Eurovision song contest

[wintonian]

What do you expect, we always send some loser and then blame Balkan voting blocs :roll:

Well there was Balkan bloc voting yet again!

 

[Mojo]

I was out in a local restaurant when it was on and although it had it showing on their TV the volume was pretty low, except when the UK came on when he turned it up! Saw and heard the snippets towards the end of all the songs and thought that the majority of the songs this year were pretty good.

 

[Darandio]

As shocking as ever really, especially to hear Graham Norton telling us that it wasn't as bad as previous years. It was as bad, if not worse!

To also hear him not having a clue about the scoring, trying to keep the momentum up with 2-3 votes to go by stating someone else could win it when it was obvious Azerbaijan could not lose mathematically. He is no Terry Wogan.

 

[yorksrob]

I think we came a respectable mid-table this time. It helps when we sing in tune
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

He is no Terry Wogan.

No-one's Sir Terry (Apart from Terry of course )

 

[WestCoast]

Interesting voting - still quite a bit of the usual tactics but less than previously and quite a few really random ones.

Jedward for Ireland beat Blue - the UK's 12 points went to Ireland...:roll:

But Ireland gave the UK just 6 points in return

Apart from that the UK gave high points to Moldova and Italy...:?

Some of the presenters representing the countries are awfully cringe-worthy.

 

[starrymarkb]

Jedward have an obsessed fanbase though, suspect a fair few parents will find a huge phone bill after last night.

I thought their song was ripping off Britney's Womanizer

There was worse in the Semis though - Portugese Village people meets Canal 9 from the Fast Show

 

[Oswyntail]

I have never believed the "block" voting was as sinister as Old Tel had us believe. Musical taste tends to be fairly regional, even if the musical models are standard. Once again it was obvious that, the further East you went, the more Eastern influence there was in the melody and harmony. The songs were lot better than usual, and all praise to Italy for daring to be different. There was a good variety of style throughout, and any one song could have arguments in its favour to win. I still wouldn't buy any of them, but this year's show was a huge step up from previously - perhaps this is why Norton did not have to resort to the ridiculous commentaries that we have had in the last decade!

 

[wintonian]

...There was a good variety of style throughout, and any one song could have arguments in its favour to win. I still wouldn't buy any of them...

 

[passmore]

I have never believed the "block" voting was as sinister as Old Tel had us believe. Musical taste tends to be fairly regional, even if the musical models are standard. Once again it was obvious that, the further East you went, the more Eastern influence there was in the melody and harmony. The songs were lot better than usual, and all praise to Italy for daring to be different. There was a good variety of style throughout, and any one song could have arguments in its favour to win. I still wouldn't buy any of them, but this year's show was a huge step up from previously - perhaps this is why Norton did not have to resort to the ridiculous commentaries that we have had in the last decade!

I'm sorry, but that's one of the most ridiculous things I've read: this contest has long detached itself from anything-remotely related to music.
Bloc-political voting was alive and kicking last night and will remain endemic to Eurovision for sometime to come.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

I thought that Muslim countries did not approve of such events when women in scanty costumes appear....then blow me, one of their own countries, AZERBAIJAN, goes on to win it with girls dressed like that!!! I just hope that this will be the start of modern thinking starting in those states, as happened with Ataturk in the 1920's to his credit, who seperated religion from politics in Turkey and made it a secular state.

I remember the reports of the Taliban when they were in power even making a visiting football team from Pakistan play in full-length leggings, after issuing threats as what might happen if they played in shorts.

 

[Greenback]

I'm sorry, but that's one of the most ridiculous things I've read: this contest has long detached itself from anything-remotely related to music.
Bloc-political voting was alive and kicking last night and will remain endemic to Eurovision for sometime to come.

I disagree. It is natural for countries in the same region of the continent to share similar tastes. Having said that, I cannot understand how the UK gave Jedward maximum points - surely their fan base can't be that big or obsessive?

 

[justinsteam]

What on earth was Jedward about?

 

[Greenback]

I confess to being compeltely bewilderd about anything and everything to do with Jedward.

 

[starrymarkb]

I disagree. It is natural for countries in the same region of the continent to share similar tastes. Having said that, I cannot understand how the UK gave Jedward maximum points - surely their fan base can't be that big or obsessive?

They are - I've been jumped on by a hoard of them on twitter for saying how awful they are (the fans must have a constant search [probably in tweetdeck?] for any mention of their heros)

 

[Greenback]

Good grief! Perhaps it is just a sign that I have gotten old when i find such thigns as JEdward utterly incomprehensible. Maybe my older relatives found Iron Maiden bewildering? My grandmother was quite perplexed by Toyah in 1979.

 

[Oswyntail]

I'm sorry, but that's one of the most ridiculous things I've read: this contest has long detached itself from anything-remotely related to music.
Bloc-political voting was alive and kicking last night and will remain endemic to Eurovision for sometime to come.

It may not be to your taste, as it isn't to mine, but a lot of the music is well constructed, and pitched for its core audience. And really, the only basis for seeing bloc voting lies in the one-eyed commentaries of Wogan, which became bitter rather than witty some years before he stopped. There are regional variants in properly demotic music, and the voting usually shows this. The least successful songs in the years since the expansion have been those that stick rigidly to an old idea of "Europop"; the successful ones have generally had elements of their community music making them distinctive.

 

[ralphchadkirk]

one-eyed commentaries of Wogan, which became bitter rather than witty some years before he stopped.

Agreed. He was one of the rudest commentators for it. At least Graham Norton is mildly funny and doesn't continually criticise.

 

[me123]

I disagree. It is natural for countries in the same region of the continent to share similar tastes. Having said that, I cannot understand how the UK gave Jedward maximum points - surely their fan base can't be that big or obsessive?

I don't think we take it entirely seriously! I mean, come on, we gave this lot 8 points!

[youtube]OF21pTGtKTw[/youtube]

(Watch until ~1min in for full effect)

 

[passmore]

Agreed. He was one of the rudest commentators for it. At least Graham Norton is mildly funny and doesn't continually criticise.

Sorry Terry Wogan being 'rude'. Got to be one of the biggest oxymorons of the year..

His non-PC approach to commentating made Eurovision watchable.

 

[ralphchadkirk]

Not an oxymoron - Terry Wogan is rude (as you appear to admit). He was an embarrassment.

 

[Crossover]

I did see some bits of Eurovision - I don't think we did bad considering where we came. I really do not understand the obsession with Jedward who still can't dance in time with each other and half of it looked like they were badly miming to the backing singers (they cannot have been singing doing that backflip at the end, surely?)

Quite ironic though that the singer (I think) for the winning country actually lives in London!

 

[passmore]

It may not be to your taste, as it isn't to mine, but a lot of the music is well constructed, and pitched for its core audience. And really, the only basis for seeing bloc voting lies in the one-eyed commentaries of Wogan, which became bitter rather than witty some years before he stopped. There are regional variants in properly demotic music, and the voting usually shows this. The least successful songs in the years since the expansion have been those that stick rigidly to an old idea of "Europop"; the successful ones have generally had elements of their community music making them distinctive.

The music is well constructed but that doesn't mean the voting reflects that. Based on your criteria then, why didn't Moldova glean more votes?
The voting is thrown open to each nations' respective audience. How many of them know a decent 'well constructed' piece of music from 'Europop'? Wogan interpreted the results in his last days as commentator as being representative of bloc-party voting, an opinion which many of us share. Exactly how that makes him 'rude' or his commentaries 'one-eyed' I'm not sure.
After all, that's how he interpreted the results. You interpreted them as countries voting for music that is distinctive as opposed to mundane 'Europop'. I interpreted them as countries voting for one another, especially the Balkan states, and not being representative of the act before them, much less 'a music contest'.

 

[SS4]

The music is well constructed but that doesn't mean the voting reflects that. Based on your criteria then, why didn't Moldova glean more votes?
The voting is thrown open to each nations' respective audience. How many of them know a decent 'well constructed' piece of music from 'Europop'? Wogan interpreted the results in his last days as commentator as being representative of bloc-party voting, an opinion which many of us share. Exactly how that makes him 'rude' or his commentaries 'one-eyed' I'm not sure.
After all, that's how he interpreted the results. You interpreted them as countries voting for music that is distinctive as opposed to mundane 'Europop'. I interpreted them as countries voting for one another, especially the Balkan states, and not being representative of the act before them, much less 'a music contest'.

That would explain the televotes, but what about the panels?

 

[yorksrob]

Wogan was the best thing on it.

 

[Greenback]

I quit eliked the Moldovan entry. For me it was a bit reminiscent of Madness and Bad Manners. Maybe that's why it garnered some support amongst UK viewers.

At the end of the day, it's difficult to escape from the fact that countries in Europe often get to see the TV of their neighbours. For instance, Norwegians can get Swedish channels, but probably can't get Serbian TV, and would have little cultural interest in it if they could. It is therefore quite likely that as well as having similar musical tastes, there will eb an element of familiarity about the people representing nearby countries. I think this could explain how the voting works.

As for Terry Wogan, he introduced an element of 'They don't like the UK, they never vote for us' which did not go down too well with me. Most of the acts and performances by the UK in the past decade and a bit have been poor.

I thought last night's result for Blue was quite fair. It was not the best song, nor was it the worst, even allowing for my strange musical tastes. (My favourite song was Iceland's)

 

[sprinterguy]

I quit eliked the Moldovan entry. For me it was a bit reminiscent of Madness and Bad Manners. Maybe that's why it garnered some support amongst UK viewers.

Yes, it could open up an entire new genre of gnome-ska. If you removed the peculiar headgear then I think that it certainly wasn't the worst entry in the competition, and had some merit to it. I can definitely see where influences of Madness and Bad Manners come into it.

 

[Class172]

I didn't care whether we won or not, only cared about to things: being on the left side of the leaderboard and beating JEDWARD. How did they beat us

Qui a donné-nous douze points?

 

[me123]

Bulgaria. We also got 10 from Italy.

 

[ACE1888]

Not one to 'rubbish' peoples opinions on most things but this yearly 'competition' is total tripe! Shame I missed it...NOT! The voting and Wogan 'taking the mickey' was always the best part when I 'was a Lad'...

 

[gordonthemoron]

first time I've watched Eurovision in ages and it was brilliant, not a bad song amongst them, standouts being Jedward (who I hated before the show), Moldova & Georgia.

Watched it in an irish pub in Hamburg, the drunk germans behind us were shouting korruption (fix) throughout the voting