But Remember Monday DID play the game. They've been touring around promoting it. There's a really good interview with them by Graham Norton on iPlayer where they say just how many places they've been and how their musical theatre experience has been invaluable because they were used to doing so many shows back to back and that's what it was like promoting the song.
They had taken the tact of trying to be 'out there' and stand out with an arrangement which was odd in order to a crowd of people who all were trying to stand out. It's written in a major key rather than minor - a major key song hasn't won in 20 years. (Sam Ryder was also major key). I would argue that in some respects they DID get it right because it did work relatively well with the jury and that's where we've failed a lot in recent years. We got the most number of points we've had in 12 years bar Sam Ryder. It's just that the votes were much more spread out between countries this year.
Even within our house we gave points to 23 countries this year, whereas it was a dozen last year. It's just that our weird arrangement and shit lyrics for our entry just didn't gel with the fans. I personally LIKE the jury/public system because of this. It means you are rewarded for pushing the musical boundaries - you have to be bothered popular with the public AND have musical talent to win really.
The image in this post is the number of individual jurors (not the entire panel) who ranked each country 12 points. This breakdown is actually not that far off the public vote positions, which is interesting to see. The obvious exception being you know who. It's just that the jurors votes are collectivised. This actually makes it fairer and more evenly spread in the final score - the public will tend to only vote for one country rather than the ten the jury does. If we went public vote only for the final, it'd be even more brutal and I think it would harm the contest over all. The public get to eliminate in the semis anyway so the winner will always effectively be a 'public choices' rather than dictated by the jury as a result of that (the semis are now public vote only).
Every year we have the same debate over political voting. And yet we do have different winners every year. And we know when our song is shit. I don't get this mentality of expecting other countries to vote for our song when we know it's not as good as other entries! We wouldn't give 12 points for our own song even if we could if we were judging on the song! We just don't want to admit this.
Re Israel:
It’s such a shame that this has made Eurovision uncomfortable
This sums it up in a nutshell for me and why I didn't want to go again this year, after last. It was uncomfortable
Genuinely the crowd in the venue last year were there for the song contest. I do not see it being different this year. We did it on the cheap but a lot of people spend a fortune on the premium shows and go to multiple shows. There was indifference to Israel being there for the majority last year. It was a really small minority booing, but that minority were loud and really ruined it and it was deeply uncomfortable. There were also about the same number of people who were cheering and clapping.
Most people say there just not knowing what the hell they should do. It was four minutes of sheer awkwardness and an appalling atmosphere. In the run up to the show there had been protests around Malmö and there were Palestine flags everywhere. Again the atmosphere in the city was tense as a result and the city organiser didn't have a clue how to handle it. We came across a number of situations in the two days we were there which we didn't like and lack of information in English did not help the situation.
Keep in mind we had booked flights and hotels in early November so were committed that early not really understanding how events would play out - and most people who went would have done similar (otherwise they wouldn't have a hotel room). Most there were complete neutrals on the subject - they aren't 'leftie extremists' in the stereotype that has been pushed.
So people saying that comments about Israel and not being happy about Israel being in the competition are 'anti Jewish' just don't have a clue.
It's the fact it's dominating the contest just so much and affecting the artists willing to take part in the contest. The organisation of getting people to vote for Israel who don't even want to watch the show is also gaulling. I don't mind them getting points, it's just that the points they are getting are not reflective of the performance because of this. And it's becoming frustrating and putting the entire future of the contest at risk.
Had Israel won it would have caused so many issues. The UK government advice is against all travel to Israel at present. (I have double checked that this morning). Most airlines in Europe are no longer flying to Israel ATM either. That would have raised so logistical questions straight from the start. If they had said it was too dangerous to hold it there like Ukraine (which I can't see the Israelis agreeing with anyway) you still would have the prospect of getting another country to host it on behalf of Israel. I'm not sure there are too many countries that politically could do that. Not even the UK. The Spanish broadcaster put an screen up about Palestine during their show, so I would question whether they would enter next year in these circumstances - remember Spain is one of the Big 5 so this really matters.
I don't think a lot of people realise these issues. The lost of one of the big five would be catastrophic. If you can't get the fans there from around the world then you lose a lot of the magic of the contest. And you lose a huge amount of revenue for the host city from visitors and you have issues over the lost of revenue from ticket sales.
The EBU already is facing challenges over the cost of the contest. Many of the eastern European countries who have withdrawn from the contest have done so because it's becoming so expensive to send an act - there's the entry fee and the cost of the hotels alone, never mind the cost of the staging. Romania self funded himself last year I believe and went out at the semi. He had very simple staging and it showed against others. I think there's a question mark about Czechia now because they sent an established artist who was one of the best known and had high hopes for him and he didn't get through to the semi. The talk is they won't enter next year as a result.
So comments about Graham Norton sounding 'anti Israel' or moderate indifferent neutral Eurovision diehards being 'anti Semitic' blah blah blah need to be seen through the lens of understanding the impact Israel winning would have on the contest they really really love. The context really matters.
The abuse I got personally last night on MN was appalling. I had deliberately avoided the subject all night until the results.
I really didn't like the Austrian entry. It's curious it didn't get a single 12 points from the public. That's really unusual for a winner. It's technically great though so I also can't argue with it being the winner even though I don't personally like it.
I'm sure Austria will do a good job next year. I sincerely hope we aren't revisiting the same subjects after the show AGAIN next year though.
364* days to go...
(I know it's held on different days/weekends).