Eurovision 2020 (now featuring Eurovision 2021)

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 it at least sounds like some run of the mill, slightly outdated UK pop instead of like some shit like it usually does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

he's got his own (busy, one time) thread: so this omar souleyman guy (RFI, RFD)

Thanks again, breastcrawl. I'll check it out.

I may start a thread about this (I still don't know what to call it), but in the meantime I'm sharing a short playlist (the product of a couple of late night YouTube rabbit holes) of the kind of stuff I've been looking for (don't even know what to call it). Comprises stuff from North Africa, Eastern Europe and the Middle East: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6zyXmG5g9xEpDzbHi1waRQQWDk8WC7YH

very cool, lots of Albanian stuff there, look forward to checking those out!

(and you already gave it a name!)

j’adoooore “Meleğim”, an Algerian singer/rapper and a French-Congolese singer doing a Francophone Arabic pop song with a Turkish title, with a video shot in Istanbul, superbe

I didn’t know Sura İskenderli! “Dinle” goes hard, amazing!

Yes, I am now realizing most of these songs are Albanian.

do start that thread, it will be fun!

(and it will probably find its course, even if you’re not quite sure of the premise)

Done! A thread for pop with Arabic influences from the Balkans, Transcaucasia, North Africa and the Middle East

Also discovering a few great Chalga and Manele tracks!

20% attendance (3,500 people) allowed at every show:

https://eurovision.tv/story/eurovision-song-contest-fieldlab

Dutch TV showed the 1970 edition (also held in the Netherlands) late last night, as part of the buildup to this year’s contest.

the whole affair was over within 75 minutes, no frills that I could see, and frankly (and quite surprisingly to me) poor quality almost across the board. guess I liked Katja Epstein best, and of course it’s quite fascinating to see Julio Iglesias make his international debut.

turns out it’s on YouTube as well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNoNzN12ecU

Okay, four hours to the first semifinal! And it'll actually be properly streamed over here thanks to the Peacock service.

Jesus, the announcements almost killed me. I was so sure Ukraine were going out.

Yeah that was rough

Go_AAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Jesus, the announcements almost killed me. I was so sure Ukraine were going out.

Yeah I was about to explode on that front. Whew, in a word. (My four faves from this bunch all went through -- them, Lithuania, Belgium, Malta. Shame about Australia, especially given some of the trash that DID go through.)

Either they saved the best three till last, or the drink was kicking in. Or probably both. I wasn’t bowled over by Lithuania, but perhaps I was still in warm up mode at that stage. Something seemed to go horribly wrong for Ireland - the staging at the end can’t have been what was planned, which may account for why she buried her head in her hands instead of graciously receiving such applause as there was. Predictions-wise, I got a better than usual 9/10: undervalued Lithuania, overvalued Macedonia’s appeal to the “musical theatre” niche.