Eurovision Uberthread

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Originally Posted by Gerrit

BTW, what did fellow Eurovision-watchers here think of TATU participating for Russia ?? It was so bizarre, the Belgian media didn't talk about the songs at all ; it was all about "will they do French kissing on stage or not ?" (the ESC committee had threatened Russian disqualification if they'd do). In the end they'd better had written a bit less about that and a bit more about the participating songs, as TATU behaved very well and did nothing shocking... Much a talk about nothing, and then they didn't even win the contest despite being the chat of the day all weeks before the actual contest.

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I thought they were certainties to win in Riga, given their popularity at the time. They would have won, as their song was good, but they sung it in Russian, and it cost them votes. No song has won singing in their native language since Dana International won for Israel in 1998. Tatu came third in the contest, and haven't performed in public since.

Belgium were among the favourites to win last year, but failed spectacularly. Xandee's song, finished with 7 points in joint 22nd place, level with Ireland. Unfortunately, Belgium's song this year is a complete waste of time. Nuno Resende looks completely bored on stage performing, and the song won't qualify for the final. For the uninitiated, he's Chris Doran mark II. And look what happened to him....

Now for the good news... Ireland's final semi dress rehearsal was well received by those present in the hall. The bad news, is that the other countries songs around the time of the Irish entry are so poor, that some viewers may well switch off before our performance. We are 4th country from the end of the semi-final, which is traditionally a good place to be, to get votes, and points.

Most countries are as usual, singing in English this year, but Andorra will sing in Catalan; while France, Belgium, and Monaco will sing in French. Some other countries will sing in their own language, and English. Good luck to all the semi-finalists.

10 countries will qualify for this year's Eurovision final. 15 will not. Hopefully, Ireland will get the 70 odd points we need to qualify for Saturday's final, by my next post. Failure to qualify, means it's the next flight home for the McCauls.

Tatu are about to be relaunched as a straight pair. new album being produced by Trevor Horn .

Gerrit

The Flemish entrants would only be understood by The Dutch and some emigrant Afrikaans speakers which might account for Belgiumś lack of votes.
I liked Sandra Kimś effort but my favourite Belgium entry was by Telex. I even bought it. Came nowhere the first time Johnny logan won for Ireland in 1980

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Originally Posted by CollegeTillIDie

I liked Sandra Kimś effort but my favourite Belgium entry was by Telex. I even bought it. Came nowhere the first time Johnny logan won for Ireland in 1980

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Youre a certified Euro loony... :eek:

-->cue the men in white coats arriving in an ambulance. :D

:eek:

Look what they are making donna wear, she look like a Roman soldier trapped in the 1980's :eek: :o

There are desperate measures being taken to find a different dress, she cannot wear that.....good news however is that rehearsals are going well, there is more emphasis on the Irish dancing...response is good, do think we'll qualify for final.

donna

good news, the Irish camp have listened to the criticism and are changing donna's awful dress( see above post) Phew!

This is a link from the keith guy whose site is great (keithm utvinternet etc) he and his 2 colleagues do a daily write-up of the rehearsals etc. It is good.
Looking forward to Poland..... :D

Live write-up

Roll on 20:00, I'll be watching on net (bbc) or maybe listening to radio2 :mad: , I don't have bbc 3 :mad:

ill sleep easy knowing that donnas dress is being changed. can you email us all on foot.ie a daily report on the eurovision please kt?

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Originally Posted by paul_oshea

ill sleep easy knowing that donnas dress is being changed. can you email us all on foot.ie a daily report on the eurovision please kt?

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are ya not watching it on bbc3/internet ya traitor? ;) I will update all you lazybones, and provide the Ireland number :D She is actually wearing trousers now and a black flat cap :confused: Come on hamish and support your muckers from athlone on RTE at 20:00

:D

well, at about the 20th song now-croatia (not bad looking actually, but craaaaap song) , was so p!ssed of cos i could not get the bbc internet streaming to work until half way through :mad: so i was watching a poor quality version on dutch tv :o i am enjoying it, that paddy guy is trying to be like terry wogan! he is not as funny though....watching bbc 3 now. bulgaria now, this is meant to be awful........ come on ireland :o

i missed austria at the beginning :mad: i like it.

Israel to win
:D

well, that is ireland's turn gone, phew! it went well in my opinion, i was nervous for them, maybe cos they're young and it would be nice if it goes well and they get a good result. donna's voice came across really well, dancing was great, but i did not really see that camera sweep across the dancers a la riverdance style that was meant to happen, oh well. i hope they get through, they were lumbered with weak lyrics and not the best song, but they have done their best

good luck

number coming up

jesus, slovenia and bulgaria were awful :mad:

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Originally Posted by the_bonk

Israel to win
:D

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hey cheeky bonk! how's it going? What did u think of ireland? honestly :o

oh, please vote for ireland will you, please? :D

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Originally Posted by kerr's tribe

hey cheeky bonk! how's it going? What did u think of ireland? honestly :o

oh, please vote for ireland will you, please? :D

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Ill vote Ireland if you vote Israel
DEAL?

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Originally Posted by the_bonk

Ill vote Ireland if you vote Israel
DEAL?

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eh...ok then, we need the votes :o

good thing is u can vote a few songs so, i will vote israel (by force!!), austria, poland and ireland.

ok all in the uk, for ireland

sms 61166 22

phone 09011 21 31 22

vote please
:D

Ireland has one from Israel ....LOL
:D

Good Luck ( you will need it ) ;)

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Originally Posted by the_bonk

Ireland has one from Israel ....LOL
:D

Good Luck ( you will need it ) ;)

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cheers, thought u would've voted more than once!!!! :D

well, I loved the Polish entry, when i heard it i loved it, now the performance, excellent, the costumes, beautiful, singing, dancing etc, ivan, the hunk stripping off for the gay vote. lovely jubbly he is. i really hope they get through, i voted for them anyway.

israel

raging!!!!!!!! no ireland(take heed you're a star), no poland, no austria, fecking raging!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!

:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

it is awful, bonk, look at some of the craaaap that got in, moldova, latvia, romania, norway, croatia, denmark. FFS :mad:

are u sure u voted?

congrats but i am raging, maybe ireland did not deserve to go through, but austria and poland did, the voting is awful........

[QUOTE=kerr's tribe]

are u sure u voted?

[QUOTE]

Yep, sorry you didnt quilify .

dISSAPOINTING Ireland didnt get through to the final stages.

cheers bonk, yeah disappointing for young donna, she has all the talent, and she was lumbered with a weak singer and a bad song, would love to have been able to watch them in the final, hope they are not gutted. But i am mostly raging at the pathetic voting, terry wogan will be slitting his wrists at what got through!! i think yugoslavia should be formed again, to stop this silly balkan voting"!!!!!!! ;) :D

My Poland and My Austria, raging!!!!!!! :mad:

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dISSAPOINTING Ireland didnt get through to the final stages.

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is it feck we doont have a worry to be made fools of.

If Ireland would every like to do something meaningful again in this competition (though the words Eurosong and meaningful don't really go together) then take the vote away from the people. Democracy doesn't work damnit.

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Originally Posted by Poor Student

If Ireland would every like to do something meaningful again in this competition (though the words Eurosong and meaningful don't really go together) then take the vote away from the people. Democracy doesn't work damnit.

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Hear hear!!, Linda Martin will be smug tonight, she did not agree with the mcCauls at all. I call for the re-union of Yugoslavia now!!! :D

even holland did not make it, she was a great singer.. :mad:

i can't remember, does this mean we miss a year or does that only happen when you come in the last 4 or something. Bring back Johnny Logan and he will find us a good song&singer. Down with 'You're a Star'!!!!

I look forward to mypost's post sometime tonight, must be devastated, he had more belief in the mccaul's than me. :rolleyes:

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Originally Posted by kerr's tribe

I call for the re-union of Yugoslavia now!!! :D

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Along with the rebirth of the Soviet Union and the restoration of Danish rule over Scandinavia and the rebuilding of the Holy Roman Empire. ;)

Though Slovenia has a semi-tele voting semi-judge panel system and the least popular guy somehow got in. I'm not sure how Ireland should work it. It seems all of the entrants are relatively dry on talent and or originality anyway.

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Originally Posted by kerr's tribe

i can't remember, does this mean we miss a year or does that only happen when you come in the last 4 or something. Bring back Johnny Logan and he will find us a good song&singer. Down with 'You're a Star'!!!!

I look forward to mypost's post sometime tonight, must be devastated, he had more belief in the mccaul's than me. :rolleyes:

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Good question (or perhaps not given the general topic :p ). I think only the dead last get relegated out. We won't find out how horrendus we did until after the final voting on Saturday as they don't want to reveal the votes of this round as if may affect later voting.

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Originally Posted by Poor Student

Good question (or perhaps not given the general topic :p ). I think only the dead last get relegated out. We won't find out how horrendus we did until after the final voting on Saturday as they don't want to reveal the votes of this round as if may affect later voting.

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yeah but is it the last few of the final that get relegated for a year......the semi-final does not count i think, we just have to qualify again :rolleyes: we did get relegated not that long ago i remember......

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Originally Posted by Poor Student

Along with the rebirth of the Soviet Union and the restoration of Danish rule over Scandinavia and the rebuilding of the Holy Roman Empire. ;)

Though Slovenia has a semi-tele voting semi-judge panel system and the least popular guy somehow got in. I'm not sure how Ireland should work it. It seems all of the entrants are relatively dry on talent and or originality anyway.

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yeah!!!! then we just might win something!!! :D

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Originally Posted by kerr's tribe

yeah but is it the last few of the final that get relegated for a year......the semi-final does not count i think, we just have to qualify again :rolleyes: we did get relegated not that long ago i remember......

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Jaysus look at me discussing this thing like it was serious. :o Influence of the girlfriend I tell you. :eek:

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Originally Posted by Poor Student

Jaysus look at me discussing this thing like it was serious. :o Influence of the girlfriend I tell you. :eek:

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wise lady, she's a fan then, i take it? It is so bloody addictive though :o

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Originally Posted by kerr's tribe

wise lady, she's a fan then, i take it? It is so bloody addictive though :o

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Sort of. She also comes from Slovenia so we look at each other's entrants and laugh and then vote for our respective entrants anyway. :D

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Originally Posted by Poor Student

Sort of. She also comes from Slovenia so we look at each other's entrants and laugh and then vote for our respective entrants anyway. :D

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oh right, they had Omar singing tonight(i think) Jesus , that was bad, I don't think it went through, thank God. No offence... :D

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Originally Posted by kerr's tribe

oh right, they had Omar singing tonight(i think) Jesus , that was bad, I don't think it went through, thank God. No offence... :D

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He was an accidental entrant of their bizarre voting system and she was pleased to see him out. :p

She's disgusted the Croatian entrant got through. ;)

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Originally Posted by Poor Student

He was an accidental entrant of their bizarre voting system and she was pleased to see him out. :p

She's disgusted the Croatian entrant got through. ;)

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It was craaaaap, could not believe croatia got through, i like the sound of croatian sung, but it was utter sh!te

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Originally Posted by kerr's tribe

It was craaaaap, could not believe croatia got through, i like the sound of croatian sung, but it was utter sh!te

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It's the same kind of pish they always enter. Totally their type of music. That's Adriatic style.

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Originally Posted by kerr's tribe

Holy ****!!!!!!!

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I think that best sums up what most people think about the result, don't you???

As expected, most of the countries that qualified were Eastern ones. The actual songs from those countries was irrelevant. Croatia, and Macedonia qualified from the "Balkan Bloc". Hungary, Israel, Moldova, and Romania qualified with Latvia too. Denmark, and Norway went through from the "Scandinavian" block, while Switzerland won the only Western spot, (with an Estonian group).

No Iceland, No Ireland, No Belgium, No Holland, No Portugal. See a pattern here...?? Western countries hopelessly fail in the contest once again. Most of my favourites failed, was particularly disappointed for Iceland, Lithuania, Estonia, and Belarus. They had good songs, but failed to make it.

So it's back to the drawing board for us, and the semi final again next year. YAS will need another re-think next year. The first year we got the last 2004 final qualifying spot, while last year and this year we failed to qualify for this year's final.

People complain about the voting system in Eurovision, but it's the same principle as what happens in YAS, where guess what, everyone votes for their local singer, every week!!! As we can't vote for ourselves in Eurovision, maybe RTE/Eircom should come up with a system where you can't vote for the singer from your local area in YAS also. Otherwise drop the programme, and come up with a new formula for selecting our participant, and song for the contest.

People tell me often that Eurovision is s-hit. But where else would you get global televisual audience of 1 Billion every year? The truth is that it's a contest of a very high standard nowadays, if you don't take the contest seriously, and if you don't have the right package(artist, song, act, PR) you'll get humiliated on the night. Yes, we in Ireland are at a disadvantage with the way the voting system is now, but we don't help ourselves when we send talentless wannabees, and useless amateurs to sing crap songs, in front of a massive TV audience. The Eastern European countries send their best artists to Eurovision, select good songs, spend vast amounts of money to support them with pr trips to other countries, thereby creating awareness of them to gain votes, and treat the contest seriously. That brings them their success. That's what we need to do. Until we treat the contest seriously, and stop dismissing it as s-hit, we cannot compete with them in Eurovision. :(

Once again Westmeath disgrace the country :p

Morning Ireland this morning and they McCauls are on saying it's the voting system - the same lame excuse as the last three years about Eastern European countries voting for each other....

If that's the case, well how come all these fookin countries were in the bloody semi final in the first place? Surely they'd be voted through in the main event and the whole semi would be "western" countries.

Shít song, shít format to pick the song and the singers, but RTE make too much money out of it so not willing to go back to the old ways, and then use their "news" programmes to propogate the myth about voting. Afterall didn't seem to effect Israel too much last night.

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Originally Posted by Ringo

Once again Westmeath disgrace the country :p

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Less of that Ringo :p

its the first plane home and back to the halting site for Donna and Joseph. :D

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Originally Posted by Partizan

its the first plane home and back to the halting site for Donna and Joseph. :D

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Pa Doran from last year'll be waiting for them :D

Its Doran Ringo..

He's as knackerino as you come.

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Originally Posted by mypost

No Iceland, No Ireland, No Belgium, No Holland, No Portugal. See a pattern here...?? Western countries hopelessly fail in the contest once again. Most of my favourites failed, was particularly disappointed for Iceland, Lithuania, Estonia, and Belarus. They had good songs, but failed to make it.

:(

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In fairness, Iceland c*cked it up with the vocals, Belgium deserved to be shot on the spot, Holland was a tribute to Whitney Houston, but i liked it, Portugal were pretty pathetic. And Ireland, well, Karl Broderick is partly to blame for that, his lyrics were childish etc etc.

So it was not all down to eastern voting; Poland, Lithuania, Estonia and Belarus all missed out. The Eurovision seems to be extremely popular in the new smaller countries, former Yugoslavia, and are fanatical about voting, people in the western countries are not as excited about eurovision anymore.

I think the voting should have been open for longer, i only was able to call 5 times! And the songs towards the end of the show had to wait a lot longer to get the number.

Just pointing out that televoting changed nothing: juries also 'favoured' neighbours, it's just because there were less Eastern European participants that it was less remarkable but it happened all the time as well. And can you blame Croatia for sharing a more or less same general taste and culture in music when they're close to each other ?!

"Belgium to be shot on the spot" :eek: But TBH I'm not surprised to read that. Belgium has a good music scene but many talented bands seem not interested in Eurovision anymore, mainly ex-stars who try to re-boost their carreer. The most talented bands will enter national competitions who usually get more attention from local media and audience, same happened in Italy where the San Remo festival was seen as more important than Eurovision. And after a while Italy just didn't bother anymore to take part...