Eurovision 2025 - After Thoughts

[RedToothBrush]

Austria's JJ won with Wasted Love

Both pro Israel and pro Palestine supporters did a thread invasion and were determined to try and involve everyone in their domestic dispute.

Most people are neutral and just wanted to enjoy the song contest but weren't allowed. It got really nasty and was completely unwarranted.

To be completely fair (and I have no wish to create a new pile on but probably safe at this time of day...) it really was the former and not the latter.

There seemed to be a giant Venn Diagram with Covid 'opinions' too, blatant rapid name changing, and a dose of misogyny. Funny that.

@RedToothBrush was also personally attacked on the last thread. I was to a much lesser extent on this thread - evidently someone reported it because the post was deleted while I was replying to it.

It was, I believe , the same poster as the previous thread with a name change. Let us hope they are now banned.

Yes I agree. And very hostile to MNHQ moderation too.

I'm still surprised Switzerland didn't receive any public votes. I thought that was a lovely song. I think the UK sang there's slightly better in the semi.

I was also surprised!

@Mapletreelane @mathanxiety

I’m wondering if I saw the same ads as math - very well produced ads promoting the singer and her experiences as a victim of the Oct attack. They were quite subtly done on the whole and definitely elicit a sympathetic response - soft sell can be more effective than hard sell. They were also targeting different age groups.

Spain is right - we need a proper review of televoting and how to ensure the voters are from the country of the vote but also how some of the promotion tactics are working when they target people with no interest in the competitions. Eurovision is supposed to be apolitical and targeting such groups seems to be a breach of that policy.

There are diaspora communities all over Europe, its natural enough if they have some kinship with countries of origin and enjoy the music and language. Israel has been one of a number of countries to benefit in that way over the years.
Its also natural for Eurovoters to feel an upswell of sympathy at a major event or situation such as the invasion of Ukraine. If Eurovision had been held a month after the October attack I wouldn’t have been slightly surprised to see a similar public vote for Israel (the people, not the government).

However we are way past that point and I also saw the ads as propaganda and an attempt to subvert the voting.

And on a Saturday night when the volunteer nightwatch have to manage it...

I received the “mass mail” from the mods the next morning which made me wonder if there was any extra mod support for nightwatch during such a major event where as you say, forums elsewhere were having to shut down due to hostile attacks.

I also only saw one side on our Euro thread trolling rather than both but may have missed a post.

@C8H10N4O2

I’m wondering if I saw the same ads as math - very well produced ads promoting the singer and her experiences as a victim of the Oct attack. They were quite subtly done on the whole and definitely elicit a sympathetic response - soft sell can be more effective than hard sell. They were also targeting different age groups.

Is this not an example of (persuasive) promotion rather than propaganda?

It's a fine line. I am not certain if it is against the rules to promote a Eurovision act generally. Is it?

I woke up this morning singing the Swiss song in my head. I couldn't do that with many of the other entries. I really felt for her when they announced her televote, she looked so shocked.

My earworms after watching all the performances yesterday were definitely Luxembourg and Estonia. And Israel, to an extent, which I wasn’t expecting. I liked the Danish song, it’s one of the ones I’d play in the car.

Which countries voted for Yuval is known.

I didn’t see ads anywhere but saw some anti a young woman threads on here which motivated a vote.

I’ve had a bit of a delayed reaction to the earworms this year - didn’t think I would be adding anything to my playlist - but they’ve hit me today.

Finding myself singing my to do list to the chorus of Espresso Macchiato (clean the toilet is up next, for what it’s worth).

DD and I were at the rehearsal shows for both semis on Tuesday and Thursday.
There were people blowing whistles all through Israel's performance and saw some people being bundled out by security. But on the whole, we didn't see any trouble elsewhere. I felt Switzerland put on a decent show. We watched the live semis at the Euro village, which was pretty well set up. Basel being so small was handy for getting around. Most hotels etc provided free travel tickets for the length of stay, so you could just hop on/off the many trams.

I loved Iceland and also San Marino, which I think were the bottom 2 😂
I hated Italy, so boring and for me he lacked any charisma. Also found Switzerland boring, especially as an audience member, as you saw nothing because of the camera technique used. France was the best song in the ballad category for me. The Ukraine song was dire imo. I didn't like Malta just for the over sexualisation, like wise Finland, so glad they didn't do as well as predicted. For the rest, I found something to like about them, whether it was the song or the staging or both. Latvia isn't a song I'd necessarily listen to again but it was quite mesmerising, almost other worldly. Sweden was fun. Also liked Luxembourg.

Watching it on TV on Saturday, a lot of acts were shocked by the low amount of public votes they got. The UK I think got the right amount of votes related to their song/performance. I was really surprised Germany got so many jury points. It was an ok enough song but really did not expect it to be the the juries taste. I was not surprised Austria won. It was always going to go down well with the jury, and during our stay in Basel, we got talking to loads of people who either loved it and/or thought it would get a lot of votes.

Clearly late to this party, but politics aside, Israel’s song is dreadful. Austria’s is trash. The real winner should’ve been Estonia. I’m done with Eurovision’s BS. Countries take it too seriously, and send crappy artists as a result. I only recognise Estonia as the true winner of Eurovision 🇪🇪

I loved Germany's entry and gave them a vote. I thought it would do better with the public and was surprised it didn't.

I didn't like Nemo's winning song last year, but I can see how it had gravitas and musical merit. The new song he did this year was terrible - and why die he feel the need to come as Mrs Slocombe?!

Do we reckon that Sam Ryder could be persuaded to enter again? I would love that. Obviously it would have to be a new song, but I reckon his song 'More' would also have done brilliantly at Eurovision.

Incidentally, was this the first year when the presenters didn't bother announcing the scores in French as well - apart from those who actually submitted them in French, of course? They did it in German a few times, mind - and a couple of countries with French as one of their national languages (and not English) submitted in English as well!

I suppose, now there are so many different native languages involved - and the need for them to pick one to present it in, with English being the only obvious choice, having another language randomly used in a few certain parts probably just seems pointless now (no offence intended to French speakers in any way).

Milkshake Man is my ear worm! Unfortunately.

Germany is a welcome ear worm too

Latvia's has really grown on me. I wasn't sure what to make of it on Saturday but found myself humming it yesterday and still thinking about the staging and harmonies. As a piece of art I think it was great although I'm not sure I'd add the song to my playlist.

I don't know what could be done about the public voting but I do think it needs re-examining. I didn't like the fact that you could vote from before the first performance and think it was better when you could only vote when all songs had been performed. Maybe some sort of code shown on screen you have to enter to prove you are actually watching the show rather than have just responded to targeted ads trying to amass votes?

Just putting this photo of Marty and Graham here for the Irish fans they take one every year

Nice 👌

The bragging from Israel supporters online since Saturday night has proved why they should have been banned from competing.

It was obvious Israel and their supporters were organising months in advance to engineer the vote to give Israel an artificially high score, and then use it to say "see, most people support what we're doing in Gaza".

The very definition of "arts-washing".

Minds gone blank, which song had ‘La la ‘ in the chorus which everyone was singing along to? (Or did I dream that).

Netherlands?