AIBU to say that the Eurovision Song Contest is utter shite

[allmycats]

Just suffered through all of the songs and come to the conclusion that the whole thing is 95% utter shite and 5% just shite

It happens with a number of things - football leaps to mind, Royal events. And some things which have dominant airtime in a regular way - soap operas having multiple prime time weekly slots, for example.

At least nowadays there are always other channels - even if you don't pay for streaming services there are about 60 live channels on Freeview plus everything that's on the free-to-stream platforms such as ITV X.

It’s FUN. Name something else that’s remotely similar.

Well I could say that about the World Cup, or Wimbledon or any of the other tedious sporting events we have to endure from time to time, but I accept that sport is important to some people so I suppose we put up with it.

But for many of us Eurovision is one of the years highlights and the fact we were hosting, well of course, there will be lots of excited coverage.

I loved it. It's interesting even on here how opinions differ on the songs and presenters. I thought Mel did OK. I thought Germanys song was awful. I voted for Austria, Switzerland, Finland, Moldova and Norway.

I thought they did an amazing job of putting on the show. I went to one of the semifinal shows and the atmosphere was fabulous.

There is an awful lot of shite on TV but Eurovision is a diamond

I watched for the first time in years.

It was easy watching rubbish. Some wine would have helped but I was babysitting so that wasn't an option.

I have never been able to get my head around why Australia suddenly started taking part. Nothing against them but they simply aren't in Europe or even remotely close.

Except it's taken over most of the BBC, like when Glastonbury's on which I also don't want shoved down my throat at every turn

Well isn't it amazing that we live in a time where there are multiple TV channels snd ways of watching TV which means you aren't forced to watch that one channel. Or you could read a book......

You know, behave in the same way others do when TV coverage is taken over by sporting events they have no interest in.

I agree, except I voted for Australia 😬

The sneering at other countries' entries can be pretty nasty and the contest itself has changed quite a bit. You get a few bonkers songs, but the rest is representative of pop music the world over. I.e. fairly diverse with some trends that are repeated everywhere. Music is very personal and the public voting is subjective so a winner is never going to be embraced by everyone. I do wonder, had Ukraine not been invaded, whether Sam Ryder would actually have won last year. But that's irrelevant really.

The live broadcast saw an average of 9.9 million viewers and a peak of 11 million tune in to watch Swedish pop superstar Loreen make history and British entrant Mae Muller finish second-from-bottom, according to overnight ratings.

That's from Yahoo this morning. This is why it's a big deal. Huge TV audience. This year the semi finals were on BBC1 for the first time ever. Iirc they were on BBC2 last year and BBC4 in previous years.

The global audience is massive - up to 200 million.

What I find interesting is that so many people enjoyed all of the programme. The last time I watched, about five or six years ago, the performances were entertaining but I found the rest of the programme so boring and went on forever. It put me right off

I thought there were some decent songs this year. Liked Finland, Sweden and Lithuania. Sonia was cringeworthy. Our entry was disappointing on the night

@MrsTerryPratchett yes - I want to taste the cultural diversity coming through. It's now become a LGBTQA+EV platform - I wish the songs world turn up the bass and it become a lot more dance oriented - people go for a good time and surely that would knock it out of the park - I don't want to hear someone ripping their own soul out and setting fire to it all the time.

People who are really into Eurovision watch interviews with the different singers, interact with them on SM, etc so the whole experience is more than just watching the grand final on TV. There are people who follow the various national finals, of which the Swedish process is about the biggest. Eurovision fans can be massively invested in certain songs and artists for lots of different reasons. Like any competition, to get an idea how your favourites are doing you have to watch the opposition too. There were 27 songs in the final and it's essentially pop music that features so if you like pop music, there will be something that you like.

I think slagging it off as shite without giving any details as to why is pretty glib tbh.

That was annoying and odd of Mel or the producer. Graham seemed self conscious I thought, standing beside the statuesque, supremely confident blonde person. A few moments of mirth from him but the biggest laughs were supplied by the general bizareness of the entries. Kate playing the piano was nice.

I think Mel just wasn't used to it. It must be quite tricky to get right. I also noticed her tone seemed unnatural, veering abruptly between snide comments and 'awww' comments. The tone of the snide comments has to be right as well to avoid sounding unkind - needs to focus on the weirdness of costumes/staging rather than the performer themselves.

when you think how long this contest has been going on for, how much "talent" (sic) time and energy has been poured into the contest, it is remarkable that its produced only one good song (Waterloo). That must be some kind of record in itself.

Also worth noting the jury are voting on the previous night's dress rehearsal rather than the performance we actually see - so any artist might not have sung as well for the jury.

Yes complete and utter dross. Cannot comprehend why anyone would waste their time on it.

Exactly.

Was so refreshing to see something done well, with grace and beauty, in this country.

Two low points were Sonia singing a song with an incredibly dubious message, and Kate Wales’s grade 3 piano (just why???), but otherwise excellent.

There are other things to watch.

I don't get why people who don't like it, watch it, then moan about it. Every year.

Don't watch it then you'd have nothing to moan about. Sorted.

Its great, btw.

I've never cared for it but loads of people love it.

We don't take it at all seriously and really enjoyed watching the offerings. Some of those songs were quite the experience!

The majority were shit, the UK entry had the stage presence of a dead rat.

So true!😂I keep thinking about this line and laughing.

I give you Johnny Logan- hold me now!!

There are lots of good songs that have come out of Eurovision , just not necessarily the winning songs .

Recorded it. Just watching it now, skipping through a lot of it.
Croatia was bloody nuts! how they ever got through is beyond me.
I like the UK entry, catchy tune, very fitting for Eurovision. Sam Ryder gave a good performance with Queens, Roger Taylor on drums.
The acts from previous years who performed while the voting was going on was interesting, a bit odd too, especially Sonia who was our entry in 93 - I have no words to describe that performance. The final song, You'll never walk alone by Duncan Laurence from The Netherlands was by far one the best performances of the evening.

Two things guaranteed with Eurovision each year - bonkers songs and an influx of people who feel the need to tell you it's shit (but also watch the whole thing!). I hate football, so I don't watch it. Nor do I feel the need to tell everyone I hate it...