Eurovision Uberthread

**DaveyCakes** · 14/05/2009, 9:55 PM

Originally Posted by Partizan

song was a big pile of crap. Didnt help matters that we dont have a large diaspora in Europe outside of the UK. The Brits not been able to vote was akin to starting a match with 3 goals down.

Notice the way the votes went, to the East who played happy neighbour to each other. Its time to pull out of the cheese circus and enter the Sanremo Music Festival, a festival which actually is more at home with the original ideals of the ESC which has desceded into farce.

So it would have been fine if we'd got through with a bit of happy neighbours from UK, but if anyone else does it its terrible?

**mypost** · 14/05/2009, 10:04 PM

Portugal and Iceland got through, despite the voting problems. Even bleedin' Ronan Keating got through.

Cyprus out, Serbia out, Slovenia out, Poland out, Latvia out, all Eastern Europe. Obviously not many Poles around Europe watching.

The Brits can't vote in our semi-final anymore. Mypost voted for Albania, which went through.

Regarding our entry, nothing wrong with the performance, the early draw was an issue but the costume was as usual, rubbish. Why can't Irish girls cut it in the Eurovision fashion stakes?

**irishultra** · 15/05/2009, 2:56 AM

The Eurovision has always been a favours contest, what I find weird is that the the Swedes have given us far and away the most points, way more than they have given to their Scandanavian friends Denmark and Norway.

Also Ireland has given the UK far and away the most points, while in second place comes France which by coincidence also happen to be the two closest countries to us.

Look at the Netherlands, Israel constantly gives it high points because of its good treatment of Jews throughout the centuries.

Tonight, 4 Nordic countries(Estonia, Denmark, Norway, Lithuania) went through, does anyone accuse them of this voting, and if they do, they don't get angry about it.

Having said that it really should have gone through and the Eurovision is really stale now. Like looking back it looked rubbish but now it seems so pushed.

**Lionel Ritchie** · 15/05/2009, 8:16 AM

Originally Posted by Battery Rover

First time I heard it and was only half listening but did the music to our song sound like something from Blondie or am I just imagining it.

Take that back or step outside!

...it's like claiming that bloke who sang I'll Always Be Lonely sounds a bit like Metallica.

**DaveyCakes** · 15/05/2009, 12:30 PM

If you include Hungary and Slovakia as being in Eastern Europe (I wouldn't, but many would), 15 of the 19 semi finalists last night were from the Eastern/Balkan region. Of course a load of them were going to qualify. I thought we deserved to go through, but there you go. I also thought that most of the qualifiers were merited, other than Croatia, Lithuania, and Moldova.

**kingdom hoop** · 16/05/2009, 1:56 AM

Just one little unimportant observation follows:
Is it called Euro...Vision because, when it comes to appraisal of song, the use of the eyes is more important than the ears?

Or is that just coincident? Why not EuroAudio, for example?

**Lionel Ritchie** · 16/05/2009, 10:10 AM

Originally Posted by kingdom hoop

Just one little unimportant observation follows:
Is it called Euro...Vision because, when it comes to appraisal of song, the use of the eyes is more important than the ears?

Or is that just coincident? Why not EuroAudio, for example?

I think it's a very important observation. The 'Song Contest' bit is still there but is smaller than 'Fianna Fail' on a 2009 election poster. I suppose the 'Vision' thing goes back to it's origins as an experiment in live pan-European broadcasting using little more than valves, microwaves and hope.

...and besides the Audio aspect is uniformly unlistenable anyway.

**John83** · 16/05/2009, 10:55 AM

Having just heard the Irish entry for the first time, all I can say is this: if that deserved to go through to the final, I'm very happy I didn't watch the rest of the contestents in the semi.

**paudie** · 16/05/2009, 3:18 PM

Originally Posted by irishultra

The Eurovision has always been a favours contest, what I find weird is that the the Swedes have given us far and away the most points, way more than they have given to their Scandanavian friends Denmark and Norway.

Also Ireland has given the UK far and away the most points, while in second place comes France which by coincidence also happen to be the two closest countries to us.

Look at the Netherlands, Israel constantly gives it high points because of its good treatment of Jews throughout the centuries.

Tonight, 4 Nordic countries(Estonia, Denmark, Norway, Lithuania) went through, does anyone accuse them of this voting, and if they do, they don't get angry about it.

Having said that it really should have gone through and the Eurovision is really stale now. Like looking back it looked rubbish but now it seems so pushed.

Surely Estonia and Lithuania are Baltic rather than Nordic countries.

Surely if people think the Eurovision is rubbish they shouldn't watch it. Of course it is rubbish

**stann** · 16/05/2009, 8:51 PM

Originally Posted by kingdom hoop

Just one little unimportant observation follows:
Is it called Euro...Vision because, when it comes to appraisal of song, the use of the eyes is more important than the ears?

Or is that just coincident? Why not EuroAudio, for example?

It's to do with its origins as a collaboration between the various national TV broadcasters around Europe I think, KH.
I think the key thing was it was to be a single television event simultaneously broadcast, hence euroVISION.
In a sense the song contest aspect was secondary. Hearing some of the entries in the final this year that seems to still be the case.

**sligoman** · 16/05/2009, 9:35 PM

Norway way out in front...hard to see anyone catching up, although not even half-way through yet so it's not impossible.

**Pauro 76** · 16/05/2009, 10:06 PM

Thought the Iceland entry deserved to win, classy song.

**mypost** · 17/05/2009, 6:23 AM

With the juries back, the ballads were always going to score well, and shows why Iceland and the UK scored highly, and why Sakis of Greece, and Elena of Romania didn't. Nothing special about the Norway song for me, fairly drab.

About us, we finished in 11th place in the semi-final with 52 points, Denmark gave us the highest individual score with 10 points. As only the top 9 qualified, Serbia finished 10th, but the jury wildcard went to the 13th placed Croatians at the expense of their neighbours.

**OwlsFan** · 17/05/2009, 9:04 AM

I enjoyed it I have to admit. I thought the standard of most of the songs wasn't bad (I know it's fashionable to say they're rubbish) and it certainly helps when you've heard them before (at the semi-final stage). The Norwegian song is very catchy and i went to bed with it in my head. The German entry was verging on pornography - I like the one with the whip

My favourite was the Albanian entry. Not sure about the green man though. I also liked the Estonian (the girl with the fringe).

A good evening's entertainment. Highlight - when the woman giving the results of the Swedish jury sang a snippet of each of the songs Sweden was voting for. AMusing!

**bennocelt** · 17/05/2009, 9:41 AM

only listened to the last few songs on the radio - what i heard was dire stuff - the english one was so out of tune..........

or song was a joke too - at least dustin was a laugh

**mypost** · 20/05/2009, 5:23 AM

They announced the dates of next year's contest as well during the week, only to find that they clash with the CL Final on the Saturday night

, so they'll have to move it again.

**Pauro 76** · 10/02/2010, 8:20 PM

http://www.rte.ie/arts/2010/0210/eurosong.html

Irish Eurosong entrants for 2010 announced. Seems like they're not playing it for laughs this year then! What happened to comedian Justin Lee Collins' supposed Irish entry then?

**mypost** · 17/05/2010, 4:45 AM

Originally Posted by mypost

They announced the dates of next year's contest as well during the week, only to find that they clash with the CL Final on the Saturday night

, so they'll have to move it again.

With the new date as the 29th May, rehearsals have begun. Ireland are 12th in the second semi-final 2 days before.

That's the easy part. Getting there appears to be a bit more difficult:

http://www.esctoday.com/news/read/15708