Eurovision 2017

It approaches.

http://www.eurovision.tv/

Here's your YouTube playlist of the entries:

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmWYEDTNOGUL3Q6L4o5jwyPSjWHbRfrAq

Your three hosts!

http://www.eurovision.tv/save-files/resizes/90/da/b8/80/eb/14/1b/3d/7c/cc/e2/a0/9f/89/cd/60/ILS_9280.jpg

Oleksandr Skichko, Volodymyr Ostapchuk, and Timur Miroshnychenko by name.

Pretty sure you cut and pasted those names and didn't type them from memory, Ned...

Rather.

All male presenting team is unusual.

will give all these a listen today
running order for the semis has just been announced http://esctoday.com/143533/eurovision-2017-semi-finals-running-order-revealed/

italys is soooooo good!

Italy's is indescribable.

playlist links to the music video, but the live seems a bit more milder in a good way! love the orchestra chanting ALLEZ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmpc3fcrNJQ

fan service is not the ESC's best look but it's very far from the worst worst so I guess I'm happy to see San Marino and Moldova resurrect their most memetic stars

other crucial fact: Romania's entry is called "Yodel It!"

Really pissed I wasn't able to get tickets this year (grrrr, fuming) because I was looking forward to going OFF to Montenegro, who have provided the nearest thing the contest will ever see to "What What (In the Butt)". Also into Iceland, Israel, Montenegro, Azerbaijan and, weirdly, Cyprus.

So I've been binging on all the rehearsals and more from last week (and a lot of the promo stuff for the last few weeks -- the Eurovision team are kinda killing it on the social media front, they know how to feed the beast with all the formal clips and interviews and promo things and etc.)

Pretty much at this point if Norma John from Finland fully dark horse it to the top I will be pleased as punch; it's easily my favorite song by a mile, plus a pretty great actual video to go with it, and the duo have amazingly dry senses of humor in their promos and the like. Belgium's entry is my number two in studio form as is but I can't see it getting anywhere as a live performance based on the rehearsal clips.

Beyond that I have a clutch of entries I enjoy well enough (Montenegro, Australia, Iceland, Germany, Denmark, Macedonia, some others) and others which I don't exactly but have their staging/meme quality down (Moldova, Romania, Italy). If Spain's entry ranks high anywhere the night of the final I will throttle someone.

Half hour to go!

I quite like Monatik.

yo

get to Montenegro already

I like Belgium's entirely monotone effort tbh.

Belgium not really bringing the attitude xp

She looks distraught for no apparent reason,

MONTENEGRO TIME

*Pumps fist*

I hope he sang better last night

very much feeling the presenters tonight

Yeah, I think if I heard the Belgian one out I might quite like it. Whereas Montenegro had the old-school Eurovision fun factor.

great real names: The Australian entrant is called Isaiah Firebrace

Azerbaijan is good in this company.

AZE is good but I keep humming Roisin Murphy "Primitive" over the chorus

Azerbaijan <3 <3

Fire/desire/higher!

She p much hits her notes, though, I think only two or three have done so before her?

(Poland, that is)

bit sad that "can sing" is going to be enough to get these people through

most famous living Moldovan?

He has been working on that riff for nine years and is finally ready to unleash.

Nothing wrong with Armenia but I miss Inga and Anush

I liked Armenia, but it needed to be bigger sounding, I think. Having said that, I think Armenia and Azerbaijan are the only two I'm that fussed about seeing go into the next round. So obv they'll both get knocked out.

feel a bit churlish to write this but I'd like Latvia a lot better if they had a song

Could do with some decent Ukrainian pop as a palate cleanser tbh.

Expected rank according to Betfair markets, snapshot right after the reminders:

Top ten: SWE, ARM, POR, MDA, AZE, BEL, GRE, FIN, AUS, CYP
Then: LAT, GEO, SLO, ISL, MNE, ALB, CZE

(To be precise, that is not necessarily the actual ranking order of the entries as such, but a ranking of the probability of going through. A ranking of the probabiliby of winning the semifinal might turn out slightly different.)

feel Sweden are due a DNQ maybe just wishful thinking

ISL has a decent shot I'd say

They can have the place of MDA, which I found pretty unbearable

Georgia should probably be ok.

Jamala is so fucking good.

The new one is very good.

Yeah, definite highlight of the evening right there.

Good god, Spain.

Whoops, I missed POL in the market ranking. They were at #11, top non-qualifier.

So market was 9 for 10, had Finland instead of Poland.

These are intriguing odds:

Germany to give UK 0 points (Jury + Televoting Combined) 5/4
France to give UK 0 points (Jury + Televoting Combined) 13/8
Italy to give UK 0 points (Jury + Televoting Combined) 2/1

Would this have done any better for Iceland?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpLp9nRmS7U

So market was 9 for 10, had Finland instead of Poland.

Which is how it should have been.

Faves among qualifiers -- Belgium, Azerbaijan, Australia (with caveats)

xps going for uk getting 4 from roi and 1 each from san marino and malta

From the clip they played during the "waiting for votes" section, I didn't hate the UK entry. Spain, on the other hand...

Spain not only needs to die in a fire, but drown.

... in a fire?

Burning oil on water, whatever works.

Okay, second semi in half an hour...

TMI

I have heard a rumour Ruslana is the interval act today, which would be great.

It's all very well being sniffy about this, but in 1997 we nearly entered a song called Yodel In The Canyon Of Love https://t.co/o1abJEkHWe

— Kit Lovelace (@kitlovelace) May 11, 2017

This is painful tho.

That last one was good but I was too busy calling him 'Yahtzee Popeye' to notice what country it was. Any help?

Hungary

Cool, thanks.

As a side note, given the direction the country is going in, it's good to see a Roma singer performing for Hungary. Decent song too.

routinely check to see if ruslana has blotted her copybook in re the darkside of maidan (as a sometime MP etc), but so far she seems to be more or less on the side of good

Denmark: reliably awful

YODEL IT

San Marino: reliably Valentina

Valentina in dgaf "what are you going to do, stop selecting me?" mode

And now Croatian Josh Gad.

This is remarkable.

Croatian Jekyll and Hyde: "I am an opera singer"/"I will put mustard on you and eat you"

Simultaneously the campest performer at Eurovision 2017 and "the biggest homophobe in Croatian showbiz".

Perfect combo! Uh.

Yeah, such a shame, I liked the Croatia song. Also quite liked the Switzerland one, tbh, though I'm not sure what makes it stand out from the other mid-tempo belters that I've been dismissing these semis.

Where are you all watching (US)?

Swedish feed

https://www.svtplay.se/video/13572909/eurovision-song-contest/eurovision-song-contest-2017-semifinal-2-11-maj-21-00?start=auto&tab=kommande

i am watching on the bbc bcz i am brexit

switched from BBC to Youtube live stream - so much better when you're doing your own commentary

Sofia 2018 imo.

with the "Heroes" stage show? hope not

Betfair market's ranking for reaching final at end of first reminder round:

Top ten: BUL, ROU, NED, ISR, HUN, DEN, EST, BLR, CRO, AUT
Then: NOR, SRB, SUI, MKD, MLT, IRL, LTU, SMR

we're not worthy #Eurovision pic.twitter.com/S28ziOyQHQ

— Hilary (@exit_everything) May 11, 2017

Nostalgia for buying overpriced fruit at Besarabsky Market is just about making me stay with this terrible BBC skit.

Once again, market goes 9 for 10, with the 11th-ranked going through instead of one of the top 10 (#8 on Tuesday, #7 tonight).

Really surprised by NED but what do I know. Drawing a complete blank on what AUT sound like.

Never be surprised by me.

I should have learned by now

Austria was horrendous, but I knew it'd go through.

i liked NED

I am perfectly fine with the reincarnation of Wilson Phillips putting my good name forth.

I initially haaated them, but by the end there was definitely something that won me round. Not to the extent of particularly loving it, but definitely dissuading me from hatred.

I heard a yodelling one, the commentators were all lol, but I thought "it's not that far from Dragostino Din Tei", or however it's spelled..

Gigi Dr'agostino

I was just all "it's no Edelweiss" about that one. I love the idea of rap yodelling astride big cannons, but it was surprisingly non-interesting.

For those who weren't there -- I was one of the lucky ones! -- Tom Ewing's Pop Conference presentation on Eurovision is now up.

http://freakytrigger.co.uk/nylpm/2017/05/making-your-mind-up-how-eurovision-caused-brexit/

Set aside 20 minutes to watch it all, it's great.

Less than two hours to go!

Are most places only paying out E/W bets on 1/2/3 this year? I could have sworn it was 1/2/3/4 last time.

Italy, Bulgaria and Portugal are all really short. Aus at 150/1 suggests he tanked his jury performance as the song is basically quite decent and they have been top five both times they have been in it.

Wow, yeah, maybe he had another problem with his voice or something. Pity, he's a good singer for sure.

I kinda want to be called a freelance kulturjournalist now

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C_ueDA3XgAAvPmw.jpg:large

Oh weird, did that not go through?

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C_ueDA3XgAAvPmw.jpg:large

I've had 12 quid on Portugal because they won the Euros and i like coincidences

I consider myself a peurist so I don't look at any of the entries until the Final... here we go!
(Ok, I don't have any free time or I would live it all year)

OK they're getting the shit/cringey presenter action in early.

Oh God, these presenters are a nightmare. What are those accents?

ukraine dude, keep up

unless you meant graham norton in which case no idea

this is like when rock profile did Shirley Bassey

(Poland)

Those aren't Ukrainian accents but some awful generic pan-European English with overly fastidious vowel sounds.

eurovision began in 1956

NATHAN TRENT

White is the new black.

Of the two overly-jolly folk-yodel efforts, Belarus is definitely the best.

This Austrian entry sounds like the theme tune to a sitcom.

The type of sitcom where the main character is played by an actor who also has a mid-level singing career.

Armenia backing track sounds like something from the Residents' Mole Trilogy.

except actually good, unlike anything the residents ever did

NED IS NEXT

As someone said on Twitter, the Netherlands sent all three women from the hair dye boxes.

they are sisters so that is handy for the hair dye firm

Moldova - the return of epic sax guy.

Second dancing violinist of the night.

http://68.media.tumblr.com/6d1d4a175d4edd1722af61aa72d3aad7/tumblr_inline_no54u5smeL1s5x0ig_500.gif

(xp) Spoke too soon.

moldova's entry is a fuckin banger

A Little Schmilsson in Portugal.

love the sound of sung Portuguese tbh

2017: year of the miming violinists

Go Compare need to sign the Croatian entry up for their next series of ads.

2017: year of the miming violinists

Och no, they're there every year.

hungarians and croatians weren't miming

They're much more prominent this year, often standing right in front of the singer at the end of the song. I'm waiting for the entry where the violinist pops into the picture from the bottom, right up close to the camera.

at least they weren't in the semis i wasn't watching just now

oh green room wonk...
"everybody cheer!" <silence>

Oh god, here we go.

Spain easily the worst so far

this is the worst
background looks like a Catchphrase question

xp lol

Brexit can't come fast enough

Spain's entry wasn't good but it wasn't terrible either. But so far nothing has really stood out. It's all a bit X Factor-y and safe.

Norway's verses are good but then the chorus is meh

hungary and azerbaijan are both good (and nothing like x factor)

hungary has a fkn gorgeous voice, azerbaijan is a goth menk

German song co-written by ex-Wimbledon manager, Dave Bassett, it would appear.

Germany covering Firework here, didn't know that was allowed

lol thought Germany was a titanium rip tbh

I liked Belgium a lot.
This Swedish Timberlake is bearable.

Belgium are often good.

where's all the crazy shit? Is it all getting knocked out in the semis these days?

there wasn't much this year, perhaps the world has sobered ppl up

be nice if a song where the singer didn't BELLOW did well

ie belgium

tho i am angry at all these CHILDREN

Belgium, Armenia, Azerbaijan, the rest can gtf.

ie belgium

You forgot the simpering hippie from Portugal.

Slay queen

I love Ruslana so much.

me too

she validated my entire life's commitment to eurovision

Onuka!

This is unexpected!

what is this, I enjoy

Her song Vidlik from last year was a banger.

she validated my entire life's commitment to eurovision

I've never needed any validation, I'm Eurovision till I die.

And here it is. xp

This is brilliant

Look away, mark s, it's a bellowing child.

Belgium is good! Azerbaijan also ok. Didn't mind UK. Unfortunately, I can see Sweden or Croatia winning. The Croatia and Romania were a little bit batshit, so there's some typical Eurovision.

her dress is astonishingly hideous :0

everyone is being very wogan abt hungary which was excellent

Yes, absolutely otm.

An Aussie just mooned during a live performance. I hope it was KBP

See what happens when you invite them to appear in Eurovision.

It paid off

Ten to midnight and 42 points reveals to go...

lol, San Marino only gave 5 to Italy.

dot worry. we know what will happen with cyprus and greece

oh go away portugal

wth Norway

ugh Portugal

Fuck this, I'm watching the football.

Wonder who will get 12 points from Greece...

haha

Croatia is getting very few points which can only be due to the singer's fucking horrible personal opinions. I think it'd score high otherwise.

portugal fuckin sucks

still no points for Spain

I always wondered what happened to Hinge & Bracket

We Send Australia our crims and they give is 12 pts haha

Brexit, Trump and now this.

Jesus, Australia got next to nothing,

An Aussie just mooned during a live performance.

fucking hell

how do they assign specific numbers of points from the votes? it wasn't like this in my day

I hate the viewers vote.

Everyone pissed off Portugal won?

I think it's quite good considering they've never won it. Crap song tho..

OMG, Rockism triumphs at Eurovision.

Portugal guy speech belongs on /r/lewronggeneration

haha I knew that speech would get a reaction

he's been ill

viewers' vote was p good down-table (viz hungary)

also i like the way it makes countries leap up the places, it's exciting

Yeah, voting stage is much better than it used to be

Great to see Hungary coming through at the end. idk how Europe decided Australia was worse than Spain but Austria getting nothing was very welcome.

I had Isaiah at 11/4 to finish in the top ten and he just about held on.

oh right the voter points are still based on the ranking 1-12 points

I remember when I was first watching all the songs/videos two months back I was thinking that Portugal had the virtue of being thoroughly atypical compared to the rest of the field, if nothing else, and here we are. I do wonder how much the medical backstory played into a sympathy vote and all.

Great to see Hungary coming through at the end.

That one quietly grew on me over time.

My two real favorite results -- Belgium placing fourth (would have loved it to beat Moldova at least but I'll take the rest) and Spain getting so completely trashed.

his backstory and portugal's -- and he sang it really well and the arrangement was nice (very 50s strings, like an eartha kitt record or something)

i fear it will create a tsunami of badness next year, assuming the second korean war doesn't take us there first

As I said upthread, it reminded me of Harry Nilsson a bit, but it was a pastiche though, it kept threatening to turn into another song.

So per this article on the winner:

http://www.lavozdegalicia.es/noticia/television/2017/05/12/historia-erasmus-portugues-atiborro-alucinogenos-mallorca-favorito-ganar-eurovision/00031494588376440908522.htm?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=twgen

...this Google-translated detail:

The Portuguese Salvador Sobral left his country in 2011 with destination to Mallorca . He did it with an Erasmus scholarship, with the clear intention of polishing his training in Psychology. The problem is that the Balearic night confessed to him, and as he himself acknowledged, he ended up walking on the faculty and cramming with hallucinogenic mushrooms and other drugs.

This is not a complaint, mind you, if anything I'm all "Well, yes, sounds right."

Makes you wonder why the songs is so bad.

Then you find out his sister wrote it.

women lol

So far, this is the only place on the internet that has any positive reaction to the winner.

Has the word 'Politics' been mentioned this time around at all?

If not, good and hray!

Like Australia giving the UK 12 points, you mean?

I liked the winner! It stood out from the vaguely EDM songs, and also from the wilder ones. I tend to prefer whatever Eastern Europe comes up with, but this year they were pretty toned down (my family says that there were wilder ones that didn't make the finals). But yay Portugal, which I just returned from last night as it happens.

Latest discovery from Eurovision not-2017:

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

Could imagine this turning up on a Finders Keepers comp

I vaguely know one of the Australian jurors and I am utterly baffled that she would have gone for the UK entry. She's a singer/songwriter/comedian and the bland UK entry is not what I would have expected would have tickled her fancy. Our jury's fondness for the UK's awful entries is a worry but at least we didn't give anything to Electro Velvet, but then again other country's juries' overfondness for our entry this time is a worry too - roundly rejected by the televoters, the juries propped it up to a bizarre extent for such a blah song (Dami Im was a blah song too but she sang the shit out of it to the extent that I would never bother listening to the studio version as the live version completely blows it away).

On the other hand, the Australian televoters once again did themselves proud and displayed their preference for fun songs, giving 12 and 10 to arguably the most fun songs in the final: Moldova and Romania. Last year our 12 and 10 also went to uptempo fun songs: Belgium's "What's The Pressure" and Bulgaria's "If Love Was a Crime". And in 2015, we went for uptempo Sweden and very fun Serbia in 1 and 3, and Belgium was 2nd (not uptempo but extremely high quality and too good to not be given points).

probably no need for a 2018 thread just yet
but whigfield has made it to the final 10 for denmarks entry

can't think of a better reason to kick off the 2018 season!