Eurovision Song Contest, 2024

[Chrill]

I'm warming up to the slightly horrifyng Bambie Thug from Ireland. The song is mad, but their vocals are brilliant. If the performance in Malmö is good enough, they can definitely go far.

[Chrill]

Europapa is climbing in the odds, now sitting at 4th with 8% winning chance. I don't see it. There are too many "ploy" entries this year, nobody will be a grand slam like Cha Cha Cha was last year. Croatia, Netherlands, Estonia, Finland, and probably Ireland compete for the same votes.

That's why I still hold Switzerland as a winner, they will attract both jury and televoting. Sweden, as always, will get some decent jury votes but struggle with the viewers.

[Redirect Left]

Europapa is climbing in the odds, now sitting at 4th with 8% winning chance.

Eurovision youtube channel do 'top 20' videos where they go through the top 20 viewed videos, and Europapa came out as #1 viewed on the last one. So its getting attention, but will that attention change to votes? I'm not so sure. I love it, but I'm definitely on your side of "it's nice, but near certainly not a winner"

[Chrill]

It's almost time, next week we decide the winner.

The excitement levels in Sweden are tepid at best. A lot of protests regarding Israel's involvement in the ESC has led to many locales in Malmö dropping out of the Eurozone parties, and many Swedish and international artists have declined to participate in various events and the show itself. Malmö is spending a lot more money on security than anticipated, so this could be an expensive Eurovision. Still, every single hotel is sold out for the entire week and restaurants will surely have many more guests than usual. Surely the local economy will benefit.

In terms of a winner, still no single entry has clearly taken the lead. Switzerland is the odds favourite, but at the time of writing this they are just 23% likely to win the whole thing. Four nations (Switzerland, Croatia, Netherlands, and Italy) are in the double digits.

To me, this implies that there are no standout entries this year. In Sweden, we would call it a "mellanmjölk" year, meaning "semi-skimmed milk" or, the middle ground. There's nothing particular to be excited about this year. There's no Cha Cha Cha, no Tattoo, no Zitti e Buoni. But hey, the 2014 contest got exciting for that very reason and very few had Conchita Wurst as the winner one week before the show.

[Redirect Left]

Malmö is spending a lot more money on security than anticipated, so this could be an expensive Eurovision. Still, every single hotel is sold out for the entire week and restaurants will surely have many more guests than usual. Surely the local economy will benefit.

This is something I have wondered before. Hosting large international events is often nothing but a random toss up between a disaster or a blessing for local wallets. The Olympics famously cost some countries far more than they got back, often building entire stadiums & arenas that were used for a few month, before the money runs out and they end up abandoned, or the country and/or local economy simply loses far more than it brought in, even if they can afford the upkeep on new things added for the olympics.
Obviously Eurovision needs no-where near the levels of money as the Olympics, but there are lots of hidden costs to consider, security clearly being a major one for Sweden this year. It makes me wonder if Eurovision is generally good or bad for a country in terms of money.

But hey, the 2014 contest got exciting for that very reason and very few had Conchita Wurst as the winner one week before the show.

I feel this will make it more enjoyable, as often you go into it and you're fairly certain the winner is basically pre-determined, and is just waiting for everyone to pick up the phone & vote for who we all know are going to get voted for. For once I can go into it and genuinely no idea who will make the top 3. Personally I am in favor of Croatia / Rim Tim Tagi Dim, but it might be way too wacky for the judges vote side of things, which was poor Käärijä's undoing last year. I still think he was robbed