Eurovision 2024

[gingerjon]

The UK entry.

I like it.

 

[Click]

It feels a bit unremarkable, which doesn't feel great for a Eurovision song. 

No idea what is good for a Eurovision song anymore though tbh, I think Olly Alexander has some kind of following which I guess is good. 

[gingerjon]

The Dutch entry is quite the thing

 

[John Drake]

I still haven't got over Cha Cha Cha not winning last year. 

I like the UK entry. Nice to see a 'current' pop star giving it a go with plenty of enthusiasm.

Will it win? Who knows.

Just embrace the madness.

12 months ago, I never knew how much I would enjoy Finnish rap music! 

[Wolford6]

Eurovision judges like humorous uplifting songs. As usual, the UK's picked a clunker. That video is like an advert for a private psychiatry practice.

[Futtocks]

1 hour ago, Wolford6 said:

Eurovision judges like humorous uplifting songs. As usual, the UK's picked a clunker. That video is like an advert for a private psychiatry practice.

But if the humorous song is a bit too pleased with itself, or there's a gimmick that's belaboured too far, the judges and public can turn on them. You can never entirely predict what will play well, except that cynical/lazy/desperate copies of the previous year's winner usually do very badly.

[John Drake]

3 hours ago, Wolford6 said:

Eurovision judges like humorous uplifting songs. 

The above misconception is probably why the UK doesn't allow the public to choose its entries anymore.

[gingerjon]

31 minutes ago, John Drake said:

The above misconception is probably why the UK doesn't allow the public to choose its entries anymore.

Going back over recent-ish winners, it's certainly both hard to spot a trend and hard to find one that really meets the criteria of 'humorous' and 'uplifting'.

At least the UK appears to have moved on from "cheap but camp as Christmas" or "veteran with no staging budget" as its entries.

[EggFace]

I love the Eurovision and Finland 2007 had the best catchy songs even UK entry Scoooch, it's just a fun night in with the wife and daughter.

[gingerjon]

Does every Serb entry look and sound like this?

 

[John Drake]

Very enjoyable first semi-final last night, I thought. I don't actively dislike any of the songs, but the ones that stood out for me...

Ireland: Blimey! The song is very shouty and disjointed, but the performance was everything. Like a musical nightmare. Disturbing, but brilliant. Fair play to them doing something different. It's in another universe to Johnny Logan or Jedward. I'm glad it qualified. I wouldn't choose to listen to this kind of music, but I want to see this again. 

Croatia: I loved this one. Easy to see why it is one of the big favourites to win. Lively, colourful performance and a chant-along chorus that gets the audience involved. Cha Cha Cha, er, sorry, I mean Rim Tim Tagi Dim!

Finland: If the UK had done something like this at Eurovision, I'm sure I would have hated it, but this was pure fun. The Austin Powers style camerawork was genius. The chap doing the bulk of the singing while Windows95Man prats about in the background has a decent voice too.

Lithuania and Ukraine were the other stand-outs for me.

Nice to see the 'big five' and the host country getting to perform during the semi-finals, even though they don't have to qualify.

The United Kingdom performance by Olly Alexander won't be everyone's cup of tea, but after years (and years, geddit?) of moaning that we don't send established stars or make much of an effort with staging, both those criticisms can be binned off this year. I don't think it can win, there are better songs in the contest and the performance will no doubt alienate as many as it enthuses, but if this doesn't do better than James 'Double-0' Newman or Jemini on Saturday, there ain't no justice.

[Spidey]

Hope you lot who like it get a good show - never been my thing, doubt it ever will

[Futtocks]

Thanks for your input.

Barring one or two obviously weak efforts (hello Poland!), cutting five from last night's semi would have been pretty close at the bottom. Croatia are looking like a very good bet, while Ireland's is like a heavy metal Lene Lovich*.

All entries are staged in the round this year, which some contestants adapted to better than others.

*reference point for the teenagers, there.

[Maximus Decimus]

8 hours ago, John Drake said:

Very enjoyable first semi-final last night, I thought. I don't actively dislike any of the songs, but the ones that stood out for me...

Ireland: Blimey! The song is very shouty and disjointed, but the performance was everything. Like a musical nightmare. Disturbing, but brilliant. Fair play to them doing something different. It's in another universe to Johnny Logan or Jedward. I'm glad it qualified. I wouldn't choose to listen to this kind of music, but I want to see this again. 

Croatia: I loved this one. Easy to see why it is one of the big favourites to win. Lively, colourful performance and a chant-along chorus that gets the audience involved. Cha Cha Cha, er, sorry, I mean Rim Tim Tagi Dim!

Finland: If the UK had done something like this at Eurovision, I'm sure I would have hated it, but this was pure fun. The Austin Powers style camerawork was genius. The chap doing the bulk of the singing while Windows95Man prats about in the background has a decent voice too.

Lithuania and Ukraine were the other stand-outs for me.

Nice to see the 'big five' and the host country getting to perform during the semi-finals, even though they don't have to qualify.

The United Kingdom performance by Olly Alexander won't be everyone's cup of tea, but after years (and years, geddit?) of moaning that we don't send established stars or make much of an effort with staging, both those criticisms can be binned off this year. I don't think it can win, there are better songs in the contest and the performance will no doubt alienate as many as it enthuses, but if this doesn't do better than James 'Double-0' Newman or Jemini on Saturday, there ain't no justice.

I'd heard good things about the UK staging etc, but sadly the odds seem to have collapsed since last night and it's now out to 100-1. Apparently Olly said his microphone pack fell off, so hopefully that explains the pitchy vocals.

Compared to last year, I was disappointed by the songs in general. As I'm married to an Irishwoman, I'd already heard it and didn't love their song, but I hated it after the performance. I have a sneaky feeling however that it will win. The eruption after it ended was telling. I'll be disappointed if it does, unlike many other acts over the years that were controversial for their time (Dana, Lorde, Conchita) their songs were genuinely good along with it.

To sound like a prude as well, I felt like it went a bit too far last night. My children watched the first hour last night, and there were moments I nearly switched off. It's always been a bit suggestive without being too overtly sexual but it didn't seem that way at times last night. One minute I was defending the use of scantily-clad men, the next they were basically gyrating. Then a woman comes out wearing basically nothing.

And then there was Windows-95 man...

[Stirlin]

13 hours ago, Futtocks said:

Thanks for your input.

Barring one or two obviously weak efforts (hello Poland!), cutting five from last night's semi would have been pretty close at the bottom. Croatia are looking like a very good bet, while Ireland's is like a heavy metal Lene Lovich*.

All entries are staged in the round this year, which some contestants adapted to better than others.

*reference point for the teenagers, there.

Yeah.....their Lucky Number is up.

[Stirlin]

Ireland entry from Bambie Thug is my winner.

Bambie Thug - Doomsday Blue | Ireland | Official Music Video | Eurovision 2024 (youtube.com)

[graveyard johnny]

Palestine protesters disrupting the event as the Israel contestant is due to perform 

[Maximus Decimus]

Much better semi-final tonight. Restored my faith in the Eurovision .

Standouts were Switzerland, Israel and Austria.

[Futtocks]

11 hours ago, Maximus Decimus said:

Much better semi-final tonight. Restored my faith in the Eurovision .

Standouts were Switzerland, Israel and Austria.

I watched the RL instead, so I'll have a few surprises come Saturday night.

[17 stone giant]

I tend not to watch the singing but I like to tune in to the results of the voting. Then I'll go online and check out a few of the songs that scored highly.

[Maximus Decimus]

7 hours ago, Futtocks said:

I watched the RL instead, so I'll have a few surprises come Saturday night.

I used to religiously leave it till the Saturday. However, I found it more enjoyable last year knowing the songs quite well.

Sadly, last night had the Eurovision semi and the Piers Morgan interview at the same time, that the rugby was well relegated in my house...

[gingerjon]

Get on the socials. It is all kicking off.

[gingerjon]

Netherlands disqualified.

[Maximus Decimus]

14 hours ago, gingerjon said:

Netherlands disqualified.

Pretty sure he hasn't been disqualified yet? He wasn't allowed to perform in last night's Jury vote.

From what I can piece together, he made an off comment at a press conference and was planning on doing some form of a protest. Whether related to this or not, a member of the Israeli delegation has insulted his dead parents and he has hit them.

Very ugly scenes all round.

[gingerjon]

1 minute ago, Maximus Decimus said:

Pretty sure he hasn't been disqualified yet? He wasn't allowed to perform in last night's Jury vote.

From what I can piece together, he made an off comment at a press conference and was planning on doing some form of a protest. Whether related to this or not, a member of the Israeli delegation has insulted his dead parents and he has hit them.

Very ugly scenes all round.

Yes, I jumped the gun based on a normally reliable account who has since amended their posts.

He is not allowed to perform pending an ongoing investigation. There is no guarantee, or, indeed, indication, that this investigation will be concluded by this evening.

I have seen about three different versions of what the investigation relates to and am therefore not drawing any conclusions on whether it relates in any way to Israel or not.

I may have to watch though - I wasn't going to - just to see the torrent of abuse that the organisers appear to be setting up to be hit with. Far worse than the crowd banter during their ROBBING BLIND OF FINLAND last year.