Eurovision 2020 (now featuring Eurovision 2021)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIvaeu6Oxzc

I'm team finland

UK Eurovision 2021 news: Same guy as last year. New song. No you can't hear it yet. No-one cares.

From the still I was expecting Finland to be proper metal, not crabcore revival. Not particularly into it, but it is fun.

Ukraine are also entering the same act again, I think last year's song was a bit better but I don't see any other country topping this for me:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDeMfL8Ib9A

love this

«Шум» is great, didn’t know it was another Eurovision entry! “Solovey” was my favourite last year.

"Solovey" was great, this is decent, don't think I could make it through a full Go_A album though

I’m all in for this one as well. imagine this mashing (and moshing!) up the place in a live situation - that wail at the end takes it next level

won’t get thru the semis probably tho. the Solovey love wasn’t very wide-spread last year

You reckon? Difficult for me to tell as everyone I know adored that one, but I realise my friends probably do not make up the bulk of the Eurovision audience.

Also, I'm guessing the plan is for Eurovision proper to go ahead this year? Most places seem to be doing better than the UK and even we seem to be managing to roll out vaccinations, so I guess it may be doable?

it will def go ahead, but most likely scenario will be performances without audience, either in Rotterdam or (more likely) beamed in from all the participating countries.

https://eurovision.tv/story/eurovision-2021-determined-yet-realistic-plans-for-may

(this was early Feb, but the socially-distanced audience option is going to be ditched sooner or later)

Thanks, bc.

out of the rest of the entries that are out now I like Israel’s “Set Me Free” by Eden Alene best - it’s one of several Duannabees (who’d have thunk?):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opmTs9uvENI

favourite line so far: “there ain’t no Apocalypse as long as you’re here on my lips” (© Benny Cristo, Czech Republic, 2021)

worst by some considerable distance is the German entry, which pre-emptively out-Danishes the Danes with the offensively twee “I Don’t Feel Hate” (good for you, I do). it’s probably all very wink-wink ironic, which makes it all the more punchable. here’s hoping the Danes will withdraw in admiration. they couldn’t possibly bottom this.

as we’re preparing to redo the 2020 edition in 2021, the ghost of the 2019 edition is still with us as well:

https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-56210143

welcome to the contest... Flo Rida:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRAN7AzEKak

UK's entry: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-56349129
Not totally shit but it couldn't hold my interest for it's entire running time. The horns make it sound like an Olly Murs song.

Why don't they get people or songs with personality for the UK entry, ever. I can't remember the last time. This is going to get some random votes here and there and otherwise people will have forgot about it after listening to 15 other tracks and artists that pop more.

ain’t half bad as UK entries go. it at least sounds like some run of the mill, slightly outdated UK pop instead of like some shit like it usually does

valiant effort by Daði Freyr to catch lightning in a bottle twice:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORDK1XQToAY
Daði og Gagnamagnið • 10 Years

yeah :(

I know Eurovision 2020 didn't really happen, but new thread?

in many ways it’s the same edition: same host city, most of the artists are the same.

I could ask une mod to adjust the thread title accordingly, “Eurovision 2020 —-> 2021” or something.

should have added a question mark there, it’s a suggestion after all. hope snoball, the thread starter, can shine their light on the matter

I can change the title to that if you want, I guess it might make sense? I don't have strong feelings either way.

I found 'Think About Things' fairly cloying, I think this one might be more so.

ESC enthusiasts, cast your votes or vetoes before douze heures or yours is losing game, I say!

I don't have strong feelings either way.

Adding 2021 to the thread title is fine by me. Most countries seem to be sending the same acts, just different songs.

what's another year?

thanx emil.y!

solid post-Netta effort from Russia:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l01wa2ChX64

France really really reminds me of something else - either that or it got stuck in my head already after two listens.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9t_SwPN31s

“Шум/Shum”, “Russian Woman” and Azerbaijan’s “Mata Hari” are sort of triangled in my mind:

“Шум/Shum” and “Russian Woman” are connected through their use of folk melodies, “Russian Woman” and “Mata Hari” through their Arabic/Anatolian elements, and “Mata Hari” connects back to “Шум/Shum” through the metal-like noise (шум means exactly that, and just listen to the final 20 seconds of “Mata Hari”!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSiZmR1c7Q4
Efendi • Mata Hari
(my current favourite)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7-dxzp6Jvs
Go_A • Shum
(this is the official ESC version, shorter and somewhat toned down from the 4’ version emil.y posted upthread)

the triangle works geographically as well:

RUS
^
- -
- -
- -
v v
UKR <- - - - - - - - - - > AZE

(it does in Zing anyway lol)

all 39* entries in 14 minutes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6FU4wPI-ng

(Belarus was disqualified for being too political, twice,
Armenia decided to withdraw its entry because of the political crisis in the country)

audiences (Dutch only) will be allowed (unless conditions deteriorate):

https://www.escdaily.com/dutch-government-allows-reduced-amount-of-audience-at-eurovision-2021/

So, I had some thoughts on some of the entries:

😈💅 New Episode 💅😈 @nedraggett joins us to chat about the devils in the details of the #Eurovision entries from #Slovenia, #Sweden, #Cyprus, #Norway, #Croatia, and #Belgium. #OpenUp your podcast apps and have a listen to one hell of an episode! https://t.co/WqVtqhaEpP

— The EuroWhat? Podcast (@EuroWhat) April 6, 2021

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/18/russias-eurovision-entry-to-be-investigated-for-lyrcs
lol

I'm surprised (and happy) to see that the Hooverphonic are still around and are the Belgian entry. It seems so random!

I am kind of obsessed with Mata Hari as well. That chorus is massive! Can anyone recommend artist/songs in the same vein (i.e. Europop with Middle Eastern flourishes)? I'm a little disconnected from ILM so I'm unaware if there's already a thread for it.

Europop with Middle Eastern flourishes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF9BcOvBwfM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzKgojZqO5Y

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bridO-wD7c8

inexact application of "Middle Eastern" but first few things that came to mind

Those are:
Inga & Anush • Jan-Jan (Armenia, 2009)
Hadise • Düm Tek Tek (Turkey, 2009)
Nadav Guedj • Golden Boy (Israel, 2015)
Sirusho • Qélé, Qélé (Armenia, 2008)

thanks for posting these, seandalai – didn’t really have those older ones handy in my mind!

the current gold standard for this is Eleni Foureira’s fantastic “Fuego” (Cyprus), which should have won in 2018 over Netta’s “Toy” (and would have, if Eleni wouldn’t have been overcome with nerves in the final over the prospect). of this year’s contenders, “Mata Hari” and San Marino’s “Adrenalina” (see upthread) are following in this song’s footsteps.
feel the fire an let your pelican fly:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54PHdAEmJkM

that thrilling davul/zurna hook makes it. it’s a combination of instruments that is traditionally used in wedding music all over the Balkans, the Eastern Mediterranean, Anatolia and the Kaukasus, part of the Ottoman footprint in the region (as well as that of the Romani in the Balkans possibly?).
of course Eurovision is just the tip of this iceberg, there are whole (thriving) genres that can be traced back to this imprint. check for example: Bulgarian chalga: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chalga and Romanian manele: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manele.

Anyways, I don’t think there’s much to be found on any of this on ILM (unless it’s buried somewhere in some oughties thread or other). I do post the occasional Türkpop banger here: I don't like Turkish music, or do I?

as for “Toy”, you may remember it for its chorus, but listen to the beats/percussion in the verses: it has its fair share of Middle Easternness, like most Israeli entries these days - see “Golden Boy” above and this year’s “Set Me Free” by Eden, which features Arabic strings in the mix.
there’s Arabic flourishes in “Russian Woman” as well, as I mentioned above.
And then there’s the Albanian entry, “Karma” by Anxhela Peristeri, (quoting Wikipedia here) “a dramatic ethnic Balkan-inspired pop ballad combining modern and traditional Albanian elements.” – which means large parts also sound very Turkish. they forgot to mention the trap section tho! needless to say I love it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4D_RfEFwd4

it's the opposite of a banger, but Ukraine’s 2016 ESC winner, Jamala’s beautiful “1944”, deserves a mention as well. from Wikipedia: “The song's chorus, in the Crimean language, is made up of words from a Crimean Tatar folk song called "Ey Güzel Qırım" that Jamala had heard from her great-grandmother, reflecting on the loss of a youth which could not be spent in her homeland. The song features the duduk [...] and the use of the mugham vocal style.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-rnM-MwRHY

Thank you, seandalai and breastcrawl!

:)

This is exactly what I was looking for.

Ooh, thanks for the tips on chalga and manele, breastcrawl. I'm into this stuff but tend to find it very sporadically and semi-randomly, so it's good to have some search terms to use to go investigating myself.

you’re welcome, emil.y (and daavid of course!)

I would probably find lots to love in these genres, but I never got around to really checking them out.

bonus, because related:
Omar Souleyman, who brought Syrian wedding music to the masses at Western rock festivals a decade ago