Eurovision Song Contest 2022

Amerivision Thong Contest

What state is Flo Rida representing?

Alas, as an honorable Sammarinese (!) citizen Flo Rida is not eligible for the US contest:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkhiH-JXFPs

ah, I'd forgotten about that

Some entries I like a lot:

First of all, our quite wonderful Dutch entry, by S10 (pronounced ‘Steen’ in English, because that’s how you pronounce her first name, Stien), whose 2020 album was very high on my ILM ballot that year. It’s our first Dutch-language entry since Sieneke’s dead on populist-not-poptimist arrival “Ik ben verliefd (Sha-la-lie)" in 2010:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2m-MGSys0k
S10 • De Diepte

Next up, Italy’s all-male passion play, hotly tipped to be the winner (ancora!) until the war broke out. And if they manage to pull off a performance like the one in the San Remo final, who could say they wouldn’t have deserved it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MgMhzfUmiA
Mahmood & BLANCO • Brividi

Now instead, Mahmood might have to settle for the runner-up position for the second time in three editions.

I also posted about the Albanian entry a couple of weeks ago on A thread for pop with Arabic influences from the Balkans, Transcaucasia, North Africa and the Middle East, to stunned silence:

”Sekret” by Ronela Hajati, this year’s Albanian Eurovision entry, is more than worth a thread revive. There’s several different versions to choose from - I can’t, so here’s all three of them:

the original all-Albanian version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NczxScmhajw

live performance in the national final, partly in English: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuLIDqZ3waQ

the brand new revamped international video version, English + Albanian and featuring some strategically interspersed Spanish elements: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMu47raqbcc

A truly insane final video.

My favorites for this year are Cyprus and Czech Republic:

Andromache - Ela

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GM8CY08UT6I

We Are Domi - Lights Off

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMesI3_LprY

This video contains snippets from all the tracks:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrOaYo3I-9A

Rehearsals underway, but to catch the snippets, off to TikTok...

https://www.tiktok.com/@eurovision

Two hours to go to semifinal 1! If you're over here and need viewing help...

https://www.eurowhat.com/watch

Semi final order badly formatted by me lazily pasting from Wikipedia

01 Albania - Ronela Hajati, "Sekret" (Albanian, English)
02 Latvia - Citi Zēni, "Eat Your Salad"(English)
03 Lithuania - Monika Liu, “Sentimentai”(Lithuanian)
04 Switzerland - Marius Bear , “Boys Do Cry" (English)
05 Slovenia - LPS, “Disko" (Slovene)
06 Ukraine - Kalush Orchestra, “Stefania" (Ukrainian)
07 Bulgaria - Intelligent Music Project, “Intention" (English)
08 Netherlands - S10, “De diepte" (Dutch)
09 Moldova - Zdob și Zdub & Advahov Brothers, “Trenulețul" (Romanian, English)
10 Portugal - Maro, “Saudade, saudade" (English, Portuguese)
11 Croatia - Mia Dimšić, “Guilty Pleasure" (English, Croatian)
12 Denmark - Reddi, “The Show" (English)
13 Austria - Lumix feat. Pia Maria , “Halo" (English)
14 Iceland - Systur, “Með hækkandi sól" (Icelandic)
15 Greece - Amanda Georgiadi Tenfjord, “Die Together" (English)
16 Norway - Subwoolfer, “Give That Wolf a Banana" (English)
17 Armenia - Rosa Linn, “Snap" (English)

Bbc commentary: “thanks for getting off grindr to host Eurovision” (!)

Popbitch have handily just released their guide.

I still can’t believe these are the opening lyrics to the Latvian Eurovision this year. pic.twitter.com/9IDi4t3guz

— Scott Bryan (@scottygb) May 10, 2022

Moldova vg

Zdob si Dob always are great value

wot? DJ ChisinÖtzi?

Austria very happy to be here

lots of 70s vibes tonight

this grew on me

Lithuania, Ukraine, Netherlands, Moldova, Portugal, Iceland would be my picks

Albania
Ukraine
Netherlands
Lithuania
Portugal
Greece
Norway (by the skin of their wolfs teeth)

Love love love love this Eurodance classics interval but too bad they didn’t save it till Saturday.

I think I might be the only person who really liked Austria? They were cute and fun and enthusiastic.

I was very happy about how happy they were to be there

the disco / dance / edm intermezzo, for a second I thought we were getting (Eumir) Deodato here.

*had me confused…

for me Austria were the best of the worst, which means i want them to go through

“caress the moon”? #onethread

farewell Ronela Hajati 😥

Oh thank god, I don't have to listen to Austria ever again!

OOOPS I meant Latvia!

Here we go

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8a7Gbci7CI

That was a BIZARRE result all around.

don’t know, all of the countries seandalai and I mentioned were voted thru, except Albania (and that was a highly divisive one to begin with) - plus Armenia and Switzerland, who were both solid (although not my thing). the six that were eliminated were all crap (very fun crap, in the case of Austria), again except Albania, which was robbed, looted and plundered, a truly unforgivable travesty of justice.

I think I might be the only person who really liked Austria? They were cute and fun and enthusiastic.

I really did as well! I guess main singer was a bit too off at times, though (agreed again) not for want of enthusiasm.

except Albania, which was robbed, looted and plundered, a truly unforgivable travesty of justice

This truth.

SERBIA SERBIA SERBIA SERBIA

(Also I am very ashamed but I enjoyed Georgia quite a bit)

Cyprus presenting a masterclass in killing your own quite decent song

I'm convinced Serbia aren't going to go through and I'm sad about it already.

I would be surprised if it goes through (but also very happy)

There you go, guys

Yesssss! The rest of the lot that went through today was pretty poor, I've got to say. They picked mostly the most boring ones.

Czech Republic was good!

Serbia going through made me VERY happy. Estonia was the 'most improved' for sure, credit to the guy and glad he went through. Beyond that mostly indifferent or unsurprised though I would easily swap out San Marino for Finland on that front.

And yeah, Czech Republic made up for some iffy performances on the promo tour by all accounts.

Czechia was good fun, yes. Not quite as fun as Austria if we're comparing cheesy dance entries, but I definitely approve.

2 mins to 12, get the fuck on with it

People elsewhere in the continent watching this at 2am lol

UK, 28 votes.

Wonder how many people actually vote in the UK?

Just thinking about the fact that if Putin hadn't decided to invade Ukraine, the UK would have just won Eurovision.

Public got it pretty much spot on.

Rotten bit of luck, chaps.

Wonder how many people actually vote in the UK?

Ukraine didn't deserve the 400 and whatever votes they got but they were right about Serbia.

I fucken voted, I do it every year. It's actually a big deal where I live, I could lean out the window and point out 4 more voters

Just thinking about the fact that if Putin hadn't decided to invade Ukraine, the UK would have just won Eurovision.

Just thinking about the fact that if Putin hadn't decided to invade Ukraine, the UK would have just won Eurovision.

― Portrait Of A Dissolvi Ng Drea M (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Saturday, 14 May 2022 bookmarkflaglink

The Ukraine's extra sympathy votes would've been spread out in a way that's hard to predict. A very small gap btw UK and Spain.

xp It's true! Also the Ukraine song is better, and not the sort of thing which would normally be in with a chance.

Tonight was truly Boris Johnson's Dunkirk moment.

you have melted our hearts, friends #Eurovision 💛💙...

...and it matters the world to us during this time 💔

we send all your love and support to our brave freedom defenders at Azovstal and along the frontline

congrats, KALUSH Orchestra 🏆🇺🇦 #SaveMariupol #SaveAzovstal pic.twitter.com/Vt7WzpMHFQ

— Ukraine / Україна (@Ukraine) May 14, 2022

Ukraine got 431 out of a maximum possible 468 public votes.

without the invasion ukraine have a different entry: alina pash withdrew as contestant for some faff to do with crimea which i'm too sleepy to understand

also russia would be competing

At least Switzerland got fuck all in the public vote.

Next year in a liberated Mariupol.
We’ll sort it out somehow.#Eurovision2022

— Illia Ponomarenko 🇺🇦 (@IAPonomarenko) May 14, 2022

Also Konstrakta’s formal video for the song rules too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3S1jrYq87Zw

Just looking at the full vote breakdown now. The following countries’ public votes gave Ukraine 12 points:

🇮🇹 Italy
🇫🇷 France
🇮🇪 Ireland
🇮🇸 Iceland
🇪🇸 Spain
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
🇩🇰 Denmark
🇩🇪 Germany
🇦🇹 Austria
🇪🇪 Estonia
🇱🇻 Latvia
🇱🇹 Lithuania
🇵🇱 Poland
🇦🇿 Azerbaijan
🇧🇬 Bulgaria
🇲🇩 Moldova
🇨🇿 Czech Republic
🇬🇪 Georgia
🇸🇲 San Marino
🇦🇺 Australia
🇧🇪 Belgium
🇨🇾 Cyprus
🇳🇱 Netherlands
🇸🇪 Sweden
🇮🇱 Israel
🇵🇹 Portugal
🇳🇴 Norway
🇫🇮 Finland

My beloved Moldova got 8 points from the UK public, proving my votes for them didn’t go to waste.

They got 12 points from Romania and Serbia, which amuses me because I saw a comment on YouTube by an excited Serb talking about how the video distilled the experience of taking trains in the Balkans and when I ran this by my Serb mate she was like “unbelievably otm” & “one time I saw a group take a suckling pig on the train”. Any other year, they’d be reaping in the end of evening drunk votes but they still did very well!

Obviously there were some Bizarre Voting Irregularities, Sharivari to thread etc

Turns out that you can loop the 32 bar acapella intro of "Stefania" all the way through the break in Madonna's "Hung Up" - the keys match perfectly.

(Fucking hell, wait till she realises. There'll be no stopping her.)