Eurovision Song Contest 2024 (Mod warning, see OP updated 10/05 and post #3477 11/05)

squonk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121686101#Comment_121686101

Looking at the full song it’s a pile of shite IMHO. The only thing it’s got going for it is the Palestinian connection which they’re putting out loud and proud presumably to elicit a sympathy vote. Thing is, the last sympathy vote was Ukraine but that was a decent song by and large

Quantum Erasure

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121686201#Comment_121686201

Have people lost their minds?...

...It sent chills down the both of us.

o1s1n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121686295#Comment_121686295

That's the great thing about music, everyone likes different stuff. If you don't like Hatari you wouldn't like it but I'm quite the fan so I do. Saw them in London in 2022 and they were brilliant.

That song I linked doesn't have anything to do with Eurovision btw, it's just the same singer Iceland are putting forward.

o1s1n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121686201#Comment_121686201

It's a 30 year old girl from Cork dressed up like Marilyn Manson, hardly terrifying. The only terrifying thing was the utterly scutter sound mixing during her performance the other night.

odyssey06

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121686682#Comment_121686682

Cant believe we have had to resort to... the Cork option.

What is up with the sound... I thought it was ok for bands on LLS and on other music shows like Main Stage. They cant mix a backing track and live vocals is it?

hotmail.com

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121683619#Comment_121683619

Please tell me Marty Whelan has been retired from the event?

Absolute farce having him as the commentator at this point.

supereurope

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121686691#Comment_121686691

I read somewhere that this is the first time since 1979 that someone from Cork will represent Ireland? That can't be right, can it?

I know Kiev Connolly in 1989 was living in Cork, though he was from Sligo.

squonk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121686665#Comment_121686665

Oh definitely. It’s not my thing but if we ask listened to the same stuff it’d be very boring. I thought it was the Icelandic entry. It didn’t sound terribly Eurovision so mages sense now it wasn’t.

odyssey06

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121686806#Comment_121686806

Thats the stat I saw also... Cathal Dunne came 5th in 1979. A nephew of Jack Lynch.

https://youtu.be/f-z_gZFRptI?feature=shared

supereurope

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121686819#Comment_121686819

Won that year's National Song Contest (ah, the good old days of a standalone national final) convincingly, seeing off the challenge of past Irish representatives Red Hurley and Tina and future representatives Johnny Logan and Peter Eades (from Jump the Gun.)

I don't think this was a particularly great song though, it was lucky to come home fifth. Highlights just how much the juries and the language rule helped us back in the day.

RoTelly

So here is my take as an outsider to Eurovision and Ireland's Entry from Bambie Thug.

I grew up with 5 wins for Ireland in a decade from 88 to 98. Even then the there were naff entrys and nil point for Norway and so on. Then in the 2000s we got televoting and eastern europe. IMO eurovision has left the novelty act behind and it only works if the rest of the songs are mediocre and I wonder if even now we will see this work to get us into the final.

I watch eurovision for the first time fully again in 2021. And was taken back by the talent in the first semi-final and on the second semi-final though Ireland even with the medocre song might get through to the final, though all of the songs in the first semi final were far better. It didn't happen and then I came up with my theory on the Eurovision.

1. Western Countries have put their best foot forward in the competition, unless they are one of the big 5 they will not progress to the final.
2. If western countries send mediocre songs and the rest of the countries also have mediocre song then the "block voting" is important, and it usually results in the best Eastern Eruopean country song winning the contest and you can understand that because of "neighbours" and "close proximity to culture", a neighbour taste in music is going to be similar so a bad song from a neighbouring country is probably going to sound better than a bad song from Ireland, Iceland or Portugal.
3. The novelty act IMO is largely dead for the last 10 years, and IMO this just shows how out of touch Ireland is with the Eurovision.

Maps, That's Rich and We are One were all very mediocre. They weren't strong selections. And Doomsday Blues might work on staging but the singers isn't strong enough IMO to pass into the final, I think the song will get to the final if surrounded by Mediocrity but that for others here to decide on where we are placed in the semi-finals.

In saying all of that I look forward to BBC NI hosting the Eurovision in 2025 and I am in completely support of Bambie and Doomsday :) COME ON IRELAND LETS GIVE RTÉ A KICK UP THE ARSE LIKE BISHOP BRENNAN.

Ash.J.Williams

Bambi thug is pop music lilly , it's goth for kids

Check out tomb of the mutilated by cannibal corpse and see what you think

AndyBoBandy

It's got the Johnny Logan Seal of Approval...

https://www.joe.ie/music/johnny-logan-eurovision-2024-790500

supereurope

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121687968#Comment_121687968

There were 19 countries in 1979. The Eastern Europeans of course were behind the Iron Curtain, Yugoslavia and Malta were on long-term absences from the contest, Turkey withdrew at the last minute and Western countries like Iceland and Cyprus weren't competing yet. But I think 1979 was a great year, and there were other songs more deserving of a top five spot than Ireland.

Conversely, I think Colm Wilkinson was robbed. 1978 was one of the weaker contests but he was definitely one of the stronger acts. He gave that performance everything and it's a shame he seems to pop up a lot in "Isn't Eurovision weird?" montages that you often see. He did look like he was going to burst out of that suit at one point though, such was his effort.

gmisk

Bambie Thug pissing off the right loopers ha ha

Libertine07

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121688583#Comment_121688583

Agree with some of your points but there has only been one Eastern European country that has won in the last decade. They did win on two occassions but one of those was clearly a sympathy vote.

I don't agree that Eastern European block voting is a significant issue in the contest now. It hasn't been since the noughties, and even then the Western countries made very little effort and largely saw the whole contest as a joke, so why would anyone in Belgrade or Riga want to vote for them?

RoTelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121689332#Comment_121689332

I should clarify the block voting is only an issue if you send forward songs that aren't all that good, are fine or might be considered quite good. For me looking at the second 2021 semifinal, I feel that our song and staging was lackluster but it was better than some of the entries that went through on that night, though it was far below all of the previous semi-final songs and I think had it got to go to the final it would have got NIL POINT again because of block voting (and I think the juries wouldn't have been all that interested, lucky to get 8 from the UK TBH).

Also if you look at that year the bottom 5 are lackluster songs from western nations, while you have a good spread of good songs from western nations in the top 10. Perhaps 2021 was an unusually good year.

Libertine07

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121689409#Comment_121689409

I don't think block voting was the issue with Maps, it just looked and sounded like an absolute mess on stage.

A shame because it wasn't a bad song, and with different staging and better vocals it might have snunk through.

RoTelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121689454#Comment_121689454

That's what I mean it might have just snuck through. What I suppose I am trying to say is Block Voting isn't as big an issue as many believe it to be, it is only an issue for western country when they send bad/ok/fine/alright songs meaning they'll end up at the bottom of the vote that year UK, Germany, Spain, The Netherlands and San Marino make up the bottom 5 nations, but on the reverse you have Italy winning, followed by France, Switzerland, Iceland and Ukraine.

Though I suspect the Iceland vote was sympathy for not getting to win in 2020. And I also think Ukraine should have won in 2021. While I felt UK didn't deserve NIL POINT that year.

Either I have bad taste in eurovision music or I am right :) (Prob the former)

supereurope

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121689454#Comment_121689454

I agree - Maps was a good song, and it had a shot of qualifying. Until Leslie took to the stage, that is. I'm not sure who decided that the staging for this should involve Leslie completing an assault course, but I hope they were fired. She was so exhausted trying to make sure she hit her marks at the right time that she wasn't able to breathe properly and so she sounded terrible.

I don't know how many times I've said this over the years, but so many singers have given themselves so much to do on stage that they can't actually sing properly.

RoTelly

@supereurope

I agree - Maps was a good song

That's what I mean it was a good song, but a good song won't get peripheral countries into the final IMO, and if they do get there they will be in the last 5.

johnire

In what way was/is Graham Norton out of the norm?

Galwayguy35

Lordi won because the song was brilliant.

This song is mediocre at best.

Yes she has a following who like that kind of music but lets be honest its a small group of people.

I said on the LLS thread the eastern bloc take the contest a lot more seriously that we do and I can't see them voting for this.

odyssey06

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121691723#Comment_121691723

Talent :)

His Eurovision commentary is a delight and I dread the day he no longer does it.

And once upon a time the norm didnt quite extend as far as it does today in terms of sexuality. Closets were rather fuller than today accordingly.

gmisk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121690243#Comment_121690243

A good song which was abysmal live, it didn't really deserve to qualify imo.

Sticking her on a treadmill wasn't a great idea...

Libertine07

Jesus, all this talk of "the Eastern bloc" like it's still 2006.

Some Eastern countries are stuck in a rut and rarely qualify (Latvia for example).

The countries who really take it seriously are the Nordics, especially Sweden.

AndyBoBandy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121692338#Comment_121692338

Lithuania take it fairly seriously too… and have done well enough in recent years, making most finals and even a few top 10 finishes… (The Roop’s ‘Discotheque’ in 2021 was a cracker of a song, but his unused song from 2020 was even better, and could have been a contender)… but yeah, it’s hard to compete against the Scandinavians who take it really seriously. The last time I was in Lithuania for a Eurovision was 2011 and they had it on big screens in the town squares… so it was funny seeing Jedward being ridiculous on the big screen..… Will be there again for this years shows so will be voting for Bambi Thug all the way!!

gmisk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121692456#Comment_121692456

On Fire by The Roop is a total tune! Would have done really well I'd say your right, Dadi Freyr probably my favourite that year though.

supereurope

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121692338#Comment_121692338

I think if it wasn't for Latvia's awful qualifying record, then we'd be the country with the longest current non-qualifying streak. Both are still a few years away from beating the Netherlands' all time NQ streak. Personally, I think Latvia is being punished for its undeserved win in 2002 and undeserved qualification in 2008.

A few years back, I had a Swedish work colleague who told me that more Swedes watch Melodifestivalen than the contest itself. Not sure how true that was, but it doesn't sound that outlandish (especially since this was around 2008, and Sweden wasn't doing brilliantly back then (getting results most countries would envy but considered poor for Sweden.) Just shows the effort it puts into selecting its song.