Eurovision Song Contest 2024 #4

[Scotch Mist]

TBH I do think Olly was always a bit “Emperor’s new clothes”. I never liked the way the founding members / songwriters of Years and Years were ditched so he could launch it as a solo project. It left a really bad taste for me, because those guys really were talented. I suppose it was the record company that pushed it, I guess those lads didn’t fit the “image”, being a bit geeky and all, but when they ditched them, the song quality dropped off a cliff.
And then when Olly rushed to the papers immediately after Sam Ryder very nearly won, to complain about how he (Olly) hadn’t been in the running for Eurovision. As if he would have won it, unlike sad failure Sam, or something. I thought at the time, really? - you’re choosing to do this now, like a spoilt brat at a party when another kid is getting more attention?
Then all the crowing about how he’d do the “gayest ever” Eurovision, as if this would mean he’d romp home with the trophy. He really did have high expectations of how he would do in the competition. Only to stage some grotty outdated cottaging scenario, with a feeble song, sung badly, and with staging that just didn’t have impact.
I’ve watched it back a few times, and it really was terrible. Borderline unwatchable. I know people who like him will say he didn’t deserve the nil public vote, but honestly, having watched all the acts, he was not better than anyone else.

He was awful and imagine being beaten by a deranged woman screaming

Bambie was appalling too and I just can't see any appeal whatsoever. Her witchy act looked like a college drama project. The screaming was horrible and the song completely unmemorable tit. Add to that her incomprehensible ramblings in interviews where she pretended to be edgy activist but sounded a kid complaining about her teacher at school.

 

[IdeletedbutI'mbackagain]

He was awful and imagine being beaten by a deranged woman screaming

Bambie was appalling too and I just can't see any appeal whatsoever. Her witchy act looked like a college drama project. The screaming was horrible and the song completely unmemorable tit. Add to that her incomprehensible ramblings in interviews where she pretended to be edgy activist but sounded a kid complaining about her teacher at school.

It's mad to think Bambie is 31 years old. Acted like a child.

 

[redstraw16]

I didn't like that the voting was open before everyone had sung this year. That might have given a slight advantage to acts on early and a lot of people don't watch the semis just the main show.

Agreed, I thought it really showed with how badly Austria did. They went last, I know it wasn’t for everyone but it was fun enough and she performed it well enough that it definitely would have done better if it was earlier in the show. They got done dirty with the live feed freezing during the top point of their stage choreo too.

 

[Merpedy]

Bambie’s song was pretty good until the end where they start screaming

The catchy chorus that’s accessible to most audiences + the staging is what made them do well

Nothing in the UK performance really worked other than the staging maybe (minus the outfits and whatever) but that didn’t really fit the concept of the song

 

[TheStrawberryThief]

It's mad to think Bambie is 31 years old. Acted like a child.

I agree with this. I find that a lot of activist types don't realise how their behaviour comes across sometimes. I would consider myself to hold left wing views, but I feel embarrassed by the way some people behave. It plays well to the terminally online crowd, but it needs to convince people outside of that bubble and it just doesn't work.

I have listened to Bambi on Spotify out of curiosity. I can't really speak for how good a lot of the music is, as it is not the type of thing I would normally listen to . I wish Bambi did more that showed off pure natural singing rather than screaming or whispering because their normal singing bits are gorgeous.

I have seen few old pics of Bambi floating about, before they adopted their current look, and they have a really natural prettiness and look very happy. I wonder what happened to get them to adopt the current look and identity. Maybe it is like how Lady Gaga couldn't get anyone interested when she was just plain old Stefani.

 

[Merpedy]

I wonder what happened to get them to adopt the current look and identity.

Probably just having to fit the genre

or you know it’s the style they like

 

[TheStrawberryThief]

Probably just having to fit the genre

or you know it’s the style they like

I hope that is the case and it is all genuine. I just thought it was an unusual change as people don't often suddenly adopt a goth/alternative look in their late 20s. It is usually something people start as teenagers. Maybe they were a teen goth and then went back to it later. Some people give it up for a bit and go back.

 

[Kakan]

View attachment 2938449

The Israeli song hasn’t charted as well as other songs have which speaks volumes for it not being representative of anything

Something feels fishy with the voting because Israel got points from the pubic in all countries except for Croatia and Ukraine, and nearly only 12 or 10 points, but I checked a lot of countries charts on Spotify both streams on Spotify and the viral ones and Croatia, Switzerland and the Netherlands are doing best. They also have much more streams on Youtube than Israel. People also like France, Ukraine, Estonia and to my surprise Irland and Finland. For me those two songs was more performances so listening to them without watching would feel a bit strange.
Also checked some of the last years winners and Loreen and Måneskin nearly 500 000 000 streams on Spotify, Spaceman and Ukraine around 60 000 000 each and Arcade over a billion so people normally wants to listening for the song they voted for on Spotify.

 

[monza]

Imma continue to work as tattle baby lasagna pr

 

[Mrs Fluff]

I hope that is the case and it is all genuine. I just thought it was an unusual change as people don't often suddenly adopt a goth/alternative look in their late 20s. It is usually something people start as teenagers. Maybe they were a teen goth and then went back to it later. Some people give it up for a bit and go back.

I'm not sure when they started saying Bambie was their real name, might have been recent, might have been after moving to London. Original name is quite hard to trace on the Internet but not impossible as they performed in quite a few local show when a kid/teenager.

The goth thing definitely seems recent though.

 

[Codiaeum]

Agreed, I thought it really showed with how badly Austria did. They went last, I know it wasn’t for everyone but it was fun enough and she performed it well enough that it definitely would have done better if it was earlier in the show. They got done dirty with the live feed freezing during the top point of their stage choreo too.

Interesting - on German TV the live feed didn't freeze!
I still also think that they would have done better than that if not running with the last spot. Yes, she might not be the best singer on there, a lot was a backing track, but this sort of song and performance usually fares favourably.

 

[TheArtisticMouse]

I noticed they started and ended the show with a dance track - so Sweden was Austria’s mirror and main competition. When you compare the two songs in that way then Sweden was clearly the better song. So people that like that sort of track were likely to give their vote to Sweden. If Austria had gone in the middle they may have done better.

 

[Merpedy]

View attachment 2938449

Something feels fishy with the voting because Israel got points from the pubic in all countries except for Croatia and Ukraine, and nearly only 12 or 10 points, but I checked a lot of countries charts on Spotify both streams on Spotify and the viral ones and Croatia, Switzerland and the Netherlands are doing best. They also have much more streams on Youtube than Israel. People also like France, Ukraine, Estonia and to my surprise Irland and Finland. For me those two songs was more performances so listening to them without watching would feel a bit strange.
Also checked some of the last years winners and Loreen and Måneskin nearly 500 000 000 streams on Spotify, Spaceman and Ukraine around 60 000 000 each and Arcade over a billion so people normally wants to listening for the song they voted for on Spotify.


View attachment 2939038

Idk if people have seen but there have been allegations that Israel hired some sort of PR firm to ensure there would be mass voting for the entry or something. I haven’t fact checked so I didn’t post it here but I did see that it had apparently been confirmed

A lot of the other fan favourites are charting in one way or another so it goes to show that it was primarily political imo
---

 

[DanDanTheIceCreamMan]

Idk if people have seen but there have been allegations that Israel hired some sort of PR firm to ensure there would be mass voting for the entry or something. I haven’t fact checked so I didn’t post it here but I did see that it had apparently been confirmed

A lot of the other fan favourites are charting in one way or another so it goes to show that it was primarily political imo
---

I did see (probably on these threads) screenshots (or links maybe) asking for people to vote for the Israeli entry and tweets from people stating they had voted multiple times for them (on different cards etc). Whereas what normally happens is the song itself is promoted (which I noticed most from Poland - coming up as an advert on Youtube) which is pretty standard. As Richard Osman said (in the clip I posted upthread) the pro Israel vote all went to Israel whereas any anti Israel vote would've been spread amongst the other songs meaning they were always going to end up with a disproportionate share of the public vote.

There's a lot of questions to be answered by the EBU before the next contest. Regardless of politics (because lets face it, Ukraine have also benefited with political voting in the past and continue to do well) things have to change, not just with the voting system but also with how the performers are treated during the contest. This year will no doubt put other performers off entering and I'm certain we will lose countries next year (I would be amazed if the Netherlands return in 2025).

 

[kev1974]

View attachment 2938449

Something feels fishy with the voting because Israel got points from the pubic in all countries except for Croatia and Ukraine, and nearly only 12 or 10 points, but I checked a lot of countries charts on Spotify both streams on Spotify and the viral ones and Croatia, Switzerland and the Netherlands are doing best. They also have much more streams on Youtube than Israel. People also like France, Ukraine, Estonia and to my surprise Irland and Finland. For me those two songs was more performances so listening to them without watching would feel a bit strange.
Also checked some of the last years winners and Loreen and Måneskin nearly 500 000 000 streams on Spotify, Spaceman and Ukraine around 60 000 000 each and Arcade over a billion so people normally wants to listening for the song they voted for on Spotify.


View attachment 2939038

There were huge campaigns to get people voting for the Israeli entry, from all countries. People with no interest in Eurovision were targetted, there were both overt "visible" campaigns and a hell of a lot of less obvious manipulation all over twitter. We remarked on it here as soon as they got through their semi final on the Thursday.

 

[Merpedy]

The Reddit thread has a translation and the way they campaigned for votes is hugely problematic imo

 

[Mrs Fluff]

There were huge campaigns to get people voting for the Israeli entry, from all countries. People with no interest in Eurovision were targetted, there were both overt "visible" campaigns and a hell of a lot of less obvious manipulation all over twitter. We remarked on it here as soon as they got through their semi final on the Thursday.

I think algorithms have a lot to play. Most of my Facebook contacts say nothing (and neither do I) but a handful are vocal (either side). So someone who might have been vaguely pro Israel might have been invited to vote.

I vaguely recall a Netflix doc where the Trump campaign were able to target potential undecided votes due to what they said on SM. SM is really a blessing and a curse.

 

[hogwartsgraduate]

It won't be the last we hear of Baby Lasagna I doubt, Kaarija has done well from his 2nd place - Ruoska is a good track

 

[CabalofBolorneaise]

Idk if people have seen but there have been allegations that Israel hired some sort of PR firm to ensure there would be mass voting for the entry or something. I haven’t fact checked so I didn’t post it here but I did see that it had apparently been confirmed

A lot of the other fan favourites are charting in one way or another so it goes to show that it was primarily political imo
---

I don’t doubt it was political but I don’t think that political votes = fishy. As you said, Ukraine have benefited from political voting 3 years on the trot now and I haven’t seen anyone calling that fishy

I genuinely think it was a combo of people wanting to vote for Israel for political reasons, people liking the song and likely contributed to by the boycott plus the anti group not having one specific entrant they were all behind - I saw people saying they would tactically vote for Bambi and for Nemo as well as for Joost before he went out but that’s at least three it’s spread over vs one.

Anyone looking for people calling for others to vote Israel would then of course see way more of that, it’s how algorithms work. They had a large YouTube ad campaign and so did Poland (neither got disqualified for it).

I think that’s part of the issue for the EBU - Israel got a lot of publicity for what they did, but you can find examples of other delegations and countries doing the same thing.

YouTube ads - Poland had the same
Most countries had people calling to vote for them on twitter and fan fave entries always have people talking about bending the rules and using another persons card or phone or another card they have to vote more so that’s not unique to Israel.
Their delegation was rude to others, other entrants were blatantly rude to Eden during the press conference and there were lots of snide comments made against Israel by lots of entrants and delegations and even the people meant to be announcing the votes.
They got political votes - so did Ukraine, to the extent they won it once and placed higher in the following years.

Israel got a lot of attention for all of it and obviously nobody should be breaking the rules but if they decided to strictly enforce them a lot of other countries would be out along with them. Many of the accounts sharing everything Israel has done wrong are only focused on them, not calling out anyone else.

Which is why I assume the EBU haven’t done anything, it would have been a contest of about 20 people and perhaps that way Olly would have got some votes.

 

[Merpedy]

There’s advertising and then there’s advertising organised by the State itself