Eurovision Song Contest 2023

squonk

I think we were good at power ballads. Back in tge 80s and 90s when they were in vogue we sent them and they did well. It helped we were singing in English as well. Dana’s was a sweet hippy kind of song that fit with the times. Rock ‘n Roll kids is just a very good timeless song no matter where it shows up. It didn’t hurt that it was performed well. The Voice is probably the weirdest we’ve gone bar Jedward. I always felt The Voice was us trying hard not to win but winning anyway. Again though, competent artist with a great voice in her genre.

Times moved on though. We sent Niamh back again in or around 2010 I think with what I thought was a lovely song which she sang well also but didn’t place very well. So by now we realised things had gone 180 in the Eurovision world and we panicked, sending Dustin and Jedward in subsequent years. Jedward placed better than Niamh’s second time around. I think they came 6th which is a good placing but the song was dog poo and they weee clearly a novelty act. The fact Niamh placed 23rd in her final just shows where things have gone.

I think the takeaway from all this is we can’t just send good vocalists with a decent song anymore. They’ll Aldi have to either change costume mid song or do some poll danckng towards the end. I wonder how much of the 300K Rte Eurovision spend actually goes into staging and production? It’s looking like bad value right now.

Ordinarily I’d say don’t throw good money after bad and we should just send something low key and be happy with a semi place. We used to be Eurovision royalty and maybe just about still are but we’re hanging by a thread. It’s a great outlet for national pride. I know we have lots KN the sports arena doing that for hs but for the sake of culture we need it too. It’s different now of course but back in the 80s and 90s when we aren’t good at much else you could always say at least we were good at music and, by extension, Eurovision. As the years go on I’ve gotten to enjoy the show more every year and I don’t want us to Beckie a footnote in it all.

Welsh Megaman

Really enjoyed last night’s show. :)

Not that I was sad enough to rewatch the final this afternoon without posting on boards. (cough)

My only gripe was with Mel Giedroyc doing the commentary whilst Graham was onstage - not remotely funny and talking far too much over everything.

10000maniacs

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120595813#Comment_120595813

Yes there was a lot of shenanigans going on.

Putting up that scoreboard of most wins was bizarre.

Also, did you notice that Norton was pushing the Swedish entry all through the BBC show. Saying that it was great, brilliant, the favourite. He must have mentioned 2024 was the 50th anniversary of Abba winning about three or four times.

Then the Bjorn clip.

It's like there was a memorandum given to all the broadcasters to bring it to Sweden for 2024.

Finland will feel hard done by and so they should.

kneemos

https://ca.movies.yahoo.com/loreen-johnny-logan-duet-nice-010440975.html

A Johnny Logan and Loreen duet?

You know it's going to happen.

Welsh Megaman

On top of that, Liverpool really did step up to the mark this year.

Scott Mills was interviewed by BBC News yesterday - he said in every town/city he has been in that has hosted Eurovision in the last few years, you wouldn’t even know the contest was taking place if you stepped outside the venue.

Whereas in Liverpool (as I witnessed myself), there really has been a carnival atmosphere throughout the city in the last few weeks - always something ESC-related going on. And that’s before you take the Eurovillage into account.

Capt'n Midnight

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120594664#Comment_120594664

100 votes needed to get out of the heat. Should be aiming for 200 votes to be a serious contender.

We got 10.

squonk

For some reason I’ve forgotten the Swedish song and it’s morphed into Firework by Katie Perry in my brain. That’s the kind of song and act we need to be sending though (Katie Perry). We just don’t do bands with that level of immediacy and workrste though. Even the closest we got (Boyzone/Westlife) seemed to just pose so they looked pretty. We need attitude.

mollser

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120596165#Comment_120596165

I know that's a post in jest, but funnily, other than Belgium and the drag act in SF2, the whole lgbtqxyz stuff was really dialed down this year, and the show was much better for it, way more about the acts than celebrating rainbow agendas.

Think the Sweden bubble will be well and truly bust next year, that singer was so unlikable, song nowhere near their usual standards

appledrop

Well it's the next day and I can't remember a word of Swedish song, not one!

I have been going around all day singing a mix of Europia and cha cha cha cha!

Finland were robbed.

squonk

Yeah I was drunk by tge end of biting so didn’t pay heaps of attention but Loreen didn’t seem very likeable or personable. I remember thinking at the time it was more like ° was forced to be there.

Furze99

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120595849#Comment_120595849

Properly constituted juries would add more balance at semi final stage - that's where block or geographic voting has more effect on who qualifies.

But last night surely needs some thought - how could be the jury results be so at odds with the wisdom of crowds.

2022 was a special case, the Brit song was clearly the best or a worthy winner at any rate. The public lifted Ukraine way over the line in a rush of sympathy & support. As such, you'd expect it to be largely a one off.

This year, the pre show marketing was that Sweden were the favourites and the juries seem to have been influenced by that and fell in line with a mode of group think. The voting public has also been exposed to this PR but they looked at all the acts more in the round on the night and were clearly in favour of Finland. To the extent it must be embarrassing for the Swedes. You'd much rather be the popular winner in a vote of how many - millions? Rather than a few industry people.

ednwireland

well UK went form 2nd to 25th out of 26

hotmail.com

Marty Whelan badly needs to be retired. Farcical he's still involved.

mollser

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120597219#Comment_120597219

Same, but watched again this evening with daughter. Alesha asked her about her nails, Loreen says we're not really talking about nails are we? Alesha rolls her eyes and says "I'm just trying to lighten the mood in here", was some dig whether intentional or not lol

Welsh Megaman

This warmed the cockles of me heart.

What Eurovision is all about… :)

https://twitter.com/eurovanya/status/1657798359074177026?s=46&t=7qYnegA2-YmKkBRsH7wUig

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120596070#Comment_120596070

id prefer the Eurovision

Melodiac

Long-time lurker, first time poster. I’m ok with Sweden winning. It had a good concept, required vocal range and Loreen is a charismatic figure with history in the competition. A vintage winner? No, but good enough on the night. Was the fix in for the 50th? If Sweden were perennial underachievers I’d be suspicious but they’re the entry to beat nearly every year and we had our famous three-in-a-row. Such is life.

Our best musicians and songwriters seem happy in an anglophone world of Pitchfork, The Guardian and a review by Anthony Fantano. The Eurovision lives in its own world with a language we struggle with for three months of the year that most of the entries are fluent in.

I’ll be happy with regular progression to the finals or not bringing shame on the family in the semis’ public vote. There are loads of reasons well stated here as to why it’s not happening but part of it is we don’t warm to our own entries, don’t get them charting, don’t listen on Spotify. Look at the comments for our entries on YouTube and it’s invariably ‘love from (country x), can’t believe this didn’t get through’.

Putting aside issues of staging, geopolitics, campaigning and whether the jury system is broken, I think we can at least get the basics right with song selection.

One thing RTE has always been good at is informative magazine-style shows. They’re cheap to produce and leave you relatively well informed. Right now it’s all cookery and property but there’s something we can mine for Eurovision here. Show us everything from how the budget is allocated, how the pool of songs is whittled down to six worth developing, how each entry is finessed for entry into a live final (during a time slot that works for the right audience) that we can vote on. I’m tired of seeing acts for the first time and being asking to vote on them NOW without having a clue of how well they can represent us. Give me half an hour of getting to know an act, where they came from, how they take feedback. Get me to like them, then market the heck out of them on social media for the big show. Sponsors will love it, so it might even make a little money.

/rant

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120596972#Comment_120596972

That’s actually interesting, if we played that card correctly and Jonny took the PR role it would be positive and highly visible

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120597153#Comment_120597153

I couldn’t even hum it

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120596071#Comment_120596071

I think we either triple the budget or quit

squonk

Fair post I thought from Melodiac. I do think we’re too cool for Eurovision in this country now. After the 90s we stopped sending real contenders. We sent very seasoned performers in tge past with strong followings here. I think the stint where Louis hit his hands on the reins kind of did us down really and the evolution of Eurovision has alienated a lot of average viewers. I think the fact it’s been seen to evolve into an LGBTQ+ fest and the OTT staging has made it look like a fringe thing for a lot of our too cool for school musicians. We don’t really want to sell into the Europe market and prefer to be big in the UK and get an album into the American Top 40 at some stage. For me, I love the multiculturalism you hear in the music. Growing up the only time you heard Middle Eastern music was countries like Israel at Eurovision. Loved it. There’s no reason we can’t do the cool Anglo centric and eutro stuff well. we probably could start by changing our thinking that if “cool hipster band” does Eurovision they’re selling out and not cool anymore and treating not winning as a career ending event. Mind you it didn’t diminish Dervish saying that.

AndyBoBandy

so a few days later and the only songs I can really remember are the Finland & Australia songs...

The Australian song really is a grower.

squonk

Finland, Austria & Australia for me. Moreover the Aussie song sounds like something that would have been one of the songs of the summer back in 1988. Voyager did the Aussies proud IMHO. I thought it should have been in the top 3 myself.

CylonXIII

I'm the exact same, Australia were by far my favourite but since Saturday both Finland and Austria have been in my head. They are the only ones I can remember the tune of as well

Welsh Megaman

As of time of typing (in order)…Belgium, Australia, Finland, Austria.

thebourke

that croatia song was pure rubbish!

squonk

We sent this in 1989 and cane 3rd last. 18th. It hasn’t aged well. I remember it sounding good at the time but time hasn’t been kind. It’s still a better performance than Wild Youth though…

https://youtu.be/83dEIxjS9Ng

Welsh Megaman

:)

al87987

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120594951#Comment_120594951

I don't know why everyone thinks the UK would've won last year (I know they came 2nd). If the Ukraine public voting is distributed amongst the contenders (had there been no war) in a similar manner to the rest of the public votes, Spain wins handy enough.

Then we could all have basked in SloMo again.

Spain got 10 points off 5 countries, UK only got 1 10 pointer so even just upgrading those to 12, Spain would already be in front.

Markus Antonius

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120599360#Comment_120599360

And if Spain did win - it would have been well deserved. I switched on the television just when Spain started and I said "That's it, just give them the trophy right now, I don't need to see any more"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSQYTt4xg3I&ab_channel=EurovisionSongContest