Eurovision 2026 Final Thread 3

[RedToothBrush]

Go.

Would that not put Ukraine out though?

I’ve seen the same types of adverts and the reports of huge advertising budgets are in reputable papers, not hot beds of anti semitism.

Since Eurovision opened the vote to the whole world Israel has topped every single public vote whether the entry was good, bad or simply middling (as with this year). Each year there has been heavy advertising of the entry in SM feeds. Advertisers don’t spend that money for the LOLs, its very effective. Its also not against the letter of the rules, even if its against the spirit.

This is a world away from the normal promotion rounds done by a performer for their song - its extensive targeted advertising in feeds. It distorts the competition

It wasn’t just a weak song - if our entrant doesn’t do the promotional rounds it won’t be recognised and followed as much.

I agree with @thecatsthecats - its natural for blocks of common culture and history to enjoy each others' music. Plus of course we have not been sending great songs - Sam Tyler demonstrated that when we send a good entry and the performer does “the rounds” it will build popularity and do well.

Then some entrants are better supported by their sponsoring organisations. I don’t know if the Beeb is as effective at this as some of the competitors. I missed a lot of the build up this year but I understood our entrant was a late sub? I certainly heard little about him until the week of the contest.

That's a fair point and I can't remember anything about the other contenders. I do remember the presenters, Terry certainly, giving off an air of surprise if not dismay at the public choice. And this was years before Boaty McBoatface.

I've googled it

Scooch beat out five other musical acts: 1]
Cyndi – "I'll Leave My Heart" (The runner-up in the final sing-off)
Justin Hawkins & Beverlei Brown – "They Don't Make 'Em Like They Used To" (The bookies' favourites, featuring the former Darkness frontman)
Big Brovaz – "Big Bro Thang" (R&B group)
Liz McClarnon – "(Don't It Make You) Happy" (Former Atomic Kitten singer)
Brian Harvey – "I Can" (Former East 17 star) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

No, not fun. Not melodic, not rhythmic. Not deep, not fun. Emotionless, humourless. Not clever but not even especially stupid. Sung badly by a ordinary-looking ginger man blessed with little charisma or presence.

One of our worst entries ever.

Katie Price tried and failed.

Plenty of MNers reported seeing the ads. I’m one of them. Its also not against the rules to run big advertising budgets in this way but its certainly against the spirit of the competition.

Its notable that this has grown massively since the public vote was opened up to the rest of the world rather than kept to competing countries. I think we should revert to voting from competing countries only - it seems mad that people with no interest in the competition, who don’t even watch the competition are being targeted with emotive ads to vote for a particular entry based on non contest interests.

Completely agree that voting should be kept to competing countries.

I thought Norway were great. Romania were a disgrace. In fact years ago the artists were very aware they were representing their nation. That seems to have been lost. Or at least I hope it has because judging by some of the entries I am lost as to what positive representation of their nation some of the artists were hoping to achieve.

Forgot to ask last night
What were they going on about with Eurovision going to Asia?
What's happening? A separate competition?

@RedToothBrush references our man's poor vocals. For some reason, this has oft been a problem with our entrants, to the point where I wondered if we weren't being sabotaged.
But I am also surprised because I would have assumed anyway that much of it was dubbed, so many of the vocals were absolutely pitch perfect, despite all the running and dancing etc
So is it the thing that - as I think McCartney sometimes or often does to camouflage his weakened voice now - that they sing along to a backing track. Especially if it is a shouty, dancey number.
Only, perhaps for the UK entrant, the backing track is faded so the ropey vocals are at the forefront and have no backup?

I didn't watch in full but did skip through the songs. Bulgaria did stand out, it was high energy and the dancing was great, I can see why they received a lot of votes. Perplexed how Israel came 2nd.

I do think ( albeit wishful thinking ) that Europe should be able to put on a show without so much strobe lighting and flickering lights.
They won’t I realise. But it would bring them into the 21st century if they did.

Since Eurovision opened the vote to the whole world Israel has topped every single public vote

Bulgaria won that vote this year.

Sam has a five week old baby at home. I imagine he didn't want to miss the birth/late pregnancy doing a promotional tour!

In order to justify giving our song any points, you need a minimum of 15 songs worse than it. There weren't. And that doesn't include multiple votes - I gave 10 votes across 7 artists.

My list of worse songs/artists goes:

Germany - rhyming Fire with Liar is bleh
Romania - fuck off with your bs romanticising death porn
Cyprus - "Cyprus by numbers" with bad singing
Serbia - not a memorable example of the genre
Sweden - pretty bleh song and performance
Albania - standard Albanian wailing

Then there's a couple I simply didn't like:

Australia - just not my thing
Italy - massively not my thing
Czechia - a technically competent but poor man's Gjon

So I've managed to come up with 9 worse songs, from a biased POV in favour of LMNC, and I'm not delusional that most would prefer Australia, Czechia etc

That still leaves another 6 songs better than ours.

Too many women with barely any clothes on. Very sexualised dancing. Too much demonic themed and dark ‘songs’. Too much strobe and flickering lighting.
Very boring presenters. I watch it whenever it is on though. I live in hope that standards improve.

Yes. And probably Australia.

But also what if we end up in a position like we could have done this year where someone wins who can’t host it, and then no other country volunteers?

Apologies I should have made it clearer “up until this year” as I’d not seen the breakdown for this year. Rules have been tightened up a bit this year on advertising, maybe that has had an effect. However colleagues abroad who have no particular interest in the contest have still been targeted for adverts.

Haven't Bulgaria already said they can't afford to host it next year?

I think Eurovision got overambitious and lost its focus. The atmosphere seemed better among the contestants this year - I imagine they were treated with more respect re press access and privacy - and I think the next step should be to lose the rest of the world vote. I suppose it makes them a lot of money.

Have they? I don’t know.

I haven’t looked at stats but have we had many situations before apart from Ukraine where the winner hasn’t hosted? I don’t know what terms the contest has for this situation either. It was just a thought. I do remember there was one year where Greece nearly won it knowing they couldn’t afford to host it either.

I really like ‘Eins, zwei, drei’ and I’m sad it didn’t do better. It’s a bit of a ‘fuck you’ to Reform - I want to get away from the UK (Moldova seems welcoming), I want Euros not pounds, etc. unfortunately I don’t think he performed it very well and the lyrics/message didn’t get through. Not that they were perfectly understandable for L2 speakers of English in the first place - colloquialisms like ‘the whole 9-5’, roly poly with custard, and how many Brits know what a pony is? I had to google that one!

I have heard that Australia do a deal with another European country to host it if they win. I assume that deal is providing a venue while Australia fund it all. Graham Norton was told about it from the Australian broadcaster. They keep tight lipped on what country.

I hadn't realised the public vote was open to the world to vote, explains a lot. I wonder what percentage of the votes are from people that have not viewed or listened to one song. Looks like Eurovision has sold out for money. I think with the launch of an Asian version it will just water it down more and is on a slow train ride to obscurity.

No, I'm wrong. I read it on Twitter last night but I can see now that the broadcaster has said it will be in Sofia next year. Really happy for that - think they will be a great host.