Eurovision Song Contest 2017

[kamnet]

And it is now confirmed that Russia's winning performer will not be allowed to enter the country to compete.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-39354775

And Russia's official response.
http://www.eurovision.tv/page/news?id=s ... ng_contest

[Chrill]

Well now that's exciting. And I don't know how I feel about this. On the one hand, Russia surely selected her to provoke Ukraine. On the other hand, Ukraine could have made an exception "in the spirit of the contest". On the third hand (how many hands does one have?), Russia did invade Ukraine.

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Russia has ended speculation of a boycott for the Ukrainian edition this year. However its artist may yet be blacklisted for political reasons, some 140 artists have been blacklisted as not allowed to perform due to previous things relating to the Crimean annexation by Russia.

Natually most people don't care, but a small few are up in arms about the whole "omg Russia performing in Ukraine? how scandalous!"

BBC News

Turns out that was more accurate than I ever expected. On one hand, I do like how Ukraine has stood up to Russia over this, instead of being too scared of repercussions. The other hand is slightly disappointed that it came to this.

[kamnet]

I think it's sad to target private individuals and punish them as if they are state actors. But, Russia did bring this onto themselves. They've been treading on Eurovision's political thin ice for a few years now, they know how they can fix that issue.

[Redirect Left]

Eurovision have offered to let the Russian competitor perform via a satellite link instead of in person. A rather curious and unexpected step.

BBC News

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The official ESC youtube channel have posted the first rehearsal of the Swedish entry, featuring uh... treadmills!

I like the setup, but the vocals are a bit shaky. Hopefully that'll be cleaned up for when the show starts in just over a weeks time.

[Chrill]

Stop it. You're making me sad. I. Don't. Like. This. Song.

On another note, what's the status on Russia? Only one week to go!

EDIT: Oh they withdrew. Fair enough. I won't miss them.

[Redirect Left]

So, just finished watching the Eurovision semi final #1.

Here is my list of countries i liked and wanted to get through, the ones with * are the ones that got through. Overall its a pretty good evening for me!
List is in the order they appeared on the show.

Sweden*
Australia*
Belgium*
Azerbaijan*
Portugal*
Greece*
Poland*
Moldova*
Iceland
Czech Republic

Emmelie de Forest is looking a lot different than when she won Eurovision! Not sure why they dragged her for the interview, she said about 5 words and that was it!

[Chrill]

I genuinely liked Montenegro. Shame he didnt make it. Also, return of Epic Sax Guy was neat.

[Dave]

Sweden getting through was a chuffing travesty - one of the worst songs of the night.

Like RL, I got 8/10 on the scorecard - Sweden and Cyprus replacing Latvia and Finland. Finland scraped in to my 10 by the skin of its teeth anyway, but I was very disappointed for Latvia which I thought was the most Eurovision song of the night.

VERY poor standard though. If we hadn't just voted to leave the EU I reckon we'd have a chance at top 10...

[Redirect Left]

VERY poor standard though. If we hadn't just voted to leave the EU I reckon we'd have a chance at top 10...

Hah, forgot about that. I wonder how that'll effect the votes for us on the night...

Swedens song wasn't all that good, but I had it on my list purely for the show they gave, the treadmills were a good little show.
I hope the majority of people who go through manage to sing a bit stronger in the final, some weak singing all around.

[Chrill]

With the massive amount of ballads out there, any song that wasn't a ballad had a great chance of going through. The same type of song never wins twice in a row, not in modern years anyway.

With that said, I don't feel like defending Robin Bengtsson because I never liked it much. It was the third most popular song in Swedish Melodifestivalen, but the so-called international jury selected it!

I'm not very happy with Robin winning, because:

A) He wasn't the popular vote. It doesn't make sense putting on a big show with televoting and then going against the public
B) His song looks a lot more like a TV ad for men's clothing than a music performance
C) He feels very mediocre. In Sweden, we'd call him "reduced fat milk" which is as average and dull as it gets.

I agree, Wiktoria's performance wasn't great. Robin was the most professional singer of the lot, but I just can't help but feel he would struggle to finish in the top 5 of Melodifestivalen in any other year. I guess his win is more down to a poor year rather than his song being fantastic.

I don't see us doing too well in Eurovision, but neither would we with any of the other songs.

[Redirect Left]

yay, voting jurys. They also go against the public

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Another semi final down

As before, my list, and an asterisk (*) marks they got through, another fairly good night for me, 7 out of 10.

Malta
Romania *
Netherlands *
Hungary *
Ireland
San Marino
Croatia *
Norway *
Belarus *
Israel *

Easily the best for me tonight was the Romanian duo. Best vocals in my opinion go to the Croatian guy, some amazing technicalities in his vocal performance. I was saddened that the Irish entry didn't go through, he was another of Louis Walsh's proteges, so not good for his rep either.

Jon Ola Sand still looks like a deer in headlights when the camera goes to him...

[Pilot]

San Marino

San Marino have enough people to be able to get a Eurovision act together each year?

Australia

I always thought my Geography was rather good, but obviously I missed the memo that Australia was in Europe?

[Chrill]

San Marino

San Marino have enough people to be able to get a Eurovision act together each year?

Usually they send the same person for many years

Australia

I always thought my Geography was rather good, but obviously I missed the memo that Australia was in Europe?

See attached.

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RE: Australia;

Eurovision requires membership of the European Broadcasting Union, which is mostly Europe only, but many countries are associate members, this is how non European countries participate. EBU membership is for public service stations only (and only ones that have news programmes qualify), so for example the BBC is our (UK) entity in the EBU, it's public and shows news programmes. This is also why Eurovision is only shown on the BBC channels or/and BBC radio stations in the UK, they as an active EBU member gain the right to show Eurovision but also produce for it (incase you win, basically).
Interestingly there is a lot more than Australia who are associates,
Also associates include Canada, Japan, Mexico, India, and at least three American stations, CBS, NBC & ABC are associate members. So if they voice interest, could also join Eurovision at some point.
Associates are in EBU, but not in Europe basically, if you're in Europe you're a full member.

A lot more to Eurovision and ultimately the folks behind it, EBU than people realise.

[kamnet]

Two years ago EBU allowed Australia to join the contest because broadcaster SBS had been airing the program for over a quarter of a century, and was it's oldest non- European broadcaster.

[kamnet]

Well the show starts in just a few minutes. Americans will once again be forced to watch the live show on Logo. Last year's commentary was horrendous, with the commentators actually talking over the performances in order to make snarky comments and quips. They clearly had no clue what they were doing. This year we will have Ross Matthews (Tonight Show with Jay Leno, RuPaul's Drag Race, and other shows on various NBC Universal programming) and Michelle Visage (also from RuPaul's Drag Race, noted radio DJ & host, reportedly huge Eurovision fan who has followed for years). I seriously hope it's much better. This will be the last time I trust them if it's not and I'll stick to pirated streams like I previously have.

[Pilot]

RE: Australia

Two years ago EBU allowed Australia to join the contest because broadcaster SBS had been airing the program for over a quarter of a century, and was it's oldest non- European broadcaster.

I like Chrill's response better than both of yours!