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Eurovision

I was wondering on Saturday night if this thing is rigged as well.

It just amazed me that such a diverse roster of European nations would consistently vote for Azerbaijan, Denmark and Ukraine nearly every time. Aside from the obvious political and neighbour-favouring votes it seemed that almost every country had those three in their top positions.

Really?

The Finnish song was certainly the most mainstream sounding, the Greek or Romanian the most out there weird choices and Cascada or Bonnie Tyler were probably the highest profile entrants... yet, consistently people allegedly voted for Denmark, Ukraine and Azerbaijan. Denmark's was average but forgettable, all I remember three or four days later is it had a flute solo, drummers and she was sat on the floor. The Ukrainian one I can remember nothing of and the Azeri one had a guy in a glass box, the song... no idea.

I just find it very bizarre that such a clear trio of countries got such consistently high votes. I would expect the spread of votes to be much wider and the race to win much closer between about 7/8 countries if this was a genuine vote.

Or do I recall them saying that the vote was split between public votes and the decision of a panel in each country?

Certainly Azerbaijan have the funds and booming new city of Baku available to host it, if you were to be looking at who would be willing to stump up the cash to hold the thing.
 
McAvennie_ said:
Or do I recall them saying that the vote was split between public votes and the decision of a panel in each country?
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That's right, that's the way they do it now after complaints of country bias in voting when it was all phone votes. And yet, Cyprus still always give 12 points to Greece every year, funny that.

But the reason certain songs do well these days seems mostly to be publicity before the competition. Denmark had already sold a whole bunch of downloads of their song in various regions before the contest was broadcast. Even so, although it wasn't a familiar tune in the UK, we still gave the Danes 12 points, so maybe it's as simple as a lot of people liking it?

The reason Germany didn't do well was mainly because Cascada's song was a complete rip-off of last year's Swedish winner and that got a lot of people annoyed.
 
I thought the contest was fantastic this year, much better than 2012. Lots of high-quality songs, a brilliantly put together show and some great set pieces. Plus the Fortean in me loved the occult reference in the placement of the drums in Bulgaria's act during the semi-final :lol:

But it looks like Azerbaijan are being cheating bastards again. There were suspicions of cheating on their part back in 2011 when they won; all their high votes came from the countries immediately surrounding them (and countries with a record of bribery...). Plus Malta had thousands of votes from mobile phones...but each one came from a text message! This year it was largely the same, with high points coming from the surrounding countries and 12 points from Malta. When the vote giving shifted to Western Europe Azerbaijan got barely any points, but when their neighbours gave their votes it shot up again.

You can't even use the argument of 'people vote for their neighbours/have similar tastes', because how come this doesn't happen with Armenia? Or Turkey?

But now it really looks like some vote-rigging has taken place. There's a video surfaced that purportedly shows Azerbaijan officials in talks to buy votes for money. Additionally there's this scandal that's arisen with Azerbaijan not giving any points to Russia, despite receiving lots of votes. Azerbaijan have said that this is wrong, they want to remain on good terms with Russia and it must be 'an interest group that changed the votes'. This raises two points:

- The votes are easy to hijack in Azerbaijan.
- Azerbaijan have effectively said they give out votes for political reasons, and any who votes otherwise is anti-government.

Yeah, this is all dodgy as hell. Personally I think there should be a serious inquiry into Azerbaijan's participation in the contest, because there's a lot of suspicious activity going on there...
 
I'm an idiot for even trying to take the thing seriously, of course, but I watched the whole show, and mostly enjoyed it.

Petra, the presenter, is an absolute star, IMO. She pretty much avoided being at all cringeworthy, which is more than can be said for any Eurovision presenter in living memory. She was funny when she intended, and mostly charming throughout. Not sure about the other girl - the supposedly hilarious fake presenter who was doing a bizarre Helen Lederer impression circa 1985.

The quality of the songs was not too bad, and even now, I can remember the tune of Denmark's winning entry, so no complaints there. I was hoping to see Belgium and Norway do better, but never mind.

However, I just cannot see why the likes of Ukraine and Azerbaijan got so many votes from such a wide range of countries. The Ukrainian song had nothing going for it other than a pretty girl in a nice dress, and all I can recall of the Azerbaijani entry was the man in the box - all very clever, but the song itself was utterly forgettable. I don't even think that the mutual backscratching from near neighbours is enough to explain it. Was there some massive block voting by text, or something else?

Still, at least Greece and Finland didn't win...

Oh, and too many songs in English. I thoroughly enjoyed the few exceptions, such as Hungary and Iceland, who were prepared to give us something we couldn't understand, but to do it so nicely that we didn't mind!
 
Peripart said:
Oh, and too many songs in English. I thoroughly enjoyed the few exceptions, such as Hungary and Iceland, who were prepared to give us something we couldn't understand, but to do it so nicely that we didn't mind!
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It's to appeal to as wide an audience as possible. English is the most widely spoken language in Europe and far more people understand it than, say, Turkish. If you sing in a tongue not many people speak you have to rely entirely on the tune and performance rather than the lyrics. Plus English language songs tend to do much better than non-English songs. There's also the fact that a few languages sound terrible when being sung in...

But saying that, my favourite song of the night was Iceland's. I absolutely loved it. There were loads of worries about how a ballad in Icelandic would go down, so I'm really pleased it did so well!
 
Urvogel said:
Personally I think there should be a serious inquiry into Azerbaijan's participation in the contest, because there's a lot of suspicious activity going on there...
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I think there was actually going to be a high-level investigation until everyone remembered it is just a frigging stupid song contest...! :lol:
 
Nonsense! It's not a stupid song contest! It's a matter of life, death, national pride and dancing little old ladies from Russia!

It's what we have in Europe now instead of wars :lol:
 
It's funny that the Russians and the Azerbaijans takes this even more seriously than the Swedes.
 
Full story:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-26081002

Countries found to be vote-rigging at the Eurovision Song Contest will face bans of up to three years, organisers have said.

The announcement follows an investigation into attempts to influence the voting in favour of Azerbaijan during last year's contest.

Organisers confirmed rigging attempts were detected by its security systems, but the votes were declared invalid.

It added there was no evidence to link Azeri broadcasters to the activity.

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) said as there was also no evidence to suggest Ictimai TV was aware of the attempt, no sanctions would be imposed.

Allegations of vote-fixing arose after Azerbaijan failed to award any points to neighbouring Russia.

It prompted Azeri President Ilham Aliyev to order an inquiry, as traditionally ex-Soviet republics have regularly given each other top marks.

There were also claims of attempts in Lithuania to buy votes for Azerbaijan's entry...
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So there were some dodgy dealings going on after all! Not long now till Eurovision 2014, what tricks will there be up certain sleeves now?
 
gncxx said:
The UK entry for 2014:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wFUPCkmlOo

Blandly inspirational more than anything to get excited about. You'd never start a revolution with that.

Does the singer remind you of anyone? Can't quite place her.
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No idea who she reminds me of. She's nice, but I'm not smitten down by her song.
 
SameOldVardoger said:
Lorde or Lana del Rey? Or Fergie?
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I thought you meant Mr Lordi for a second there! I was going to say, that's a bit unkind...
 
I'm surprised, it isn't actually crap. There must be something wrong.

It's nothing exciting, but it's not actually bad. Of course, you don't stand a chance of winning, since the whole thing is rigged.
 
Can anyone explain to me why Eurovision even exists?

I mean, we already have top ten charts ect, and its not as if its used as a platform to launch new singers (given that bonnie tyler is already very famous/successful in the music world)

Nor can I see it as a platform for spreading music from different locales in the world, bands such as Aha and ABBA have seen great success despite not originating from the two primary music producing countries (UK/USA).

So I am still unsure why it continues, it has a history of being cringe inducing, corrupt and farcical. (I am GOBSMACKED that bonnie tyler agreed to represent the UK - given that her most famous tracks are constantly repeated on the radio, many of which are considered 'classics' - she certainly didnt need the money (if any money is involved) or the exposure.

I find the whole business quite confusing.

Maybe its a conspiracy to bore us all to death or kill us via cringing.
 
AnacondaEq said:
Can anyone explain to me why Eurovision even exists?

I mean, we already have top ten charts ect, and its not as if its used as a platform to launch new singers (given that bonnie tyler is already very famous/successful in the music world)

Nor can I see it as a platform for spreading music from different locales in the world, bands such as Aha and ABBA have seen great success despite not originating from the two primary music producing countries (UK/USA).

So I am still unsure why it continues, it has a history of being cringe inducing, corrupt and farcical. (I am GOBSMACKED that bonnie tyler agreed to represent the UK - given that her most famous tracks are constantly repeated on the radio, many of which are considered 'classics' - she certainly didnt need the money (if any money is involved) or the exposure.

I find the whole business quite confusing.

Maybe its a conspiracy to bore us all to death or kill us via cringing.
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Again, here in Sweden, the competition to choose the song which will represent the nation in Eurovision is called the Melody Festival. It lasts weeks, with live shows every week and people call in to vote. Thousands go to watch the shows. It's family enetrtainmemt here with whole families going ot see "safe" pop bands.

I think there are 36 entries and the nation chooses which one will reperesnt us. It is used as a platform for new and/or established artists. There are CD's produces and many of the artists use it as a promotional way of selling their new tour. They are often "darlings" of the entertainmemt world - the usual faces that turn up on chat shows and saturday night light entertainment. There is a whole industry surrounding the heats/competetion.

When it comes to the Eurovision, people watch it for the entertainment value and it's another "gather the family on the sofa" show.
 
The national ESC final in Norway has started this weekend with three semi finals. Guess the final is next weekend.

Here's a couple of songs which got a chance to win in the final next week:
Linnea Dale - High Hopes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UiSgp26UQU
She was known as the songstress in the band Donkeyboy a few years ago.
Probably too good for ESC.

Mo - Heal
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QnavSjg9nk
Has probably studied Michael Jackson. :)
 
I didn't realise that eurovision was such a big event in other parts of Europe, its definitely not such a big event in the UK, its mostly regarded as a bit of a joke, maybe that's why we do so badly!
 
AnacondaEq said:
I didn't realise that eurovision was such a big event in other parts of Europe, its definitely not such a big event in the UK, its mostly regarded as a bit of a joke, maybe that's why we do so badly!
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It's a bit of a joke here but the difference is that the people decide which song should be put forward. Amateur musicians can enter and get to play in front of thousands of people.

The UK buy their entry to the final and they have to find somone willig to do it instead of people competing to do it.
 
AnacondaEq said:
I didn't realise that eurovision was such a big event in other parts of Europe, its definitely not such a big event in the UK, its mostly regarded as a bit of a joke, maybe that's why we do so badly!
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In Sweden there's much ado with a lot of scandals and losers crying. It's hilarious.
 
I've been trying to get tickets for this year's contest, but it's looking unlikely...the second batch of tickets went on sale in January and had sold out in 2 hours! The third and final lot become available in April, so fingers crossed...

SameOldVardoger said:
In Sweden there's much ado with a lot of scandals and losers crying. It's hilarious.
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Saying that, it was pretty scandalous Yohio didn't get picked for last year despite winning the public vote by a landslide.
 
Sounds like James Blake stopped taking the antidepressants.
 
Ooh, Russia got a huge "BOOO!!!" when they went through in the semi tonight. And Ukraine got a huge cheer. Let's make Ukraine win to see what happens next year! Maybe not, might be dangerous, although slightly less disturbing than Belgium's hymn to mother love.

Nice that San Marino succeeded with their Bond theme, and The Netherlands was a breath of fresh air even if it did sound like the sort of thing Bob Harris goes nuts for. The Albanian girl got that tattoo for nothing! Hope it was just makeup.

Biggest surprise for me was Iceland, but I suppose under-5s watch Eurovision too. At least we won't get Latvia's cake baking song again. I would have liked to see Portugal go through, and not for the obvious reason.
 
No metal, heavy or folk rock/pop this year. Boooring.
 
Isn't there any on tomorrow's semi-final? Tuesday's was a bit samey overall.
 
gncxx said:
Isn't there any on tomorrow's semi-final? Tuesday's was a bit samey overall.
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As far as I know, no.

Down memory lanes...
Nordic countries have had a tradition of sending folk pop, metal and rock bands:
Wigwam(Glam metal)
Lordi(Heavy rock)
Teräsbetoni(Power metal)
Christine Guldbrandsen (Folk pop)
Kuunkuiskaajat (Folk pop)

Just waiting for Finland to send the folk metal band Korpiklaani to ESC one year.
 
SameOldVardoger said:
No metal, heavy or folk rock/pop this year. Boooring.
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Finland's entry this year is "lightweight emo" according to this link, and that's about the best you're going to get :?

http://www.strangethingsarehappening.co ... n2014.html

And has this one been performed yet?
The oddest by a long way is Georgia's entry, by The Shin and Mariko. Three Minutes to Earth sounds like someone is playing four different records all at once, and while very avant-garde, is pretty dreadful on all levels apart from sheer audacity. It actually made my head hurt listening to this. God knows what the performance will be like.
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