2011 Eurovision UK entry

Blue to represent UK at Eurovision Song Contest

Looks like the BBC are not even gone to pretend that they're giving the public any kind of choice. Just a one hour "here's Blue, here's the song they're going to sing" documentary. But at least Never Mind The Buzzcocks will be able to start making jokes about Blue again! oh wait they never stopped...

Saw this earlier...only consolation for you guys is that if Ireland do go ahead and select Jedward, Blue are unlikely to come last.

That's a question of 'how much does Ireland not want the cost of hosting the Contest next year?'. Unless Blue's song is a real stinker it's unlikely to come last anyway. At least this year we've got an entry that the rest of Europe etc. has heard of. The (non) selection process has been a bit prefunctory though. It's the first time that the GBP haven't had a say in who represents the UK since the contest started. Unless you count the year before last.

With Italy back in the contest, the UK should pick up a few points with Blue. I've got no objection to the public not having a say in deciding who represents us. Half the rubbish we have submitted over the last few years went forward because it sounded, either to the audience or to the people putting it before the audience, like a 'Eurovision song'. That perception of what a 'Eurovision song' is meant to be, however, is twenty years out of date.

One unknown (for me at least) is how many countries still care about Blue or even know who they are.

I mean, No Angels were a big deal in Germany but.

I'm pretty sure they'd still be relatively well known. They still get fairly regular airplay in Italy and i've seen their videos on German and Russian music TV in the last few years. They did actively court the European market:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9J40V36p_M

They'll probably come ninth.

title of the song is 'I Can', I'm guessing this is a response song to the Mountain Goats' 'No, I Can't' right?

Coldplay, now that would have been something. Blue? Well... another early 00s boyband tried in Norway last year, but ended a runnerup. Might have done better than the one we actually picked, but it's not like A1's career has really been reactivated all that much. Apart from the odd livejob in Norway, that is....

Blue are higher up the scale than A1. It's not like getting Take That to do it, but it's better than the usual anonymous/reality TV famous entries the UK have had in recent years.

Saw this earlier...only consolation for you guys is that if Ireland do go ahead and select Jedward, Blue are unlikely to come last.

― Glenroe in 3D (seandalai), Sunday, 30 January 2011 15:08 (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

You realise that it's more likely the Euros will decide they love Jedward like the rest of the UK seem to, and that they will become all conquering in mainland europe, sign massive record contract, get number ones in Croatia/Italy/France/Monaco, and we'll never see or hear them again in england?

Slightly *ironic* that in an era when the products of competitive talent shows dominate the charts and TV schedules, the original 'let the people decide!' song contest decides to take it out of the hands of the public.

In what way?

Well I guess 'cos in the old days, the Eurovision was supposed to be in some way 'purer' than the grubby marketplace, where sales = quality: national juries, and the crackly phone lines to far off places, were supposed to ensure a 'disinterested' judgment of taste so that real quality, inherent in the song, rather than the performer, would shine through.

Nowadays, the spurious objectivity of 'collective judgment' is enlisted by the grubby marketplace at an earlier stage in the means of production: the masses vote for the acts they will later support with their itunes spending, so as to feel 'part of it'. It's just a little strange that, as the entire pop process in the UK at any rate, seems to depend on the participants in talent shows, the original 'big talent show' abandons that form (or rather, the British heat does)

'ironic' was in *---* quotes because it's not, of course, ironic, just interesting or peculiar.

I think, originally, Eurovision was partly thought of as an alternative to the then widely hate (among older generations) rock music. Which is why they had this rule until the late 90s that the entries all had to use a full symphonic orchestra.

Didn't realise the public vote had such a long tradition in the UK:

From 1964 up until 1975, an artist would be chosen by the BBC, and that artist would sing all six songs (five in 1966 and 1967) in the selection, and the public (bar 1964 and 1971) would choose by postcard which song they would like to represent them in the contest.

Though they did revert to a jury system for a while after 1975.

From a viewer's perspective, televoting in the ESC revolutionised an obsolete turgid competition into an amazing spectacle of lateral pop...unfortunately it was unsustainable (countries with no friends got fed up with losing all the time) but I'm not sure we'll see the high quality of the 2006-09 era again for a while. Selections so far for this year are quite dull.

Oh really? (xpost to Geir re: Orchestra rule)

That explains something that used to bug me..

Why, when the UK entries performed, it sounded nothing like the record.

My mum said at the time, maybe they weren't allowed to use the same arrangement for the record as the final performance, for copyright reasons.

I thought she was MAD.

Now, I learn she was RIGHT !!

(or, at the very least, close)

Reintroducing juries was a terrible decision on many, many levels. That said, i thought last year's contest was surprisingly strong. The predicted concentration on worthy ballads didn't really materialise.

X-Post: The rule was there, but some countries knew better how to give the orchestra a discreet part.

Norway tended to use an old orchestra guru who arranged a lot of Norwegian pre-rock popular music to rearrange the songs. He loved orchestras and hated rock and modern pop music, so typically, entries that may have sounded kind of cool in the Norwegian preselection sounded extremely corny once he had rearranged them for the big orchestra. Egil Monn Iversen probably has a huge part of the blame for Norway's not very glorious Eurovision history.

...only consolation for you guys is that if Ireland do go ahead and select Jedward, Blue are unlikely to come last.

Jedward to represent Ireland at Eurovision

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpM2sjinenQ&annotation_id=annotation_82459&feature=iv

Norway goes Africa this year:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7k9vOc_B9w
(This is the semi final entry - she had a cold during the final, so - while no great vocalist - she sings better here)

It's a wacker "Waka Waka", LOL, amirite?

The beat is very much "Waka Waka" sure. I'd argue the actual song isn't.

Ukraine's final is tonight. This is one of the favourites:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6iJ_657m5c

I believe the faint patter you can hear in the background is the tears of Annika Sorenstam. They actually have some pretty decent songs but none of them can sing live.

I will be supporting this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUJgYjNn5Zs

Awesome. Zdob si Zdub are genuinely one of my favourite bands of the last ten years and i didn't know they were back in it. The song's not totally knocking me out at the moment though.

What's their best song?

The Agroromantica and Tabara Noastra albums are both great. Buna Dinineata gives a pretty good idea of what their sound is like:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPJX8Io1Nxg

They're an absolutely massive influence on Gogol Bordello, which you may or may not think is a recommendation.

I actually think this is great:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFciOb0diQE

No chance of winning though, for many obvious reasons.

Yeah, people don't want the same act to win two years in a row. Particularly not when she has actually not been able to score any more hits than her previous winner in the meantime.

That Moldovan entry is........ different..... Pretty sure it doesn't win though.

And tomorrow the UK will get to hear the song that we're sending...
Blue unveil 'anthemic' Eurovision track

The lyrics have a personal flavour, the boys comparing rain to "drops of pain" and declaring they are "not the first ones to be divided".
"I can untie these hands and get back up again," they declare triumphantly.
One line, though, might come back to haunt them on Eurovision night.
"I've never lost anything quite like this," sings Antony Costa in a wavering falsetto.

Ptuh. It's already leaked. It's not bad!

Oh here we go...
http://www.belgovision.com/en/index_f.php?id=7486
Well, you get Blue for Eurovision and this is pretty much what you expect. Chorus has a Euro feel to it, verse lyrics not as bad as they are on paper.

Looking forward to the landfill dubstep remix.

Anyone putting money on it? Looks like a pretty open field.

My cash may go elsewhere but i think my heart is with Belarus.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Asz9f-9SxiE&feature=relmfu

read the first line of the first post in this thread as Blur and I was like wtf

For those who can stand it, there's the first of a four part series on tonight called 'Your Country Needs Blue'. Didya see what they did there, oh roffles etc...

Be interesting to see how last year's UK entry is referred to - either he's not mentioned at all or Norton gets snarky.

My housemate and I have put a fun amount of money on Serbia. Fun because it's not a huge amount but the odds on it are incredibly long and it's such a great little pop tune - probably very juror-friendly, and Serbia's got neighbours.

I put some money on Estonia - it's one of the favourites so the odds were not great but it's an insidiously catchy song. I have a side-bet on Romania, at 80-1, which seems like long odds for something that should have a pretty broad appeal.

Romania is tapping the same vein as a number of entries that have done well, and I don't _hate_ it.

I have money on Estonia winning its semi. The "jazz" breakdown reminds me of, ugh, "Avenging Angels" by Space, and it would be better if it were purest bosh the whole way through.

Do we need a dedicated '11 thread?

I put a tenner each way on Russia, 25/1 was too good to pass up and I think it's more likely than not to be in the top four.

Russia sending a contemporary ballad sort of thing OR an attractive singer is usually guaranteed top 5, and enough neighbours probably think their entry is the latter to make that an OK bet.

Betfair has "odds to win without France" which looks like a good bet if you reckon your fave will come second.

First semifinal coming up in 15 minutes! Streaming here: http://www.eurovision.tv/esctv/main?program=24973

Serbia was delightful.

Quite surprised that Armenia and Turkey lost out but Lithuania and Switzerland went through.

Ouch at Greece getting through. That was really some weak rapping.

Apparently Armenia had an absolute disaster last night (the juries vote based on the dress rehearsal not on the televised event), might be some explanation. Very surprised by Turkey, maybe the diaspora vote has got complacent?

Faves tonight were Serbia and Portugal.

We could have done without Lithuania and Iceland getting through.

The dress rehearsals for Armenia were not great, the second was better than the first but she skipped whole lines in the first!

I am glad Lithuania got through, I'm hoping its bland Lloyd Webberisms will hoover up the jury vote and thwart Fucking France.

I think Albania was the country that was dudded. Good song, brilliant vocal... thought juries would eat that sort of thing up.

As for Turkey, it was kind of like Josh Homme's voice coming out of Rene from Aqua. As if it deserved to go through! GOOD RIDDANCE.

Yep, Turkey was horrible but i'm surprised that the diaspora didn't have enough weight to get it through. Can't see any of the juries rating it highly though.

Albania was a little wobbly at first but ended up being one of the stronger vocals on the night. I'm not sure whether there were sound problems but about two thirds of the songs seemed wildly off key at times.

I know they were a bit wacky but I genuinely liked the song from Portugal.

Was Serbia the '60s-esque one? It wasn't amazing but fun enough.

Finland was my favourite. An absolutely beautiful ballad, unlike anything else tonight.

Would have expected our entry to go through, but Stella sang really horrible tonight, plus the monkey sounds from audiences at football/soccer matches says something about the mentality towards Africans in Eastern and Southern Europe.

Anyone know if it's going to be shown on American TV at all?

That Jedward one is exactly like 'Womanizer'!

No way on American TV. But the eurovision.tv stream is excellent quality and was highly reliable, I watched it without a single drop-out for the entirety of the semi and it was watchable even beamed onto a 50 inch TV.

Geir, the Norwegian song didn't go through because it was genuinely one of the worst songs in the contest melodically. And if an entry is trying to hoover up votes based on Appeal to the Other in such a pat way, then if it loses on racism, it's probably richly deserved. Perhaps Norway should take that into account if it wants to send a novelty song in the vein of Hakuna Matata?

Norway's song wasn't totally horrible on record but it was much too close to Waka Waka and the singer is, by her own admission, tone deaf.

African-American and West Indian acts don't seem to have a problem getting success in Central and Eastern Europe. There's no logical reason why African-Norwegian singers should either.

Sure, it isn't all that much of a song, and when she doesn't hit the notes properly, I can see her struggling.

But it was surely better than the Greek entry, which must have been the worst Greek entry for ages. It largely sounded like Bulgarian folk music and that is not a good thing.

Haba Haba was the only song to trend worldwide on twitter during the competition, so the result was surprising.

Greece was the only one of last night's qualifications that really baffled me; I could work out justifcations for all the others.

And of last night's qualifiers, I'd say The One To Watch is, ugh, Finland.

Greece has a "structural advantage": lots of points from televoters in UK, Albania, maybe Serbia...obv they still need to convince the juries but it's a help. Singing last is also supposed to help (none of the first 5 made it, and 4 of the last 5 did). I thought Stereo Mike was hilarious.

The lead vocal on the Greek song was pretty impressive and, although it sounds a mess on record, it did have a kind of epic quality that would have worked for them. I'm reliably informed that the lyrics were the kind of thing that a lot of the Greek diaspora would respond well to (more than the Turkish diaspora evidently did to their dreadful English-language one).

I'm surprised it qualified though.

I'm surprised it qualified but Turkey didn't, because I'm still wondering how bad a Greek song has to be to not get through, I guess we'll still never know. Now we know how bad a Turkish song has to be, but, then again, "Shake It Up Shekerim" came top 5 and that was arguably no better. "We Could Be The Same" and "Deli" were great, mind you.

I am relieved to hear you disapprove of Finland, Mike! Feel like it was quite a diverse semi which explains a few of the qualifiers - i.e. Hungary was obviously the best of the four boshers, Switzerland hit a note with its "I'm Yours" X "Bubbly" familiarity, Lithuania a big comforting Disney Lloyd Webber ballad etc etc, Georgia the better rock song, Azerbaijan maybe picking up Turkey's votes and the people who liked Denmark last year. Sad Europe couldn't find it in its heart to put Albania through!

ed do I need to hear any songs urgently before Friday night? email me if so, I will not notice this thread at work and won't be home awake again before I see you

Greece has a "structural advantage": lots of points from televoters in UK, Albania, maybe Serbia...

And the voters in those countries also love that kind of music, because it sounds like typical folk music from Balkan (i.e. horrible.....)

And Finland is still beautiful, clearly the best song from the entire evening. A nice and simple melodic ballad with no stash and no glitter, just the singer and the song all alone, and actually rather beautiful.

I enjoy your viewpoint more than nearly anyone else does on this board Geir, but..

Finland? Really?

It's so cloying and the lyrics are embarrassing.

2nd Semi Final on now. Jedward are on last, possibly fittingly.

This should be the superior semi-final by a distance.

uh Belgium no

It's the smoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooth jazz smugness that kills it.

I'm not sure Bruges' answer to Biz Markie really improved things much.

Come on Moldova!

If I was in charge of Ukraine's overhead camera lit-up dust table I'd draw a giant cock...

Moldova was great! The song has evidently grown on me.

Sweden is pretty good.

Actually I think that could be top 5 on Saturday.

Moldova were great, Sweden was bollocks. A lot of incredibly rapey songs this year, too.

I walked out of the room for 15 seconds and Cyprus turned into some kind of mad BHS Lighting shop advert.

Cyprus' World Champion Men's Leaning Team

Bulgarian singer is the first contestant to step outside of the upside-down pie plate stage.

Russia really don't want the cost of hosting this again, do they?

s/Russia/FYR Macedonia

Dana International! They're pulling out the big guns. Bet the song is shit, though.

There's a lot of highly polished but insubstantial Eurodance, even more so that usual.

And you can tell that more and more Eurovision countries are getting their own X Factor shows because of the large number of these diva type songs.

A tweet my daughter just relayed: 'Macedonia insisting that Greece be referred to in future as 'the IMF/ECB/EU funded Republic of Greece''

Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeere's Johnny Jedward!

Ugh. Hope they don't make it through, then maybe we can finally be rid of them.

They're going to fucking win, aren't they.

I mean, the cheer in the arena. Europe loves them. Well Europe can bloody well have them.

Doubt they'll win but it's a massive step up from anything they've ever done and the best Irish entry in years. Total rip-off of Womanizer, but should go through to the final on merit.

Has the sound gone funny or have they applied pitch correction to Blue's speaking voices?

Watching the recap, here's my pessimistic prediction:

Bosnia
Austria
Ukraine
Sweden
Bulgaria
Slovenia
Romania (ugh)
Estonia
Denmark (ugh*5000)
Ireland

Fear Moldova, the Nation of Leaners and I LOVE BELARUS will miss out.

Yessssss. Moldova IN.

JEDWARD through!

Fantastic line-up but there'll be a Belarus-shaped hole in the show on Saturday night.

Well you are clearly biased. :-P (Only tonight did I "get" your username.)

JEDWARD: immediately liked the backdrop of squares, crosses, triangles, circles in red, white, black. They're gonna draw the drunken constructivist + suprematist votes on the night alright.

This looked like the more confusing semi on paper but was far less shocking than the first. Bet lots of people picked 10 correctly this time, whereas if you got 10 the other night you FLUKED it.

Bulgaria was great, but staged badly and then UPSTAGED badly in that regard by Slovenia. Maybe they should have sung in English, but it WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN AS GOOD PROBABLY.

Shocked that Belarus' cacky Disney nonsense last year qualified and I LOVE BELARUS missed out.