Eurovision Song Contest 2016

Toto Wolfcastle

The 3rd one was the best so far but it still wasn't great.

The 4th one was dreadful.

Toto Wolfcastle

I can see this one doing well.

Welsh Megaman

Tune very similar to 'Paradise' by Coldplay

Welsh Megaman

Bianca or Darline at the moment.

Welsh Megaman

Love, shine a 'mic' :cool:

Welsh Megaman

Cheeeeese

hmmm

That Icelandic song is muck. The Polish one above - going to sound awful live. The Ukrainian song is an awful dirge.

Fair dues to Cyprus, that's a great attempt and a lot better than their usual generic stuff.

The German song appears to be geoblocked on youtube, which is incredibly stupid.

Welsh Megaman

JOE AND JAKE?!

Toto Wolfcastle

Bianca could have won. I have a feeling that the UK will be languishing at the bottom of the board again this year.

Welsh Megaman

Toto Wolfcastle wrote: »

Bianca could have won. I have a feeling that the UK will be languishing at the bottom of the board again this year.

Me too, shoulda been Bianca

Best of luck to Joe and Jake though

yerwanthere123

Didn't get to see the show tonight due to work so can't comment on the live performance, but seriously disappointed Darline didn't make it. Think the UK missed a trick there, it could have been fantastic at Eurovision with great staging.

Anyway, here is Joe & Jake

The UK

yerwanthere123

Moldova

Finland

Hungary

Slovenia

Norway

Norway the only standout pick for me tonight, but it has a very unusual song structure.

Go Harvey Go

Iain Weaver on UKGameshows.com is very much a Eurovision purist - so it's not surprising that he doesn't like how the Beeb's selection show turned out...

http://ukgameshows.com/ukgs/Weaver%27s_Week_2016-02-28

bpb101

yerwanthere123 wrote: »

Didn't get to see the show tonight due to work so can't comment on the live performance, but seriously disappointed Darline didn't make it. Think the UK missed a trick there, it could have been fantastic at Eurovision with great staging.

Anyway, here is Joe & Jake

The UK

could have taken out my old recorder and done a better act.poor.

Go Harvey Go

Easy to say after the British public failed to choose the best song to send to Stockholm, but... maybe the EBU should consider finally biting the bullet and making the Big Five contest the semi-finals?

While this would inevitably raise the prospect of a final without the UK or France - which wouldn't be anything other than strange - it would have its advantages:

(1) There would be more spots in the final up for grabs - the host country would be the only one to qualify automatically.

(2) In turn, there would be more songs going through from each SF - and hence genuinely good songs would have a greater chance of going through. And among us purists, who wouldn't prefer a genuinely good song in the final over a poor one from a country that's only there because it's one of the biggest financial contributors to the EBU?

(3) In theory at least, the overall quality of the songs in the final would increase.

I don't think there's anything stopping them from trying this out for one year - and if it did fail miserably, there certainly wouldn't be anything stopping them from going back to the old way.

limerickgirl16

Isn't the reason UK get an automatic entry because they are one of the biggest financial backers?

yerwanthere123

Even though it won't happen, I think the big 5 absolutely should contest the semi-finals. It's not so much the unfairness of them automatically qualifying that bothers me, more so the fact that nine times out of ten the entries from the UK, Spain and France are utter tripe and are simply taking up spots in the final. Though I think if the automatic qualification was taken away I imagine France and possibly the UK would kiss it goodbye.

limerickgirl16 wrote: »

Isn't the reason UK get an automatic entry because they are one of the biggest financial backers?

Iirc it's not towards the competition itself, rather the EBU. I highly doubt the Eurovision would be placed in jeopardy if the backing of these four countries was taken away.

Go Harvey Go

limerickgirl16 wrote: »

Isn't the reason UK get an automatic entry because they are one of the biggest financial backers?

Yes. Same with France, Germany, Spain and Italy.

limerickgirl16

Go Harvey Go wrote: »

Yes. Same with France, Germany, Spain and Italy.

Thought so! Why if they alway lose? In any case, only really watched it for Sir Terry's humour

Go Harvey Go

yerwanthere123 wrote: »

Though I think if the automatic qualification was taken away I imagine France and possibly the UK would kiss it goodbye.

Cry, cry babies.

Unfortunately, that song won't ever be forgotten...

yerwanthere123

Latvia

Quite good. Althought that shack of a studio doesn't do it justice, it's like something the Late Late would have!

Anyway, we're about halfway through the selection process now, Norway and Latvia are the only two very strong songs picked so far imo. Really liking Germany too but I think it's a grower, which isn't good for Eurovision.

Mr.Nice Guy

I've listened to the 23 songs out and I would say the two that stand out for me so far are Germany and Norway. I think the Germans have a great chance this year.

I also think the songs by Switzerland and Iceland are decent. Latvia has a nice distinctive sound and could grow on me. Also a lot of hate is going Belgium's way but I think that song is alright; it reminds me of Australia last year.

yerwanthere123

Mr.Nice Guy wrote: »

I've listened to the 23 songs out and I would say the two that stand out for me so far are Germany and Norway. I think the Germans have a great chance this year.

I also think the songs by Switzerland and Iceland are decent. Latvia has a nice distinctive sound and could grow on me. Also a lot of hate is going Belgium's way but I think that song is alright; it reminds me of Australia last year.

Could be very good with a decent vocal, the live performance was shocking.

yerwanthere123

France

Actually quite decent for a French entry.


Armenia

*shrugging motion*
It'll score well enough with the Armenian diaspora I guess.

Go Harvey Go

The Aussies are sending the 2013 winner of their version of the X Factor.

https://twitter.com/damiandmusic/status/705348116011028480

Her song won't be unveiled until next week, however.

yerwanthere123

Israel

Would be surprised if this made the final

yerwanthere123

The Netherlands

Quite pleasant I think. Should qualify pretty easily from what's looking like a pretty weak semi-final.

yerwanthere123

Italy

Montenegro

Russia

Estonia

Poland

Romania

Macedonia

San Marino

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waIJ1VuzjyA

Europe's reaction:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u24FHdLBS0M

yerwanthere123

Serhat looks like the kinda guy who'd offer you a drink in a club and then you wake up two days later with no recollection of what's happened.


Croatia also unveiled their entry today

dogcat

Zagreb 2017.

Go Harvey Go

dogcat wrote: »

Zagreb 2017.

Actually... it's been a comparatively long time since an Eastern European country last won it, hasn't it?

yerwanthere123

yerwanthere123 wrote: »

Serhat looks like the kinda guy who'd offer you a drink in a club and then you wake up two days later with no recollection of what's happened.
[/YOUTUBE]

To me, he's what the bastard lovechild of Leonard Cohen and Omid Djalili would look/sound like! Still, I guess it's a (somewhat) welcome change from some of the duller/more formulaic entries!

Croatia is very Ellie Goulding, with a bit of Dolores O'Riordan in there as well. Should make the final but not sure the song is strong enough to be a potential winner.

Meanwhile, here's Greece:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqrdpcY3skI

The first 40 seconds or so are quite pleasant, you think something nice and traditional is coming up.....then some fella starts "rapping" and it all goes to hell. If it was any other country it would stay in the semis, but since it's Greece it will almost certainly qualify and finish somewhere between 15th - 20th.

Australia:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EG_Jtw4OyU

Pretty underwhelmed by this tbh. It'll probably do fairly well though.

yerwanthere123

Deleted User wrote: »

To me, he's what the bastard lovechild of Leonard Cohen and Omid Djalili would look/sound like! Still, I guess it's a (somewhat) welcome change from some of the duller/more formulaic entries!

Croatia is very Ellie Goulding, with a bit of Dolores O'Riordan in there as well. Should make the final but not sure the song is strong enough to be a potential winner.

Meanwhile, here's Greece:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqrdpcY3skI

The first 40 seconds or so are quite pleasant, you think something nice and traditional is coming up.....then some fella starts "rapping" and it all goes to hell. If it was any other country it would stay in the semis, but since it's Greece it will almost certainly qualify and finish somewhere between 15th - 20th.

Australia:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EG_Jtw4OyU

Pretty underwhelmed by this tbh. It'll probably do fairly well though.

Agree on both counts! I thought Greece sounded nice to begin with.. and then it went this way. Australia is ok. Just ok. Should get top 10 regardless though.

I feel like I say this every year, but this year feels weak. Semi-final 2 is particularly awful, surely one of the poorest ones in recent memory. I'm sure by the time the semi's roll around though I'll have warmed to quite a few of them though. I didn't like the Dutch song on hearing it initially but I think it could be great live. Germany is fantastic too, hope they do well.

yerwanthere123

yerwanthere123 wrote: »

Agree on both counts! I thought Greece sounded nice to begin with.. and then it went this way. Australia is ok. Just ok. Should get top 10 regardless though.

I feel like I say this every year, but this year feels weak. Semi-final 2 is particularly awful, surely one of the poorest ones in recent memory. I'm sure by the time the semi's roll around though I'll have warmed to quite a few of them though. I didn't like the Dutch song on hearing it initially but I think it could be great live. Germany is fantastic too, hope they do well.

I guess the upside to having low standards is that it improves Ireland's chance of avoiding three semi-final exits in a row!

There are a few entries I haven't listened to yet (Germany being one of them) but of those that I have listened to there really aren't any obvious standouts; my favourites so far would probably be Latvia and Armenia but I wouldn't say they were amazing or anything.

Czech Republic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0L2imZRo6NY

Meh. It's ok, I guess. Nothing spectacular but not horrible either.

yerwanthere123

Yeah, difficult to get excited about it. They'd have a better chance of qualifying if they were in semi 2. It's be nice if they did, they really should have got through last year imo.

jaykay74

Hosts Sweden picked their song tonight. Decent enough but not a winner I think.

Frans – If I were Sorry

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GTdelXRlA4

jaykay74

jaykay74 wrote: »

Hosts Sweden picked their song tonight. Decent enough but not a winner I think.

Frans – If I were Sorry

I don't get the appeal of this at all tbh. It's very repetitive and his voice is really flat throughout. I do appreciate that it's a bit different from your standard OTT trashy Euopop/schlager-ballad but that's about the best thing I can say about it. It's not the worst song in history or anything but I wouldn't want to see it win.

yerwanthere123

Not getting the Frans hype at all. Don't understand how it's the favourite to win the whole thing, even before it got selected. I think there was better songs in Melodifestivalen as well.


Anyway here's Serbia.

Definite qualifer, and will do very well with the former Yugoslav countries as you'd expect.


Lithuania

Not great.

yerwanthere123

Azerbaijan

Quite liking this on first listen, but Azerbaijan have completely messed up their last two entries due to the poor staging, so I can't really judge it's prospects until rehearsals.

Lithuania is very Eurovision by numbers. Hard to get excited by.

Serbia is....strange. The song itself is pretty average, but her stage performance is shocking. The vocals are fine but she badly needs to tone down the amateur dramatics because she looks ridiculous at the moment and it cheapens the whole performance.

Azerbaijan is decent enough. Could imagine Sia releasing something similar. It's not exactly groundbreaking stuff but I don't think any entry in this year's competition falls into that category tbh.

Unless Bulgaria or Malta have something amazing up their sleeve, I think it's looking like it's gonna be another Sweden v Russia shootout this year. I don't think I'd like either song to win as both are pretty overhyped imo.

Armenia, Azerbaijan, Croatia, Latvia and Ukraine may be worth a punt as an outside bet. Don't foresee any other challengers really.

Spain, hopefully, will finish last in the final with that absolute migraine of an entry.

yerwanthere123

A few revamps have been revealed, here's France

I honestly can't tell much of a difference. It's still decent enough but will struggle, as always, due to the lack of English.


Israel

Massive, massive improvement. Can definitely see this qualifying now.


Albania

Not great, many saying it's actually now worse!


Only the new Maltese song and Bulgaria to go, then we'll have a full house. Malta will debut their song on Thursday, with Bulgaria to come sometime at the weekend.

yerwanthere123

Sweden have drawn 9th in the final, and interestingly, are no longer the favourites to win. Russia now take the top spot. New voting system will benefit them massively.

yerwanthere123

Malta

Safe and solid. Better than the first song they put forward. With just Bulgaria left to decide, I think it's probably safe to say we've seen the winner already

yerwanthere123

Bulgaria

Finally a full house! All 43 revealed. Think it's another difficult year to predict, have a feeling the winner might not be either Russia or Sweden.

yerwanthere123

yerwanthere123 wrote: »

Bulgaria

Finally a full house! All 43 revealed. Think it's another difficult year to predict, have a feeling the winner might not be either Russia or Sweden.

Hopefully it won't be either of those, neither is really worthy of it imo (though they're not the worst in the competition either, I guess).

There aren't really many standout entries this year, though there aren't many that are downright unlistenable either (Spain and Slovenia being the exceptions imo). If I was awarding points right now, I'd rank as follows:

12 - Armenia (can't quite put my finger on it but this has something that makes it stand out to me among the rest. The long intro and lack of obvious chorus may make it a bit left-field for a Eurovision entry but, with the right staging and a solid vocal, I reckon this could surprise a lot of people)

10 - Latvia (not as good as last year's but still pretty damn good! It has a solid beat and he has a superb voice)

8 - Norway (have done a complete u-turn on this; didn't get it at all before but now I quite enjoy listening to it, even if it does sound a bit like a weird mashup of Euphoria and Chandelier!!)

7 - Ukraine ('cause who doesn't love a good, depressing war crimes-inspired entry? :pac: )

6 - Croatia (don't know if it's strong enough to win but would be nice to see a country that's never won before do it)

5 - Bulgaria (probably need to listen to this a few more times but first impressions are positive. Chorus is catchy as hell, even in Bulgarian!)

4 - Georgia (I have a soft spot for this one, even though it hasn't a hope of qualifying!)

3 - Belgium (still think this one is being underrated, though I imagine it's one that possibly grates on repeated listens)

2 - Montenegro (not too mad on the chorus but the verses remind me of Editors)

1 - Australia (still not convinced that this is as good as it could be but it has grown on me a bit)

Italy, Iceland and (for sheer weirdness) San Marino also worth a mention.

yerwanthere123

This thread has been quiet :eek:

The odds have changed quite significantly recently, France are now up to 2nd favourite! I like the song, but I still feel that only having the chorus in English will hurt it's chances massively. I see it in the lower end of the top ten at most. Bulgaria are doing quite well in the odds, they were top ten during the week but they have drifted to just outside now. Interestingly, Sweden have now fallen to 4th, and Ukraine are going strong in 5th place, which I don't understand at all. Croatia, having once been the 3rd favourite, are now down to 12th. Always thought it was massively overrated anyway.
http://www.oddschecker.com/tv/eurovision/winner

Regarding my own favourites, I'm now really liking the sound of both Bulgaria and Malta. Bulgaria will almost certainly qualify for the final for the second time ever and if they get staging right I think it's got top ten potential. Germany would probably still be one of my overall favourites, though I don't think it will do much on the night. Such is Ireland's irrelevance in this year's competition it's almost easy to forget we've actually entered a song.

Running order for semi's to be revealed on Friday!

yerwanthere123

Running order:

Semi-Final 1
1) Finland
2) Greece
3) Moldova
4) Hungary
5) Croatia
6) The Netherlands
7) Armenia
8) San Marino
9) Russia
10) Czech Republic
11) Cyprus
12) Austria
13) Estonia
14) Azerbaijan
15) Montenegro
16) Iceland
17) Bosnia & Herzegovina
18) Malta

Semi-Final 2:
1) Latvia
2) Poland
3) Switzerland
4) Israel
5) Belarus
6) Serbia
7) Ireland
8) FYR Macedonia
9) Lithuania
10) Australia
11) Slovenia
12) Romania
13) Bulgaria
14) Denmark
15) Ukraine
16) Norway
17) Georgia
18) Albania
19) Belgium

So not a terrible draw for Ireland. Still can't change the fact that the song is sh*te though.

DEFTLEFTHAND

Yep I love Eurovision but I know there is no chance in hell of a positive outcome for Ireland this year.

Back to the drawing board for next years selection process. We'll pull it off again one day.