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[KraftyKrankins]

Ya.

Natiskati.

Vidlik.

This shit BANGS. Lawd.

 

[Violet_0]

I might actually buy Blanche - City Lights (Belgium), and gonna look into Onuka as well
music-wise, I'd say this year was quite a bit better than 2016 and 2015 honestly

 

[Goldrusher]

I wouldn't understimate Portugal. Will probably end up in the top 10, maybe even top 5.

Hahaha. Sure thing buddy. This isn't the football national team, there is no Eder in that song that could possibly saves us from literally nowhere

With a sad song in portuguese? Not happening.

wait what?

Hmm.

 

[DECK'ARD]

I dunno, I think the semis made it better because while it weeds out a lot of the utter shite performances, a lot of the cheese still goes through. Verka made it through in 2007. Pirates of the Sea made it through in 2008. Poland's titty butterchurning song made it through as well a couple years back. Romania and Croatia this year of course.

It wasn't the semis that made everything more homogenized, it's the reintroduction of the juries. And while the juries aren't above political/bloc voting either, the criticism of the televote-only system was warranted as well, I think, so I understand that they were necessary just as much as giving the televoters back more power.

Also, I can understand the approach of not wanting to spoil the finalists by watching the semis as well, but given the size of the contest these days, they are necessary as well. I mean just 26 countries, and we went until close to 2 AM local time in Ukraine. But I also don't want the contest to go back to the late 90s/early 2000s ruleset where countries not reaching a certain ranking get disqualified for the next year.

Playing some what-if scenarios, if the UK had to qualify you would have never got a song like that. It wasn't the be all and end all of songs, but that was designed to be a one-off performance, with everything thrown into it and designed to be new to people and make an impact.

If we had to qualify it would have been the same old crap we always send. Maybe with just a little extra effort to raise us out of the dustbin because of embarassment.

There's practical reasons for the semi-finals but if they were eliminated everyone's game would be raised and you get the bizarre, the unexpected, the mistakes, and the surprisingly good in a much better mix than we have now.

Live shows should be on the night and that's it, that's what the appeal is and that was its strength in various ways.

 

[Tugatrix]

Hmm.

Glad I was wrong. My Benfica won the championship the fourth, and salvador won

 

[nOoblet16]

My favourite song from possibly my all time favourite Eurovision. Some good entries that year, and who can forget Cezar's performance?

Dracula left a mark that year, I liked the winning song from Denmark but Margaret Berger's song was the best.

 

[ty_hot]

I liked 8 songs, 6 of them ended in the top 10. It probably only means that I have a "mainstream" taste, but its still nice. Glad Moldova got the third place. I didnt enjoy Portugal performance but its clear that the guy had the best voice. Wouldnt vote for it though, for me Eurovision is more related to putting on a show / great performance overall than literally being a great singer.

 

[Courage]

I think the last Eurovision winner I liked is Satellite. Last few years winners have been ass.

 

[RocknRola]

Hmm.

To be fair, to be fair...before this one we literally had never won And I still don't like the song either.

 

[scamander]

@Courage: Rise like a Phoenix? Only Teardrops? Euphoria?

 

[Courage]

@Courage: Rise like a Phoenix? Only Teardrops?

Not a fan, Rise Like A Phoenix was a great performance but the song didn't grab me.

 

[Apzu]

Hmm.

I really didn't think he had a chance up untill Tuesday.

 

[scamander]

Fair enough. The only ones I didn't enjoy were the Ukraine last year and Azerbaijan in 2011. "Heroes of our Time" was pretty bland, but inoffensive and with a great performance.

 

[pswii60]

Public doesn't like the UK

Isn't that what Brexit is all about? Upsetting our neighbours to stop them moving to the UK and lower immigration?

In retrospect, I'm amazed the UK did so well this soon after Brexit.

12 points from... Australia. We just need more non-European countries to join and our chances of success improve.

 

[El Topo]

YESSSSSSSS

(look at my avatar)

I'm super late on this, but I just wanted to say I chuckle every time I see your avatar.

 

[Airola]

Most of the songs went in the other ear and out the other, like always.

Usually there are one or two legit good songs for my taste but now it was pretty rough.


However, even though the rest of the song by Ukraine was forgettable it had AMAZING chorus. It was kind of a mixture of all the metalcore, nu-metal, 30 Seconds to Mars, Muse and Placebo - which doesn't exactly make anything to be something I would enjoy much. But damn, the chorus!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mogNLkIEI0k



From recent years I've enjoyed these a lot:
Cezar https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFnNItQN29U
Tolmachevy Sisters https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPI7AnD_QS8
Urban Symphony https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOsmEO_osXQ
(and check out this amazing version of that song by Ott Lepland featuring the lead woman from the band https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lMOEpv0_Pk - it's better than the original!)

Also, Alex Hirsoux should've gone to the finals in 2014:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APWpOkRQoiY

 

[Red Arremer]

Playing some what-if scenarios, if the UK had to qualify you would have never got a song like that. It wasn't the be all and end all of songs, but that was designed to be a one-off performance, with everything thrown into it and designed to be new to people and make an impact.

I... don't agree with that. In the end, it was a ballad, and while I'm not sure if the UK would have qualified if they had to perform in a semi (given the ballad overload), it might've done well. The UK did get a solid televote result, unlike say Malta which got 0 points in their semi's televote.
Also in the hypothetical scenario that the Big 5 wouldn't be a thing (only the host/winner country), there would be 5 additional spots from the semis. Germany and Spain would've been disqualified for sure, making room for more deserving countries such as Finland.

If we had to qualify it would have been the same old crap we always send. Maybe with just a little extra effort to raise us out of the dustbin because of embarassment.

I think that semi performances actually increase the quality of everybody's entries all around, with the obvious goof entries like, say, Lithuania this year, aside. There's no hurdles you have to take as the UK or Germany, since you already automatically qualify, so it's easy to just sit back and do whatever, cause you'll be making a splash either way, good or bad. And when it's the latter, it's easy to complain about blah bloc voting and bluh diaspora and bleh everyone hates the UK.

There's practical reasons for the semi-finals but if they were eliminated everyone's game would be raised and you get the bizarre, the unexpected, the mistakes, and the surprisingly good in a much better mix than we have now.

Live shows should be on the night and that's it, that's what the appeal is and that was its strength in various ways.

You still get the bizarre and unexpected. Just look at Croatia. You still get the mistakes. Just look at Lithuania. You still get the surprisingly good. Just look at Moldova.

And with Eurovision, you don't have live shows on the night any longer anyway, even if you were to nuke the semis. You have jury-specific events the day before the actual events (this is for logistics mostly, so they have footage for recaps as well as speed up the voting process).

Eurovision has become way too big, way too popular and way too modern (in terms of production at least) to be this adorable little music show that can squeeze into a refitted equestrian sporting arena.

Believe you me, I do miss the charm of the contest of the 90s and early 00s too (Millstreet was the first Eurovision I saw live and I've been watching since with no exception), but I also realize that time passes, and especially when it comes to media, things move on.

 

[sono]

people who like portugal

explain to me what is great about a guy crying and mumbling into a microphone while swaying erratically from side to side?

Portugal - Insufferable pretentious douchebag singing a terrible song that is so boring it could put a fucking 860400kg whale to sleep. Slow pace and little production isn't equal to good song and your song is, in fact, trash

Good Summary

 

[sono]

Isn't that what Brexit is all about? Upsetting our neighbours to stop them moving to the UK and lower immigration?

12 points from... Australia. We just need more non-European countries to join and our chances of success improve.

More flashers ftw

 

[airjoca]

Good Summary

You know very little about music. His massive victory wasn't an accident.

 

[lush]

I can't go on,
I can't go on,
When you look this freakin' beautiful.

 

[SecretMoblin]

Full televoting and jury results for all 3 shows are up.

I think we should have a conversation about the juries (again). If Greece and Cyprus just swap 12 points every single time, if the Armenian jury can't vote for Azerbaijan without fearing for their lives and vice versa, what's the point.

Honestly separating the jury vote and the televote did a LOT to combat this, 12 points means a lot less when there are 4,872 points up for grabs. I'm less wary of the jury now than I was a few years ago but some of the jury decisions are still baffling.

And surprise surprise, the entire Armenian jury ranked Azerbaijan last and vice versa. Thankfully it didn't really matter much in the end.

Feel good story for the day, next to Portugal winning of course, is Hungary. Screw the juries, they got the televote love they deserve.

Hungary got more points from the televoting alone than all but 10 countries got combined. <3 <3 Well deserved

 

[Hydranockz]

I really enjoyed Portugal's entry. Something about stripping away all of the gimmicks, dancers, pyrotechnics and all that stuff made for a refreshingly pleasant experience. I can see how many would find it boring but it just felt more genuine than damn near everything else. I don't know why it wasn't entered as a duet in the first place.

 

[Apzu]

I can't go on,
I can't go on,
When you look this freakin' beautiful.

This remind me that it's such a shame that imri was Israel's last entry.

 

[Red Arremer]

This remind me that it's such a shame that imri was Israel's last entry.

Well I mean at least he was hot. It would've been nice if they also had tried, but I'm okay with them not trying too hard for their last performance. They qualified to the finals, weren't dead last and we got to see more Israeli eyecandy, I think that's fine.

I hope that whatever follows IBA will get admitted to the EBU and allow Israel to participate again. Though them being out might also bring us a return of Morocco and a debut of Tunisia, Lebanon and maybe others...

 

[Wonder Peter]

I like how pretentious douche bags are criticizing Salvador of being a pretentious douche bag. Yeah, 42 juries representing each country and millions of public votes, Portugal wins by a major difference and you act like your tastes are better than all of the people involved on deciding the winner, wake up, you're the ones that are being pretentious douche bags

 

[Apzu]

I was listening to Luisa Sobral singing in the rehearsal and her voice is really good, I think she's really better than her brother, but in a way I kind of understand why she sent her brother instead of singing her own song. I don't think she would have gotten as many votes as he did, then again, I thought he wouldn't win so I might be wrong.

 

[jts]

I like how pretentious douche bags are criticizing Salvador of being a pretentious douche bag. Yeah, 42 juries representing each country and millions of public votes, Portugal wins by a major difference and you act like your tastes are better than all of the people involved on deciding the winner, wake up, you're the ones that are being pretentious douche bags

I mean you're not entirely wrong, but those are not necessarily mutually exclusive things.

I don't think Salvador is a pretentious douchebag at all, but he may have gotten a bit cocky about his success. Also had a few issues about arrogance in the "american idol" portuguese adaptation he was discovered in. His speech definitely didn't sit well with me as it was rather shitting on his competitors faces. He's a tad less innocent he let out in his performance and contest persona, imo.

You are right though that this was as unanimous as it will ever get, and if people still say stuff like "oh right this is the Eurovision" they are just in denial and represent the constant noise that is the fact that never will everyone be satisfied with a voting result, so there will never be an opposite of "oh right this the Eurovision". There's just being more or less of a sore loser.

From the very beginning Salvador had somewhat of a success in his hands, his Youtube viewings were 5x that of the runner-up for the portuguese song contest, even before said contest. And there were still people majorly upset about it, but the fact of the matter stood - far more people liked Salvador's song than the other songs, and that remained true all the way through Eurovision.

Living abroad, it is brilliant to see so many people that don't understand the words, being enchanted and trying to sing along this song. Like it or not, it is a winner, no doubt. A people's winner, a juri's winner. No political vote, no friendly neighbour vote (ok, who knows if that was the case with Spain). Just a plain case of winning by being more popular because more people like it than they like the other songs.

Even I didn't believe this song could have a go for it. The Portuguese language, the simplicity of it, the interpreter's quirkiness, the historical Portuguese results at the Eurovision. I have to admit, I was wrong. Maybe all of those factors helped the result, in fact.

 

[KingSnake]

Being in holiday I didn't watch this, but I just caught up with the results and some of the live reactions from this thread.

I think the Portuguese song was pretty good. Maybe not Eurovision "good", but I guess that's the point they wanted to make and they driven that home.

One of the most decent winners in recent years anyhow.

And I find it funny that the reactions to Portugal winning Eurovision are somehow similar on GAF to the reactions to them winning the Euro.

Speaking of salt, Romania was robbed by the jury vote.

And Austria and Australia got too many points from the juries.

 

[Apzu]

Talking about bloc voting, did anyone else notice how nordic countries gave lots of points to australia? Is that like an invitation so they can also be a part of the nordic bloc? Too bad aussies were too worried about making the UK feel better that they didn't even notice it.

Now really, Australia song was by far the worst one they ever sent to Eurovision and I'm counting the interval act in 2014.

 

[Rahvar]

So. The show was boring enough to make me fall asleep after the last contestant... But woke up to the glory of Portugal winning me the GAF Gold

Everyone in Sweden is comparing him to this:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1P9rFTsvp7wHEk4TRzJF_7MovEpqu4vW

Disney seem to have blocked any videos with the actual scene and song.

 

[jts]

So the local Portuguese channel made a short thank you clip for Salvador, but something went wrong and they accidentally created the first trance remix of the song.

https://www.facebook.com/1685681483/videos/10207700502265659/

LMAO

Good for those who say that the song is boring and sleep inducing, I guess.

 

[Violet_0]

Too bad aussies were too worried about making the UK feel better that they didn't even notice it.

it's sweet that they just joined the Song Contest and are already part of a voting bloc. Meanwhile, Ireland doesn't give a fuck

 

[SecretMoblin]

a few quick stats, I may get something wrong so forgive me:


-Last year Jamala won by 23 points; this year Salvador won by more than 140 points and received more than 200 than Jamala using the same voting system.

-Since the rule about singing in your national language was abolished in 1999, Amar Pelos Dois and Molitva/&#1052;&#1086;&#1083;&#1080;&#1090;&#1074;&#1072; in 2007 are the only two winners to be entirely non-English.

-This is the 4th year in a row that a Big 5 country has taken last place, and you'd have to go back to 2011 before one of the Big 5 countries didn't occupy at least one of the last two slots.

-Technically this was the 2nd biggest point margin for a winner ever (behind Alexander Rybak's "Fairytale" in 2009), although this will probably change as the total number of points is now 2x what it used to be

-This ends a 2-year drought of the juries and televoting disagreeing about a winner (the last to share the jury/televote crown was Conchita)

-Portugal matched Sweden's all-time record for 12-points from 18 countries (jury). He received 376 points from televoting and 382 from the juries, which are both more than the combined total Moldova received for 3rd place.

 

[DrM]

Well, our beloved singer did not finished last on the first semi, only Latvia was behind us.

Epic fail once again for RTV Slovenia

 

[oti]

Damn, Greece was last place in the semis.

 

[dampflokfreund]

The Moldova song is amazing. I love songs with a catchy basslines and melodies, and this one also does have good vocals and does something new by combining saxophone and a violine. I am listening to it all day and it won't get out of my head. Glad it won 3rd place, wished for first place though.

 

[Tugatrix]

Damn, Greece was last place in the semis.

Sorry pal remember 2004 now

 

[oti]

Sorry pal remember 2004 now

¿Que?

 

[Frodo]

listening to it again now, and Amar Pelos Dois is such a beautiful song. I'm glad it won.


I'll use city Lights and Onuka too. Ukrainian Robyn is lit!

 

[Tugatrix]

¿Que?

é uma letra que se lê

(google translate it and laugh)

 

[oti]

Is there like a compilation of Norton's commentary? He can be quite funny.

 

[Beaniedude]

I have to say I really enjoyed this year's entries.

My favourites were:
Romania, Croatia, Belarus, Belgium, and Portugal.

Props to Hungary for their entry with the steel drum.

I also loved the major shade Portugal threw when they won about how all the other songs were trash and fast food music. I love that kid, he's just so god damn whimsical.

 

[Sidewinder]

listening to it again now, and Amar Pelos Dois is such a beautiful song. I'm glad it won.


I'll use city Lights and Onuka too. Ukrainian Robyn is lit!

Of course I had to go to the shitter during the only really good part of the show, lol. But at least now I know Onuka thanks to the posts in here, seems to be really good stuff!

The winner's speech was another highlight of the show, everybody must surely love him there

 

[Tugatrix]

http://www.tvi24.iol.pt/videos/desp...=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_content=-post

No this is title celebration for Benfica fourth championship in a row, still the fans stopped for Salvador

 

[Kinan]

The ass guy got 72h arrest apparently. Hopefully his cellmates didn't watch Eurovision, lol.

 

[SecretMoblin]

I also loved the major shade Portugal threw when they won about how all the other songs were trash and fast food music. I love that kid, he's just so god damn whimsical.

it came across as kinda nasty, but he and his sister have said multiple times that they are very fond of a few of the other entries this year, like Belgium, Italy, and Finland. My assumption is that he was speaking of the pop industry more generally... but I still disagree with his point :/

 

[Joni]

The 2003 loss is Belgium's own fault mostly. One of the lead singers was barred from the contest because the Belgian state service had mistaken her for an extreme right-wing terrorist and banned her from the contest. I think we came like 2 points short lol.

Belgium did that on purpose. We do not want to win. Winning costs money.

 

[Red Arremer]

The OP is updated to contain all the links to the final's live performances. Let me know if any of them are broken.

Damn, Greece was last place in the semis.

Deservedly so, if you ask me. They just got through cause they're Greece and Cyprus was in the same semi (also, Cyprus getting barely any televotes beyond the shocking 12 points from Greece and Armenia in both the semi and finals lol).

If they had sent Demy with something that was folky and fit her style better, she could've done super well, but they sent cheap trashy euro trancepop that Demy couldn't even properly sing. She did better in the finals than she did in the semis when trying to go for the high note in the chorus but I think the mimicry of her letting a backing singer (we didn't even get to see!) sing the high note for her and her acting as if she was doing it was kind of shady.

And mind you, I have nothing against Demy herself (I'm pretty sure it wasn't her idea to fake the high note), she's pretty and I think she's a good artist with a good voice, the song just wasn't for her. Or anyone, really.
Pretty with trash song while being Greece just doesn't cut it anymore.

 

[DrSlek]

Only just watching now in Australia. So far my top performances are Moldova, and Croatia. Portugal had a great song but the actual performance was severely lacking in charisma.