Eurovision 2015

Author
Discussion

AreOut

3,658 posts

160 months

Sunday 24th May 2015
quotequote all
JonRB said:
You seem easily scared. Or insecure in your sexuality. smile
he/she/it looks like a Chernobyl rat, nothing to do with sexuality

gtidriver

3,335 posts

186 months

Sunday 24th May 2015
quotequote all
MartG said:
Definitely - she had a lovely arse !

Collapsed in laughter at Norton's comment on one of the presenters "Does she know her dress looks like that " ? biggrin
His surgestion that a lady was wearing a piece of blown off shed roof was very funny. It was Barbara from Germany. And her comment about 3and a half ladies was good as well.

Edited by gtidriver on Sunday 24th May 02:36


Edited by gtidriver on Sunday 24th May 02:37

Cobnapint

8,596 posts

150 months

Sunday 24th May 2015
quotequote all
Adrian W said:
They should just have the vote, forget the singing
Exactly. It always ends up as a global who's-mates-with-who scoreboard at the end.

The British entry wasn't THAT bad, and nor have previous years been either. Certainly not coincidentally bad enough to warrant us constantly being nowhere in the voting.

I thought the German one was quite good, if not a very sensitive title less than three months after the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

Quarterly

650 posts

117 months

Sunday 24th May 2015
quotequote all
Cobnapint said:
Adrian W said:
They should just have the vote, forget the singing
Exactly. It always ends up as a global who's-mates-with-who scoreboard at the end.
Although its amusing to hear Norton correctly predicting the results before they've been announced based on who's friends or neighbours with, it is depressing that most of the EU don't understand the premise of 'fair play'. The thing about cheating though, is that it never pays off, we got a ticket to the final without being kicked out in the early stages, that only means we have the humiliation of being close to the bottom of the leader board on the night.

CooperD

2,851 posts

176 months

Sunday 24th May 2015
quotequote all
I backed Italy e/w so was only slightly out of pocket. I'm pleased Sweden beat Russia but I wasn't that keen on the Swedish song. Can't work out how Belgium finished so high. I thought their song was tripe. The German song was better but didn't score any points.

anonymous-user

53 months

Sunday 24th May 2015
quotequote all
Our song wasn't good, and I don't think Europe got it. 1920s swing is not a representation of current UK or European music. The only surprise was it didn't do even worse. The Swedish song however was a reasonable representation of current music.

We did quite well a few years ago with the Lloyd Webber/Diane Warren/ Javine Hylton song It's my time, which came 5th.
Blue did reasonably well as well, with a song that wasn't really a catchy Eurovision number.

Since then we have entered a large number of has-beens, or unknowns, Bonnie Tyler, Humperdinck, are hardly relevant these days.

If we entered something good, it would do well.

The voting dynamic did seem to have shifted last night, perhaps anti Russian sentiment.

You can't always apply the neighbourly voting excuse (like we do every year) when we enter irrelevant crap and it ends up getting a handful of votes.. For example Germany did badly last night but won a few years ago.

Austria did badly this year, but won last year. I do think that the voting for the neighbours has reduced in recent years. I think it was far worse in the late noughties, like the time Serbia won with a forgettable song sung in their native language.

If you have the right relevant song, you have a chance, Also in today's world people hear the songs weeks or months in advance, being played on radio, hyped up in the media, and the songs are subsequently becoming well known across Europe. If you have a song that is receiving bag loads of airplay across Europe you are a large part of the way there on the night.

Cobnapint

8,596 posts

150 months

Sunday 24th May 2015
quotequote all
[redacted]

rover 623gsi

5,230 posts

160 months

Sunday 24th May 2015
quotequote all
CooperD said:
I backed Italy e/w so was only slightly out of pocket. I'm pleased Sweden beat Russia but I wasn't that keen on the Swedish song. Can't work out how Belgium finished so high. I thought their song was tripe. The German song was better but didn't score any points.
The Belgium song was in my top 3 - but then again I am 'down with the kids' smile but I was also surprised that Germany failed to score a single point

The UK should try to persuade Cathy Dennis to write next year's entry and get someone like Sophie Ellis Bextor to perform it - or maybe even Kylie.

drivin_me_nuts

17,949 posts

210 months

Sunday 24th May 2015
quotequote all
Oh no, please don't take it seriously. We need someone like Timmy Mallet to pen it, and Black Lace with the Wurzels to sing it. (Mind you, Black Lace will be a hit with the Spanish, Maltese and Portugese and the Wurzels will have the 'stonias/stans and Russian scrag ends all nostalgic for the farm)

anonymous-user

53 months

Sunday 24th May 2015
quotequote all
Cobnapint]upraman said:
If you have the right relevant song, you have a chance...[quote]

Don't agree. Who was last years song relevant with..?

The song adds about 50% weight to the voting - the rest is just regional political bias eg. like when all the Eastern Bloc countries blatantly scratch each others backs, etc etc.

There's no way in a FAIR competition that you should possibly be able to forecast where the high points are going just before they are uttered - but you CAN, year, after year, after year.

The only fair way of doing this is to keep each countries singers under wraps before the competition, then just play the audio so nobody knows who's from where, and then do the voting on the song alone. Fantasy I know, but it'd definitely do away with all the rigging.

Instead we are stuck with an annual pantomime where the only thing that is relevant is who borders you on an atlas.
Last year's song was relevant with the LGBT communities across Europe. I believe it was a kind of statement of acceptance to countries such as Russia who have harsh anti gay laws. I didn't see it last year, but it was a very bond-esque type of song, that could fit as a bond theme. Would it have picked up as many votes if it wasn't a man with a beard dressed as a woman though?

There is also voting for neighbours, which was always very noticeable, especially when songs were only relevant to that geographic area, I.e sung in a regional language (Serbia in 2008). It is much less noticeable now that songs are more generic / sung in English. They did bring in rules for the Semi Finals about 5-10 years ago, (after all the eastern block got through and hardly any non auto-qualifying western ones got through) to counter this, and make the block voting more difficult.

The question is, do countries vote for their neighbours out of loyalty, or because of displaced population in their country, or because the songs are more closely in tune with what they are used to?

Norton wasn't predicting the results with such accuracy as Wogan was 10 years ago, Russia certainly weren't picking up the votes they used to. Perhaps political bias away from Russia?

I agree that songs released in advance mean followers know the songs well in advance, so it loses the kind of "hearing it only once and making a decision" spontaneity.

There will always be neighbourly voting to some extent though.

There is a danger of taking it too seriously, it is a bit of fun for an evening every year.

We are never going to win at the current rate, but if we took it seriously, and entered something good rather than scraping the barrel with a failed Voice contestant and a cover band singer then we may do a lot better.



Edited by anonymous-user on Sunday 24th May 10:32

Fishtigua

9,786 posts

194 months

Sunday 24th May 2015
quotequote all
drivin_me_nuts said:
Oh no, please don't take it seriously. We need someone like Timmy Mallet to pen it, and Black Lace with the Wurzels to sing it. (Mind you, Black Lace will be a hit with the Spanish, Maltese and Portugese and the Wurzels will have the 'stonias/stans and Russian scrag ends all nostalgic for the farm)
Yes, I see it now, Russia could win with similar formula.

'Putin on the Ritz'.

'My Old Man said follow the communal potato harvester'.

'My Dmitry is better than yours, brings all the boys to the yard'.

drivin_me_nuts

17,949 posts

210 months

Sunday 24th May 2015
quotequote all
Fishtigua said:
Yes, I see it now, Russia could win with similar formula.

'Putin on the Ritz'.

'My Old Man said follow the communal potato harvester'.

'My Dmitry is better than yours, brings all the boys to the yard'.
Very good. You're hired! (now, what do you want your job title to be? how much do you want to get paid? 50% will be held back and will NOT be paid if your secure a score higher than 5)




vonuber

17,868 posts

164 months

Sunday 24th May 2015
quotequote all
Given the last four winners have been Denmark, Sweden (2) and Austria I'm not sure this block voting is true anymore.

We are out of step with the rest of Europe and have been left behind as they have moved on. And in eurovision too.

LuS1fer

41,086 posts

244 months

Sunday 24th May 2015
quotequote all
We were lucky to get 5.
It reminded me of this... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aZ-Y5YvkxY
Russia should have taken it, really.

Fishtigua

9,786 posts

194 months

Sunday 24th May 2015
quotequote all
LuS1fer said:
We were lucky to get 5.
It reminded me of this... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aZ-Y5YvkxY
1st single I ever bought. From Woolies in Ludlow.

Heard it on the Ed Stewpot show.

rover 623gsi

5,230 posts

160 months

Sunday 24th May 2015
quotequote all
James Blunt seems to putting himself forward - not sure if serious!

https://twitter.com/JamesBlunt/status/575020777189...

pingu393

7,719 posts

204 months

Sunday 24th May 2015
quotequote all
Personally, I'd have loved to see the look on Vladimir's face if Russia had won.

The thought of 10,000 Eurovision fans turning up in Moscow smile.

MiniMan64

16,863 posts

189 months

Sunday 24th May 2015
quotequote all
pingu393 said:
Personally, I'd have loved to see the look on Vladimir's face if Russia had won.

The thought of 10,000 Eurovision fans turning up in Moscow smile.
Agreed

If Europe grew a sense of humour we could sent them some really interesting acts too!

JonRB

74,402 posts

271 months

Sunday 24th May 2015
quotequote all
AreOut said:
JonRB said:
You seem easily scared. Or insecure in your sexuality. smile
he/she/it looks like a Chernobyl rat, nothing to do with sexuality
Well you're right on one thing - gender has nothing to do with sexuality.

anonymous-user

53 months

Sunday 24th May 2015
quotequote all
Shaolin said:
madbadger said:
There waffly versatile.....
biggrin I KNEW I'd heard this before!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDZFMClmP24

laugh