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.

They were not innocently taking snaps catching people in the background by default. The Israeli delegates themselves posted videos of their contestant being photographed, with people in the background who expressed that they didn't want their photo taken, with the caption "they didn't want a picture with us, well we're going to do it anyway, oops!". They were being deliberately antagonistic and nasty, and the evidence of this was posted by them voluntarily.

Christ, that poor girl (Eden Golan). Not only was she shunned by other contestants, she was stuck with a delegation who made everything a million times worse. Her Eurovision experience must have been bloody hideous. Even winning the televote to the tune of constant booing - talk about bittersweet.

I hope she's okay.

On the one hand the EBU say multiple delegations were problematic.

Yet they have now doubled down on Joost Klein decision and not taken any other action.

This isn't going to go down well.

https://wiwibloggs.com/2024/05/13/portugals-broadcaster-accuses-ebu-of-discrimination-for-not-posting-iolandas-performance-over-palestinian-inspired-nail-art/281703/
Portugal’s broadcaster accuses EBU of discrimination for not posting iolanda’s performance over Palestinian-inspired nail art

Reactions to the grand final of Eurovision 2024 just keep coming. And the response for the Portuguese broadcaster RTP comes with an official complaint to the EBU for the delay in posting iolanda’s performance from the grand final.

And

Nicolau Santos from RTP also commented on the anti-booing system and the fake applause used by the EBU during Israel’s performance, stating:

“For an organization like the EBU, and for an organization like RTP and the European public media service whose flag is the fight against fake news, misinformation, and information manipulation, it is unacceptable that this is possible. Using this method distorts reality.”

Portugal had been talking about doing this, but have now done it officially.

That's now Spain who complained about press freedom and Portugal who have complained about disinformation.

Italy released their televoting percentages for the grand final

Israel – 26.02%
Ukraine – 21.12%
Croatia – 9.73%
Switzerland 5.50%
France – 4.21%
Georgia – 3.32%
Armenia – 3.23%
Ireland – 3.07%
Greece – 2.87%
Spain – 2.61%
Finland – 2.04%
Estonia – 1.82%
Lithuania – 1.79%
Germany – 1.50%
Austria – 1.48%
Cyprus – 1.39%
Serbia – 1.37%
Latvia – 1.25%
Luxembourg – 1.24%
Norway – 1.21%
Sweden – 1.09%
United Kingdom – 0.77%
Slovenia – 0.77%
Portugal – 0.65%

Well the UK didn't come last!

This shows all of the UK's jury and televote placements 😐

The jury vote isn't terrible. It shows we only just missed the cut for points with a lot of countries.

But the public hated the Toilet Box. Why Olly and his team thought that the public would like Frankie Goes Cottaging really is still beyond me. Was there really no one who said, 'I know you want to do gay as possible but do you really think this is a positive gay gay gay performance that other people will also like?'

Meanwhile Joost has tweeted.

I honestly think clean bathroom tiles would have made at least a bit of difference!

And he's announced a major European tour including one date in London in March next year (tickets on sale at 2pm today though it looks like it's half sold out already on presales).

Ah, bless the Ukranian people for still loving us (a little bit)!

I'm trying to imagine the creative / production meeting where someone said, 'let's make the tile walls look dirty and sordid' and the others said 'oh yes!' And that they then equated that with 'gay'. It's actually really problematic when you think about it.

This is Olly Alender's quote from before the final: "... and of course I said right at the beginning of this process, I plan to be as gay as possible – and what's gayer than a locker room?”

A locker room has, well, lots of lockers; and rows of benches, showers, sinks, piles of towels and clothes hanging up. Locker rooms never look like a dirty tiled public toilet before the weekly hose-down. That's as true of a sauna as it is of a boxing club or squash club. The image Olly and the UK team came up with was nothing like a 'gay locker room'. In my head at least, it was a semiotic mess.

There was an arrogance there, I think, that they were somehow stretching Eurovision's boundaries and that was more important than being appealing or entertaining. Not an uncommon trait in the performers this year.

Spotify Global Chart:

#22 (+3) Netherlands 🇳🇱-3,287,462
#23 (-6) Switzerland 🇨🇭 -3,236,456
#55 (-10) Croatia 🇭🇷 -2,092,142
#73 (-4) France 🇫🇷 - 1,878,361
#142 (-26) Ukraine 🇺🇦 -1,443,699
#173 (-49) Italy 🇮🇹 -1,351,811

🤣🤣

via twitter ESC discord
AVROTROS confirmed to Dutch outlet Nu that they made an official report to the EBU on 10 May (a day before Joost Klein's disqualification) about the unsafe environment during #Eurovision. They also criticized the EBU's anti-booing technique.

https://www.nu.nl/songfestival/6312858/nederland-deed-officiele-melding-van-onveilige-sfeer-tijdens-songfestival.html
The Netherlands made an official report to the organization of the Eurovision Song Contest on Friday because of the unsafe atmosphere in the Malmo Arena.

AVROTROS confirms to NU.nl that the so-called delegation bubble hung an unsafe atmosphere, especially in the so-called delegation bubble.

Several artists have complained during and after the Eurovision Song Contest about the unpleasant atmosphere that was behind the scenes. In the delegation bubble, where only artists and their team and employees were allowed to attend the Eurovision Song Contest, the atmosphere would be tense and even unsafe.

AVROTROS recognizes the picture outlined when asked and tells that they officially reported to the organization on 10 May, the day before the final. This happened before the disqualification of Joost Klein, on Saturday morning.

Further details about the report or where the unsafe atmosphere came from, the broadcaster does not want to lose.

Among others, the artists of Lithuania, Ireland and Norway have been critical of the atmosphere behind the scenes. The entry of Norway, the band Gate, told the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten that they have considered resigning until shortly before the final.

Critical noises from the room were not heard on television The Portuguese broadcaster RTP was also critical of the EBU’s choice to use a system against booing during the show. As a result, critical voices from the room were less easy to hear, for example during the performance of the Israeli Eden Golan.

AVROTROS is also not happy with that choice: "We think that you should always show what it does to the public in a performance by a musician."

Joost Klein is the first artist in the history of the Eurovision Song Contest who was excluded from participation while the festival was already in the process. The artist would have made a threatening move to a camerawoman. The Swedish police have investigated and forwarded the case to justice.

And in case you hadn't quite worked out the level of national meltdown there's been in the Netherlands, after a call went out for support for Joost churches all over the country played Europapa on their bells at noon today.

The video in this is quite something to see just how many Dutch cities and towns responded to the call for support.

https://www.nu.nl/308463/video/zo-klonk-europapa-vanuit-kerken-door-heel-nederland.html

I fear the Dutch have all gone quite mad!

Meanwhile Joost's European tour (Denmark, Sweden, Poland, Germany and UK) went on sale at 2pm local. It sold out in minutes.

Their bells are rung using keyboards? Who knew?

I think thats a particular church.
No idea if thats a thing everywhere. (Now I'm curious!!!)

Either way they've gone stark raving bonkers.

Are they seriously claiming that not being able to boo another contestant made them feel tense and unsafe? 😂

I’m sorry, but my sympathies for Joost are dwindling by every press release. First the non physical confrontation that somehow managed to break a camera and now this….

I think that is a Carillon - the bells being played by a keyboard. Very common in Belgium and the Netherlands. Some have UNESCO status. Heard Andre Rieu explain all about them in one of his concerts in England.

Oh, interesting, thank you.

No that's not what they are saying at all. You are not reading or understanding this at all.

They are saying that it's misleading to disguise the audience reception which is one complaint. Which is fair comment - Eurovision values are about liberal, open society. Not suppression of expression.

The second complaint has been the harassment. At least one person from the Israeli delegation has called Joost anti-Semitic on social media and there's been a lot of pressure for all the contestants to not say anything that might be regarded as pro-palestine.

Given the stress of feelings on the extremes of both sides this made it very difficult to navigate the media. There has been a whole storm of it.

You don't have to look very far online to see comments about how people who attended Eurovision are complicit with baby killers etc.

There was one sign in the middle of a square in Malmö saying "x number of children have been killed in Gaza. Enjoy your weekend" directed at the audience. Imagine that amplified.

None of the delegations really wanted to go to that press conference with the Israeli delegation because they felt that would mean they were fully supportive of Israel's war rather than having a more nuanced and complex view of the situation (or indeed a pro Palestine one if that's what they believe). The Norwegians have actively come out and said they felt they were being used as part of a propaganda operation.

As I said in a previous post in these threads, it was hard enough as an audience member when Israel came on. We didn't know what to do. It was incredibly awkward. Booing felt disrespectful to me but it also felt wrong to applaud too. I didn't want to take sides as such as I feel both parties have carried out unspeakable crowds. It's like getting dragged into someone else's argument. Like I said I booked flights and accommodation as soon as the dates were announced BEFORE I got tickets and before anything happened in Israel. At that point I was committed and had no idea there would be a subsequent row over it all to the scale it became.

Given there is a video of Joost where two of the Israeli delegation joke about him not wanting his photo with them and then pose in front of him against his wishes to make a point, it's fair comment. The same person then called Joost anti-Semitic for this.

However there's lots to be said about how this might make him a target for far right extremists who are anti-palestine (remember the Netherlands has recently elected a far right government).

It's not an easy situation and honestly I do think the delegates were put in a difficult position because of a lack of thought by the organisers about it all.

Amazing. I've actually learnt something there!!!

This article mentions at least 10 different churches around the country which took part.

Weesp, Nijkerk, Groningen, Vlissingen, Eindhoven, Leiden, Venlo, Meppel, Oldenzaal en Hasselt.

It’s a novel turn of events, alright.

https://www.telegraaf.nl/entertainment/1538291403/europapa-gespeeld-op-kerkklokken-in-hele-land