Eurovision Song Contest 2024

AndyBoBandy

Are the odds really 55/1?

Im not a gambling man but id have a tenner on 55/1 such is my belief that we will do well.

Ash.J.Williams

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121874911#Comment_121874911

I was watching an episode of toast of London at the weekend and Michael Ball was in it , he sang for a few seconds and I swear the house was shaking, it was oscillating like a car alarm, some voice

I wouldn't worry about the alarming looking high odds.

When the odds are averaged out across all the gambling companies Bambi Thug is 15th favourite.

supereurope

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121890983#Comment_121890983

It was a travesty he was lumbered with such a bad song. Michael was very open that "One Step out of Time" was far from his favourite song from the UK selection. Such a waste of a great voice.

Strazdas

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121890672#Comment_121890672

Yes, I'd be very critical of our entries for the last ten years. Really bland and mainstream and 'safe' stuff - I think the penny finally dropped this year for the need to take risks. Bambie is actually a very risky entry, because it's so outside the box, but that can only be a good thing.

yerwanthere123

And here's the final entry!

Azerbaijan

https://youtu.be/NNhAk4rVgNc?si=k7FRfXZryF-TOp4T

Anyone wanna make an attempt at predicting the qualifiers? I think Bambie will make the final.

Strazdas

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121899468#Comment_121899468

I think Bambie will qualify alright. It's a memorable song and performance, something the televoters won't overlook.

Overall, it looks a wide open year....hard to call a winner from the top 5 or 10 in the betting.

yerwanthere123

At this stage I think Ukraine is still the most likely winner. Strong song that'll enjoy both significant televote and jury support, plus a huge diaspora spread throughout every country in Europe means it could be difficult to stop.

Switzerland is one of the current favourites, but I'm not getting it at all. Same with Italy, many mentioning it as a contender, but I think it'd be an extremely underwhelming winner.

I reckon Croatia will be Ukraine's biggest challengers, and that The Netherlands will make the top five with a huge televote.

Libertine07

I'm more confident in Bambie's chances now, knowing the full make up of the semi. I didn't expect Iceland, Australia and Azerbaijan to send quite weak entries, that can only help us.

It still will be difficult (and who knows how the three auto qualifiers being thrown in will affect us) but I'm more hopeful than I was a few weeks ago.

I just hope we avoid second or third in the running order. As late as possible please!

supereurope

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121899522#Comment_121899522

There's a lot of negativity surrounding this year's contest, but one of things to be cheerful about is how no clear winner has emerged. Fan polls etc seem to be predicting Croatia, but based on what we saw at the Croatian NF, it doesn't look like a winner to me yet. Baby Lasagna's vocals need a lot of work, as does the staging. A "Let's just throw everything at it" staging concept like we saw at the NF never works at Eurovision (maybe apart from Russia in 2008), so they won't want to bring the NF staging direct to Malmö. The online fandom (Twitter etc.) was very hyped about Baby Lasagna ahead of the NF, but this seems to have died down since then. It's not unusual for an early fan favourite to lose momentum as the contest gets nearer.

We might just have to wait for the rehearsals to begin for a clear frontrunner to emerge.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121899468#Comment_121899468

If this was coming from any other country, I'd say this was a clear non-qualifier. Unfortunately, Azerbaijan don't tend to play by the rules, so they can never be ruled out. I still think it was a disgrace they qualified in 2022 despite receiving zero points in the televote. Still, I hope those jurors enjoyed their new cars.

I fancy Greece to do very well.

I think it'll be top 5 in the final.

gmisk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121901214#Comment_121901214

They should have been banned, plenty of dodgy dealings.

supereurope

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121901347#Comment_121901347

Oh yes, I'd love to see them kicked out. Never going to happen, as we've seen this year, the EBU is toothless.

Azerbaijan made its debut in 2008 and were overmarked from the beginning - their oddball entry in Belgrade shouldn't have qualified, never mind finish top 10. At least it was somewhat interesting, something you can't say about the songs they sent in the years after - bland Scandi-pop songs that somehow always did very well. Good results continued even after their 2011 win, and they came close to win number 2 in 2013. After the 2013 contest, reports emerged of a country rigging the televote, named in some media as Azerbaijan, and while they weren't found guilty of anything, their results mysteriously started to drop off after that. They barely qualified in 2014 and 2015 and finally failed to qualify in 2018.

Their results then picked up again, until after the 2022 contest, when it was named as one of the countries involved in jury vote-rigging. Again, nothing happened to them but again, mysteriously, they had a poor result in 2023.

So they tried to rig the televote, got caught, then tried to right the jury vote. They will try to cheat again. But as I said, the EBU is toothless.

squonk

That’s all very well but some day they’ll win and then there’ll be an unmerciful shít show if the vote isn’t 100% legit. Look at tge controversy that erupted after one of Manneskin appeared to be having a crafty snort after the result I think it was. Having no canones will catch out the EBU eventually.

supereurope

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121901674#Comment_121901674

Isn't there a rumour that the EBU never released the split results of the 2013 contest because Azerbaijan actually won, but as the EBU knew it wasn't a legit result, the win was given to Denmark and that's why the full results have never been released?

supereurope

The EBU released the 2023 semi-final running orders on 22 March last year, so we might not be waiting very long to find out which position has been assigned to Ireland and Bambie...

supereurope

I see that Sertab Erener (winner in 2003 for Turkey) is going to be part of this year's interval act. I don't know what everyone else thinks, but I miss when interval acts were a celebration of the host country's culture or a performance by a big star in the host country. Now it just seems to be "Let's bring back a couple of former winners and participants for a medley."

squonk

Definitely. You’ll never see a Riverdance again. I think maybe they might be going for a Eurovision History theme with it being the 50th anniversary of ABBAs win.

Of course tge interval act we probably all want is a reformed ABBA doing a few tunes, but it won’t happen.

AndyBoBandy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121918244#Comment_121918244

They'll probably get a few past winners to sing some sort of an ABBA medley... and it'll be shoite...

I always remember the Azjerbaijan interval act from 2012 being quite good. it started off with loads of cool drumming & trad music, and then they lowered some famous singer (Emin? previous Azerbaijani winner?) from the roof and he sang a fairly catchy song...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djt6N3yMSU8

supereurope

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121918464#Comment_121918464

If I recall correctly, that Azeri interval performer in 2012 was the son-in-law of the country's president. Can't imagine how he got the job...

Welsh Megaman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121918505#Comment_121918505

His Grandfather worked at RTE. 🙂

supereurope

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121918627#Comment_121918627

Don't forget, the father of Fiachna Ó Braonáin of the Hothouse Flowers was in a senior role at RTÉ around the time the band were chosen as the interval act for the 1988 contest in Dublin. I'm sure there's no connection there either...

delboy85

After a VERY slow start for me this year there are lots of songs I'm loving now. I think it has turned into a very strong year.

I'm team Greece this year. I just can't stop listening to it and the video is genius.

Belgium has been my biggest grower. It didn't grab me at first but I absolutely love it now.

Really like Croatia, Italy, Israel, Switzerland and Portugal too.

And I've even mellowed towards The Netherlands!

It really is wide open this year. Genuinely have no idea who is going to win.

AndyBoBandy

Ireland will be taking home title #8 in Malmo.

yerwanthere123

I've actually listened to some of my favourites a little too much and have grown slightly fatigued with some of them 😬 Need to go cold turkey for a while I think.

I think this will will turn out to be a two horse race between Croatia and Ukraine, but who knows if some other contenders will emerge during rehearsal week. Switzerland is a big fan favourite but I don't really see it. A lot think Italy are in with a chance which really surprises me, I think La Noia would be such a nondescript winner.

Strazdas

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121901166#Comment_121901166

Looking at Bambie's semi final, the second half of it is very weak : there are a lot of duds in there that are not going to trouble the top 10 or 15 in the final. The draw may not be as big a problem for Bambie as people think (nearly all the favourites are drawn early too).

delboy85

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121932597#Comment_121932597

I think Italy have a strong chance. Could easily see it finishing Top 3/4 with both the juries and televote and sneaking the win.

Personally, I love the song and the meaning behind it.

There are a few songs that seem popular with the general fandom that are just not clicking with me at all - Slovenia, Austria and Serbia.

I'm more confident now that Bambie will qualify since the release of the music video.

yerwanthere123

Running orders being revealed at 5pm today. Here's to hoping we get as late as possible, and not sandwiched between Ukraine and Croatia.

Libertine07

Watch the Swedes put us second or third!

Strazdas

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121942088#Comment_121942088

I've a feeling we'll go later than #1 or #2 anyway, purely because the song and performance is so 'out there' and dark and unusual.