Eurovision 2025 - After Thoughts

[RedToothBrush]

Austria's JJ won with Wasted Love

I'm glad I'm not going mad... After hearing the Austrian guy sing out of tune and then he won, then this comment saying UK were out of tune when I thought their vocals were amazing, I thought there was something wrong with MY ears 🤣

@RedToothBrush

Agree entirely with your post upthread and this part especially resonated:

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.

I’ve never been to the contest in person but have quite a few friends from various parts of Europe who do go regularly and last year additionally had friends from Malmo in the audience.

Just like you, all had booked up long before Christmas, in a couple of cases before October 7th. They are all Eurovision fans, mixed faiths and none including Jewish. They were there for the music and the big events. Like you they found that the relatively small protest cast a disproportionate damper on the event.

The Israel entry this year was decent enough but nothing stand out. It certainly wasn’t a “winner” in Eurovision terms. I suspect the same performance representing eg Portugal would have scored a lot lower.

When a music competition entrant has become so contentious that you can’t even have a fun discussion thread without trolls making personal attacks and trying to hijack discussions then its time for that entrant to take a break from the competition. (this wasn’t the only forum being trolled in that way last night).

Nah, it's just a lot of people can't differentiate between not liking a song and bad singing.

@PlanetVulcan correct - but I think we all know he fitted the profile of what tends to win these days - a totally unmemorable song and surely that’s what it’s meant to be about

Switzerland were robbed IMHO. My personal favourite was Italy; also a lot of love for Estonia in my house. I thought the winner was dreadful - the song was boring and the singer - well, sub-opera only really works when delivered to people who don't listen to opera. Which probably explains why it won.

I vote we ignore the derailers.

Who do we think had the best staging?

Just the usual "tired and emotionals” who have missed the turning to their bridges.

I have mixed feelings on Eurovision staging. Some of it has become bigger than the song (I’d include Austria in that) and I’d like to see the balance tipped more towards staging to support the song rather than being the dominant theme. Its Eurovision not Cirque du Soleil

I thought Luxembourg had good staging, struck the right balance - although it was not rewarded in jury or public vote.

Also liked Latvia’s staging (also really liked the song - glad this did fairly well).

My thoughts on last night, was that it wasn’t really a memorable year. There wasn’t really a standout winner. Austria passed me by during the show, but I actually quite liked it when he re-sang it. However, it was no better or worse than others.

I much preferred the less showy songs last night - Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland, France, rather than the blond-in-leotard brigade. I also noticed there was only one band during the whole evening. In some acts, the stage effects dwarfed the performance.

Regarding Remember Monday, I actually thought they did a decent job and performed well. Their song came across well as well. Glad they scored a reasonable amount of points, and got a coveted twelve.

Armenia was interesting - the whole army of songwriters and staging to almost write a Eurovision winner by numbers and yet, I can't remember it at all and it failed to make any impact. Shows how hard it can be to win even if you think your working to a foolproof winning formula.

Personal favourite for me was Italy (and I've just retuned my radio as Bowie song is playing), liked Luxembourg more each time I heard it in the recaps, loved the voice of the Swiss singer, enjoyed Spain - but I loved theirs last year as well. That was even stronger than this one.

I guess France, as that’s the only one I can remember at the moment. There was an awful lot of fire around. As I just said a couple of posts back, , I think they went a little over the top with some of the stage lighting, and as someone said in the Eurovision thread, they borrowed from Strictly!

See. I know I'm being irritating, but the Austria staging was right on theme with the lyrics!

This is the first time on the Eurovision threads that I feel out of sync with most of the posters. Austria was bloody good!

One other thing is English is lingua Franca so I feel our song lyrics should have more depth. When other singers sing in another language I don't always understand it. Only the gist. So I concentrate on the beat more. But most people listening will understand English. From that standpoint our song theme was a bit shallow imo. What were they singing about that was meaningful? If it's not meaningful, it should at least be fun. Like Sweden's, but it didn't quite tick that box either.

Which one was Dragon lady again? I did think that was great for the kids watching.

Was that Poland?

They were shouty and what they need is to go back to their voice coach. They did get nil points from the public maybe the whole of Europe needs to get their hearing tested. I was thinking what the hell just happened to the song and their voices. Not to worry there's always next year.

Give it a rest. The people whose behaviour last night was disgusting were those throwing around abuse and bringing their political agenda on to a thread about a song contest. If you have anything to contribute about the actual entries do tell us. Otherwise go away.

Anything to contribute on the actual contest?

Austrian guy can sing, reminded me a little of Adam Lambert for range.I felt a bit sorry for remember MONDAY in those high heels on that narrow slope!

I liked Malta better than many - total fail on the family friendly front but very clubby hit.

OK. Please yourself. Several people, including posters involved in music disagree with you.

@Gundogday - surely there were 3 bands? Ukraine, Lithuania and Poland.

Gah. Portugal (not Poland)

JJ from Austria has a good voice and his vocal range was impressive. I liked the song very much (top 5 for me) and I actually think it’s great that there was such a variety of different styles this year. I think the staging was impressive, as was the music video. He seemed a very genuine person and a good ambassador for Eurovision. It will be interesting to see him perform next year and what direction he will take. I hope he does well.

Really interesting to see the scores broken down as above, thanks. What strikes me is that the public really don't vote for the Big Five or host country - none of them got more than 100 in the televote, and most a lot less - look at Italy and France, neither of them scored highly, despite being in the top of the jury votes. So that's something that counts against the UK too.