Eurovision Song Contest Torture

[Tag5]

I keep getting nagged by the missus as to which country will win and which one is my favourite. I don't think the hint of me being on the laptop is a give away really. Anyways I don't think the UK will be any worse than last year.

For those who are unaware of this waste of air time on TV they came last. LOL. :lol:

 

[apex.ultima]

I keep getting nagged by the missus as to which country will win and which one is my favourite. I don't think the hint of me being on the laptop is a give away really. Anyways I don't think the UK will be any worse than last year.

For those who are unaware of this waste of air time on TV they came last. LOL. :lol:

I only watched it to hear Terry Wogan take the piss out of other countries, it was great

 

[(naw)mcx]

I keep getting nagged by the missus as to which country will win and which one is my favourite. I don't think the hint of me being on the laptop is a give away really. Anyways I don't think the UK will be any worse than last year.

For those who are unaware of this waste of air time on TV they came last. LOL. :lol:

I get so over excited over the freeking contest.

I was extactic tonight

I hate Norway's song though, Azerbaijan should of won.

Well, the UK should of won, but you know

 

[dflemstr]

Well, the UK should of one, but you know

Spoken and written language - two different things

The contest? Completely useless in my opinion; it's just a huge program started by some EU politician to "increase the EU spirit", "improve the cooperation between countries", "letting all the countries show off their culture" etc, which gives the whole thing an artificial 'feel' to it. If the contest would've been started by some independent enthusiastic group, it would have seemed more authentic and real somehow. For now, I'm not interested in it at all.

(Says someone whose country came on the 20th place and whose fellow countrymen don't share his opinion at all)

 

[Javacat]

Pah! You posted this in the wrong forum and I missed it!

Anyways, did the Ukraine act make anyone else think of Madonna and a midlife crisis?


I was surprised by Norton. He was actually pretty good at it, although I did prefer Wogan. It was a bit ironic that after Wogan spends years moaning about block voting and eventually leaving because of it, the first eurovision without him and the voting was actually about the songs!

I also thought that the UK's song was crap, although the singer was reasonably decent. It was a bit tooo Webberish, although maybe europeans like that cheesiness.

 

[Tag5]

I just wet myself laughing when last years Russian winner appeared as part of the competition introduction takes off his coat and tries to throw it but ends up getting tangled on the fly-wires attached to his back harness. After 20 seconds of no joy to release it, just leaves it dangling behind him. :lol:

 

[fusion_power]

I don't get it, what was so great onto this Norway-Winner Song? Seems that every country loved it. It's Good to match a Europe-wide music-taste but I think there are better songs. Ok, our german Song was not so great but at least we are not at the last place like 2008. :lol:
UK was not bad, many of the other songs are somehow always the same.

This "Contest" needs a serious overhaul as soon as possible.

 

[apex.ultima]

Yep Norton was pretty good

"Is anybody else in europe laughing right now?"
OMG i was on the floor!

 

[bacteria]

I thought the show was fantastic - the Russian's put on a fantastic venue and show. Graham Norton was good too. Big improvement on previous years, this show was actually worth watching!!

 

[Tag5]

I thought the show was fantastic - the Russian's put on a fantastic venue and show. Graham Norton was good too. Big improvement on previous years, this show was actually worth watching!!
Agreed.

 

[Tor]

The contest? Completely useless in my opinion;

Can't disagree with that..

QUOTE
it's just a huge program started by some EU politician to "increase the EU spirit", [...]

However this isn't accurate. It's not a politician thing, and it's not an EU thing. It's a contest set up a long time ago by members of Eurovision, which is a cooperation between European TV broadcasters. Many of the slightly older members here will remember certain international programmes starting and ending with the Eurovision logo and playing the Eurovision theme (da daa da-da-daa-da DAA da..). Particularly sports transmissions. It's not much in use today for some reason.

 

[craigix]

I think that every year we should try to get zero points. 'nool pwa' if you will. We had been sticking to that goal for a while until this year.

So next year I suggest a duet with Garry Glitter and Pete Townsend, and their dancer could be the guy from 'in the thick of it'.

'Paedoxetera'.

Solid gold.

 

[Goity]

Something to suck on for landing, sir?

 

[nickspoon]

Somehow, we managed to come fifth. I was confused. Aren't we supposed to be terrible?

I didn't mind Norway's performance (the singer was cute) but Albania should have gotten more points. They had breakdancing midgets.

 

[kevcal]

Azerbaijan should of won.
I agree.
It was better than previous years as the political voting didn't seem 'as bad' as the last few years.

 

[quartercast]

Azerbaijan should of won.
I agree.
It was better than previous years as the political voting didn't seem 'as bad' as the last few years.

Azerbijan is part of the EU now? Wa-wa-wee-wa!

 

[Tor]

>Azerbijan is part of the EU now? Wa-wa-wee-wa!

It's got nothing to do with EU, as already stated. The Eurovision Song Contest is arranged by EBU, the European Broadcasting Union. They were doing this way back (this was the 54th time) when EU wasn't even called EU and only had a few member states. This year's winner isn't a EU member either, and they've even won before.

So, what matters is the member states of EBU. EU is totally irrelevant. EBU member states can be found here: http://www.ebu.ch/en/ebu_members/actives/index.php
and Azerbaijan is indeed a member.

 

[dflemstr]

>Azerbijan is part of the EU now? Wa-wa-wee-wa!

It's got nothing to do with EU, as already stated. The Eurovision Song Contest is arranged by EBU, the European Broadcasting Union. They were doing this way back (this was the 54th time) when EU wasn't even called EU and only had a few member states. This year's winner isn't a EU member either, and they've even won before.

So, what matters is the member states of EBU. EU is totally irrelevant. EBU member states can be found here: http://www.ebu.ch/en/ebu_members/actives/index.php
and Azerbaijan is indeed a member.

I actually didn't know that... But the Eurovision logo at the beginning and end of the show could've been a hint I guess... (I recognize it from other programs as well)
Usually I find stuff like this out before posting, but EuroVision sounds too much to me like the Sokrates Project (a completely useless European program) or The European Prospect for some reason that I thought it's roots was pretty obvious and further inquiry was unnecessary. Proven wrong, and shown that intuition can't be trusted all the time.

Oh well, this still doesn't make the show any better. I really can't understand why some of my fellow country(-wo-)men find it so entertaining; it's almost like a country-wide festival here in Sweden...

It consists of a countrywide tour going on for months where singers participate in weekly television programs and are voted on in a horribly complex system involving a two-phase 'extraction' system, multiple staging groups and a jury consisting of 121 people that make various analyzes and then of course also the people that calls in and votes for their favorites two times for every show and two times for the "final round" (a total of 20 or so voting rounds). Also, there are multiple calling methods including SMS systems, alternate telephone numbers where you pay a higher price and donate money to charity, etc etc. The people making the show also humiliate themselves constantly, trying to create some kind of weird humor, and failing over and over again.
This is a horrible, horrible complex and broken system, it's difficult even trying to explain it to you...

 

[Tor]

Well, if just the music had even been any good..
It's just so horribly bad, at least for my taste (which I thought was pretty wide, otherwise).
As you're located in Sweden -- If I'm not mistaken, Waterloo with Abba was the first time ever that a contender was intentionally dropping the Eurovision symphony orchestra to instead play it all by themselves (no wonder they won! ). Back then the introduction was a) the singer/group/whatever, and B.) the conductor. The music was provided by the same orchestra. So it always sounded terribly oldish.
I haven't actually watched any of it the last 15 years or more until I watched bits and pieces this year. I'll drop it again next year, it's just so bad.

 

[urjaman]

(The usual disclaimer applies - this is all my opinion) I'm a bit late on the thread - didn't want to hear of this thing after watching that. I could watch the voting only half way ... was too depressed by then. I really don't get why norway's song won (though the melody is pretty good) - IMHO there was so many better ones there ((if i can't "vote" on Finland) eg. Estonia,Iceland) Anyways, was our song that bad?

I think that every year we should try to get zero points. 'nool pwa' if you will. We had been sticking to that goal for a while until this year.

We we're pretty good at that before '06

EDIT: grammatical errors