Eurovision Malmö 3

[RedToothBrush]

Let's get a result...

This is fascinating - Norway resonated enough with Estonia and Ukraine to pick up a couple of points, but no other countries. Luxembourg only got one 1 point (from another BeNeLux country who maybe voted for a language they understood) and one 12 points, from Israel, which could well be because the singer herself is Israeli and probably known (or made herself known) to the Israeli audience. If she wasn't Israeli it's possible Israel wouldn't have voted for her at all and she could have ended up much lower down, with one single point. Finland was expected to do well but really didn't all. Eurovision is gonna Eurovision.

I'm not surprised Olly didn't do particularly well. He just didn't do a very good vocal (sounded very out of breath, and the tune slipped at times), and I think was over-shadowed by the routine.
And was it just a bit too gay? Even for Eurovision? I think it might have been... I felt like it sat on the awkward cusp between just being a bit raunchy, to being soft porn.

I thought Switzerland was a very worthy winner. Visually very interesting/different, and the singer was clearly very talented vocally.

I also enjoyed Finland a lot, and thought they deserved to do better! Their song was just good fun, and Mr Windows 95 Man had us chuckling throughout. They got our family vote.

Glad Baby Lasagna didn't win! Not sure what the fuss was about! None of us thought much of that song!

And Ireland were bloody terrifying! We got stuck on a debate on whether she was wearing braces on her teeth, or whether it was just part of the "look". Thought it was sweet that she "crowned" Switzerland at the end though. :)

The post you've quoted here is correct, as are the multiple other posters saying the same thing. The top ten countries in each vote get points. The UK wasn't in the top ten in the televote in any country, so they didn't get any points.

At least you got some in the jury vote, in previous years countries have stayed on 0.

So not the song, not the singer? It isn't political though is it, it's a song contest.

@DeeCee7 Sam Ryder was a much better than average one for us - I think the UK need to stop thinking about 'does this tick every box for inclusivity' and literally go for the best song available with someone (singer or band) who can deliver a polished professional performance without loads of gimmicks.

Steps would win it.

"Last thing on my mind". That would've seen them walk away with the trophy.

No serious act (even Steps) is going to waste their song on Eurovision though. ABBA was a different time, before the competition became naff and the great T. Wogan buried it.

Most songs that win Eurovision barely get in the UK top 40.

Duncan Laurence (who?), #29 with his 2019 winning song.
2021 winner, #17
2022 winner, #38

That Toy song that won in 2018, #49.

I know the argument is the UK should send in a credible act with a good song, but where are these good songs from other nations in it?

Loreen (one of the better acts) has won this thing twice with songs that wouldn't make it into a Jessie J album.

Explained pretty clearly on the Eurovision website too:

https://eurovision.tv/about/voting-malmo-2024

I thought it was a great set of songs last night: I love the variety of styles and especially the mad, quirky ones. I really liked the more focused approach too - going straight from song to song with a very quick recap of previous entries from that country and just a very short intro to the act. Last year, the commentary bulked it out way too much.

Steps would not win it. I love Steps and they are very competent performers, their tours sell well as a result. They've also released music that is simultaneously fresh and nostalgic that their fans enjoy (I am one of them I never miss a Steps tour and can sing any obscure album track). But Steps appeal to people who enjoyed them in the 90s, not a 2024 pan-European audience. Last Thing On My Mind is right up my street, but is a cheesy Pete Waterman song. It's not good enough for Eurovision.

Euphoria was an amazing song and has longevity (it even hit the top 3 in the UK which is unusual for a Eurovision song), Jessie J could never. It always does the rounds every Eurovision in a way Ell and Nikki or Emmelie de Forrest do not. I absolutely did not get the appeal of Tattoo last year though! But I have different tastes. I found Loreen's performance last night to be a snoozefest. Johnny Logan's performance of Euphoria was more engaging for me.

The UK charts are not the be all and end all. Maneskin have become huge worldwide, made it onto a Baz Lurhman soundtrack, are touring the world with the likes of Angelina Jolie turning up and singing their lyrics.

There are plenty of good songs from other nations, the UK does not have some sort of superior taste, just because things don't catch on here it doesn't mean they lack artistic merit and it doesn't mean they aren't successful.

Croatia was my favourite from the start, it does irk me some what that the act which wins the public vote doesn’t always win the show. DH was backing Germany going into the show but switched to Switzerland after his performance as he thought it was great.

Felt like there was a lot of sounds issues on the night as some of the performances didn’t sound as good as they were during heats.

What I really like was the friendships you could see between the acts, the running over and hugging each other and dancing to each others songs.

There is always political voting elements which is a shame but I can’t really every see that changing, I just try to enjoying to for a fuzzy show.

The staging didn’t work IMO. It didn’t make use of the large stage (as other more successful acts did) and lacked impact. On TV, it looked small and claustrophobic (even before you get into how grotty it all looked), and for the audience in the venue it just looked odd and didn’t work.
I couldn’t get over how much Graham and Rylan were pushing it as “probably the best staging the UK has ever done”, or words to that effect. It just wasn’t, not by a long chalk.

My household were split between Croatia and Switzerland as our favourite, with Ukraine and France as runner ups. Happy with the final outcome.

I never said they'd win, but Steps would put on a good show and do well.

A different poster said Steps would win it. I also don't think they'd do well because they probably wouldn't send an appropriate song or put in the promo.

Totally agree, that enormous stage with so much potential and they squashed everything into the back of a removal van. Ant and Dec did something similar with Paloma Faith a few years ago and the execution was much better, which is saying something!

Sam's staging was much better - simple, visually appealing and let the song and vocals do the talking. Switzerland's staging last night was more impressive and, crucially, he was vocally strong enough to cope with the athleticism required to navigate it. Olly, bless him, is not.

My point was, I have read up, prompted by that post, and still don't understand it (and I don't really care). But Olly did get jury votes.

Note: I didn't get any jury votes!

Explained pretty clearly on the Eurovision website too:

Yep, read it. Makes no sense to me. Thanks.

France, say, votes. The countries are ranked with the country receiving the most votes ranked at the top, all the way down to number 25.

The top country gets 12 points, second gets 10, third gets 8 and then 7, ... , 1. Countries 11 through 25 get nothing.

UK getting no points in the public vote means they ranked between 11 and 25 in every country.

I've tried to find an explanation/calculation that I can understand too, and I can't. I still don't see how Some countries can get hundreds of votes and others are in single figures.

Because no country voted in large enough numbers for the UK to end up in the top 10 of that vote. Just like if Labour got 10000 votes in every constituency, and the Tories got 10001 votes, there would be zero Labour MPs.

They didn't get hundreds of votes, they got hundreds of points. Every country will have had thousands of votes. But only the top ten acts in each country's vote gets points.

Erm, I didn't say it wasn't fair.

Olly’s performance seemed to be for tv only. It was hard to see how it would have translated on stage (to be fair that applies to a few performances which relied heavily on digital images/water on the floor etc. ) plus he announced when he was selected for Eurovision that he was going to make it the gayest entry ever, suggesting he was focusing on the imagery rather than the song, and I don’t think it did him any favours.

Yes. It’s a SONG contest, not a personality box-ticking contest. Olly Alexander is a very talented but that was a little try-to-hard performance last night.

Although I’m obviously out of touch with the current music and/or Eurovision scene because didn’t rate a lot things last night. Preferred Thursday’s semi- final, and the Swiss song wasn’t my favourite.

Will Switzerland roll-out Celine Dion for the contest next year?

One of my sons lives in Switzerland, and he said it was probably political. Switzerland is a neutral country, and this year more than most, the vote was going to go along political lines and be linked to the 'war' in Gaza (genocide more like)- so voting for a politically neutral country made every sense.

Time for this competition to end for good. Or at least to be limited to European countries, and for bans (as for Russia) to be across the board and fair.

I didn't watch btw.

I don't think the UK often goes for inclusivity to be fair - Mae Muller was an ostensibly straight white nepo baby, who did rubbish because her performance was pretty bad. Sam was a straight white man but did amazingly well because he was fantastic. How many of the UK entries have been anything to do with inclusivity until Olly?

The UK just usually picks boring or forgettable songs by mediocre live performers, whatever the selection process! 2022 was a fluke, it seems.