Eurovision 2024

Entries announced so far:

France - Slimane, 'Mon Amour'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bal8oESDH7s
Czechia - Aiko, 'Pedestal'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DbRldMKFUU

Not an entry:

Eurovision 2024: Pop star Olly Alexander to represent the UK

Also, "not a ballad".
Olly Alexander says it will be 'a wild ride' and confirms song is 'not a ballad'

Norway's final tomorrow evening - rooting for Gothminister

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyhEyjjzYI8

Pretty damn high level in our Norwegian semifinals this year, I found.

I mean, this didn't get through, and even apart from the song it's world-class Weird Nurse Choreography innit?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O58lbZkvII4

love it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tf1NS1vEhSg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gT2wY0DjYGo

So... what are people's thoughts about boycotting this year? I did boycott the year it was held in Israel but my mindset is pretty fatalistic atm, feel like it's a futile meaningless gesture and I'd like to indulge in some light Europop fun to take me away from all the horrors of the world. But I don't know. Honestly, I'd like to be convinced either way, just completely torn right now.

I only watch the songs on the night, and really liked checking it out the last few years and watching it alongside people on the thread, and twitter too.

Which makes me a very casual watcher so its pretty easy for me not to turn it on.

i'm a fan but an obsessive one, can't bring myself to watch this year

I’m watching the first semi. The rest of the week I’m on vacation, which is convenient.

My guest Eurowhat appearance this year would have included talking about Israel, but we decided beforehand we wouldn’t do so, and Ben and Mike talk about it briefly in a separate insert.

https://www.eurowhat.com/228

sure, I'm boycotting bc of Israel and not bc it's been an absolute slog and a chore to watch the past few years

thought the last few years have been really good tbh, especially as my memory is of the 90s when you would be lucky to get one good song. but still -

official Eurovision account liking a tweet calling my jewish ass antisemetic was not on my bingo card but here we are @Eurovision you should actually be ashamed of yourself pic.twitter.com/gyUzwWFR3a

— faith🌛 (@EurovisionFaith) April 26, 2024

Eden Golan releases music video for Hurricanehttps://t.co/oPIe2JGysG

— Eurovision Song Contest (@Eurovision) March 10, 2024

Watch it religiously every year and I'll probably watch to see if any kind of protest happens during the contest.

Honestly I'm also interested to see if there are any protests. Not quite enough to make that the sole reason to watch, but I am hoping for something.

this croatia tune has a nice bit of everything

Definitely my favorite from the half. A good batch of entries went through but I wished Australia had made the cut

i'm a fan but an obsessive one, can't bring myself to watch this year

🇸🇪 Ebba Adielsson, the executive producer of #Eurovision 2024, has expressed her disappointment about Eric Saade wearing a keffiyeh around his wrist during his opening performance.

"We think it's sad that he uses his participation in this way."

More: https://t.co/5qyKQgt7jO

— ESC Discord (@ESCdiscord) May 7, 2024

Bambie Thug reveals that the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) ordered them to remove pro-Palestine messages from their stage costume.

The Irish Eurovision finalist had ‘ceasefire’ and ‘freedom for Palestine’ painted on their body in Ogham (an early Medieval alphabet) as part of… pic.twitter.com/EWGnE5QC7E

— NewstalkFM (@NewstalkFM) May 8, 2024

An ogham controversy is definitely a first for Eurovision.

Who will stop this outrageous hijacking of the EBU to promote an agenda of /checks notes/ peace and freedom

What the fuck is going on with Joost Klein?

Eurovision Song Contest: Dutch contestant Joost Klein disqualified

yeah good on the EBU for making it really easy to boycott this year

hope this spirals into a complete disaster

this is what I've pieced together, latter parts are very much unconfirmed

1. joost's song is dedicated to his parents, who died when he was young
2. at a press conference the Israeli contestant was asked a question about security, joost covered his head in embarrassment?
3. later backstage a member of the Israeli contingent confronted joost about this and made a remark about his parents
4. joost had a physical altercation of some sort with this person
5. the Israeli delegation lodged a formal complaint against him with the EBU
6. some other contestants are now threatening to pull out?

The organizers saying "female member of the production crew" rather than member of the Israeli contingent.

yes she is Swedish and this is supposedly not connected to the above

But seeing 'intimidation' mentioned as his offence...well, expect the connection I guess.

sorry, I hadn't read the article when I wrote that, just going by twitter last night / this morning

it's all deeply odd

Dutch & English statement by the Dutch broadcaster:

https://www.avrotros.nl/article/nederland-gediskwalificeerd-van-eurovisie-songfestival~527/

English: We have taken note of the disqualification by the EBU. AVROTROS finds the disqualification disproportionate and is shocked by the decision. We deeply regret this.

An incident occurred after last Thursday's performance. Against clearly made agreements, Joost was filmed when he had just gotten off stage and had to rush to the greenroom. At that moment, Joost repeatedly indicated that he did not want to be filmed. This wasn’t respected. This led to a threatening movement from Joost towards the camera. Joost did not touch the camera woman. This incident was reported, followed by an investigation by the EBU and police.

Yesterday and today we consulted extensively with the EBU and proposed several solutions. Nevertheless, the EBU has still decided to disqualify Joost Klein. AVROTROS finds the penalty very heavy and disproportionate. We stand for good manners -let there be no misunderstanding about that- but in our view, an exclusion order is not proportional to this incident.

We are very disappointed and upset for the millions of fans who were so excited for tonight. What Joost brought to the Netherlands and Europe shouldn’t have ended this way.

not fact checked this but

Austrian delegation is reporting that Ireland, Switzerland and Estonia are refusing to perform and that EBU will use rehearsal recordings instead. Also reporting that France will only perform is Slimane can do his speech again. (Thanks @TheGrimRecapper )
https://t.co/s3IK3ESyLZ

— Elizabeth DeLoria (@elizabethdanger) May 11, 2024

sickos_yes.jpg

like, the people in the venue will notice!

if this is going to be a genuine disaster then might give it a look. fuck, can you imagine if israel actually win it!

so... main sponsor MoroccanOil is an Israeli company (there's no WikiPedia page, which seems at least a little bit sus)

I’m not sure that’s meaningful. Lots of cosmetics brands don’t. Nuxe, Avene, Soap & Glory. Lots of times there might be a mention of them on the page conglomerate that owns them. Might.

RTÉ has a liveblog on the shitshow if anyone really feels like following

https://www.rte.ie/entertainment/2024/0511/1448635-eurovision-ireland-misses-final-dress-rehearsal/

Wow fuck these ppl from Israel's equivalent of the BBC

Commentator 1: Anyway, there is some controversy about the song in Ireland, too. There is a petition against Bambie Thug, which claims that they are making a mockery of Irish culture.

Commentator 2: You said ‘they’, as Bambie Thug wants to be referred to in the plural – as part of their non-binary identity.

Commentator 1: They [Bambie Thug] also like to speak negatively about Israel. But we can talk about that later. Prepare your curses.

They already hate the Irish anyway!

huh wonder what Dana International makes of that

I don't know what I expected but the chat on the youtube Eurovision live stream is atrocious

I wasn't expecting quite that level of heat for Martin Österdahl the Supervisor both times they went to him.

Yeah, I caved and watched. The booing at times was intense, well done crowd. Pretty sure they piped in cheers during Israel's song to cover it up.

There was also definitely coordinated voting afoot. I guess it's technically not cheating b/c you can vote as many times as you want, but there is no way that a weaksauce song from a country people didn't want in the competition had a genuine groundswell of public support to that degree.

So relieved at the result, honestly. Would have preferred Ireland to win but happy for Nemo, they were super charming and the song wasn't bad.

Israel getting maximum points from the British public vote but nothing from the UK jury isn't quite what I expected either.

For some reason, this was streaming on Peacock in the U.S., so I watched some of it for the first time. Saw the first 40 minutes just to get a feel for it, then fast-forwarded to the winning song. Delightful.

My favorite moment was during the Ukraine performance, when my wife and I were wondering where the other performer was, and I said, "Maybe she's going to come out and rap," and 10 seconds later she did!

There ya go. And no ‘for some reason’ about it, Peacock has been the American streamer for the past few years now.

lol so many years being a Eurovision hater and yesterday I took my daughter to a brewery where they were showing it on the big screen for about 200 people

it was pretty fun actually

she and her friends have gotten into it pretty big

If you ignore the absolute shitshow the EBU made of it, it was a good Eurovision year musically - lots of fun and weird songs in a wide variety of styles from folk to novelty to goth, a few semi-decent ballads to break up the chaos, some proper pop bangers.

Nothing I loved like last year (where many of the entrants made my EoY ballot) but I think it was genuinely well-rounded and would have been a contender for Officially Good Year if only I didn't feel so guilty for watching it at all.

I didn't really like any of the songs much, though there was only one out and out stinker. I must be showing my age because I thought a lot of the songs sounded similar, or had similar sounds.

What did you think the stinker was? My bet is on Germany.

There were half a dozen with the calypso/reggaeton beat which seemed a little higher than in recent years but felt like at least half the entries were uptempo Eurodance redux. I probably liked the trad but fun Armenian entry the most as a result. The winning song is fine but didn't really deserve to dominate from the start like that (admittedly I say this p much every year).

switzerland was my personal fav, followed by ireland and germany so i actually matched the results for the first time ever
probably the closest total at the top that i can remember since the split voting came in?

uk getting 0 from the public was great too

What did you think the stinker was? My bet is on Germany

I think it was Estonia? A bunch of burly blokes shouting?

There were half a dozen with the calypso/reggaeton beat

Yes, there was far too much of that. It was difficult to tell one country from another unless they went down the folk music route.

“Shakira-core” was the description that went through my mind

my faves were ireland, croatia finland, switzerland obv, and i really enjoyed spain?

the firefighter song was v funny to me in an unintentional way

Spain, Switzerland and Ireland were favourites in our party and Netherlands was my favourite from the semis but the public vote results left a sour note.

But when everyone from Toby Young, Andrew Neil, Lawrence Fox and Tommy Robinson is encouraging everyone to vote 20x, and this was probably replicated across Europe, it ain’t a surprise, just a shame that the voting system can get hijacked

If you ignore the absolute shitshow the EBU made of it, it was a good Eurovision year musically - lots of fun and weird songs in a wide variety of styles from folk to novelty to goth, a few semi-decent ballads to break up the chaos, some proper pop bangers.

Nothing I loved like last year (where many of the entrants made my EoY ballot) but I think it was genuinely well-rounded and would have been a contender for Officially Good Year if only I didn't feel so guilty for watching it at all.

― emil.y, Sunday, 12 May 2024 15:25 (six hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

agree with every word of this

TIL about "anti-booing technology" (aka fake crowd noises for the TV broadcast) but apparently it's been around since 2015 when people were booing Russia

“Shakira-core” was the description that went through my mind

Oh lord, if people thought there was a lot of that this year, you should've seen ~5 years ago. There were definitely a few that seemed focus-grouped for Eurovision this year but some years it just gets silly with the attempts to replicate 'Fuego' success.

I think it was Estonia? A bunch of burly blokes shouting?

Fair enough if you think this was the stinker - I'm usually quite into the "messy" Eurovision tracks (I like silly, weird & amateurish) but Estonia's attempt at that this year did not do it for me, so I'm not going to get pissy about it. Would still rather that track than Germany's bland-ass bollocks.

This was my first time watching Eurovision - Ireland was my favorite overall performance, Czechia was my favorite song, Finland was the funniest. Switzerland didn’t really do it for me during the show but listening to it today, I do see why it won - the hook is really good, his vocals are great, it’s a very crowd-pleasing hype number.

I thought Estonia was good but their green room seating get-ups were comedy gold.

VG otm RE “Shakira-core”; I said the same thing to my husband after the 5th or so of that performance style.

I'm interested to know what songs people thought fit in that style - for me it was only really Cyprus and Georgia (neither of whose songs were particularly interesting), maybe Luxembourg? You could stretch it to Italy (it's not, but the cumbia influence could make it read that way?) and really really stretch to cover Greece (imo absolutely not, that's K-pop and trap influence mixed with Greek traditional). I thought there was a lot more of a techno influence this year - even boring stuff like Sweden had some nice bass sequencing, and obv WE WILL RAVE (which ruled, will hear nothing against this epic tune).

Yes the sequencing in the Swedish track was nice.

I tuned in for a bit of the contest to see if there was any chaos going on, there was not, thought the Norway song was terrific though and cannot believe it came last.

I also loved Norway, but I wasn't surprised it didn't do well. None of my friends liked it, either - apparently there wasn't enough of a song and it was a bit Evanescence, whereas for me the epicness was enough in itself and she wailed like Björk. Everyone else was wrong and I was right and I will maintain that until my dying day.

(Or until I forget, which will probably be tomorrow.)

Estonia was okay but I think the two? singers in the upper range weren’t quite powerful enough and were a bit drowned out by the music compared to their awesome growly baritone priest guy … i think it had potential to be great but was’t quite there

Norway was cool! but i do feel it needed more of a chorus to really bring it home imo.

shakira-core imo:
cyprus
greece
luxembourg
georgia
italy

and it’s a very loose categorization purely because of the um bap-ba-bap-bap beat which is always to me shakira “whenever wherever” even when it’s not that style?

The Greek one was giving me the strongest reminder of things like 'Con Altura' more specifically.

my votes:

best pop: Cyprus
best fun: Finland
best singing: France
best person: Bambie Thug

I’m glad they ignored the Palestinian call to boycott in order to make a statement so radical and uncompromising that Keir Starmer and David Cameron made it several months ago https://t.co/0XsCaq5erI

— James Greig (@jamesdgreig) May 11, 2024