Eurovizh Poptimist Postmortem

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Who ruled? Who wuz robbed? Who did the robbing? Will Terry stay or go? Is the Russian win down to Timbaland, rollerblades, or the bloc-vote version of Buggins' Turn? When did modern dance take over Eurovision and why won't the UK play the game? Is Sebastien Tellier in fact The Dude? Any other questions??

(I thought overall the quality was pretty high this year, though only 1 or 2 real standouts. Only 1 or 2 real stinkers too, sadly one of them won the thing.)

Comments

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Full liveblog of it here (http://katstevens.livejournal.com/580351.html) (public entry for now but I might have to lock it when I get back to work), but here's my gist:

- UKRAINE FTW (http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=gM-gN4xfm8s) my god that song was so awesome, every time you thought you knew what was coming next it threw a DISCO CURVEBALL at you. (The video is a bit rubbish though)
- Spain were even worse than Dustin the Turkey
- Azerbaijan & Latvia = entertaining but not all that
- Iceland = this is what Gemini should have been like the other year
- Finland = I rly liked this, fake-metal or no
- France = shame about the backing vocals being a bit off as this was a reasonable song for once

[anatol-merklich.livejournal.com]

Teräsbetoni's heroes are MANOWAR, so surely they cannot be false metal.

[anatol-merklich.livejournal.com]

[i]I bet loads of dudes will vote for [Portugal] out of sheer frustration.[/i]

Har har ow! ;)
Srsly though, Iceland-Turkey-Portugal was a solid run.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

As for Russia, I totally knew they would win but STILL FAILED to put a tenner on them, noez. World champion ice skater + Timbabeats + teenage hearthrob who didn't win the other year + emo epic = dead cert.

As for the bloc voting palaver - I've said elsewhere that there's only three things we can do, really: 1) suck it up and accept we'll come last forever more 2) drop out completely 3) field a song that is totally un-Eurovisiony (like France did this year) and try not to care too much about the result (like France does every year). I think 3) should be a BASSLINE BANGER.

[http://users.livejournal.com/xyzzzz__/]

Thing is you still need a decent-ish song, and some effort in presentation (as w/the ice skating). I guess if you have that it could give an edge in a close race, but still you do get diff winners every year

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

4) Fake a break-up of the Union (last year it became clear that the so-called Yugoslav civil war was a total sham - you don't give 12 points to someone who was only ethnically cleansing you a decade ago). Scotland, Wales, the Channel Islands, Isle of Wight, Isle of Man - we'd storm it!

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

We decided last night our only hope of a decent showing were craven appeals to tax exiles and ex-pats. So a satirical song called "Political Correctness Gone Mad" performed by Jeremy Clarkson is our best bet.

[yuxonomei.livejournal.com]

I LOLed.

If only it would happen.

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

it has to be a rap tho

[anatol-merklich.livejournal.com]

No no no, pop-rap is sooo 90s and will be scoffed at by all the updateder-than-thou Easterners.

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

yr right, it should totally be a righteous 70s dub'n'toast: I Claxon's "PC gone bloodclaat"

[anatol-merklich.livejournal.com]

ONTO SOMETHING!

Next year's UK entry: I&I Klaxon!

[byebyepride.livejournal.com]

My top 5:

Latvia: pirate eurobosh
Spain: fantastic tack-rap. The guy sounded like the male interlocutor on Yolanda Perez's Estoy Enamoranda track from a few years back.
Bosnia & Herzogovina: showing the Arcade Fire how it should be done.
Azerbaijan: Queensryche-a-like
Sweden: solid europop

Also memorable:
Germany: good track but poorly sung on the night
Malta: didn't make it to the final, but stonking eurobosh
Estonia: ditto, best comedy entry
Ireland: you know about
Armenia & Greece: 2 x Shakira
Croatia: nice old-school euro-nonsense.

Everyone on the message board I was following this on liked France. I thought it was wacky funster nonsense for student c&nts.

I think Britain should enter separate Welsh, Scottish, Northern Irish and English entries, then we can all vote for each other. But there is no way we should bother paying for this crap-fest.

[http://users.livejournal.com/xyzzzz__/]

France = I thought it was Jarvis w/fake beard for a sec

Sweden = the one europop dance thing that I disliked.

Unlike Armenia, Ukraine, Greece (she looked like Britney a bit)

Spain was excellent. Loved how Terry just spent his time working how this got more points than the couldn't-be-arsed UK entry! Reggaeton x Macarena = funny + quite gd.

Also loved how Malta gave no points to the UK.

[http://users.livejournal.com/xyzzzz__/]

Oh, and Iceland ws nice.

Spain got abt 50 points, so it was worth that.

[anatol-merklich.livejournal.com]

Twas Proper Skates surely, not rollerblades? Bit scary since Dima performs barefoot, ow.

I wibbled on, live and at length, on the other place last night. Voted for B&H, Iceland and Portugal myself. And well done Maria & Mira!

[amina-yui.livejournal.com]

My top three: Ukraine, Iceland, and Sweden!
~~I wish Armenia had done better, she was my favorite from the start!

[(Anonymous)]

I voted for Latvia and Azerbaijan.

Thought this was a really good show this year.

If Wogan goes, I think Russell Brand should be the new commentator.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

http://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/2008/05/5-point-plan-for-the-uk-to-win-eurovision/ - nothing I haven't said many a time on LJ but I thought I'd link to it anyhow.

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

I tried to post on that thread but I think the spam filter ate the post.

Basically, I accept most of your arguments. If it's essentially non-doms who decide this thing, then clearly we need to mobilise the UK expats. The fact that most of them are either of retirement age or getting close to it - whereas Poles in Ireland say are likely to be younger, mobile workers, arguably more likely to care about modern pop - may not help our cause much though.

I voted for:
Bosnia, Latvia and Azerbaijan. I liked France best, but knew that would be a wasted vote.

Also quite liked: Israel, Turkey, Denmark, Ukraine.

The winner is rub. :(

[jel-bugle.livejournal.com]

That Azerbaijan song was amazing!