Eurovision Song Contest 2018

Fretwired

EricTheWeary said:

Fretwired said:

Interesting .. the winner's song had been promoted on social media and had 20 million likes ... surely releasing a song before the contest should be against the rules.

In the Eurovision documentary it was seen as part of the reason that the U.K. do so badly. Generally songs are performed by established artists in a region so they are played on the radio/ TV/ social media a lot prior to the competition and so are already familiar to a cross section of the public whereas the U.K. entries only get promoted in the U.K.
The songs go through a selection process and then ( most of them) through the semi finals so they couldn’t really be kept under wraps. 

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The public vote was exciting, some interesting discrepancies with the judges ( such as Australia coming bottom with the public and Denmark doing so well). 

Thanks for sharing. I didn't know that. I recall when I was a kid in the 1960s people suggested we sent the Beatles or the Rolling Stones. I guess the days of an ABBA breaking through maybe over.

Emp_Fab

I’m not being serious with my moans about the ESC...  It is a bit of fun at the end of the day.

Did Plinky Plonky (nij naj noj) win in the end ?

Nitefly

Emp_Fab said:

I’m not being serious with my moans about the ESC...  It is a bit of fun at the end of the day.

Did Plinky Plonky (nij naj noj) win in the end ?

Yes, with chicken-dancing.

guitars4you

Sorry to join late on page 11 - In fact I didn't see the show - Out for a curry - But got back with the vote half way through - That in itself is interesting - Then find out that Israel had one, so great in that I now get to see what all the fuss is about, as they sing the song one more time

I've heard some crap songs in my life, from how much is that doggy in the window, to Barbie Girl - But that was appalling - It was like Pinky and Perky singing Barbie Girl - With luck I'll never get to hear it again - If that won then what were the other songs about

ICBM

Roland said:

A lot of that is neighbour voting

There was a bit, but not as much as you would expect from the old days - and when it's too obvious, it doesn't go down well now... the Montenegro jury was booed when they gave 12 points to Serbia.

And anyway, Israel doesn't have a lot of neighbours in Europe, so that doesn't explain the result at all. In fact, when I listened to it again I think it was a worthy winner - the best combination of distinctive and fun.

EricTheWeary

Fretwired said:

EricTheWeary said:

Fretwired said:

Interesting .. the winner's song had been promoted on social media and had 20 million likes ... surely releasing a song before the contest should be against the rules.

In the Eurovision documentary it was seen as part of the reason that the U.K. do so badly. Generally songs are performed by established artists in a region so they are played on the radio/ TV/ social media a lot prior to the competition and so are already familiar to a cross section of the public whereas the U.K. entries only get promoted in the U.K.
The songs go through a selection process and then ( most of them) through the semi finals so they couldn’t really be kept under wraps. 

———————————————————————————

The public vote was exciting, some interesting discrepancies with the judges ( such as Australia coming bottom with the public and Denmark doing so well). 

Thanks for sharing. I didn't know that. I recall when I was a kid in the 1960s people suggested we sent the Beatles or the Rolling Stones. I guess the days of an ABBA breaking through maybe over.

Abba were pretty famous before Eurovision in Sweden, Benny had been a major pop star there with number one hits. The U.K. has sent well known people ( Lulu, The Shadows, Katrina come to mind) although they don’t seem to have been any more successful than the obscure acts. 

Emp_Fab said:

I’m not being serious with my moans about the ESC...  It is a bit of fun at the end of the day.

Did Plinky Plonky (nij naj noj) win in the end ?

The #metoo song won. Wether that shows that the audience wants to celebrate diversity or just likes songs with chicken noises I don’t know. 

ICBM

EricTheWeary said:

Abba were pretty famous before Eurovision in Sweden, Benny had been a major pop star there with number one hits.

Agnetha was already very successful too, from the age of 16 - she was Sweden's 'pop princess' - if she'd sung in English before ABBA I think she would have been a global star in her own right.

EricTheWeary said:

The U.K. has sent well known people ( Lulu, The Shadows, Katrina come to mind) although they don’t seem to have been any more successful than the obscure acts.

That's true - the problem has been the quality of the songs.

If we were serious about winning we'd get someone like Calvin Harris to write it and Jess Glynne or someone to sing it. But that would probably seem like cheating...

EricTheWeary said:

The #metoo song won. Wether that shows that the audience wants to celebrate diversity or just likes songs with chicken noises I don’t know. 

Both of these are definitely a factor, and actually rightly so I think. Despite the moaners (mostly in the UK, as far as I can tell), it's really a great opportunity to promote diversity and inclusiveness across nationalities and cultures. [/I'vealwaysbeenadreamer]

Fretwired

EricTheWeary said:

Abba were pretty famous before Eurovision in Sweden, Benny had been a major pop star there with number one hits. The U.K. has sent well known people ( Lulu, The Shadows, Katrina come to mind) although they don’t seem to have been any more successful than the obscure acts. 

ABBA weren't known outside Sweden and the song Waterloo got no airplay in the UK prior to the event. After the contest ABBA stormed the charts all over Europe including the UK, which was pretty unheard of back then. They also went on to have a successful international career. They were clearly talented performers with two guys who could write catchy pop songs. They were the best thing to come out of the contest. I can't think of another performer or band that did as well.

Moominpapa

guitars4you said:

I've heard some crap songs in my life, from how much is that doggy in the window, to Barbie Girl 

How Much is that Doggy in the Window? is like Cole Porter or Irving Berlin compared to the Israeli song.

Gassage

I feel I also have to congratulate Israel on competing on the international stage and staying within the agreed rules.

goldtop

Interesting that quite a few at the top were very conventional contemporary songs in English: the Ed Sheeran tribute from Germany, the Austrian, Swedish and Czech - last being near-perfect Justin Bieberlake lookalikes.

Ms Goldtop thought Cyprus would win (slinky lots of flesh on show), I went for Israel. It was bonkers enough to be memorable, but the song was also brilliant - packed full of hooks - and Netta is an obvious star. A proper performer, with genuine creativity, and she plays the guitar, too:



The Danes doing half-hearted Game of Thrones stomping was almost as odd as the Dutch doing country.

57Deluxe

Fat Bjork or as I like to call her Fat Bjerg

goldtop

Just remembered where that Israel song's bass/synth riff came from: Seven Nation Army.

Philly_Q

ICBM said:

EricTheWeary said:

The U.K. has sent well known people ( Lulu, The Shadows, Katrina come to mind) although they don’t seem to have been any more successful than the obscure acts.

That's true - the problem has been the quality of the songs.

If we were serious about winning we'd get someone like Calvin Harris to write it and Jess Glynne or someone to sing it. But that would probably seem like cheating...

Don't forget we also sent the legendary Engelbert Humperdinck, followed by the, er, almost mythical Bonnie Tyler and that didn't work either... although it was probably 20 years too late (about 100 in Engelbert's case).

I don't think it would be seen as cheating at all to send a Jess Glynne/Calvin Harris delegation, or Clean Bandit "featuring somebody"... if they were prepared to do it.  Many of the artists who appear may be Lithuania or Moldova's equivalents of those people, just because we haven't heard of then doesn't mean they're not famous.

I think our problem is that we think we're too good for it so only make a half-hearted effort, but at the same time we're absolutely seething that we don't win it and can't understand why everybody doesn't love us, especially since we throw a lot of money into it.  Very much like our attitude to the EU really...

octatonic

Thing is that it is not about being the best performer or the best song.
It is about what is the current zeitgeist in Europe.

The UK voted to leave Europe so are we really surprised that people in other countries in Europe are ignoring the UK?
It wasn't a bad song but it wasn't a standout either- I think the UK got roughly where it should have.

With Israel- well you have the #metoo movement.
And you have the campness of Eurovision.

I don't think the Israel entry was the best song or the best performance.
It certainly captured the moment though and most directly reflected what Eurovision is.

EricTheWeary

octatonic said:

Thing is that it is not about being the best performer or the best song.
It is about what is the current zeitgeist in Europe.

The UK voted to leave Europe so are we really surprised that people in other countries in Europe are ignoring the UK?
It wasn't a bad song but it wasn't a standout either- I think the UK got roughly where it should have.

With Israel- well you have the #metoo movement.
And you have the campness of Eurovision.

I don't think the Israel entry was the best song or the best performance.
It certainly captured the moment though and most directly reflected what Eurovision is.

I think that's a fair summary. 

Grangousier

The problem I've long had with the UK entry is that it's all sewn up by the UK music industry, and there's a sense that they're slumming it rather - that they're actually better than all that, and it comes across as complacent and patronising. Even when they go out of their way to do Eurovision Camp it just feels hollow and fake (thinking about that airline-themed one from a few years ago). There are loads of people who'd unironically love to do a Eurovision entry that would at least be memorable and interesting - Bob Stanley and St Etienne come to mind and only last night Max Tundra was saying on Twitter how much he'd love to do one. I assume that no one here is familiar with Max Tundra, but take my word for it, it would be bonkers (he did the recent Daphne and Celeste album, for example). 

Gassage

I actually did think Israel's was the best and said so on FB before the voting.

earwighoney

Grangousier said:

The problem I've long had with the UK entry is that it's all sewn up by the UK music industry, and there's a sense that they're slumming it rather - that they're actually better than all that, and it comes across as complacent and patronising. Even when they go out of their way to do Eurovision Camp it just feels hollow and fake (thinking about that airline-themed one from a few years ago). There are loads of people who'd unironically love to do a Eurovision entry that would at least be memorable and interesting - Bob Stanley and St Etienne come to mind and only last night Max Tundra was saying on Twitter how much he'd love to do one. I assume that no one here is familiar with Max Tundra, but take my word for it, it would be bonkers (he did the recent Daphne and Celeste album, for example). 

I really didn't expect to see the name Max Tundra here.  His first album on Domino is truly wonderful.  I didn't know he did an album with D&C, will check it out cheers.

I agree he'd be a great choice for it.

***
IMO, Israel's entry was a worthy winner.  Aside from being a catchy song, there was a fat girl making chicken sounds. 

chillidoggy

I haven’t watched Euroflop since I was a kid, but I’d like to publicly thank everyone who posted here for some of the best laughs I’ve had in a while.