Eurovision Malmö 2013

so with petra mede just announced as the host and many countries announcing their picks in the next few weeks, i figured a new thread was in order.

i already posted this in the norwegian semifinals thread but i think margaret berger has the standout tune for norway so far:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgGiBRj0yns

anything else worth checking out?

If this leads to Berger making another album, which she hasn't since the superb Pretty Scary Silver Fairy seven years ago, that would be terrific.

Something about this song doesn't sit right with me. I like all the noisy synths and stuff, but in the end it's just dolled up Evanescence and nobody wants that.

Here's my favourite from finnish semifinals:

Iina Salin - Last Night (handbaghouseish disco song)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSzUp0zb9kI

But I think this has the most winning potential:

Krista Siegfrids - Marry Me (katy perryish modern radiopop)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lV5VOdBX2ns

So many things wrong with that Marry Me song.

Or this one. Personally I think the song is forgettable, she's excellent singer anyway.

Diandra Flores - Colliding into you (Finnish Idols winner)

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

The danish winner:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XqOYAGgiFE

Rubbish

Yep, but Denmark always send the worst songs.

I Love Belarus bringing the quality as usual with their NF winner:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgrZ3ExffP4

Also as usual, they've announced they're going to change the song :(

Even if it never happens, my absolute favourite thing about ESC 2013 so far is the rumour that San Marino are going to send a C-Pop song: http://ilkar.blogspot.fi/2013/01/ex-cookies-stephy-and-theresa-for-san.html - genius in so many ways.

Yep, but Denmark always send the worst songs.

― questino (seandalai), 29. januar 2013 16:23 (25 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Hell no:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRFDYbb3vek

Apart from that, you're right.

yeah i saw that the danes had a choice already and was thinking huh, maybe they should have thought about it a little longer. i was really enjoying danish pop releases last year, and would love to see an entry from rasmus seebach or marie key. or hell, even something from their rap/dancehall scene would be neat, anything but that song basically.

that belarusian track is great though

in the end it's just dolled up Evanescence and nobody wants that.

wrong

OH MY GOD this estonian entry

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gP1FhBzw5EU

A vision, that.

estonian entry is song of the year, decade, our whole lives

from emo canon in twee major, that statement shouldn't surprise me, guess:)

lol

According to Mr. t**t re: said song:

the band name really is the Estonian version of Winnie the Pooh. Also the songtitle is “Our Homie Korsakoff Went to Latvia Yesterday,” ‘only they manage to make a 3/4-successful bilingual attempt to incorporate ‘the best part’ of the word cun* into that title…Now what happens to homie Korsakoff: he breaks a lot of stuff - his leg, nose, etc - or gets them broken for him. Depends on the perspective, I’d say.’ I have taken all this under advisement.

San Marino, why you disappoint me so? Though sending Facebook Woman a second time is some kind of crazy trolling. Not going to get through though.

"Gothminister" in MGP look like a good time:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bopA-d_Alf8

first swedish semifinal just finished — the second place finalist, yohio, i've been following since i saw him on skavlan, i can't find the song online yet but just look at this outfit:
http://poplight.zitiz.se/files/imagecache/default-large/files/article/0000087777777.jpg
none of the songs stood out to me as winners though. really looking forward to "swedish house wives" (pernilla wahlgren, jenny silver, hanna hedlund) next semifinal, the name alone would secure my vote for sure

Jenny Silver is awesome. Another Thomas G:Son song though? He and Kjempe need to clear the field for some new blood I reckon.

I admire Jay-Jay Johanson for taking a crack at a contest that is well outside his "core audience" for the most part, but the song wasn't any good either.

Berger.

yeah. not a huge upset but i'm glad she made it.

also the swedes were in classic eurovision form tonight:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJzVTv3yON4

The two songs that have gone through to Second Chance are better than the two that went through to the final by a long way. Sean Banan is a bloody buffoon who needs to stop, or be stopped.

Krista Siegfrids will represent Finland in Mälmö 2013:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLEBoVvSRS8

Greece, for one, made the right decision!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYSTA1XHF3k

Bonnie Tyler chosen for Eurovision
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqXk_FRw62Q
A standard mid-tempo Desmond Child joint. From 'Lost in France' to losing in Sweden?

For some reason I had thought Bonnie Tyler is American, but apparently not?

She's Welsh.

Makes a lot of sense from the BBC's perspective - where the UK places is a secondary concern compared to boosting viewership/voting. Everyone knows who Bonnie Tyler is (cf. Andy Abraham/Josh), people who wouldn't usually tune in will do just as they did for Blue/Engelbert. Not much chance of escaping the righthand side of the leaderboard, but hey.

She's the male Rod Stewart

looks like most polls have yohio winning melodifestivalen on saturday. i've been following him for ages but the song's pretty mediocre, he'll probably win the audience vote but hopefully the judges will see reason. he's very good looking though, so i see why he has a fanatic teen girl following (is that creepy to say if i'm 20? probably).

swedish final on right now, still on the opening performances if anyone's interested http://www.svt.se/melodifestivalen/se-program/9-3-20-00

Not going to be able to watch but I'm silently cheering for Ralf Gyllenthingy and Sean Banan.

robin stjernberg "you" comes in on top, though yohio did get the biggest audience vote as i predicted, he jumped from #9 to #2 on that alone. kind of a boring #1 in my opinion, i'd take berger over it for sure

ugh

Isn't it about time the BBC realize that 60s and 70s MOR doesn't appeal to even middle aged Eurovision viewers these days?

Former Eurovision contestant Engelbert Humperdinck has written an open letter to Bonnie Tyler, who will perform the British entry at this year's contest.

Dear Bonnie,

I wanted to take this opportunity to congratulate you on being the one to represent our wonderful country.

The Eurovision was such a great step in my career and with the grand support of the BBC and my beloved country behind me, the loss of winning had me stepping on a loose unforgiving stone on a pyramid to paradise.

But paradise will always be there for someone else to triumph in fair judgment to pride our country once again.

Most Sincerely, Engelbert.

PS. You can do it Bonnie.

Uhhhhhhh... come again, Hump?

Hm I'm thinking the Anouk one sounds like a pretty fucking classy song actually.

(I also quite love, in a Weimar Republic Neil Tennant way, Lithuania, I must say.)

I've been having my cooloff period before the madness.

Bookies' odds are characteristically nonsensical:

Denmark 11/8
Ukraine 6/1
Norway 8/1
Russia 12/1
Netherlands 14/1
Sweden 20/1
Italy 20/1
Germany 20/1
Georgia 20/1
San Marino 25/1
Ireland 25/1
Azerbaijan 25/1
UK 25/1

Yah confused abt odds of not necessarily Denmark (rousing mock-Celtica obv seems good with UK punters), but UKR is just horribly formed "Alone" by Heart?

Preliminary result from my deep and clever Bayesian analysis of all country votes from the last 4 years* (ie cobbled-together Excel spreadsheet) suggest that AZE is the country most advantaged by "friendly country votes". It's actually not a big effect, but it may have given them the win in 2011. The hottest couple is (no surprise) Romania + Moldova, but they don't really have friends apart from each other. A small surprise may be that FRA->TUR shows up as a stronger love than GER->TUR.

*) only data since 2009 allowed, as that is when the current voting regime was inaugurated (jury + televote).

still not impressed with denmark though i came around to the song somewhat. surprising to see them as the frontrunners here. for some reason i thought germany was a big player despite it being clearly a much shittier "euphoria"

Really surprised that Denmark is the frontrunner, I thought it was the typical boring stuff we always send. Fun fact: To find uniforms for the drummers, they just went down in the basement at the television station to find some old ones. Later on people told them, that their uniforms was from a tv-series about Waffen SS.

AZE is the country most advantaged by "friendly country votes".

Irritates the hell out of me this argument, esp. coming from whining Brits who can't understand why no-one else in Europe is interested in washed-up hasbeens singing third rate songs from third rate songwriters.

Yes, Tom D -- that is exactly the type of reason why I wanted to quantify it. The effect *is* present (conclusive results pending tho – CPU working overtime; a non-parametric model means there's a lot of parameters), but nowhere near as strong as sometimes shouted about. GBR is not immune obv -- MLT seems to favour GBR like hell, and no-one seems to really HAET the GBR apart from everyone when the GBR's songs are quite shitty, ie what every country gets.

ugh the online feed stopped working for me after the gaultier thing.

this must be awkward for germany now that loreen showed up. they'll have to go home and change

I'm hoping Norway wins but i have a horrible feeling it might be Greece

Greece is the turd in the chocolate box.

My fb feed has a surprising amount of Dutch love but us Brits rarely chime with the tastes of Euroland at large.

I like the Greek entry. Actually this year there have been very few clunkers and no outright garbage.

Voted for the Netherlands, Romania, Ireland (based on totty alone) and Norway.

I think quite a few Eurovision fans like the Greek entry trolololol.

really enjoyed tonight's show but am forgoing watching the vote

Truly they are shoving their liberal Scandinavian attitudes to sex down Eastern Europe's throats.

The UK isn't going to win, but I'd be surprised if it was a total wash out.

uh oh, hopeless green room wonk alert

hashtag shit presenter

Now let's play 'which country representative is the most drunk?'

Alcohol is free douze points.

Denmark struggling a bit.

Urgh, that'll be a nasty hangover if Greece win.

Ukraine field a tipsy rag week student to announce the result of their vote.

Wish I'd had a punt on Azerbaijan now.

It's looking like Denmark, i'm not a big fan, but its a worthier winner than azerbaijan

Hashtag beyoodiful girl!

Montenegro forgot to turn their TV off.

La Montenegro was in front of a green screen too.

hashtagbeautifulgirl wins.

Are they not announcing the rest?

I guess they had to announce the winner now, because they've already over-run by 5 minutes and some TV channels will have to switch off now?

Hmmm, the production on the night has gone off the rails somewhat...

Ugh, would have won the bet on Lithuania beating Estonia had Lithuania not voted for Estonia.

http://twitter.com/paddypower/status/335884819072425985/photo/1/large

Dang it, we won. Was on a bridge in Copenhagen dancing to Daft Punk when all of a sudden fireworks flew up from the city, and the rumours started spreading what had happened. Then everyone said 'who cares' and kept dancing.

Well, I plan to move to Sweden next year so the entry being in Copenhagen is great news for me, it actually winning aside.

Had a big party fuelled mostly by Fernet Branca, favourites round our way were Romania, Greece and (ugh) Malta, fun was had. Made some money on Azerbaijan placing. Still hate Denmark's song but don't really care at this point.

Hungary, Malta, Netherlands. Take those three out! I had bets on 11, 12 13 for top 10. FUCK./

this turned out like the sonic youth poll.
romania woz robbed

Voted for Finland and, um, in a sudden fit of generosity, Ireland. The Netherlands, Malta and Ukraine were also pretty good.

Would buy the Norway song if Berger put it out on one of her own albums, but it didn't feel very Eurovision to me.

Didn't like the winner, but I have an aversion to penny whistles in pop in general. Spanish bagpipes were great though; interesting song, shame about the singer.

(^this all based on how the songs came across on the radio during the contest)

Would buy the Norway song if Berger put it out on one of her own albums, but it didn't feel very Eurovision to me.

I would have voted for Petra's halftime performance.

Nah, one large showboat for the host and her talents to a europewide viewing public..

So we won't be hearing from her again, like, ever.

Don't know if I'd buy the Norwegian song but it's the best piece of music I've heard in Eurovision in years. When oh when will Europeans ever get over this tootling pennywhistling bagpiping Celtic bollocks?

"lynda woodruff" was AMAZING

as was the interval song about sweden!! like, genuinely inspiring to me. it was at least as good as the (overlong) london olympics opening ceremony thingie.

my faves were:

- nederlands
- iceland
- ehhhhh can't remember

a cow-orker just shared this with me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFJaRzv-beI

Azerbaijan probes Russian 'nul points'

Everybody who missed this part of the show, WATCH THIS NOW:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1J8hiN9K4ko

Not-so-useful "breakdown" of the jury/televote results: http://wiwibloggs.com/2013/05/28/eurovision-2013-jury-televote-split-for-the-grand-final/27806/

I dunno though..

e.g.
Greece were ranked 12th by the juries, on average, but 6th by the viewers

Which means the viewers enjoyed "Alcohol Is Free" more than the 'discerning' jury panel. Which you'd expect, really.

Ironic, since the jury were probably enjoying free alcohol.

It's useful in the sense that you can see what the jury/televoters did and didn't like - e.g. juries slaughtered Romania and televoters slaughtered France - but there's no way to work out where a country would have come in a jury-only or televoter-only setup (as in previous years) or how the average ranks add up to points. In principle you could have an average rank of 11 and get 0 points or have an average rank of 11 and get lots of points.

Yup. Apparantly the irish song was more popular than several other songs with both juries and televoters, but it only got 5 points. Also, Denmark won the vote both places. It's really weird, you don't hear the song anywhere, even though the victory is close to all the media talks about. I checked it again on youtube, and BOY is it bad. Just staggeringly inept. No melodies, no structure. Just some notes and then her shouting ONLY TEARDROOOOOOPS. And drums. pure crap.

Not gonna start a new thread (or should I?) but did anyone notice that Türkvizyon is on? The Tuvan entry is blowing my mind right now:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NAZwbMI8HM