Eurovision 2015

Jesus can someone buy Graham Norton a map?

italy was great! they nailed it

quite a few others were more interesting sure

DON'T FORGET SUSI

All these technical faults remind me of when the video conferencing gear screws up at work.

"didn't see that coming" - THERE ARE TONS OF LATVIANS IN IRELAND

find it illuminating how azerbaijan and armenia like georgia but fucking detest each other

Songs I like:

Georgia
Israel
Serbia
Norway
Romenia

I like to think of the 'bridges' as gravity's rainbow style super-rockets

Sweden have this, I think.

Lithuanian - Russian beef is on

Russian results wonk totally misjudging the mood of the room.

love the idea that 200 sammarinese students in a single bar decided to give latvia 12 points

Taking the electro-country thing to its logical conclusion by thanking people for votin' 'n' supportin'.

Latvia and Israel were the best. Didn't care for the winner but I rarely do.

Some absurd political voting from the juries on Russia. Lithuania's televote had Gagarina 3rd, the jury members voted it 20th, with two making it 26th. San Marino had it in 18th.

Apparently Italy won the televote by some distance and it was only the juries that led to Sweden winning, which is the first time that has ever happened.

01. Italy – 366
02. Russia – 286
03. Sweden – 279
04. Belgium – 195
05. Estonia – 144
06. Australia – 132
07. Israel -104
08. Latvia – 100
09. Albania – 93
10. Serbia – 86
11. Armenia – 77
12. Romania – 69
13. Georgia – 51
14. Azerbaijan – 48
15. Poland – 47
16. Lithuania – 44
17. Norway – 43
18. Montenegro – 34
19. Slovenia – 27
20. Spain – 26
21. Greece – 24
22. Hungary – 21
23. Cyprus – 8
24. United Kingdom – 7
25. Germany – 5
26. France – 4
27. Austria – 0

Latvia came third with juries, Italy sixth.

01. Sweden – 353
02. Latvia – 249
03. Russia – 234
04. Australia – 224
05. Belgium – 186
06. Italy – 171
07. Norway – 163
08. Israel – 77
09. Cyprus – 63
10. Georgia – 62
11. Estonia – 53
12. Montenegro – 44
13. Austria – 40
14. Azerbaijan -40
15. Slovenia – 36
16. Lithuania – 31
17. Hungary – 29
18. Greece – 29
19. France – 24
20. Germany – 24
21. Romania – 21
22. Armenia – 15
23. United Kingdom – 12
24. Serbia – 12
25. Spain – 6
26. Albania – 4
27. Poland – 2

*second*

the French announcers were hilariously anti-Russian. when Germany gave Russia 12 points one announcer groaned "oh no". as Sweden started to rise the French announcers got progressively more gleeful, cheering each time Sweden came up higher than Russia.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenia–Azerbaijan_relations_in_the_Eurovision_Song_Contest

he was told by his interrogators that they had the names and addresses of all 43 Azerbaijanis who voted for Armenia

This was excellent trolling from Armenia:

http://i.imgur.com/l31Y4Ng.jpg

So, the UK got 7 with one set, 12 with the other, and in Total we end up with 5?

any jury that voted the UK above Serbia ought to be forced to join Electro Velvet

I'm trying to remember what the UK entry sounded like and all I'm getting is this...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvLDm8821jQ

did no-one else like Electro Velvet? I thought they were good, though maybe not as good as this provisional Austrian entry for 2012 that ended up being disqualified because it was publicly performed before the official start date for that year

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qplHN8o4rTk

it was replaced by the imperishable Trackshittaz and 'Woki Mit Deim Popo' though, so can't be too cut up about it

I thought the Electro Velvet tune was decent enough Charleston pastiche until, you know, the electro bits. I don't think "let's please every possible viewer demographic" has ever been the recipe for a Eurovision victory, so I'm not sure why they thought it would work this time?

The reason why I felt Belgium was the best (though Serbia was almost as good) was because their tune was so unashamedly stripped-down and modern. Usually the attempts to bring contemporary dance music into the contest have still included some traditionally "Eurovisiony" power strings and vocals melismas into them, which tends to water them down. But Belgium's song refused to do any of that, there were no embellishments or modulations or shit, and it may have cost them the old fogey vote, but it was clearly the best pop tune of this year.

wikipedia says that Electro swing is popular in Europe

i hate 20s pastiche but i think Electro Velvet's main problem was not so much the song as the fact that they were a bit shit

me and Han were debating whether Ms Electro Swing was wooden and grooveless naturally or whether it was the high tech costume she was wearing but either way tbh

Electro swing not just popular in Europe, festivals in London (Swingfest) and Birmingham (Swingamajig) this year. Maybe the most 'current' a British entry has been in decades.

A guy I used to work with is a near-the-bottom-of-the-bill Electro Swing DJ.

maybe Electro Velvet are just too current for the fuddy-duddies of ilx, will try and console myself with that thought

Read somewhere that every juror who voted for Electro Velvet was over 60.

Electroswing got big at least 5 years ago, it's really not "current", you guys. Also it's only popular amongst reprehensible posh twats.

I'd wager it's more "current" than Eurobosh or power ballads.

Electro Velvet were shit yeah, in an in-your-face kind of way, but the song was also the world's first objectively bad tune.

The UK selectors may exhibit rank cluelessness, but the German ones have got themselves into a row already:

Germany withdraws 'homophobic' Eurovision act

The arguments against Xavier Naidoo paint him as a caricature right-winger, based on a few statements/lyrics from a long career. The truth seems a lot less clearcut. The charges against him are (in German) here. Herbert Grönemeyer defended him, calling Naidoo a "Christian free-spirit", not sure if that's a paradox. The ARD coordinator supported him in an interview. But now they've decided it's better not to bother persisting with it.

Anyway, back to the UK selectors. I'm betting that our 2016 song will contain at least one shout of the word "Selector!".

BUT this dream might be scuppered, if the 'new' selection system can pick something a bit more up-to-date.

There's going to be a public vote at some point, presumably after the experts get rid of anything too interesting. The process isn't well explained, but song entries closed last week.

http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2015-09-30/public-given-back-power-to-choose-uk-eurovision-entry
http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2015/sep/30/bbc-to-hold-open-talent-search-for-uks-next-eurovision-entry

Eurovision 2016