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)
― Blick, Bils & Blinky • Let's Skip The Shaker Intros (breastcrawl), Monday, 29 March 2021 20:14 (three years ago) link
audiences (Dutch only) will be allowed (unless conditions deteriorate):https://www.escdaily.com/dutch-government-allows-reduced-amount-of-audience-at-eurovision-2021/
― Blick, Bils & Blinky • Let's Skip The Shaker Intros (breastcrawl), Friday, 2 April 2021 17:16 (three years ago) link
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
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 6 April 2021 16:16 (three years ago) link
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/18/russias-eurovision-entry-to-be-investigated-for-lyrcslol
― scanner darkly, Tuesday, 6 April 2021 17:24 (three years ago) link
I'm surprised (and happy) to see that the Hooverphonic are still around and are the Belgian entry. It seems so random!
― daavid, Thursday, 8 April 2021 03:26 (three years ago) link
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.
― daavid, Thursday, 8 April 2021 03:47 (three years ago) link
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
― Bignefs Proportionable (seandalai), Thursday, 8 April 2021 21:01 (three years ago) link
inexact application of "Middle Eastern" but first few things that came to mind
― Bignefs Proportionable (seandalai), Thursday, 8 April 2021 21:02 (three years ago) link
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!
― Blick, Bils & Blinky • Let's Skip The Shaker Intros (breastcrawl), Saturday, 10 April 2021 19:22 (three years ago) link
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
― Blick, Bils & Blinky • Let's Skip The Shaker Intros (breastcrawl), Saturday, 10 April 2021 19:27 (three years ago) link
Thank you, seandalai and breastcrawl!
:)
― daavid, Saturday, 10 April 2021 21:18 (three years ago) link
This is exactly what I was looking for.
― daavid, Saturday, 10 April 2021 21:24 (three years ago) link
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.
― emil.y, Saturday, 10 April 2021 21:36 (three years ago) link
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
― Blick, Bils & Blinky • Let's Skip The Shaker Intros (breastcrawl), Saturday, 10 April 2021 21:53 (three years ago) link
he's got his own (busy, one time) thread: so this omar souleyman guy (RFI, RFD)
― Blick, Bils & Blinky • Let's Skip The Shaker Intros (breastcrawl), Saturday, 10 April 2021 21:54 (three years ago) link
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
― daavid, Saturday, 10 April 2021 22:24 (three years ago) link
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, superbeI didn’t know Sura İskenderli! “Dinle” goes hard, amazing!
― Blick, Bils & Blinky • Let's Skip The Shaker Intros (breastcrawl), Saturday, 10 April 2021 23:08 (three years ago) link
Yes, I am now realizing most of these songs are Albanian.
― daavid, Saturday, 10 April 2021 23:20 (three years ago) link
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)
― Blick, Bils & Blinky • Let's Skip The Shaker Intros (breastcrawl), Saturday, 10 April 2021 23:49 (three years ago) link
Done! A thread for pop with Arabic influences from the Balkans, Transcaucasia, North Africa and the Middle East
― daavid, Sunday, 11 April 2021 02:37 (three years ago) link
Also discovering a few great Chalga and Manele tracks!
― daavid, Sunday, 11 April 2021 03:02 (three years ago) link
20% attendance (3,500 people) allowed at every show:https://eurovision.tv/story/eurovision-song-contest-fieldlab
― Long Tall Arsetee & the Shaker Intros (breastcrawl), Friday, 30 April 2021 21:20 (two years ago) link
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
― Long Tall Arsetee & the Shaker Intros (breastcrawl), Sunday, 9 May 2021 10:14 (two years ago) link
Okay, four hours to the first semifinal! And it'll actually be properly streamed over here thanks to the Peacock service.
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 18 May 2021 15:03 (two years ago) link
Jesus, the announcements almost killed me. I was so sure Ukraine were going out.
― emil.y, Tuesday, 18 May 2021 21:06 (two years ago) link
Yeah that was rough
― abcfsk, Tuesday, 18 May 2021 21:07 (two years ago) link
Go_AAAAAAAAAAAAAA
― Bignefs Proportionable (seandalai), Tuesday, 18 May 2021 21:11 (two years ago) link
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.)
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 18 May 2021 21:31 (two years ago) link
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.
― mike t-diva, Tuesday, 18 May 2021 22:04 (two years ago) link
Ukraine superb, Russia very good, Israel pretty decent, the rest more or less forgettable.
― Scampo di tutti i Scampi (ShariVari), Tuesday, 18 May 2021 22:10 (two years ago) link
Azerbaijan and Ukraine my favourites
― Long Tall Arsetee & the Shaker Intros (breastcrawl), Tuesday, 18 May 2021 22:44 (two years ago) link
I'm guessing Australia may have lost out a bit on not being actually present today nor on Saturday -- voters may have preferred all participants to actually be on stage?
― anatol_merklich, Tuesday, 18 May 2021 23:53 (two years ago) link
Iceland cursed 🙁
Iceland's Eurovision contenders Daði og Gagnamagnið had promised BBC Newsbeat a "more is more" approach, full of lights, colours, pyrotechnics and "sassiness".But in an emotional Instagram video, band member Jóhann Sigurður Jóhannsson tells of his sadness that they will not be able to perform live after he tested positive for Covid."I'm healthy. It's difficult because we've worked so hard and I really wanted this and it's been so long in the making,” he says.The band will stay in the competition but previous rehearsal footage will be used for Thursday's semi-final and, if they qualify, the final on Saturday.
But in an emotional Instagram video, band member Jóhann Sigurður Jóhannsson tells of his sadness that they will not be able to perform live after he tested positive for Covid.
"I'm healthy. It's difficult because we've worked so hard and I really wanted this and it's been so long in the making,” he says.
The band will stay in the competition but previous rehearsal footage will be used for Thursday's semi-final and, if they qualify, the final on Saturday.
― groovypanda, Thursday, 20 May 2021 10:53 (two years ago) link
previous winner Duncan Laurence has also tested positive - won’t be able to perform on Saturday or present the trophy to this year’s winner. quite concerning, it seems to spell trouble within that heavily tested and regulated ESC bubble
― Long Tall Arsetee & the Shaker Intros (breastcrawl), Thursday, 20 May 2021 11:21 (two years ago) link
read monitored for regulated, I guess
― Long Tall Arsetee & the Shaker Intros (breastcrawl), Thursday, 20 May 2021 11:22 (two years ago) link
(Laurence was there at Tuesday’s semis as well)
― Long Tall Arsetee & the Shaker Intros (breastcrawl), Thursday, 20 May 2021 11:24 (two years ago) link
Iceland deserve to be cursed. But yeah, the news is definitely troubling.
― emil.y, Thursday, 20 May 2021 15:32 (two years ago) link
I love love love the costume reveal in the Russian entry
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Thursday, 20 May 2021 15:50 (two years ago) link
Eefje de Visser’s album Nachtlicht is excellent. This, not so much.
― Scampo di tutti i Scampi (ShariVari), Thursday, 20 May 2021 19:04 (two years ago) link
so is last year’s Bitterzoet!and in a similar vein, S10’s Vlinders album, which I love even more(it was on my EOY ballot last year, I actually considered campaigning for it by saying try if you like the stuff on ShariVari’s Central/Eastern European & Central Asian Pop thread)
― Long Tall Arsetee & the Shaker Intros (breastcrawl), Thursday, 20 May 2021 21:28 (two years ago) link
Definitely some dull stretches in the SF today but a lot of said dullards didn't go through, happily. Most of my faves did -- Iceland, San Marino, Albania, Serbia -- and while I'm sad Denmark didn't make it (the crowd chant was amazing!) Finland getting in was great because those characters know exactly what to do in the green room and I am looking forward to further LOLs, not to mention what happens when they go up against Maneskin.
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 20 May 2021 21:55 (two years ago) link
I don't know how I've lived my life without seeing Ukraine's entry from 2007 until today. Truly one of the greatest things I've ever clapped eyes on
Hello everybody! My name is Verka Serduchka Me English nicht verstehen! Let's speak dance!…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfjHJneVonE
― Heavy Messages (jed_), Thursday, 20 May 2021 22:11 (two years ago) link
I was impressed at how there was a nip slip and nobody even thought it worth mentioning (although here I am mentioning it)
― A viking of frowns, (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Thursday, 20 May 2021 22:13 (two years ago) link
Jed, our wonderful Ukraine representatives this year covered it, too!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKDXxNKfu9M
― emil.y, Thursday, 20 May 2021 22:26 (two years ago) link
Thanks!
― Heavy Messages (jed_), Thursday, 20 May 2021 22:30 (two years ago) link
Denmark's was the best by a mile, no wonder it didn't get through.
J'ai rencontré l'homme dans la rue, et c'est un con
― maybe the beeple would be the times or between clark and hill (Bananaman Begins), Friday, 21 May 2021 09:27 (two years ago) link
the Danish entry was amazing by Danish standards, which means hey, it was quite nice actually. it not going through was karma for all the utter crap they have inflicted upon us throughout this centuryis there a thread for Eurovision countries whose entries are your own personal nails on chalkboard?
― Long Tall Arsetee & the Shaker Intros (breastcrawl), Friday, 21 May 2021 09:50 (two years ago) link
I think I might have missed Denmark's entry last night, which ones were they? Pretty much anything would've been better than Portugal getting through, though, ugh.
is there a thread for Eurovision countries whose entries are your own personal nails on chalkboard?
Ha, I was wondering about a poll for the opposite - countries whose entries tend to be your faves. For me I def get amped up about seeing what Azerbaijan and Ukraine have to offer but I've never checked back to see if they are really the most consistently good entries or if I just ~~feel~~ like they are. Obv some countries have longer Eurovision histories than others, but I reckon people could even make a case for Australia's consistency (never my favourites but I don't think I've disliked any of their entries, unless something's eluding my mind).
― emil.y, Friday, 21 May 2021 18:35 (two years ago) link
over the years France have had countless low-key great entries which inevitably finish mid-table, and they don't seem to mind
― A viking of frowns, (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Friday, 21 May 2021 18:40 (two years ago) link
I think I might have missed Denmark's entry last night, which ones were they?
They were the very 80s duo who ended the performance section -- the song's just all right but the performance was amazing. Really should have gotten in over a couple of those other entries.
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 21 May 2021 18:41 (two years ago) link