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Eurovision Song Contest 2016 |OT| San Marino: "I didn't know - anyone but Serhat :("

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R

Red Arremer

Member
zdravkelja said:
WTF is Hungary doing in the finals, damn Europe...
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I'm not surprised tbh. It was a decent song with a solid performance and the singer was eyecandy too (keep in mind, a big part of the audience are women and gay men).

In comparison to most of the other rubbish tonight, Hungary definitely deserved to advance. Most of the amazing semi songs are gonna be happening on Thursday though, that one will probably bring me tears because I just know that several of my favourites won't make it through.
 
S

ShaggsMagoo

Member
My running tally was 10 songs I wanted to go through, 5 I was meh about, and 3 I disliked. The finalists were 4 I liked, all fucking 5 of the ones I was meh about, and 1 song I disliked.

God damnit Europe, why do you do this to me every year?

I'm going to go pour one out for Moldova and Iceland.
 
S

SecretMoblin

Member
Red Arremer said:
OP updated with all the live performances except for Hungary's, which has not been posted on the YouTube channel (it feels like they overlooked posting it since they posted in roughly the broadcast order).
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lol, this is so shady on the part of the ESC youtube team



anyway I got home and just finished while following along with the thread

-Weird that Iceland didn't make it, it had the power of a lot of fan hype beforehand, a previous finalist in Greta, and a solid performance imo. I never really loved the song but it seemed like easy jury bait, at least. My guess is it did OK with juries but tanked with the voters or vice versa, there's no way it bombed with both.

-No Moldova makes me sad, it was an unapologetically campy gay schlager mess and it would have made a fun finalist.

-Greece not in the finals will be bizarre, but given their entry this year I'm already over it

-Fuck y'all in Europe for not voting for Serhat, fuck every single one of you who didn't vote... KING needed to be a finalist and you voted for boring trash like cyprus instead??? smh

-Good night for Sweden; aside from Moldova all the songs with Swedish involvement got through

-Nobody here noticed Iveta waving the flag of Nagorno-Karabakh during the recap?

OpccmIk.png
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both she and Samra from Azerbaijan were asked about it at the press conference.

-Also awkward that Armenia and Azerbaijan had to stand next to each other onstage at the end


Overall an OK semi. I don't really get Swedish humor (it makes watching Melfest tough) but whatever, it was produced very well and Petra is a great host. Semi 2 will be intense. Can't wait to see the voting results.


ALSO regarding the Russian jury video, it seems that one juror has been removed from the Russian jury, with all her votes voided. Per EBU
 
O

oti

Banned
SecretMoblin said:
-Nobody here noticed Iveta waving the flag of Nagorno-Karabakh during the recap?
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I didn't think much of it since the EBU revised their stance on regional flags, no? I googled it and found a site called wiwibloggs that wrote about the following press conferences, both Armenia and Azerbaijan were asked about this.

Sidenote: Those guys are REALLY into Eurovision it seems like. I enjoy this trashy show but this is a whole other level.

http://wiwibloggs.com/2016/05/11/iveta-mukuchyan-nagorno-karabakh-eurovision-2016/141727/
 
D

DrM

Redmond's Baby
No more Greek song yaaay :D

SecretMoblin said:
-Nobody here noticed Iveta waving the flag of Nagorno-Karabakh during the recap?
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I think that EBU will not allow this 'questionable' flags in the green room, they managed to get a clampdown on audience, but not on singers
 
V

Vitten

Member
First semi was boring. All the time I was thinking 'why so serious ?' Really missing the camp extravaganza from the days of yore.

The cliché Russia song being the superfavourite and almost sure winner is indicative I guess.
 
E

Elider

Member
Yesterday was all right. My biggest issue was when the hosts pretended to get upset when Europe started playing. They weren't very good at it, and the joke would have been more fun if they just let Europe play.

Also, #AUT <3
 
S

spekkeh

Banned
So I'm watching the rerun with sign language on the Belgium television and it's wonderful. It's wonderful that they have a sign language version for a song contest (why?), it's wonderful that the interpreters are dressed like divas too and really feeling it, and it leads to nice metacommentary such as that the guy signing out the Estonia song is basically going nope nope nope whenever he's singing 'not for you'.

YwWWd0bh.jpg
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R

Red Arremer

Member
SecretMoblin said:
lol, this is so shady on the part of the ESC youtube team
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Actually given the upload times - since it has been added by now - it seems like it was set on private, and they just forgot to set it to public. It was available about an hour after they uploaded the final semi performance.
 
F

FortuneFaded

Member
Watched the semi-final after the West Ham match so I went to bed before the results. Sad to see that San Marino did not get through. I want him to perform at my birthday.
 
M

Mestizo

Member
Damn Russia. The song is mediocre but the exhibition was beautuiful, I fear we have already a winner.
Well done Putin, well done.
 
S

spekkeh

Banned
I'm hoping that because a lot of people have already seen the show in the semi final it will wow them less come the final. I'm getting tired of the show winning the contest. Though given the last two winners Sweden and Austria also went through a semi final, I'm not much betting on it.
 
R

Red Arremer

Member
spekkeh said:
I'm hoping that because a lot of people have already seen the show in the semi final it will wow them less come the final. I'm getting tired of the show winning the contest. Though given the last two winners Sweden and Austria also went through a semi final, I'm not much betting on it.
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I would argue that Austria wasn't really the show, and more the personality itself. And I also would argue that both Conchita and Zelmerlöw were at least songs that were done well enough musically too. So I don't really see a problem with their victories. Eurovision isn't about just the music, but also the spectacle, after all.
 
S

SecretMoblin

Member
Also important to note that Italy won the overall public vote last year despite not having the benefit of a semifinal buildup and not really being a "showy" performance. Won it pretty convincingly, too, with 14 (!) countries ranking it first via televote.

As usual, the song will need to smash with the juries as well. And after Iceland's boot I'm not quite sure what the juries are favoring this year. It may actually be the journalists' dream of a Ukraine/Russia duel.
 
R

Red Arremer

Member
SecretMoblin said:
Also important to note that Italy won the overall public vote last year despite not having the benefit of a semifinal buildup and not really being a "showy" performance. Won it pretty convincingly, too, with 14 (!) countries ranking it first via televote.
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Meanwhile Austria's song in 2014 wasn't as well received by the juries as it was with the televoters (though iirc it still ranked in the top spot, but not very far ahead of the second placed).
 
J

Jasper

Member
1462981925880.jpg


Armenia to Face Sanctions for Eurovision Flag Incident

Eurovision Song Contest officials have condemned Armenia's contestant for brandishing the flag of the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Armenian singer Iveta Mukuchyan waved the flag during a qualifying event late Tuesday. The separatist region is officially part of Azerbaijan but currently is under the control of local ethnic Armenian forces.

The European Broadcasting Union, the alliance of public broadcasters that produces the annual contest, on Wednesday called the incident a "serious breach" of its ban on political messages.

It said Armenia's public broadcaster would face yet-to-be-determined sanctions and that "any further breach of the rules of the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest could lead to disqualification from this year's event or any successive editions."

Contestants from both Armenia and Azerbaijan qualified for the Eurovision final on Saturday.

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment...e-sanctions-eurovision-flag-incident-39036137
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Funny how Azerbaijan (who made the formal complaint to the EBU about this matter) have never been "sanctioned" for their long and rich history of cheating and vote-fixing throughout Eurovision (there was even a BBC News investigation which included secret video recordings proving Azerbaijan was paying bribes and buying votes in Eurovision) - nor the fact that when Armenia has performed in previous years, the Azerbaijan television network pulls the plug during the performance, and thus nobody in Azerbaijan actually sees Armenia's performance.

Oh...except that one time that they didn't pull the plug and instead let it play on TV to try and entrap people and see if anyone in Azerbaijan voted for Armenia...and those that did were tracked down by the government and questioned by Azeri police.

BBC documentary for those interested in what i'm talking about.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oea2XGsIbvI
 
R

Red Arremer

Member
oti xero said:
They have also released the full performances of France, Sweden and Spain onto their YT channel and quite frankly I don't believe France can win with this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76atabAESKI
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It's already in the OP and I mentioned it when I updated it last night. :p

Jasper said:
Funny how Azerbaijan (who made the formal complaint to the EBU about this matter) have never been "sanctioned" for their long and rich history of cheating and vote-fixing throughout Eurovision (there was even a BBC News investigation which included secret video recordings proving Azerbaijan was paying bribes and buying votes in Eurovision) - nor the fact that when Armenia has performed in previous years, the Azerbaijan television network pulls the plug during the performance, and thus nobody in Azerbaijan actually sees Armenia's performance.

Oh...except that one time that they didn't pull the plug and instead let it play on TV to try and entrap people and see if anyone in Azerbaijan voted for Armenia...and those that did were tracked down by the government and questioned by Azeri police.
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I'm generally surprised the EBU is letting those 2 countries participate, tbh.
 
S

SecretMoblin

Member
Jasper said:
.
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Yeah, the EBU is a joke, and they had to expect something like this to happen after being so tolerant of the bullshit for so long. Results of the 2015 contest from Armenia and Azerbaijan. They always rank each other last and the EBU always sends out vague, noncommittal threats about voting integrity blah blah blah.

But Armenia is one of the year's favorites so we can't expect any teeth from the EBU on the matter. They'll still occasionally nullify televotes or jury votes if they suspect tampering, but it's never really gone beyond that.
 
J

Jasper

Member
The thing is that the EBU in fact REVERSED it's flag policy a couple days ago, following the controversy when they originally announced that some flags are banned.

https://armenpress.am/eng/news/8464...amended-artsakh’s-flag-will-be-tolerated.html

Thus, Iveta Mukuchyan actually didn't do anything wrong.

Because oil rich Azerbaijan cried about...the EBU is sanctioning Armenia for breaking rules that they themselves rescinded a few days ago.

Just to appease Azerbaijan, the EBU is making themselves look like fucking morons, and as I said before - Azerbaijan who have engaged in bribing and rigging of votes have never once been disciplined by the EBU.
 
S

SecretMoblin

Member
They didn't completely scrap the flag policy, they just updated it to be more vague - "local, regional, and national" flags are allowed to accommodate situations like one of the UK singers being Welsh and the Norwegian singer having Sami roots, but the EBU still doesn't have a blanket acceptance of all flags: "a more tolerant approach to other flags as long as the audience respects the nonpolitical nature of the Eurovision Song Contest."

The EBU is apparently considering sanctions because waving the flag was seen as a provocative political act rather than a neutral or supportive one.



It's a dumb policy regardless. Like the Olympics, having contestants compete under the flags of their nation-states is inherently political. A "non-political" event is a cute goal but ultimately unenforceable. We already have to tiptoe around all the regional politics related to Israel's participation, we have to call Macedonia "Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia" to not offend the sensibilities of the Greeks, there are open questions about the participation of Kosovo, a separate Scottish entry, etc.

Iveta knew what she was doing and honestly I don't really blame her for testing the limits of the EBU's nonsense.
 
O

oti

Banned
Prediction time, Final entries bolded

Semi-Final 2:

01. Latvia: Justs - Heartbeat
02. Poland: Micha&#322; Szpak - Color of Your Life
03. Switzerland: Rykka - The Last of our Kind
04. Israel: Hovi Star - Made of Stars
05. Belarus: IVAN - Help You Fly
06. Serbia: Sanja Vu&#269;i&#263; ZAA - Goodbye (Shelter)
07. Ireland: Nicky Byrne - Sunlight
08. F.Y.R.O. Macedonia: Kaliopi - Dona
09. Lithuania: Donny Montell - I've Been Waiting for this Night
10. Australia: Dami Im - Sound of Silence
11. Slovenia: ManuElla - Blue and Red
12. Bulgaria: Poli Genova - If Love Was a Crime
13. Denmark: Lighthouse X - Soldiers of Love
14. Ukraine: Jamala - 1944
15. Norway: Agnette - Icebreaker
16. Georgia: Nika Kocharov and Young Georgian Lolitaz - Midnight Gold
17. Albania: Eneda Tarifa - Fairy Tale
18. Belgium: Laura Tesoro - What's the Pressure
 
H

Hanmik

Member
oti xero said:
Prediction time, Final entries bolded

Semi-Final 2:

01. Latvia: Justs - Heartbeat
02. Poland: Micha&#322; Szpak - Color of Your Life
03. Switzerland: Rykka - The Last of our Kind
04. Israel: Hovi Star - Made of Stars
05. Belarus: IVAN - Help You Fly
06. Serbia: Sanja Vu&#269;i&#263; ZAA - Goodbye (Shelter)
07. Ireland: Nicky Byrne - Sunlight
08. F.Y.R.O. Macedonia: Kaliopi - Dona
09. Lithuania: Donny Montell - I've Been Waiting for this Night
10. Australia: Dami Im - Sound of Silence
11. Slovenia: ManuElla - Blue and Red
12. Bulgaria: Poli Genova - If Love Was a Crime
13. Denmark: Lighthouse X - Soldiers of Love
14. Ukraine: Jamala - 1944
15. Norway: Agnette - Icebreaker
16. Georgia: Nika Kocharov and Young Georgian Lolitaz - Midnight Gold
17. Albania: Eneda Tarifa - Fairy Tale
18. Belgium: Laura Tesoro - What's the Pressure
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Please not Denmark... I am from Denmark.. and this is a terrible song.. and I can't stand the danish commentator when Denmark is in the final. Please be eliminated tonight.
 
O

oti

Banned
Hanmik said:
Please not Denmark... I am from Denmark.. and this is a terrible song.. and I can't stand the danish commentator when Denmark is in the final. Please be eliminated tonight.
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I hate Eurovision Denmark so much. It's always the same. Like Sweden but terrible.
 
R

Red Arremer

Member
I really don't want Denmark to proceed as well. If there's a white cross on red background nation that should go to the finals, it's Switzerland.

oti: Change Denmark and Latvia out for Switzerland and Belarus and you'd have what I think (and hope) will go to the finals.
I like Albania, Georgia and Slovenia, but I don't think they'll pass through.
 
O

oti

Banned
Red Arremer said:
I really don't want Denmark to proceed as well. If there's a white cross on red background nation that should go to the finals, it's Switzerland.

oti: Change Denmark and Latvia out for Switzerland and Belarus and you'd have what I think (and hope) will go to the finals.
I like Albania, Georgia and Slovenia, but I don't think they'll pass through.
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I think both Switzerland and Belarus are terrible.
 
A

addik

Member
oti xero said:
They have also released the full performances of France, Sweden and Spain onto their YT channel and quite frankly I don't believe France can win with this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76atabAESKI
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Same, which I'm quite sad about because I was rooting for the song, and Amir seems nice enough.

Shame that the French delegation messed the staging for this one. Amir also looks quite uncomfortable in stage for some odd reason.

I don't think Russia is going with the trophy either. I'm really thinking it could go to either Ukraine or Australia. Spain can even have an upset on this one if they do well live.
 
S

SecretMoblin

Member
As long as BULGARIA, UKRAINE, and LATVIA get through I don't really care who makes it from the rest of the pack. I also want Kaliopi because she's fantastic but the song and staging are pretty mediocre and I don't expect it to go through.
 
R

Red Arremer

Member
Why are people liking Latvia so much? Like, the song would be decent if the singer didn't have the voice of a mouse. And that's the studio version. Live is gonna be even worse.
 
O

oti

Banned
Red Arremer said:
Why are people liking Latvia so much? Like, the song would be decent if the singer didn't have the voice of a mouse. And that's the studio version. Live is gonna be even worse.
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The song is cool, his voice is good enough and it's different. That's the story of this Eurovision. You know something's up when even a ballade like Czech Republic is a welcomed change of pace.
 
L

laoni

Member
addik said:
Same, which I'm quite sad about because I was rooting for the song, and Amir seems nice enough.

Shame that the French delegation messed the staging for this one. Amir also looks quite uncomfortable in stage for some odd reason.

I don't think Russia is going with the trophy either. I'm really thinking it could go to either Ukraine or Australia. Spain can even have an upset on this one if they do well live.
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Yeah, I personally really like J'ai Cherche but, live it's underwhelming.

I want to see Australia win, not just cause I'm Australian, but, I also want to see the reaction and the fallout. I wonder where in Europe we'd hold it...
 
E

evilpigking

Member
Although I still like the French song...that performance was super lacking especially when countries like Russia went full out. I concur it won't be in the top. Looking at the up/downs on the youtube clips. of the 3 finals so far only Spain is doing well.
 
P

Peru

Member
laoni said:
Yeah, I personally really like J'ai Cherche but, live it's underwhelming.

I want to see Australia win, not just cause I'm Australian, but, I also want to see the reaction and the fallout. I wonder where in Europe we'd hold it...
Click to expand...

Austria obv
 
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