Eurovision 2025 - After Thoughts

[RedToothBrush]

Austria's JJ won with Wasted Love

Thanks @RedToothBrush. I’m going to bed now, but I’ll come back with some thoughts after I’ve slept.

Best bit was the Baby Lasagne mash up in the interval!

That was just brilliant!

Thanks @RedToothBrush .

There's talk among my friends of a fancy dress viewing party next year. Costume suggestions gratefully received (this year's Finland already taken, as is Verka Serduchka).

Jumble of my thoughts:

It was a very weak year. Lots of okay songs, a few terrible, a few (very few) memorable and standout.

Lighter sounded so much like last year's Liar (Cyprus) and even had the same dance break.

I'm glad the public isn't falling for the over sexualised attention-seeking staging, no matter how much we were told Malta and Finland were "fan favourites."

Switzerland tried to copy Viola but the singer didnt have the same command of the camera (beautiful voice though).

Way too many shiny/glittery leotards.

Where was the metal or heavy rock this year???

Overall I feel flat and disappointed and hope things change for next year. I want it to be about the songs and the performances only.

One of the Sauna singers. ;)

That'd cause a scene for sure 🤣

I'm still very taken by Iceland's shiny dungarees.

Semi 1 and Semi 2 televote results.

These are crazy. Absolutely nothing like you'd expect.

How do they compare to the public vote only in the final?

That's not a whole lot different with where I am with this year. I'd say we've been really spoilt with the depth of entries in the last ten years. This has been the first in a while that's been below par.

There was less voting going on in our house than in previous years. There was a certain amount of indifference and not really knowing who we wanted to win.

Interestingly Estonia were our pick which actually surprised us, but it had us all laughing in various points. Sweden didn't have quite the same effect.

This is who got 12pts

And the televote/ jury vote breakdown.

There are some crazy differences between the semis and the final.

Would Baby Lasagna’s blue pleather frills from this year’s interval act be cheating?

I’m so surprised with the semi results.

I think it was mentioned in the last thread that the U.K. act needs to campaign across Europe - the RM girls absolutely did. They were on morning TV in several countries and performed Husavik from the Eurovision film in Iceland, it was great. I’m not sure they could have done more really.

Latvia came second in semi 2 but then completely bombed for the final.

It's mad!

Wow - the semi results aren’t at all what I expected! Czechia (29) only 1 point ahead of Ireland, Serbia and Georgia (all on 28).

Anyway I'm off to bed now. Sleep well. Will be interesting to hear some reflections tomorrow.

Didn’t Nemo have a similar semi final position last year?

Similar position to JJ/Austria that is.

I voted for Latvia in semi-final 2 but split my vote with Albania in the final (I couldn’t vote for Albania in Semi-final 1) so I am not surprised there is a difference.

The voting patterns for the semi and final last year were pretty predictable in terms of what was popular with the fans.

See photos. It's what you'd largely expect.

I think no one was voting at all this year.

It's even more mad seeing the results from last year compared to this.

I think we need to nag people to vote next year. Genuinely.

I think it's worth going to Youtube and checking out the original Austrian performance - not the one after winning, the one before during the competition - and looking again. It was a strong winner a beautiful song with stand out vocals and relatable heart break lyrics. The staging and the lyrics worked well together (staging was dramatic) and told the same message and just as I said, the comments are saying the vocals really hit them.

I think it got a bit lost to us because of where it appeared in the line up, which was quite early amidst several attention drawing, quirky performances, but live, it went down well, there were also quite a few unimpressive vocals tonight. I remember Finland as vocal competition and she was riding a microphone!

Unfortunately I am now wired tired. I'm off. Thanks all contributers for good fun and a laugh...yesterday😩

My thoughts,

Generally a disappointing collection of music this year. Not many songs were memorable.

Since they introduced the public vote I’m so aware of how different the judge/jury and public votes are. Each year now I wonder whether we should ditch the judges vote and just go with the popular choice from public voting. (Give the people what they vote for!)

I thought the UK entry was dismal, I’m not surprised we got nothing from the public vote.

The contest used to be a celebration of international music and of nations coming together. Over the years it’s turned into gay pride, overly sexual, overly camp. This year was actually a little less focused on that compared to recent years, which was nice. To be clear, I have nothing against gay pride, I just miss what the contest used to be.

Every year, including this one, I’m always amazed at the lack of decent presenters. Their inability to host the show, keep continuity, link things up. Some of the presenting this year was just dreadful.

I loved the little intros where we saw each country in a different place around Switzerland. Tempted to book a holiday there now!

I think the better songs definitely made it to the final.

I'll be adding quite a few to a playlist. Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Latvia, maybe more.

I saw a couple of ESC commentators who said that after the kerfuffle last year, they were struggling to find artists to attend, and that it was going to be a bit of a boring year.

As I said in the other thread the winner only got 436 points in total where as Cha Cha Cha was awarded 467 points by the audience alone, and that in combination with their juries votes they came 2nd with over 500 points.

Israel recieved only 297 points in the audience and they by far the most popular with the audience.

I want to add I'm glad the Malta woman wasn't in the running.

Sad for Iceland though.