Eurovision 2023 Grand Final - thread 4

[GrandTheftWalrus]

Just incase anyone wants to carry on the chat.

Finland, Sweden, Norway, Belgium, Poland, and Czechia were all good IMO. Sweden was OK but not a worthy winner at ALL. I LOVED Finland's song. Such a fun song. Poland's was super catchy. Loved that one too. Around half of the 26 songs were below average/shite IMO though.

Ours was OK - but Mae Miller did not win because the performance was a bit noisy/poor sound quality etc, and it was not even in the top 10 best songs. Maybe 12th or 13th.

She is disliked a lot in the UK because she was scathing about the UK. Said she hates it/hates everything about it. She slated the Royals too. This has made her loathed by many. Don't know if that transferred into the Eurovision audiences, but she came 25th out of 26, and it was one of the top 12 or 13 songs IMO. Should have come about 12th.

I wonder if loathing the country she was representing, which is also her OWN COUNTRY, was a factor in her spectacular failure? People on Twitter are being fierce right now. She is NOT popular.

She is a nobody at the moment, and cannot get away with saying political shite, and nasty vitriolic bollocks about her own country. None of the other acts from any other country, slagged off their OWN COUNTRY. Just her. As I said, she is a nobody right now, and has probably finished her career before it's started.

If she hates this country, she knows what to do. I will help her pack, and take her to the airport.

I can't imagine foreign voters care about UK royalty.

She slated the Royals too. This has made her loathed by many.
They'll love her in Liverpool then

Mel's commentary was fucking awful. So pointless, not needed, and just dreadful. She kept whittering on and chatting shit, and talking over the hosts - Graham and Hannah. (And also the people who were speaking from various countries, and giving their points...)

She was trying to be funny and quirky and witty. She wasn't. She was shit. She just gabbled on and on, talking nonsense, and she really fucking irritated me. She ruined the last hour or so of the show. It was just a noise at the end, and I had to keep muting the TV.

I have often wondered if NI folk living near to the Irish border might nip across to the ROI to cast a sneaky vote for the UK. Since Ireland didn't qualify this year, it couldn't have been cancelled out by ROI folk doing the same in the other direction!

BBC accused of ruining Mae Muller's Eurovision chances

The BBC is facing questions over the noise quality of Mae Muller’s Eurovision performance.

Viewers claimed they could “barely hear her” over the backing music with the singer suffering similar issues in the practices leading up to Saturday’s show.

Music critics said the song was “excellent” but the “staging wasn’t great” and there were issues with the shots used by the television cameras. It came after Muller suffered technical difficulties during rehearsals.

BBC accused of ruining Mae Muller's Eurovision chances (yahoo.com)

Well if a heavy weight like the Telegraph is saying this it must be true!

If she hates this country, she knows what to do. I will help her pack, and take her to the airport.

Oh, the stupid have arrived.

I think The Telegraph is stalking me

I think this is code for getting at the BBC tbh. That would be in the telegraphs agenda.

I find it incredible that everything has been blamed apart from Maes subpar vocals.

The BBC article on why she didn't do better is also a load of fucking bollocks.

She was breathy and flat. That's nothing to do with levels. That's to do with her ability to move and sing. All the staging requires that now - there were numerous acts lying down and hitting notes which is no mean feat. If you can't sing and move you shouldn't do Eurovision because that's what it needs in this era to match the competition!

Thie big differences between jury and public votes were

Finland - Jury 150 - Public 375
Norway - Jury 52 -- Public 216
Croatia - Jury 11 -- Public 112

But in reverse the Juries gave many more votes to these countries some of which got null points from the public

Belgium, Estonia, Australia, Cyprus

So in 2014 the UK jury was:
Laura Wright, British soprano, vocal coach and former Fame Academy judge Carrie Grant, music producer Steve Allen, DJ Candice McKenzie and writer/composer Gus Gowland.

Every jury is a five member panel from the music industry. This means they are looking for technical ability, good musicality and song content and polished performances. The above panel really gives something of an incite into what they might look for given their professional skills.

That's going to be completely different to an audience vote. It's similar to why acts like Jedward and Rylan himself have lasted on talent shows long after the judges have got pissed off and wanted rid of them. It's that inexplicable X factor that isn't technical and just strikes a chord with the public.

Loreen performance really did nail all those elements. It looked like a perfect music video except on stage and sung live. It was the height of professionalism. None of the other acts had that.

I think that's sometimes hard for the public to wrap their heads around.

Personally I do find that level of polish tends to leave me feeling a bit cold.

It's not obligatory to dance as well as sing at Eurovision: Sam didn't last year, and Salvador Sobrel, for obvious reasons, barely moved from the spot.

But if you're singing the sort of song Mae was then yeah, your benchmark is Israel, Poland or Spain from last year. If you can't match that level, or fake it with cunning use of backing singers then you won't be a contender.

She was breathy and flat.

So true. I really liked the song, and truly expected it to do well, but her live vocals were totally subpar compared to everyone else's. If you can't sing, in a singing competition, then you quite rightly aren't going to get very far.

True. Fair point.

They were her direct competitors.

Which raises another point.

Acts which are in areas of music with a similar type of act are competing for audience share

Hence my comments upthread about Germany bombing due to competing against Finland and Serbia.
Or the three male power ballads.
Or why Estonia did so well in the absence of the competition in the female power ballad.

Maes job was altogether harder because of the type of music she was performing this year.

(If this turns out to be a duplicate post sorry, but something I wrote early doesn't seem to have posted)

I am not sure of the Telegraph's motives but like many papers now base "news" on twitter comments.

But for me it is more that the Telegraph even bothers to notice eurovision. Back in the past (decades ago) they wouldn't have bothered with eurovision. Or maybe a couple of lines.

Even the New York Times was doing live coverage!! Why??

I really liked the Italian's sparkly vest. If only I have a best friend who would run me up a little number like this.

That of course is the other big change in eurovision, being overtly camp and gay. Well the men at least.

Cannot imagine how Katie Boyle would have managed to compare this type of show! (Didn't the men on the Juries have to wear dinner jackets?)

The most daring thing was Sandie Shaw singing in bare feet!

Also see Austria under performing on the vote - they were the fun quirky act competing against both Finland and Croatia.

Oh yes, I wondered if any answered the question who sang You'll Never Walk Alone?

Was it one of the competitors?

Duncan Lawrence (Dutch winner from a few years ago) sang it and then they cut to Ruslana (previous Ukrainian winner) and a young people's choir singing it in Kyiv and everyone else came out on stage and joined in.

Do you mean who sang it last night? It was a collection of previous competitors plus some of the presenters. I'm going to have to watch it again because it always makes me cry anyway but last night's was even more powerful. And I was watching with people who don't appreciate Eurovision and Liverpool as much as me.

Eurovision was being streamed to the US for the first time and they could vote. So why wouldn't the NYT follow the biggest music event in the world?

We follow the super bowl here.

meant to link this this morning
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-65586989
it was peculiarly british and did not translate
as austria, although not british, also did not translate

i voted for austria, as well as Belgium and Norway

Sorry, very late to the party. Watched last night with my flatmate and her boyfriend.
We all said that "I wrote a song" wasn't bad per se, but should have been sung by a more capable singer.

Very surprised (and disappointed) that Germany came last, again. At least this time not with "nil points". This was the song that was runner up in the German show to decide which song would be sent to Liverpool, maybe that would have worked better.
Mostly in German but the last bit he sings in English:

Usually sings in El Arenal on Mallorca, which explains the intelectual depth ;)

Cannot understand how Loreen won again, Tattoo felt like a slower version of Euphoria.
Finland would have deserved to win, Australia were pretty good, I did like Italy as it reminded me of the Italo-Pop that I listened to when I was younger.
Could not see how Spain managed to get any points at all, that was just noise.
Switzerland seemed heavily influenced by other songs.
Albania had a "token brother" or so we said. Many songs seemed a bit bland, same-y and very exchangable.

PS: I apologise if you can't get that song out of your head

Duncan Lawrence (Dutch winner from a few years ago) sang it and then they cut to Ruslana (previous Ukrainian winner) and a young people's choir singing it in Kyiv and everyone else came out on stage and joined in.

It was definitely the best part of the night. We were all in tears.

@SwedishEdith

You’ve turned me. I did not like our entry last night. I might have been a bit nippy about it.

But pared down, stripped back and senza bells and whistles, it is really quite beautiful.

I do wonder how we might have got on with just a pianist, an ethereal voice and a bit of a smoke machine.

I have had tato ooo ooo in my head all bloody day. My gardening neighbour was giving laldy with Poe Poe Poe (and if I’m not mistaken, a wee bit of the moves!)

I have put Norway on my phone for dragging my heft down to the train in a morning/evening. I still love it.

I will refrain from wearing similar attire. Just asking for chub rub that is.

Eurovision was being streamed to the US for the first time