Eurovision 2026 Final Thread 3

[RedToothBrush]

Go.

Every year I listen to all the songs without knowing their countries or staging. My picks turned out to be Bulgaria, Denmark, Croatia, Finland and Sweden, so I'm pleased with the winner. Very catchy and fun choreography - don't understand the discussion here about her body. JJ at the end was gross to her.

Disappointed for Sweden and Croatia.

Israel's song was very boring, and so is political voting and boycotting.

Agreed, I thought she was a bonny young woman. Good for her.

But a fuzzy cat with orange boots and an even worse song did ok?

It’s not the song. Or the performance.

We are not detested. We simply have fewer neighbours who love us. See also Germany and Belgium tonight. France never really does well with the public. Probably, bigger powers don't foster the same affection towards them. But people vote for a song/country. They're not voting against the UK.

I think that’s part of the UK’s problem. No one is very good at picking artists. The Uk public voted on a show. That was a flop. Andrew Lloyd Webber tried didn’t work. Englebert Humperdinck was chosen and everyone was like is he still alive? Then it was a few pop stars and bands no one had heard of. Then Sam Ryder and a pop girl band which again no one had heard of and did alright. Need like a Simon Cowell type for Eurovision

But that doesn't say Israel paid for votes, just that they were warned to be careful about their marketing

It also explicitly says "The EBU said it had found no evidence of irregularities" about last years vote

I don't think the Israeli votes are necessarily indicative of any sort of fraud. It's a divisive subject with strong feelings on either side, and anyone pro can max out all their votes on Israel, whereas anyone anti has twenty four other countries so the anti votes will be massively split across those.

Our staging is never stand out. It's like there's no budget or something.

How did Sam Ryder do so well then?

Yes, that’s a fair point actually.

I agree it’s not a vote actively against us. Just no one likes us.

And lots of votes go to countries they like - even though that’s not why Bulgaria won. It certainly applies to lots of the countries in the middle though.

Really?? Our song was absolutely terrible in every way! IMHO the worst UK entry I have ever seen. Clearly we all have different views but there is certainly a significant proportion of people who share mine and for once I don’t think our lowly position has much to do with politics.

Exactly this, but people who hate Israel's existence will always default to a conspiracy theory instead of logical thinking. Logical thinking really isn't their strong point.

You wanted a link, I gave a link. However, no evidence and yet they still changed the voting rules.

From what I understand he did the European circuit and really courted European audiences before the competition.

I was talking about this with DP tonight.

various newspapers found the Israeli government spent a lot of money on an advertising campaign & they were given a formal warning last year.

Sam Ryder - he had a brilliant song & the UK was seen favourably as being a country who were supporting Ukraine.

It wasn't me, but I'm pretty sure the person asking for a link wanted proof of the completely unsubstantiated claim that was being made. Not proof that the unsubstantiated claim was, in fact, a lie. An often repeated lie, but a lie nonetheless.

Sam Ryders song was just really good. He sang really well.

Possibly the shouty/colloquial British accent did not come across well. People did remark on the thread that they struggled to understand what he was saying even though they are native English speakers

The New York Times article is behind a paywall. No other governments pay advertising agencies for Eurovision votes.

I have heard of the national front, but my point is I grew up in time period where these divisions didn’t exist for me. There is a very strong hatred for so many people now and i honestly don’t get why?

I think it’s a really Marmite song. I thought that before tonight.

But I thought it was one of the best we’ve put out in recent years - and the arena loved it. If it was such a shitty song it wouldn’t have got that response from the audience.

I know I keep going on about it but really, Tony the Tiger was better than us?! Absolutely not - by any metric.

I think a fair score would probably have been middling - it’s a song that some would have loved and others not. I thought it was similar to the song by Moldova and arguably Norway.

So no proof to back up your claim, just a continuous repetition of it in the hopes that people will read it multiple times and therefore assume it's correct? But Israel are the ones accused of propaganda?

Russia were, quite rightly, expelled from Eurovision.

Agree.

I think Tony the Tiger did have more visual impact than us and was more catchy. Tiger on a scooter stays in the mind better than fuzzy squares and computers.

Listen to the lyrics and ask yourself if the references would resonate with people anywhere beyond the shores of Blighty.