Eurovision Song Contest 2017

Discussion in 'Non-Disney Entertainment' started by mawnck, Feb 13, 2017.

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  1. mawnck

    mawnck Well-Known Member

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    The Eurovision Song Contest is an annual TV spectacular put on by the European Broadcasting Union every May. You can think of it as an Olympics of European pop music - with definite shades of X-factor, the Hunger Games, and a really crazy Lady Gaga concert thrown in for good measure. There are usually around 43 countries participating (some of which are literally at war with each other), with no-budget microstates like San Marino going up against Russia, Germany and Australia. (Yes, Australia. Long story. Israel's in it too.)

    It's been going strong (relatively speaking) since 1956. It has over 200,000,000 viewers - that's a heckuva lot more than the Oscars. Europeans have Eurovision parties the same way we have Superbowl parties, only with lots of flags and international food.

    Here are things that Americans may know about, that came from the Eurovision Song Contest, with video:

    "Volaré"
    ABBA
    Celine Dion
    Riverdance
    Epic Sax Guy
    Conchita Wurst
    "Love Is Blue"
    "Ooh Ahh Just a LIttle Bit"
    "Eres Tü"
    "Save Your Kisses For Me"

    Amazed you've never heard of it? Most Americans haven't. It's only officially been televised here twice ... in 1971 and 2016 (on PBS and Logo TV, respectively). And despite launching international smash hits every year (most notably "Euphoria" by Loreen, which was literally the #1 record IN THE WORLD for the year 2012), the songs just don't cross the pond anymore, the closest we've gotten being Il Volo's effort from two years ago, which was on a CD that sold big to the NPR crowd.

    The countries are all selecting their songs now, and since me and u k fan totally derailed my Animation Oscars thread with our Eurovision talk, I decided to make a topic for it, in which I will also toss in some updates that you, yes YOU, may find interesting, just to see what happens. (It's been an interesting weekend, let me tell you!) Hopefully some cool music too.
     
  2. mawnck

    mawnck Well-Known Member

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    It's not that similar to Jade Ewen. That was Andrew Lloyd Webber. This isn't. And she ain't Jade Ewen. Who, by the way, is currently playing Princess Jasmine in the West End production of Disney's Aladdin.

    Just don't be too disappointed if, well, you know.
     
  3. mawnck

    mawnck Well-Known Member

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    For those of you just joining us, here's a bit of totally typical Eurovision National Selection Season fun from Saturday, as the Spanish national final ended in what came very close to being a literal riot. Thanks to the just-revised Spanish rules, two of the three panelists on the Music Jury went and overruled the popular vote, as well as the VERY boisterous Spanish studio audience.

    EUROVISION APOCALYPSE: Spain 2017 - Objetivo Eurovision - The Results
     
  4. mawnck

    mawnck Well-Known Member

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  5. u k fan

    u k fan Active Member

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    I don't necessarily think the song is that similar, just the basic idea - solo girl singing a ballad. It can't do any worse than the mediocre groups we've been trotting out.

    I saw Jade as Jasmine on TV and I was underwhelmed to be honest. I'm glad she's having some success though after being the world's shortest lived Sugababe.

    A friend of mine auditioned to sing the Andrew Lloyd Webber song and got far enough through the process to make the TV show. It was a fairly open secret during production that Jade was always going to be picked and the reality show attached was just to give her a backstory. She didn't even participate in the full audition process.
     
  6. u k fan

    u k fan Active Member

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    Just had a look, I do remember Holly now. It was the Halo rip off. Not bad, but too similar to the song I just mentioned for me. Probably my second choice. I didn't actually vote though as I wasn't home.
     
  7. FerretAfros

    FerretAfros Well-Known Member

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    Will the contest be shown in the US this year? I remember catching part of it online last year, since I don't get the channel it's broadcast on, but was able to get into the livestream.

    When is it? It's usually early summer-ish, right?
     
  8. u k fan

    u k fan Active Member

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    I'm not sure of the exact date this year, but it'll be sometime in May.
     
  9. mawnck

    mawnck Well-Known Member

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    May 9, 11, and 13 this year. (There are two semifinals and a final.) Nobody knows who, if anyone, is going to broadcast it in the USA this year. Last year the Logo TV announcement was less than 2 weeks from the broadcast, and came as a complete surprise. There weren't even any rumors. And Logo's ratings were AWFUL. (52,000 viewers, total, nationwide. No, that's not missing any zeros.)

    The Logo TV deal has turned out to be a bit of a disaster, as it apparently included a provision that the videos of all three broadcasts would be geoblocked. When Logo took down the Final from their website, that eliminated the only (legal) means for viewing clips from the contest. Even the semifinals aren't viewable, even though Logo didn't even show them. There are a few sites that aren't - let's say - that diligent about copyright enforcement where the performances can be found, but if you want to be sure you can watch it this year (or just want to avoid Carson and Michelle's horrible announcing), you'd probably better look into a good VPN.

    By the way, it's three months from the final and most of the production team in host country Ukraine just quit. (And they didn't go quietly.) So it's now an open question as to whether it's even going to go off as planned - although the Ukrainian national selections seem to be burbling along just fine.
     
    #9 mawnck, Feb 14, 2017
    Last edited: Feb 14, 2017
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  10. mawnck

    mawnck Well-Known Member

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    To those who think Eurovision is just lightweight pop songs, here's Finland's entry this year.

     
  11. mawnck

    mawnck Well-Known Member

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    To American Eurovision fans, I guess any publicity is good publicity?

    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/16/world/europe/eurovision-ukraine-2017.html

    A crisis in Ukraine. Rumors of a Russian threat. An enduring institution of postwar Europe in jeopardy.

    No, not NATO. It is the Eurovision Song Contest, the annual competition that has launched the careers of international superstars like Celine Dion, and that is now imperiled after the Ukrainian team organizing the event this week quit en masse amid allegations of corruption and mismanagement.

    A team of 21 producers, who submitted a letter of resignation, said they had been “completely blocked” from the decision making process and claimed work had “stopped for almost two months” after a new executive was appointed to oversee preparations.
     
  12. mawnck

    mawnck Well-Known Member

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    Related to the last post: After an online ticket sale rollout that proved to be an absolute fiasco even by online ticket sale standards, Ukraine has hired a bunch of executive and producer types from other countries to come in and sweep up the mess, including legendary (and controversial) Swedish Eurovision guru Christer Bjorkman.

    Maybe after he's done there, they can send him to Washington DC? (Sorry mods!)

    Christer Björkman: “I’m thrilled to be back!"
     
  13. u k fan

    u k fan Active Member

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    I found that a bit dreary and unremarkable to be honest, but Eurovision is its own curious beast!
     
  14. mawnck

    mawnck Well-Known Member

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    I'll just leave this here. Barring a shocker, this is going to be Romania's entry.

     
  15. FerretAfros

    FerretAfros Well-Known Member

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    Wow...it's just so...Eurovision.

    I can't stop laughing to myself. Without knowing any of the other competition, I have a hard time believing that it will win, but I'm so very glad that it will be part of the competition
     
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  16. mawnck

    mawnck Well-Known Member

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    My thoughts exactly. Last year was so DULL. With few exceptions, everybody went for safe and mundane pop songs. I was afraid it was the new normal, but we're getting some quality ethno-bonkers-ness mixed in this year.

    Romania hasn't chosen yet. The show Sunday was all jury vote, but "Yodel It!" got the top score from the entire 5-member jury (unheard of!) and the fans seem to love it. So if the televote in the final goes to something else, it will be ... strange. (I hope they're campaigning hard in the midwest!)

    Italy is still considered the front-runner to win the thing (complete version here - and it's gone platinum in Italy). But Sweden has several strong contenders (surprise surprise), and we haven't heard anything from Russia or Australia yet.
     
  17. FerretAfros

    FerretAfros Well-Known Member

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    Hmmm....the gorilla was a strange addition, but the song itself seemed to fit the generally catchy, unoffensive, and hollow pop format that a lot of Eurovision songs take the title with. It didn't stand out as being particularly good, bad, or memorable; it just sort of was.

    On a completely unrelated note, @mawnck I was driving through your neck of the woods last weekend, and it must be where NPR stations go to die. I was able to pick up at least 7 different frequencies, but none of them were what I'd call decent reception. I caught at least 3 different programs at the same time, meaning a station or two might have had multiple frequencies (I know the Blacksburg station has about a dozen frequencies throughout southwestern VA, for example), but they could have all been unique. I don't think I've ever been somewhere with so many stations in rage, which made the questionable-at-best quality that much more amusing. It was so close to all of them, yet just far enough away to make it futile. There was a great classical station though!
     
  18. Dabob2

    Dabob2 Well-Known Member

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    Everyone knew it was just a matter of time before white hip-hop-wannabe pop (with lots and lots of faux-attitude finger pointing) cross-pollinated with yodeling.

    I'm only surprised it took this long.
     
  19. mawnck

    mawnck Well-Known Member

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    Yep. You'd think we'd rate at least a translator or something, but noooooo.

    89.5 is your best-of-the-bad-choices on the South side. North side, it depends on which side of the nearest building you happen to be on. Mostly we just get our NPR online, and listen to WTOP for our news needs in the car. (Comes in like gangbusters on 107.7.)

    TV is the same way. Lots of stations, from three directions, none of which come in worth a toot unless you have an outdoor antenna larger than your roof, you're not in a hole, and the humidity is between 75 and 77%, with no airborne birds in the immediate vicinity. I've seen mountain villages with 2,000 people, half of whom don't have indoor plumbing, and there are six TV translators just for them. Do we get one? Noooooo.
     
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  20. FerretAfros

    FerretAfros Well-Known Member

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    I was surprised that WTOP was that clear so far out. It's good for updates (or bridging between NPR signal ranges), but I can't listen to them for more than about 15 minutes without going crazy; just too many headlines without a lot of substance
     

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