so stupid they believe Australia is part of Europe.

 

A few years after Israel apparently!

 

Quite. Happy for anyone who wants in to be in. Enjoyed the banter online with everyone fuelled in equal parts by appreciation, snark and drink. Is it being transmitted live in Australia? If so, join in on twitter. Always worth it if only to find out that, for one night at least, everyone in Europe & beyond has pretty much the same sense of humour.

 

I haven't watched Eurovision since Terry Wogan stopped presenting it in the UK. He was always the highlight because it was certainly not about the music.

 

Russia will win!

 

Look at the back of your DVD boxes..... we are one region (region 2).

 

I haven't heard any of the songs, but since politics (jury vote) and sympathy between nations (votes of the public) play an important role in the voting outcome, Russia has a serious handicap currently.

 

I think that what matters is how many people of one nationality live in another country. Getting a lot of votes from a neighbouring country doesn't mean that they love you, just that they have lots of your fellow citizens who are resident in that country.
That's the problem for the UK. Since the UK population doesn't speak other European languages they do not emigrate much to other European countries and therefore they can't vote for the UK.

By the way, I predict a bottom of the table position for the UK again this year. That song is completely out of context.

 

Australia, Russia, Israel, Azerbaijan, Morocco, Kazakhstan and Turkey are not in Europe officially. But rules are there to be broken.

 

It could also be that the rest of Europe don't like the UK very much. Political voting has always happened in the Eurovision.

 

The block voting model doesn't suit islands like Iceland, The UK or Ireland where immigration from other member countries is not as high.

 

After 2 years of entering two quality acts for The Netherlands with songs that didn't conform to what people perceive as Eurovision songs (an orchestral ballad and a countryrock duet) and doing well to really well (The Common Linnets became the unofficial winner last year as runner up and scoring a bigger hit all over Europe then Conchita) somehow they had the bright idea to ask a great vocalist to enter this year, Trijntje Oosterhuis, but apparently she only wanted to do it with this particular song co-written by hear friend Anouk (yep, the singer of that orchestral ballad of 2013). Wouldn't have been an issue except that it is just a lame song aimed to be in tune with the kids taste but failing miserably. Didn't surprise me one bit that we didn't make the cut in the semi-final. Sad because the previous years proved that if you enter an artistic song combined with a clear vision on how to present it you could go far.

 

Australia is Region 4

 

The political voting is hilarious. While the songs are on, I usually have the sound muted and the 'lyrics' on subtitles.

 

Well I would argue that a large part of Russia and a small part of Turkey are geographically in Europe.

 

Ops... !