Eurovision 2024

[RunningAndSinging]

Anyone interested in the build up this year? I have been more aware this year as the songs are announced. I like Croatia, Ireland and Finland. Dizzy is hopefully going to do well which makes it exciting - Olli Alexander should be good performing live and he is well known in Europe.

Just reading about the controversy with Israel’s entry and I see that Iceland might send a Palastinian singer.

Ukraine have been the favourites for a while but Croatia is just ahead of them now.

Great post.

Watching the BBC news channel. Might have misheard but the journalist out there in the middle of it said the massive police presence was to prevent them getting too close to the arena. My mistake, not at the arena.

There was a large protest in Central Malmö which was winding down when we got back into town. Got the bus with some of them. All very cordial.

Saw nothing at the arena although lots of police.

If this is the case, even an "innocuous" question such as "do you think your parents would be proud" would be quite aggravating.

Camera woman says she has a different story

But doesn't want to tell it apparently.

https://www.nu.nl/songfestival/6312536/cameravrouw-heeft-volgens-organisatie-ander-verhaal-over-incident-joost-klein.html

A few more fallout developments since earlier this evening

From ESC discord
According to Israeli news site Ynet, Eden Golan's stylist Itay Bezaleli was removed from the Malmö Arena earlier today after he filmed the Irish, Greek and Swiss representatives without their consent.

and

Portuguese broadcaster RTP confirmed moments ago in a live broadcast that Portugal was part of the emergency meeting with the EBU last night. Also confirms that the delegation saw the Israeli team harassing other contestants/delegations

And

On Instagram, Bambie Thug revealed they have "raised multiple complaints" to the EBU

According to them, the EBU confirmed that Kan's commentators have broken the rules describing their performance in the 1st semi-final, and the EBU has since released contradicting statements

Käärijä also pulled out of giving Finlands jury vote.

Thanks red, it will be interesting to see how this pans out over the next few days.

Well ... Joost went to Euroclub (the official fan Eurovision club) after the final!!!

Well - it’s the morning after. Didn’t post at all last night as so was at a Eurovision party for this first time in over a decade which was fun.

I am really sad about all the politics this year and the booing but considering all the controversy I think the show got off almost lightly.

I think the right song won - lots of good songs did really well so I am pleased about that.

I feel bad for Ollie about the zero in the public vote and am not really sure why. It wasn’t a winning song but it was better than some others that did better there. Not going to blame politics after Sam Ryder’s year.

I liked Israel’s song and didn’t like how a young girl was being treated but am relieved they didn’t win to save complications next year.

I’m relieved it came down to Croatia and Switzerland, as the 2 most outstanding songs, and I’d have been happy with either as winner. But I’m of course delighted for Nemo, as they’ve won me £15!

not a bad result of UK, though 0 points in the televote was galling.
brilliant result for Ireland!

the mess around the politics and security and boycotting has left a very bitter taste, there are surely lessons to be learned for the EBU.

Eurovision has always been political. Always.

The questions for me (assuming these reports are true)...

Was Eden Golan's stylist doing more than members of other delegations, at least some of whom will surely have been videoing events on their phones to give them a personal record of their involvement?

Was the Israeli team harassing other delegations, or was it that other delegations objected to the Israeli team's presence and reacted accordingly?

What did Kan's commentators say that broke the rules? The claim appears to be that they incited violence against her three times. I can't see anything in what the commentators said that fits that description. Or is this driven by Bambie Thug's clear hatred of Israel?

Thoughts this morning:

Switzerland were worthy winners, although personally I’d have preferred Croatia. But then again, the songs that come second are often the ones remembered in the years after the competition (Fuego, Soldi, Spaceman, Cha cha cha).

A respectable top 10 finish for Sweden as host country.

Belgium not even close to qualifying, it was almost Czechia instead of Norway.

https://twitter.com/BLAIMGame/status/1789573603857436931?t=-cVFd2Y0DqXKNH9I9z25Gw&s=19

So Bambi Thug was saying about how awful the experience has been for all the contestants.

Now I think the Israel thing has definitely played a role but I've heard a lot of this previously. It was this exact reason that put of a number of bands (not UK) from entering. What she's saying is very similar in many respects. I suspect it's just been amplified this year.

So I'm inclined to think there is a massive duty of care problem with the EBU.

But I also think her political views have been part of it too.

So yeah fence sitting middle ground for me. Hopefully it will improve things for artists in future years though.

Having looked into Bambie Thug's views on Israel, Palestine and Hamas, I'm afraid I don't trust anything she says about the Israeli delegation.

Possibly an unreliable narrator. Maybe she’ll also report the juries and people who voted for their song too. They did make her cry.

There was so much political opinions, as always, so imo Eurovision will never be a truly fair competition.
Germany were robbed last night - so talented and just goes to show how politics skews the vote.

"Germany were robbed last night"

I think that's one of the funniest comments I've seen this year about Eurovision 😂

what's so funny about it?

Olly performance was plain sleezy in direct contrast to the infantile lyrics of the song.

I think there's a Eurovision song for everyone to be fair :) We thought the German song and singer reminded us of Dermot Kennedy who is played very often on Irish radio stations. For us it was okay, nothing special. I preferred last year's group who came last!

I have come up with five favourites from the competition that I have put into my liked songs on Spotify. I'm prepared for nobody else to like them but will share them here.

1. Czechia. They didn't qualify but I loved this one instantly. I was disappointed with the staging. It would have been stronger if they had included a band. The staging and performance wasn't bad at all, but it could have been better. I've listened to more of Aiko in the meantime and like her a lot. A great discovery to explore further.

1. Norway. I thought this group was excellent. They gave me the chills. An exciting blend of folk and rock. A really powerful performance. I wasn't expecting them to be popular but I thought they might have done better in the juries vote. Her vocals were amazing. I'll be looking them up.

1. Lithuania. Very slick, very cool. A good dance track. I'll look him up and see what else he has done.

1. Greece. I thought this was an interesting blend of traditional and modern; a nod to the past but looking forward. Very inventive.

1. France. I like Slimane and know him already from listening to French pop on Spotify. I don't think the song was very special but his delivery was excellent and I like him as a singer.

There were plenty of other songs that I liked as well and I'll go back to listen to again. Honourable mentions to Portugal, Belgium, Ukraine, Italy, Austria, Armenia, Spain and Sweden. Finland was fun. The Netherlands was also also great fun with a strong feel-good factor. I'm glad Switzerland won over Croatia. Nemo has a fantastic voice, gave a strong performance and the song is good. Olly got a lot of shtick on the threads here but I liked his song. It was an eighties throwback with a hint of Pet Shop Boys for me.

It will be interesting to see what happens next with regard to the fallout of the Dutch entry's disqualification and the other complaints. We'll watch this space!

I think the German guy did infinitely better than even he could have imagined last night. Germany have had some shocking scores in recent years, including nul points, 12th is perfectly respectable especially when the song and performer didn't have as much publicity or attention as pretty much anything that came top 11. Well done Isaak.

Yes. He seems like a sound lad. Also he didn't have any gimmicks apart from pyrotechnics.

Czechia and Lithuania were my top 2 as well! And Malta next. I would have hammered semi final 2 voting if I could.

Yes, Germany was much better than the odds gave it credit for and he did ok in the end especially with the jury vote.