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Post by kerouac2 on Jan 19, 2019 20:03:32 GMT
The final vote has not been made yet, but it is already looking like the French contestant for Eurovision 2019 will be the intersex person this year.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jan 27, 2019 14:39:37 GMT
Anyway, Bilal Hassani was confirmed as the representative of France for 2019.
Call me weird, but my own preference in the finals went to Silvàn Areg for his energy and folly. He came in 5th in the final French voting.
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Post by patricklondon on Feb 9, 2019 10:14:03 GMT
The BBC had their selection show for this year last night. I know I'm hardly in the target demographic, but - oh dear. For some reason they decided to shortlist/commission (?) three songs, each to be sung by two different performers in different ways, a panel of judges choosing which performance of the three would go to the phone vote. I don't know where they got the songs from, but they were each of them just one idea repeated and repeated until ground into the dust. Plus the staging looked a bit cut-price and there was something up with the sound system, I think. Anyway, here's the nominee:
My blog | My photos | My video clips | My Librivox recordings"too literate to be spam"
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Post by kerouac2 on Feb 9, 2019 10:25:08 GMT
Oh dear, I am speechless.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Feb 10, 2019 9:51:41 GMT
The uk contestants and songs were unveiled on a breakfast TV with snippets of each of the six performers. One stood out as much MUCH worse than the others (imo) but all of them were much of a muchness...very uninspiring. We decided that the lad would probably win because of the population likely to vote. Meh...
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Post by mossie on Feb 10, 2019 16:13:29 GMT
I think that was chosen in the knowledge that we stand no chance against the arranged voting seen in recent times. So it was deliberately the worst on offer as to take the piss. As you may guess I am no fan of modern music. Who let that doddery old fool in
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Post by kerouac2 on Feb 26, 2019 11:53:59 GMT
Ah, we have our first political scandal. Maruv was selected by the Ukrainian public to represent her country but has now been dumped. The reason? The Ukrainian national broadcaster demanded that she sign an agreement not to tour in Russia until after the competition, and she refused.
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Post by kerouac2 on Feb 27, 2019 20:44:40 GMT
This is getting good. Ukraine has pulled out of the contest this year because the #2 singer refused to replace Maruv and so did #3.
Meanwhile, there is a scandal in Italy. The right wing government is horrified by the choice of Mahmood to represent Italy, notably because his song has some Arabic words in it, this in spite of the fact that he won the San Remo song contest, which is much more important in Italy than Eurovision.
And then there is Iceland. The song that will almost certainly be selected is anti-Israeli (let's not forget that this year's competition takes place in Tel Aviv). Eurovision is getting even more interesting than Brexit.
On top of that there is a polemic about a new Israeli series that will be shown in May called "Douze Points" in which the French singer is a gay man of North African origin (see above who is representing France this year) involved in a terrorist plot. Oy vey! (And yet obviously the scenario was written a year ago.)
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Post by kerouac2 on May 6, 2019 6:30:51 GMT
So, in the British betting odds, the Netherlands is currently #1.
Number 2 is Russia.
Number 3 is Switzerland.
I'd say that the Netherlands has a chance, but not the other two.
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Post by kerouac2 on May 6, 2019 6:33:12 GMT
It is only fair to look at the song in last place, Montenegro, #41, keeping in mind that the semi-final elimination round has not yet taken place.
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Post by kerouac2 on May 10, 2019 15:57:40 GMT
Back to the French entry Bilal Hassani. The official Eurovision video is interesting because it shows him both as he looks in normal everyday life and also his stage persona.
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Post by kerouac2 on May 11, 2019 13:14:54 GMT
I have to admit that I still really like the Italian song by Mahmood. He was born in Sardinia of an Egyptian father, but his style is known as "Moroccan pop." I see on Wikipedia that he is also gay, which always helps the Eurovision competitors. Maybe Moroccan style will be another plus, along with the French singer.
It is interesting to note that Morocco competed in the Eurovision contest once, in 1980, and received the most points from Italy. In any case, Morocco would be more appropriate in Eurovision than Australia.
Speaking of which, see if you can watch the Australian entry without vomiting.
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Post by mickthecactus on May 11, 2019 15:36:46 GMT
Mahmood. Lovely old Italian name.
This contest seems to have become a repository for all the world’s oddballs.
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Post by kerouac2 on May 11, 2019 15:56:24 GMT
I guess that's why Farrokh Bulsara had to call himself Freddie Mercury.
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Post by kerouac2 on May 12, 2019 7:51:56 GMT
Old timers might remember when Finland won with the awful hard rock group Lordi in 2006. Well, this time it is Iceland which is going that route.
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Post by mickthecactus on May 12, 2019 8:21:08 GMT
Must be something to do with those cold winters.
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Post by kerouac2 on May 14, 2019 4:09:59 GMT
In the final week, the betting odds are:
#1 Netherlands #2 Sweden #3 France #4 Russia #5 Azerbaijan
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Post by kerouac2 on May 14, 2019 21:22:40 GMT
Cultural geopolitics always fascinate me since even though there is a tiny percentage of real culture, most of the result in Eurovision votes is politics. The first semi-finals took place tonight, and the following countries were eliminated :
Montenegro, Finland, Poland, Hungary, Belgium, Georgia and Portugal.
These ten countries were qualified, often to my dismay :
Cyprus, Slovenia, Chechenya, Belarus, Serbia, Australia, Iceland, Estonia, Greece and San Marino.
Oh well.
I had three favourites -- Chechenya, Slovenia and Portugal
The three I disliked the most were -- Iceland, San Marino and Montenegro
Having watched this semi final, I am morally obliged to watch the other semi final on Thursday.
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Post by bjd on May 15, 2019 6:25:32 GMT
Well, good luck with that.
I don't watch it but was quite surprised to see in this morning's news headlines that Australia takes part in Eurovision. What happened to the "Euro" part of it? How far east does it go? Azerbaijan? Chechnya? Israel?
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Post by kerouac2 on May 15, 2019 10:45:10 GMT
It can be open to any member of the European Broadcasting Union, which is why Israel is in it and why Morocco participated once. The Australian channel that broadcasts the show joined the EBU several years before Australia was finally invited. (Australia needed an invitation because it is only an associate member.) Other members include Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt and Lebanon. Who knows that the future has in store? The geopolitics of the voting has always been the main thing that interests me although the show was the main source of European stars before Idol, Voice, et al. At least Eurovision shows you what is happening in other countries whereas the current shows concentrate exclusively on the country where they are broadcast (with a bit of France/Belgium/Switzerland overlapping as well as Germany/Austria/Switzerland).
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Post by kerouac2 on May 15, 2019 19:02:15 GMT
After the first eliminations in the semi finals, it is now Latvia that has sunk to the bottom of the odds. I imagine that they will be gone tomorrow.
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Post by kerouac2 on May 17, 2019 11:54:26 GMT
Well, Latvia is gone, thank god, also the dreadful entries by Armenia and Ireland. Also gone are Croatia, Austria, Romania and Lithuania.
I'll have to align myself with the odds -- I think the Netherlands is going to win.
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Post by whatagain on May 18, 2019 12:37:53 GMT
Netherlands winner ? One more reason fir me not to watch. I do like lordi as a hard rock group. Well the 2-3 songs I found on YouTube.
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Post by kerouac2 on May 18, 2019 13:48:26 GMT
I think my personal favourite is Italy. Choosing diversity and singing in the national language always appeal to me. It's also a very sad song about having a shitty father.
It’s really hot down in the suburbs Mum don’t worry I’m on my way home You will be upset by a liar It looked like love to you, it was something else
He’s drinking champagne during Ramadan On tv they are airing Jackie Chan He’s smoking shisha and asks me how I’m doing
He asks me how I’m doing, doing, doing You already know how things are going, going, going
I think faster to try to figure out If you’re going to fool me tomorrow I have no time to clear things up ‘Cause I finally found out what you are
It hurts to be alive When you lose your pride You leave home out of the blue You, tell me if
You only cared for the money, money As if you had any money, money Tell me whether you miss me or you don’t give a damn
You used to ask me how I was doing, doing, doing Now how are things going, going, going
What you’re supposed to say you haven’t said yet Betrayal is a bullet in your chest
Keep all the compassion to yourself You keep lyin’ at home but you know she knows Sittin’ there she’ll be asking me
Asking me how I’m doing, doing, doing You already know how things are going, going, going
I think faster to try to figure out If you’re going to fool me tomorrow I have no time to clear things up ‘Cause I finally found out what you are
It hurts to be alive When you lose your pride I figured it out in one second That you, from me
You only wanted money, money As if I had any money, money Before you would talk to me till late
You used to ask me how I’m doing, doing, doing Now how are things going, going, going
My son, my son, darling, come over here You used to tell me while playing with me looking proud My son, my son, darling, it seemed real the desire, the desire to bring things back to what they were
I didn’t ask for your money
It hurts to be alive When you lose your pride You leave home out of the blue You, tell me if
You only wanted money, money As if I had any money, money
You leave the city without anybody knowing Yesterday you were here, where are you now, dad?
You ask me how I’m doing, doing, doing You already know how things are going, going, going
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Post by kerouac2 on May 18, 2019 15:04:37 GMT
Netherlands winner ? One more reason for me not to watch. The poor Dutch singer must be embarrassed to be Dutch since his professional name is Duncan Laurence to sound English, but his real name is Duncan de Moor.
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Post by mickthecactus on May 18, 2019 21:10:33 GMT
I have no doubt we shall be in the bottom three.
I really don’t know why we still participate.
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Post by kerouac2 on May 18, 2019 21:15:16 GMT
I liked Italy, Czechia, Slovenia, the Netherlands and Azerbaijan.
Hated San Marino, United Kingdom, Greece and Israel.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on May 18, 2019 21:28:59 GMT
Well I watched the BBC Young Dancer 2019 final instead which was excellent. Flipped over and saw the summary done for the voting reminder...meh.
They all looked a bit crap tbf. Son was forced to watch it all with GF (her watching in Finland, him here whilst were on skype.) Son reckons Iceland was the best...France the most politically correct. We never bother counting UK because it's inevitably awful...not the artist's fault necessarily...
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Post by kerouac2 on May 18, 2019 21:36:46 GMT
The competing programme in France was The Voice -- no thank you!
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Post by kerouac2 on May 18, 2019 22:09:36 GMT
Madonna's performance during the voting interlude was totally pathetic. The general consensus on Twitter was that she would not even have made it to the semifinals.
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