Eurovision Song Contest 2025 - Mod warning in the OP

I think it's all above board, tbh. It makes sense - people all over Europe voted for it in their droves, then decided they NEVER WANTED TO HEAR IT EVER AGAIN. Perfect sense and in no way fishy at all.

EDIT: this was posted earlier on the official Eurovision website:

https://eurovision.tv/story/songs-of-eurovision-2025-hit-charts

It's an article on the best-performing class of 2025 songs on national charts, Spotify etc. Interesting reading, mainly for the country that isn't mentioned at all.

Problem lies in what Netanyahu is doing ….. and the fact that Russia and Israel receive different treatments in it ….. but to move on to your other points ……

A complete lack of interest in this most certainly does exist …. among all age groups actually ….. I agree it has become more about staging than songs these days …. and not just in Eurovision …. all them flashing lights and smokey backgrounds are everywhere and make the song secondary in many cases ….

Ireland did well in 2024 because it had an act all about staging …. it was the best result since 2011 when Jedward represented us first time ….. maybe people remembered their hair more than the song too …… 2011 in turn was the first time Ireland did as well since 2006 ….. when Brian Kennedy sang a song pure and simple showing that near 20 years ago a song sung straight could do well …..

I think the Eurovision has become too sprawling ….. technically a lot of countries in it are not Europe ….. Israel is in West Asia ….. Australia is well in Australia ….. and Armenia and Azerbaijan are in the Iranian area ….. Middle Eastern states ….. has this competition become too big ??? ….. I remember a time when there was no such thing as these semi finals ….. I never watch these semi finals and have watched little actual Eurovision in recent years ….. just often watch the voting ….. I think it has become too long drawn out and may need to be divided ….

Part of the issue though is Europe's artificial geography ….. where and what is Europe exactly ??? …. other continents like Africa, the Americas and Australia all have natural boundaries …. but Europe and Asia are not as clear cut …… some countries like Russia and Turkey are considered to be in both ….. some put Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, West Kazakhstan and NW Iran including its capital city Tehran into Europe ….. other definitions of 'Europe' include countries with large European descent populations like Australia and Israel ….. which gives similar clout behind the future inclusion of commonwealth states like Canada, New Zealand, etc. and Spanish or Portuguese cultural states like Mexico and all of South America ….

the fact that Russia and Israel receive different treatments in it 

It has been explained on this thread and elsewhere many times why Russia are no longer in the competition and Israel are, yet you persist with this narrative. Why?

Simply put …. the explanation is just not good enough ….. Netanyahu's Israel should not be treated differently than Milosevic's Yugoslavia or Putin's Russia ….. there are no excuses for a genocidal warmonger who makes the other 2 I mention look tame to be in the Eurovision …..

The bottom line ….. Russia, Yugoslavia and a couple more were banned because of what was seen as aggression ….. and Israel are not banned despite worse aggression …… how does this comply with any rules ????? !!!!! Double standards as usual ….. Israel gets off the hook and is treated like a normal state ….. all others who do anything wrong get punished ……. this DOES de-legitimise all rules ….. you either have Russia in or you have Israel out ….. otherwise it is double standards ……

don't want Russia in if it means isreal is included. Easier to have neither involved

If the UN decide to impose similar sanctions on Israel, or any other state, they would be de-facto out of the EBU and the competition

The UN would be more likely to impose such sanctions on Palestine mind…

Footage has begun to surface online of this year’s ‘stand-in rehearsals’ - where comedy lookalikes act out each performance so that the producers can get the camera angles right, and so on.

The Ireland SIR caught my eye - the ‘Emmy’ gets down from the platform and moves with the dancers!

https://x.com/artan_mp3/status/1930222822455902458?s=46

One of the main criticisms of her final performance was that she was too ‘static’ and should have moved down to the stage - I wonder why/when the change was made…would this have given Ireland a better outcome? 🤔

Apparently they tried it at the first rehearsal but Emmy kept missing her marks and struggled to sing while walking so they rooted her to the spot. She should have rehearsed more beforehand? Huge mistake:(

They needed to go hard on the staging - movement, energy, storytelling were all severely lacking. A lot of critics of the song accused it of being too childish and like something Aqua would have released in the late 90s, Emmy and her team should have owned that and made the staging as zany, fun and cartoonish as possible - have fun, engaging graphics, dancers dressed up as Space Dogs and so on.

Ireland does well when we send established acts with competitive songs who have an artistic vision of how to present their song on stage and most importantly are able to deliver that vision convincingly live on television ( see Jedward 2011, Ryan O'Shaughnessy 2018 & Bambie Thug 2024). Emmy was an established act with a competitive song but lacked the artistic vision and stage presence to deliver at Eurovision.

I guess there's a trade-off between good vocals and moving about on stage. I remember Leslie Roy in 2021, whose staging was akin to an assault course. She was so focused on hitting all her marks on stage that she forgot to sing in tune. I assume Emmy felt that moving about would have impacted her vocals too much…but with a song like that, how important were great vocals? It wasn't some big power balled that needed a great voice. Her big mistake really was staying put on stage.

I think the other problem with Erika, in addition to being over sexualised (did no one learn anything from Olly last year?) was that she was very much in the fan bubble, who tend to favour the YAS QUEEN girlbops. I say this every year, but the hardcore fans who follow every NF only make up a minority of voters on grand final night (they probably have more sway in the semi results, as lots of causal viewers still see Eurovision as a one-night event and don't bother with the semis), but so many of them still don't realise this, and are then shocked that Europe doesn't agree with them. Many fans still can't accept that Erika didn't win UMF in 2020 and saw 2025 as her big redemption, but most viewers on Saturday night wouldn't have known, or cared less, that she was runner-up in Finland's 2020 selection.

The disappointing thing about Sweden underperforming (in their eyes of course, most countries would kill for a 4th-place final finish) is that they'll revert back to the usual overproduced and overpolished songs sung by bland pop males. Expect to see John Lundvik, Robin Bengtsson and Eric Saade et al front and centre at MF 2026.

At least we don't have to worry about Måns coming back to do the double in Vienna.

I appreciate this is three weeks too late, (I'm only catching up on the grand final today), but what was the point of adding Michelle to the presenter lineup for the grand final? I thought she was stiff, uncomfortable and didn't add anything to the show - Hazel and Sandra were more than up to the job by themselves.

A quick Google reveals that Michelle is a star in Italy (she's from the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland, and with that being a fairly small community, no surprise she had to move to Italy to make it in television), but I don't think she brought anything special to the final.

I guess an act that goes down well in a studio may not work in a big hall?

Many people have made this point. Stage the Irish national final in a big venue and on a big stage and then see which song works best. The small studio thing is just not working (the repeated NQs tell their own story).