2018 Eurovision Grand Final Live Thread - We Got The Pyros (Ah yeah ah yeah ah yeah, yeah ah yeah ah yeah)

[allezfred]

This is an INTERNATIONAL competition, with one entry representing Flag/County (and not just a competition like pro-tennis where country of the athlete is just a technicality). It would be right, if each singer presented music and song, in NATIVE LANGUAGE with lyrics and music which represent the country, history, and the ethnic roots of the music.

Well then make a representation to the EBU with your suggestions. I am sure they will be able to use your pointers on their 63 year old TV show that has hundreds of millions of viewers.

Personally, I like that countries have the freedom to choose what kind of song they want to represent them and what language they want to sing their songs in.

 

[screech]

Back in the day, countries were supposed to sing in one of their official languages. Summarized from Wikipedia:

• From 1956-1965 there was no rule restricting languages, though in 1966 the rule was imposed stating songs must be performed in one of the official languages in the country (this was after Sweden sang in English in 1965 - the first country to not sing in their own language)
• The language restriction continued to 1973, when performers could again sing in any language, leading to several mid 70s winners (like ABBA) winning in English
• In 1977 the EBU went back to the national language restriction (though that year Germany and Belgium had already had their national selection, so were allowed to keep their chosen English songs)
• In 1999 the rule again changed to allow the choice of language. Most songs are now performed in English (in 2016, all but 3 of the 36 semi finalist songs were sung in English)
• After Salvador Sobral won last year with a Portuguese song, this year had 12 of the 43 participating songs in native languages, a huge increase.

 

[allezfred]

In 1999 the rule again changed to allow the choice of language. Most songs are now performed in English (in 2016, all but 3 of the 36 semi finalist songs were sung in English)

Between 2001 and 2009 there was a string of wins by countries that had never won before. Only one of these was by a country not performing in English.

 

[Josh78]

Cyprus/Estonia/Moldova wuzrobbed!!!!$!!*%~@!!

and Ukraine ...and Spain....and UK...and France.....and Albania....and Hungary....the ESC PTB's have to come out with more clear criteria of what they want to be emphasized in this contest -- do they want it to be about the songs/artists and do they want to be the kind of contest who creates artists who are a success across country/cultural barriers, NOT JUST in Europe, but potentially WORLD wide ---- or do they just want it to be a huge party where the songs with the zaniest staging/most club sounding/more than enough pyro and smoke and strobe lights to singe North American's hair off are the ones that win out? There always seems to be such a disparity between what the juries and the public want, and I don't know if there's really ANY system you could implement that would COMPLETELY take away jury connections with artists leading to pumped up scores/cultural differences/animosity between countries in history (aka Azerbaijan/Armenia REPEATEDLY putting each other LAST just for spite whether it's really warranted or not, etc.), and increasingly bloggers/podcasters/public openly declaring who their favorites are standing by them even if performances on the week really DON'T warrant that -- I love it in one way because of the drama, especially in a year where beyond the top one or two (as noted by prognosticators), there were so many good songs, but if it were me, I would get rid of the betting because I think that just bleeds too much into people's impressions, which makes it really hard for a country's act to break out of an overlooked position EVEN IF a semi/final performance might have really shined on the nights --- as an outsider, I don't know how this doesn't lead to near civil war every year lol (and just so all know, I completely feel that Israel/Cyprus 1-2 was a COMPLETELY WORTHY finish)...

 

[allezfred]

There always seems to be such a disparity between what the juries and the public want

Last year the public and juries had the exact same top two.

Change of topic, but I came across a really interesting article about why the UK hasn't had much success at Eurovision lately. It explains a lot.

The Secret Challenges of Representing the UK at Eurovision

 

[Madhatter]

...
Boyle's voice and singing style is better than Netta's...
Yes Netta won, i am happy for Israel. I still think her song, style and looks do not represent Israel at its best.

This is an INTERNATIONAL competition, with one entry representing Flag/County (and not just a competition like pro-tennis where country of the athlete is just a technicality). It would be right, if each singer presented music and song, in NATIVE LANGUAGE with lyrics and music which represent the country, history, and the ethnic roots of the music.

Lol, was this your first time watching Eurovision? "Represent your country's music" has never been a requirement. It pops up occasionally but if that was folksy music competition, with lofty goals such as representing ethnic roots and history, it wouldn't be half as popular as it is. Ethnic influences appear regularly (a couple of songs in this edition incorporated ethic cound, and one of the reasons I wanted to cheer on Poland was that other than giving me the guy singing about colors, it also served rap fused with folk decorated with sexy butter churners a couple of years back) and sometimes even wins but the fact is Eurovision is about pure unadultered entertainment and ratings. It's about the excitement seeing which country this year will produce something that entire Europe (and Australia) will enjoy, which country will have the best special effects, and which country will provide the wtf, etc, etc.

 

[Nmsis]

allzfred : Although lots of North American pop music these days are written by Swedish and Norwegian composers

good to know....

Britney Spears indeed used A LOT of swedish songwriters.
The guy who wrote Fuego for Cyprus (a greek-swedish) is actually one of the authors of vivir mi vida by Marc Anthony.
Rihanna by two norwegian and one french songwriters... https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pa14VNsdSYM
Katy Perry by the same guys ... https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QGJuMBdaqIw
The norwegians duo Stargate https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stargate_(music_producers) has worked for a hell of a long list of prestigious american artists.
If american pop music is working so well in Europe, it's actually because it is actually full of european sound.
So it's not a surprise to find the same kind at the eurovision song contest.