Eurovision 2009

[Dasquian Belargic]

What is the Eurovision Song Contest?

The Eurovision Song Contest is a annual competition held among the members of the European Broadcasting Union, which is made up of mostly European countries, as well as Israel, Russia, and various other less than European countries.

This year 42 countries will be taking part, with two semi-finals followed by the grand final on May 16th, held in Moscow, Russia being the winners of last years competition. 25 countries will take part in the grand final, including the "Big Four" countries, France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom, Russia, 18 semi-finalists, and 2 jury choices from each semi-final.

Why should I care/watch?

The main appeal of Eurovision is how camp/awful it is. It's a totally bizarre spectacle, where voting is obviously based on political alignments rather than the merit of each countries song. Even the majority of the countries who participate view it as a joke now - apart from eastern Europe, who always try their hardest to win because winning means you get to host the next contest and therefore (theoretically) promote the hell out of your country, to boost tourism.

You can watch online for free at: http://www.eurovision.tv/

Here's some of the entries, so you can see the "high caliber" of entertainment to expect. Generally, the songs are either a) hopelessly trying to emulate American/British pop, b) folk tunes or c) totally ridiculous novelty songs, or a hideous mixture of all three. The :partyhard rock :partyhard band Lordi actually won a couple of years ago, and then the year after that half of the entries were Lordi/Nightwish clones :lol

Azerbaijan
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Belgium
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Finland (...I actually like this one :o)
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Greece
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Turkey
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United Kingdom
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I guess this year the theme is bass-y dance music :huh

[Yog]

How dare you not to post the Norwegian one! It is supposedly one of the favorites, believe it or not.
Norway
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.. also, my father (who is Swedish) is all in awe of this opera inspired song:
Sweden
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[Daria Nytherciria]

Just for reference, here are some recent winners:

Russia 2008
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Serbia 2007
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Finland 2006
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Greece 2005
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[Daria Nytherciria]

And here are some of the UKs absolutely AWFUL entries from the last few years

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[Dasquian Belargic]

Arguably the most famous Eurovision winning song ever:

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:dance

[Charley]

The 2009 Turkey entry is almost music. Much better than anything else submitted.

Honorable mention to Sweden for that chick with the huge vocal range. Pity the song is DREADFUL.

I can't decide whether Belgium's Fail Rockabilly or UK's terribly milquetoast entry is the worst for this year.

I never thought I'd see a musical spectacle that made me feel GOOD about American Idol. This is atrocious.

[Yog]

"Highlights" in choice of costumes over the years.. :lol

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[Dasquian Belargic]

Haha I forgot to mention that aspect of Eurovision :lol if there isn't at least one costume change during a peformance, it's a poor effort!

[Nya Halcyon]

Ugh..... they're still doing this??!? I actually LIKED to watch this as a kid cos ... well... didn't notice the campness of it all then, and it was fun to have "weird" music from different countries.

Germany's contribution to it is getting progressively worse.... it USED to be that they all had to sing in their native language but from what I can see most of them have done away with that... the guy this year is supposedly quite famous but I've never ever heard of him.

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They actually started something of a national song contest a couple of years ago, and I wish they'd actually sent the guy who won that to the Eurovision one... at least that's original:

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Oh and then there's my absolute favorite, but no one ever thought of sending them anywhere (even though she participated in the national contest):

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[Dasquian Belargic]

Apparently Dita Von Teese is dancing on stage with Germany's entry this year. The odds of Germany winning supposedly went up when that was announced :lol They should just make Rammstein their entry and be done with it. They'd win on the pyro show alone.

When Charley and I were discussing this earlier, he was surprised that virtually everyone sung in English... I can only guess that's because it's the lingua franca, so countries with languages that are not widely spoken outside their borders can have a braoder appear? Personally I don't mind if I don't understand a songs lyrics - most Eurovision lyrics are awful to begin with - but I know people who find it a baffling idea to listen to a song sung in any language they can't understand *shrug*

[Droo]

The best thing about the Eurovision Song Contest has departed the show, yes, I mean the magnificent Sir Terry Wogan! And with his departure, I'm afraid I've completely lost interest in an otherwise intolerably woeful show. I mean, I can't possibly have a man-crush on Graham Norton. Oh, Sir Terry, how we'll miss you!

That said... Dita von Teese! :mischief

Edit: And for good measure...

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[Dasquian Belargic]

:lol Wogan.. it really won't be the same without him. I'm gonna give Graham Norton a chance though. He used to be very funny in his Father Ted days, so maybe he can channel a little of that.

EDIT: Oh wow, Asia is going to do their own version http://www.asiavision.tv/ "Participating countries in the first song contest can be Australia, Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, and Vietnam."

[Darth Turbogeek]

Thank God we dont get this mindblowing crap here.

[Dasquian Belargic]

See the post above yours, Mark :mneh You're getting it soon

[Crusader]

OMG Eurovision is so cheesy...so which satelite state is going to win this year? And who the hell is that guy from Germany???

[Dasquian Belargic]

:uhoh I'm growing to like the Azerbaijani entrant, purely because it reminds me of music I used to hear on hoiday, when I was like.. 7.

Also, check out this GEM from 2006:
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Rock on Lithuania. In your hearts, you are the winners. (They weren't the winners, Lordi were :lol)

[stevenvdb]

Heh. I actually tried out for this when I was about 11 years old (16 years ago), along with my little band of fellow pre-pubes, before there was a junior version of the show. Placed somewhere in the top 10 preliminary,locally (a hint of the talent who try out, maybe. ;) ), but we obviously couldn't compete with the adult acts, oh and a 4-year-old girl...who was summarily dropped after we were, shutting out the kiddies. We got a little bit of TV coverage, though,which we thought was the coolest. ;)

Oh, well.

It seemed pretty fun back then, if frivolous.:p

I wonder if a tape is floating around out there, somewhere...

Lost most keepsakes from that era of my life, dangit. :/

[Dasquian Belargic]

The contest is this Saturday and for anyone who fancies watching the live feed, Yog proposed that we all get on the Ventrilo voice-chat channel ( details of which can be found HERE (http://www.sw-fans.net/forum/showpost.php?p=305878&postcount=1) ) and laugh/mock it together :D

[Droo]

I might just partake in a bit of the old mockery. I've nothing better to do on a Saturday night... :ohno

There Will Be Drink!

[Yog]

The Guardian's take on the silliest entries:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2009/may/12/eurovision-song-contest-entries

.. also, an illustrated guide about traditional eurovision block voting:
http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/4540/blockvoting.jpg

[Aree Ankarta]

I'm all up for it.... me and a bottle of wine....

[Dasquian Belargic]

I feel like I need to drink something flamboyant and camp whilst watching this... any suggestions?

[Dasquian Belargic]

BTW this starts at 8pm GMT tonight. Who's going to be around? :D

[Yog]

Me me me!!! :dance

[Charley]

is there live streaming the horror for people across the pond?

[Aree Ankarta]

I should be around.... haven't decided on a beverage yet but chances are I'll be dipping into the alcoholic flu medicine rather than anything nice...

[Dasquian Belargic]

is there live streaming the horror for people across the pond?

http://www.eurovision.tv/

:D

[Yog]

is there live streaming the horror for people across the pond?
There should be streaming options, yeah. I think Norwegian Broadcasting has one, BBC may have one, and there are probably some other options as well, such as this (http://www.eurovision.tv/). If none of those work for foreigners, we should be able to find one. :)

[Yog]

The madness starts in 20 minutes.

also, if we're doing any drinking, here be the rules:

Drink if
-There is a Gear or Key Change
-Act uses Dry Ice/Pyro or Wind
-if Anyone thanks Europe
-there is obvious political voting
-Anyone on stage is either in Drag or is Transexual/Transgender

Finish if
-You really cannot explain what is going on stage.

Edit - Norwegian Boadcasting stream, if you're entertained by the idea of watching with moon language commentator. Stream should be up in 10 minutes:
http://www1.nrk.no/nett-tv/klipp/493082

Edit2 - it started!

[Dasquian Belargic]

I'm watching :D and in the vent chat room:

Server: vent51.light-speed.com
Port: 5270
Password: RPG

[Yog]

Ugh... Lithauen... this is terrible. :x

The horror continues: Israel!

France is pretty good, actually!

[Dasquian Belargic]

France... boring :|

[Yog]

Sweden next!

The combination of disco and opera is terrible, but she got good vocal range.

Croatia and their windmachine. Very generic. I kept waiting for the costume change that never happened!

All the performers in the Portugal song are on acid!

[Darven]

I'm having trouble loading the live stream, and this ancient tv here doesn't have a working receiver... grrrrr

[Dasquian Belargic]

Mara, come join us in the vent room!

[Yog]

Iceland chick hot!!!


Ahhhhhhhh... Greece. That was hilarious.

I did not get Armenia.

Russia enters in.... shower curtain dress!

[Darven]

Getting Vent set up now... should be there soonish

[Darven]

On second thought - scratch that, I don't have a microphone atm

[Yog]

On second thought - scratch that, I don't have a microphone atm

You're still welcome to join though.

This is every bit as terrible as I expected! :D

Drinking game is ON!

Russian police is singing!!! :whaa

Moldova is on with traditional gay dance.

[Darven]

Trouble is, if I run Vent on this PC (which is a total heap of shite) all kinds of things go wrong.... I'm gonna leave it for now....

[stevenvdb]

Huh, this isn't that bad. I guess i'm so used to hearing non-native English speakers, that my brain glosses over the misplaced inflections. :D Songs themselves are fairly typical, standard pop fair, but most of these folks have pretty decent pipes otherwise.

Well, ok the acts are pretty cheesey.. :D

[Yog]

Denmark: Ronan Keating in shower cabin act.

Germany fails. Stripper did not strip.

[stevenvdb]

Albanian sequin mask guy is kinda creepy in a sparkly kind of way. :D

I'm having fun with this, music critic side of me notwithstanding. This is so camp. :D

The description of these being music-industry professionals is kind of misleading though, as I remember non-professional acts used to be able to try out in the respective countries and get a outside shot. What crap did I go through, then? Or was that just marketing and moonshines by the labels? Bah, my dreams are shattered. :> Well, not really....

[Yog]

I'm having fun with this. Ventrilo is the spot to be though :D

[Droo]

Highlights of the night so far is the bit of Dita Von Teese we got and the strange act involving breakdancing midgets which double up as a step ladder and the disco gimp! :eek

[Yog]

Let the voting start!:dance

[stevenvdb]

Well, I remember why I haven't bothered with it in years, but this was fun. ;)

[Yog]

Voting stops in 1 minute!!!

Swimming pool suspended in the air David Lynch weirness while waiting for General Zod to break out of the mirrors. :whaa

[Dasquian Belargic]

:whaa = eurovision all over

That swimming pool orgy was... wtf worthy.

[Darven]

I hope someone will put all this on Youtube so I get to watch it after all... this sounds like a big laugh :lol

[Yog]

YESSSS!!!! Norway getting lots of 10 and 12 points. This is looking good. Next eurovision to be hosted in Oslo???

[Aree Ankarta]

Yeah but IS that a good thing?

[Yog]

Yes, yes!!!! It is a good thing! And I am getting more gin!!!

[stevenvdb]

Well, the voting seems to be weighted 50-50 judges/public this year, so it looks like it may come down more to nationality, which might suck if you are a low population country - then again those will tend to vote more earnestly. It means something more to them... :D

[Yog]

Norway won!!!! Yes, yes yeeeeeesssss!!!!:clap

I'm really drunk now! :lol

[Dasquian Belargic]

Well done, Norway.. and Yog :mneh

[Droo]

Congratulations, Norway! Well deserved on account of some epic floor-humping dancing action! :cool::clap

[Yog]

It just goes to show, you need some SWfans support to win this conests. Yesss!!1

[Droo]

Norway Sucks!

[Yog]

Norway Sucks!

:headbash :twak :spank :shakefist

Edit: Btw, it needs to be mentioned this was a record in points scored. Norway won with more points in the in the entire 60 year history of the show. 387 points, more than double the amount Iceland received at #2. Unbelievable.

Take that UK / Droo and your 5th place. Hah!

Thanks to all tolerating my antics on ventrilo :D

[Dasquian Belargic]

I'm still :danceing to Finlands entry.

[Yog]

The full score board. They announced the points from the semi's now:

Semifinal 1
Iceland- 174
Turkey- 172
Bosnia & Herzegovina- 125
Sweden- 105
Armenia- 99
Malta- 86
Israel- 75
Portugal- 70
Romania- 67
-------------------------------------
Macedonia- 45
Montenegro- 44
Finland- 42 (Wild-Card qualifier)
Belarus- 25
Switzerland- 15
Andorra- 8
Bulgaria- 7
Belgium- 1
Czech Republic- 0

Semifinal 2
Norway- 201
Azerbaijan- 180
Estonia- 115
Greece- 110
Moldova- 106
Ukraine- 80
Albania- 73
Denmark- 69
Lithuania- 66
-------------------------------
Serbia- 60
Ireland- 52
Poland- 43
Croatia- 33 (wild-card qualifier)
Cyprus- 32
Hungary- 16
Slovenia- 14
Holland- 11
Slovakia- 8
Latvia- 7

Scores in the final:
http://www.eurovision.tv/event/scoreboard?event=1482

[Dasquian Belargic]

Do UK, France, Spain and Germany not even get points during the Semi Finals then? I know we go through automatically, but it would have been interesting to see how other countries voted for us then.

[Yog]

Do UK, France, Spain and Germany not even get points during the Semi Finals then? I know we go through automatically, but it would have been interesting to see how other countries voted for us then.

Well, as you pointed out, the big 4 UK, Spain, Germany and Spain are automatically qualified to the final, so they don't have to go through with any semi finals, and there is no way to know how much points they would have gotten. But least UK got a lot of points in the final, so they would have likely gone through the semi's handily. Notice, there is a corelation of the points in the semi and final. Those countries doing well in the semi also did well in the final.

[Dasquian Belargic]

In the cold light of day, I still think Estonia had the hottest singer.

Also, how did those 'wild-card qualifiers' work? :huh

[Yog]

Also, how did those 'wild-card qualifiers' work? :huh
The semi finals were entirely decided by televote, except for 2 wildcards, 1 from each semi final picked by the jury.

[Dasquian Belargic]

I can't believe a jury picked Crotia :lol