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EmaDaCuz

macrumors regular
Apr 30, 2012
152
55
I'm not a hardcore fan, but I try to watch the final every year.
I think this was one of the best contest I have seen in years, Austria did a great job hosting this event.

Songs fell in two categories for me: pretty good and utterly bad. In my opinion, Sweden's song belongs to the latter. I was really impressed by Latvia and Montenegro, as well as Hungary. The belgian guy did a great job.

Things I did not like. The "boycott" against Russia, it doesn't exist on this planet that they didn't score a single point in countries which normally flood them with high scores (i.e. Cyprus, where 30% of the population is nowadays Russian).
The BBC commentary was simply horrible, and I found most of the jokes offensive rather than funny. And I normally like harsh and offensive jokes. This year was really over the top, just pointing out how shi**y everyone is, but UK is the best. You can comment and make fun of what you see, but if you are incompetent and you understand nothing about what happens on stage, then you better shut up.
 

cube

Suspended
May 10, 2004
17,011
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Russia was not boycotted, they got a lot of points for an average song. If anything, a ton of people bought into the message (whatever that was, it bored me so much I did not pay attention, even if the singer is lovely ).

Latvia was one of the best. The contest has improved, but people's tastes still lag. It was one of the highest ranked by the jury (but they still had Sweden at #1).

If the jury had not been there, the winner would have been Italy by the popular vote.
 
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cube

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May 10, 2004
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The Romanian song needed subtitles and not to be ruined by English grafts which do not help.
 

Dc2006ster

macrumors 6502
Jun 9, 2011
309
124
Alberta, Canada
We have watched it the last few years. For us, most of the songs are fairly ordinary, rapidly forgettable, homogenized pop songs that could be from anywhere. We watch for the spectacle and for Graham Norton's comments.

We like those songs with some national flavour to them, where you hear the music and it somehow sounds like that country but that is easier for countries like Turkey. We also enjoy the crazy ones like the finnish heavy metal band, russian grannies, polish milk maids, romanian guy on stilts... This year had non of that - quite boring.

The hosts banter is painful and there has to be some way to speed up the voting e.g. ban the use of "amazing".

All in all it is usually a fun event with some painful parts.
 

cube

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May 10, 2004
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I like creative visual gimmicks if the song is good.

I enjoyed the Slovenian song with the borderline voice, but I did not find the dance routine and the headphones add-ons creative. Although the singer is very pretty and looked very cute wearing them.

I don't like ethnic pop that sounds like a million other songs.
 

Ulenspiegel

macrumors 68040
Nov 8, 2014
3,212
2,486
Land of Flanders and Elsewhere
I am not a hardcore fan either, though we usually watch the finals every year when we can. There were occasions when I had to be at the event from the start till the finals. It is absolutely different experience to watch and listen on the spot.

I can not say that this year there were songs that I really liked, though I enjoyed the French, the Montenegrin and the Israeli performances.
 

cube

Suspended
May 10, 2004
17,011
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I thought I should have been there for the percussion break. That was totally lost on TV.
 

dXTC

macrumors 68020
Oct 30, 2006
2,033
50
Up, up in my studio, studio
I started paying a little bit of attention to Eurovision when Sweden's Loreen won in 2012 with the monster hit "Euphoria." I wasn't all that impressed with 2013's roster, however, and pretty much skipped 2014.

However, I'm pleased that I checked in this year, or I would have missed out on Serbia's entry by Bojana Stamenov. The Serbian version of her song won Serbia's Eurovision national competition, and she switched to English for the international contest.

I will concede that she let a couple of notes fall flat in her final performance, and that may have cost her country one or two places in rank. Still, Top 10 is not a bad showing at all.

And as for Bojana herself-- hubba hubba! <3 <3
 

yg17

macrumors Pentium
Aug 1, 2004
15,027
3,002
St. Louis, MO
And as for Bojana herself-- hubba hubba! <3 <3


Huh, I googled her expecting to see a combination of Katy Perry and Jennifer Lawrence with a bit of Kate Upton thrown in. I got the exact opposite of what I was expecting. Whatever floats your boat I guess ;)
 

dXTC

macrumors 68020
Oct 30, 2006
2,033
50
Up, up in my studio, studio
Huh, I googled her expecting to see a combination of Katy Perry and Jennifer Lawrence with a bit of Kate Upton thrown in. I got the exact opposite of what I was expecting. Whatever floats your boat I guess ;)

Thank you for your civility. I've been on the business end of some pretty bad comments about my somewhat unorthodox tastes, on this forum and elsewhere. :)
 

liam.berlin

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 20, 2015
191
63
Berlin (Germany)
I feel so rude. I am the thread starter and I totally disappeared here.

If any of you are contest fans and want to add me to Facebook, please do so. For many years my Facebook was about nothing but the contest.

But this year it was very enjoyable just to watch it on television as opposed to make it an all-year round event and to travel to the host city for two weeks. I have fallen out with the contest in recent years and want to take a step back. It is becoming too gay, like one big gay pride. And what does Australia have to do with Europe? Also, as for many decades, all rules seem to be broken for Scandinavia.

If anyone wants a past contest on DVD I can gladly send it to you.
 

keysofanxiety

macrumors G3
Nov 23, 2011
9,539
25,302
For the past 6 years my housemate and I have been hosting a Eurovision drinking party/game. Due to many carpets being muddied and various bathrooms being plastered with stomach contents, every year the invite list gets a little thinner. Nontheless it's still great fun, and has become a tradition. Plus the BBC commentary is great. I never thought I'd prefer Norton to Wogan, but I'm beginning to get there. Plus you can hear Norton getting gradually drunker as the evening goes on - it's great.

Naturally the show itself is a pile of crap, always has been for as long as I can remember.
 

dXTC

macrumors 68020
Oct 30, 2006
2,033
50
Up, up in my studio, studio
Naturally the show itself is a pile of crap, always has been for as long as I can remember.

But isn't that part of the fun of it all? The "pomp and circumstance", the costumes and design taken to-- and occasionally exceeding-- the limits of decorum? Sometimes the craziness turns out well for the performers later on. Verka Serduchka turned the success from that ultra-goofy novelty song into a long-running talk show in Ukraine, and even made an appearance in the recent Melissa McCarthy movie Spy.

This year was noticeably calmer, though-- no disco-ball headgear or turkey puppets, no grotesque death-metal prosthetics. Everybody played it safe. The most "outrageous" we got was the Makemakes' burning piano; sadly, the piano died in vain, as Austria got zilch.

Maybe Europe was trying to avoid scaring newcomer Australia? If so, have they not heard of Dame Edna Everage?
 

SyneRyder

macrumors newbie
Jul 19, 2013
6
5
Perth, Australia
Huh, I had no idea this thread existed. I guess I'm one of the hardcore fans, I've flown from Australia to see the contest 4 times now. There's a few Apple employees who go every year as well. I went for a laugh while in Germany in 2011, but ended up going to 2013-2015 as well to catch up with friends. I'm planning to skip 2016 though, much like Liam.berlin.

It's all mostly hilarious & kitsch, but ESC (and Melodifestivalen & Unser Song) have helped me find a few bands I actually listen to a lot, like Unheilig, Eldrine, and The Common Linnets.
 

phrehdd

macrumors 601
Oct 25, 2008
4,289
1,292
So what constitutes best these days, across Europe for such contests?
 
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phrehdd

macrumors 601
Oct 25, 2008
4,289
1,292
In a few short years, "morning prayers" will be voted year after year as the most popular in the EU.
 

dXTC

macrumors 68020
Oct 30, 2006
2,033
50
Up, up in my studio, studio
In a few short years, "morning prayers" will be voted year after year as the most popular in the EU.
Do you really want this moved to PRSI?

I'm English and think a country loses a small piece of it's individualism and cultural identity if it sings in English - and alienates a large part of their home audience ….. likewise the host nation presenting in English is an awkward experience best avoided - the BBC presentation and voice over is pretty funny ….. guess other nations would just do the same.
Subtitling is technologically easier these days - and lyrics aren't difficult to project on tv - the fusion of words to music works better in some languages than others - so translating it into English may seriously damage it's flow and feel. Knowing it's composers true interpretation is key to properly judge a song.
...
I'm American, and I have to agree on this. Bojana Stamenov performed the original Serbian version of "Beauty Never Lies" for her national contest. The Serbian title is "цео свет је moj" (Ćeo svet je moj/The whole world is mine), and the Serbian lyrical theme was geared toward romantic love. The English lyrics, however, dropped the romance part entirely, and turned it into a self-esteem booster a la "I'm different and it's OK".

Strangely enough, Serbia is the only country in the past quarter century that had a winning song sung primarily in a language other than English (2007's "Molitva," by Marija Šerifović). All other recent winners were in English or had very limited native language use.

I humbly admit that we in the USA bear at least some of the blame for this. Pop songs not in English (and to a lesser extent Spanish) almost invariably do horribly on the US Billboard charts-- Psy's "Gangnam Style" is the exception that proves the rule. This makes it very difficult for European singers to get noticed here without an English-language hit, and the USA is a rather large market demographic that's hard for international promoters to ignore. It's sad, really-- especially for a country that has no official language.
 
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