Eurovision 2018

yerwanthere123

I think Portugal's song is decent, potential maybe for another top ten finish? I think the other woman sitting on the stool looks quite out of place though, or maybe that's what they're going for?! Idk.

Australia's song was leaked online earlier, haven't heard it but apparently it's quite good. It's over three minutes long though so it's not known if it's a demo or not.

Getting close to a full house now. Few more being revealed this week, Croatia tomorrow night, Austria on Thursday, Sweden, Norway and Israel on Saturday, with Lithuania and Macedonia finishing the week on Sunday. Bulgaria will have their long awaited reveal next Monday the 12th.

Russia, Georgia and of course Ireland are the only countries without an official release date. With Australia apparently leaked it must mean the official release will be soon.

Amik

Feeling much better about this year's show after the weekend. Many potential Top Tenners selected! I've been listening to Portugal and Belgium on loop. The Netherlands' entry is great too. Waylon will give a memorable stage performance. I'm worried Monsters will be overproduced on stage. I actually didn't mind the UV light stage performance but there was just too much going on there.

La Forza is a solid bet for an outright win at the moment.

Amik

Didn't know this earlier but the stage in Lisbon won't have an LED screen. Worth keeping in mind when analysing the acts.

http://esctoday.com/154175/eurovision-2018-fresh-stage-design-pictures-released-no-led-screens-lisbon/

yerwanthere123

Yeah it's being done on the cheap this year, but tbh I'd barely notice a difference from those pictures, the stage looks pretty good to me. It also gives a pretty good impression of what the stage would look like if Ireland ever hosted again!

Croatia:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Il3_lTWw4XA

Quite like this actually. They've pretty much done what Armenia did for the last two years and struck a balance between mainstream and leftfield; on the one hand it's a standard pop song, but it has some interesting elements and production that make it stand above some of the other more generic-sounding pop songs (e.g. Azerbaijan or San Marino) in the contest.

If the live vocals and visuals are done right, this could potentially do very very well.

Busi_Girl08

Any word on when Ireland's song will be released?

Strazdas

Busi_Girl08 wrote: »

Any word on when Ireland's song will be released?

Imminent I would say. The deadline for songs is Monday, meaning it must be released by then. Tomorrow might be a good bet.

yerwanthere123

Australia

Quite good. Lacks a 'big' moment, but given how much the juries tend to overrate them, I can see this getting another top five place for Australia.

Busi_Girl08

Strazdas wrote: »

Imminent I would say. The deadline for songs is Monday, meaning it must be released by then. Tomorrow might be a good bet.

I'd have thought tonight's Late Late but there's no sign. They're keeping it tight anyway!

gmisk

yerwanthere123 wrote: »

Australia

Quite good. Lacks a 'big' moment, but given how much the juries tend to overrate them, I can see this getting another top five place for Australia.

Thats not too bad actually....its got a bang of a Kelly Clarkson B side about it...

XxMCRxBabyxX

Ireland's entry was just played on Ray D'Arcy but I missed it. Mixed opinions based on texts coming in. Can't seem to find it released yet though.

EDIT: Found it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5d1XPVWy10g

gmisk

I heard the revamped UK song.....its sounds very similar to me....cant see it doing much in the final.

gmisk

XxMCRxBabyxX wrote: »

Ireland's entry was just played on Ray D'Arcy but I missed it. Mixed opinions based on texts coming in. Can't seem to find it released yet though.

EDIT: Found it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5d1XPVWy10g

It isnt horrendous....but it feels really dated to me....

Amik

Official video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8Ej65k_caA

Fantastic voice. I wonder if he'll speed it up a bit on stage.

Looks like his mum enjoyed it...

https://www.instagram.com/p/BgDlSw_Fhgo

Amik

Malta seems to have blown the whole national budget on Christabelle's official video. I'm preferring this to Monsters at the moment.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_0ugf0eP1Q

Even I make an appearance. :P

gmisk

Amik wrote: »

Official video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8Ej65k_caA

Fantastic voice. I wonder if he'll speed it up a bit on stage.

Looks like his mum enjoyed it...

https://www.instagram.com/p/BgDlSw_Fhgo

Sweet video, it might be better live than recorded... hopefully

yerwanthere123

Um maybe I'm going mad but I think our song is actually... ok? A million miles better than what we sent the last two years, even though that wouldn't be difficult.

gmisk

yerwanthere123 wrote: »

Um maybe I'm going mad but I think our song is actually... ok? A million miles better than what we sent the last two years, even though that wouldn't be difficult.

I think it's better than last year's....but it wouldn't be hard...I just think the chorus is really lacking, he does have a good voice, however we are in a much tougher looking semi, i wonder what happened with Heather's? Were they not pretty much nailed on to represent Ireland? I think we need to send something different...
I genuinely think the only decent song we sent any time recently was playing with numbers and it didn't even make it out of the semi

Dan man

Better than last year and a step in the right direction, but the song isn't good enough to do anything at Eurovision. It's a sweet song and some elements of it are really nice, especially the beginning, but not seeing it making a big impact. Again I am left with a feeling that this country just doesn't get what it takes to be relevant at Eurovision. Lipstick, although I didn't like it much, was the last time we came close to entering something to get Europe talking.

I hope I am wrong though.

dogcat

I think that our song this year is absolutely horrendous and is a step in the wrong direction. This mostly follows a similar "formula" to the 2017 entry which is not something any of these people can pull off. We're worse than Iceland this year. We have so much talent in our country music wise, it's a shame that RTÉ and its delegation at Eurovision are so incompetent to actually produce anything remotely good during these past three internal selections. Fifth non-qualification here we come.

Go Harvey Go

Let's not forget that RTE don't want to have to host the Eurovision at any point in the foreseeable future... :rolleyes:

Well....it's an improvement on the past two years, definitely. But the most you can really say about it is that it's "fine". It's unfortunate that Ireland is in the much stronger semi this year; if we were in the second semi I think we'd have a shot at making the final, but sadly I don't see it beating nine other entries in semi 1.

Austria's entry also came out today. It's also in Semi Final 1, and I reckon it's going to the final:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8MyztgOTv8

So looking at the SF1 lineup I can't see how Ireland makes it through.

Austria, Estonia, Belgium, Czech Republic - very strong chance of reaching final
Finland, Croatia, Greece - strong chance of reaching final
Israel, Bulgaira - not released yet but both currently doing well in odds so probably strong chance of reaching final
Albania, Armenia, Cyprus, Azerbaijan, Belarus - reasonable chance of reaching final
Macedonia, Lithuania - not released yet, unknown quantities
Switzerland, Ireland - unlikely to reach final
Iceland - (almost) guaranteed last place

BuilderPlumber

dogcat wrote: »

I think that our song this year is absolutely horrendous and is a step in the wrong direction. This mostly follows a similar "formula" to the 2017 entry which is not something any of these people can pull off. We're worse than Iceland this year. We have so much talent in our country music wise, it's a shame that RTÉ and its delegation at Eurovision are so incompetent to actually produce anything remotely good during these past three internal selections. Fifth non-qualification here we come.

RTE have a complete lack of interest in promoting anything proper. TV3 are no better. Louis Walsh remains a god and the closed shop mentality of the media is the reason why our music industry is so poor. Yes, lots of great talent here but the media only want plastic boybands, plastic modern country singers and all the rest of this type of lightweight pop. This all feeds into the Eurovision. And RTE don't want to win the Eurovision now but there was a time they thought You're A Star and Walsh would conquer Europe.

dogcat

dogcat wrote: »

We're worse than Iceland this year.

Ah no. We're really not. NOTHING is worse than Iceland this year.

Anyway, here's Sweden:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnhCboS98FU

As usual with Sweden, it's more style than substance. It's quite likeable but it doesn't scream "WINNER" to me.

And here's Norway:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmxYXroA-7Q

I'm......not sure what to say about this tbh. It's........yeah.

Mahony0509

I actually really like the Irish song, it's just it'll never win.

Amik

Deleted User wrote: »

I'm......not sure what to say about this tbh. It's........yeah.

I thought Rybak had a fantastic performance. He's such a showman and this will appeal to families and older people in the viewership. I'm willing to bet he'll place higher in this return than Lena did in 2011.

dogcat

BuilderPlumber wrote: »

RTE have a complete lack of interest in promoting anything proper. TV3 are no better. Louis Walsh remains a god and the closed shop mentality of the media is the reason why our music industry is so poor. Yes, lots of great talent here but the media only want plastic boybands, plastic modern country singers and all the rest of this type of lightweight pop. This all feeds into the Eurovision. And RTE don't want to win the Eurovision now but there was a time they thought You're A Star and Walsh would conquer Europe.

Exactly

Also, Israel is out. We have our winner.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zil45hv6Aj0

Bloody hell Israel! :eek: That's one of the most bonkers tunes I've heard for a long time. The chicken noises, the lyrics about Pikachu and teddy bears running away.....and yet it somehow works!

If you're familiar with the American artist Tune-Yards, "Toy" sounds a bit like her on crack, in an episode of Sesame Street directed by Tim Burton.

It's probably just too damn weird to win (even Lordi and Conchita had songs that were more accessible than this!) but it's certainly gonna stand out!

And of course it has to be in Ireland's semi-final, doesn't it? Poor Ryan's chances of qualifying just got even more remote.

Russia's entry can be seen here: https://vimeo.com/259558426

It's fairly meh, not terrible but definitely not a winner.

The Princess Bride

I think the Irish song is great, best we've had in years.
Not quite sure it's Eurovision potential, but it's one of those songs you hear once and don't forget- in a good way.

At least we're sending someone who can sing, plus it's a good song.
Best of luck to him.

XxMCRxBabyxX

The Princess Bride wrote: »

I think the Irish song is great, best we've had in years.
Not quite sure it's Eurovision potential, but it's one of those songs you hear once and don't forget- in a good way.

At least we're sending someone who can sing, plus it's a good song.
Best of luck to him.

Unfortunately I beg to differ. Before I heard Ryan's song on Friday I heard last year's entry. I have absolutely no memory of Ryan's song but I can remember Brendan's. That's not saying anything about last year's song - just that, in my opinion, this year's entry seems to be entirely forgettable which is a pity.

XxMCRxBabyxX

XxMCRxBabyxX wrote: »

Unfortunately I beg to differ. Before I heard Ryan's song on Friday I heard last year's entry. I have absolutely no memory of Ryan's song but I can remember Brendan's. That's not saying anything about last year's song - just that, in my opinion, this year's entry seems to be entirely forgettable which is a pity.

I think "Together" is going to be another "Playing with Numbers", our entry from 2015. The problem isn't that the song itself is bad; it's actually quite decent on repeated listens (as opposed to 2016 and 2017, which were just bad by any objective measure!)
The problem is that most people watching won't have repeated listens; they'll only hear it once and it's simply not instant enough to click in one go.

As a composition, "Together" is certainly one of the better (by which I mean "less bad"!) efforts Ireland has had in recent years. Unfortunately, that doesn't mean it's going to be anyway successful in Eurovision. MY guess is that the juries will give it a middling score, perhaps even make it a borderline qualifier, but it will end up in the bottom third of the televote.

FYR Macedonia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJ8vStigz7k

"What genre should we try at Eurovision this year? How about ALL OF THEM?" :pac:

Yeah, I reckon this pop-rock-reggae-dance number is a bit too all-over-the-place to get to the final.

mailburner

dogcat wrote: »

Exactly

Also, Israel is out. We have our winner.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zil45hv6Aj0

spotted this last night when it was 16/1...now best at 3/1
not sure what to make of it tbh

4068ac1elhodqr

mailburner wrote: »

spotted this last night when it was 16/1...now best at 3/1
not sure what to make of it tbh

Twice as short as it's nearest rival OMG.

Basically it's what happens when you spill a can of Special Brew™ over Ed Sherry's lopper pedal, that's being fought over - between a Sumo Wrestler and a coup of free range chickens on acid.

yerwanthere123

Catching up..

Sweden's is staged very well as usual, but the song is as generic as they come. Will probably get top ten regardless. I must say I quite like Norway, he sells it very well. Will certainly qualify and should contend for the top ten. Macedonia is three songs in one, I really like the one that's between 1.25 - 1.40, and again at 2.45 - 3.00. Apart from that, it's all a bit of a mess.

And onto Israel, the new favourite to win :eek: The official video was released tonight, which differs slightly from last nights leak. I think I like it, but there's no way the juries will get behind a song with chicken noises.. I think.

We'll have Lithuania later tonight, apart from that it's just the long-awaited Bulgaria, which will be revealed tomorrow. Can't wait to finally have a full house!

mailburner

yerwanthere123 wrote: »

Catching up..

Sweden's is staged very well as usual, but the song is as generic as they come. Will probably get top ten regardless. I must say I quite like Norway, he sells it very well. Will certainly qualify and should contend for the top ten. Macedonia is three songs in one, I really like the one that's between 1.25 - 1.40, and again at 2.45 - 3.00. Apart from that, it's all a bit of a mess.

And onto Israel, the new favourite to win :eek: The official video was released tonight, which differs slightly from last nights leak. I think I like it, but there's no way the juries will get behind a song with chicken noises.. I think.

Gonna reluctantly agree with you :pac: and as a result the price on estonia has been up and down all day (was 11s on bfair..now 9.6)
I've backed estonia again at 10s ew and really think it'll be 5s or less on the day...hoping the israel hype will die a little...if not I could be in trouble

Lithuania

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

The voice reminds me of someone, but can't think of who.
Anyway, it's a "pretty" song but it's also a bit lightweight. I can imagine the juries might like it, the question is whether the public responds to it or just thinks of it as forgettable. Being in the semi-final of death, my initial guess is that this won't be in the final but I wouldn't rule out its chances entirely either if it's performed strongly live. Like with Ireland, their challenge will be giving an intimate performance that doesn't look lost on the big stage.

We now know all of Ireland's SF-1 opponents apart from Bulgaria. I've said it before but it's such a shame Ireland had to be in this semi, it is undoubtedly the stronger of the two semis and as a result it's much tougher to see Ireland grabbing the last available slot for the final.

dogcat

Georgia's left as well.

gmisk

yerwanthere123 wrote: »

Catching up..

Sweden's is staged very well as usual, but the song is as generic as they come. Will probably get top ten regardless. I must say I quite like Norway, he sells it very well. Will certainly qualify and should contend for the top ten. Macedonia is three songs in one, I really like the one that's between 1.25 - 1.40, and again at 2.45 - 3.00. Apart from that, it's all a bit of a mess.

And onto Israel, the new favourite to win :eek: The official video was released tonight, which differs slightly from last nights leak. I think I like it, but there's no way the juries will get behind a song with chicken noises.. I think.

We'll have Lithuania later tonight, apart from that it's just the long-awaited Bulgaria, which will be revealed tomorrow. Can't wait to finally have a full house!

Israel is certainly different....cant see Juries going for it to the same degree....but can see why it is the favourite.

The sweden song is slick and professional as you would expect, nailed on for top 10 minimum.

gmisk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uvy_R3fTHQ4
The bulgaria song is TERRIFIC! Bit of a Sia vibe going on....this should do well if staged right!

gmisk

gmisk wrote: »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uvy_R3fTHQ4
The bulgaria song is TERRIFIC! Bit of a Sia vibe going on....this should do well if staged right!

It is good....but I think they made a mistake by overhyping it before it came out. If it was released with little fanfare beforehand it would probably have been well-received, now however its starting to slide down the odds.

Also it has potential to flop live, when you have five singers trying to outdo each other. It needs to be carefully staged and arranged.

gmisk

Deleted User wrote: »

It is good....but I think they made a mistake by overhyping it before it came out. If it was released with little fanfare beforehand it would probably have been well-received, now however its starting to slide down the odds.

Also it has potential to flop live, when you have five singers trying to outdo each other. It needs to be carefully staged and arranged.

I hadnt heard any hype about it tbh.
Will be interesting to see it live definitely.

Shocked to see Israel as such a clear favourite already, I am not sure it will be to everyones taste.

Amik

Deleted User wrote: »

FYR Macedonia

"What genre should we try at Eurovision this year? How about ALL OF THEM?" :pac:

LOLOL! It's not a winner but I'm loving the mix. I'll be surprised if this doesn't qualify. They seem like a very professional group that will be comfortable on stage. This has fun performance potential.

I loved Jana Burčeska "Dance Alone" last year but she was very underwhelming and awkward on stage. This will do much better.

Amik

Some controversy brewing with Ireland's entry as Russia is threatening to ban Ryan's video!

Hopefully the publicity gives the song a big boost.

https://twitter.com/Ryan_Acoustic/status/973293391621566464

I know it's not scientific but all my friends on the continent genuinely enjoy the song and Ryan's voice. Got a good feeling we'll do
better than last year.

yerwanthere123

As others have said it's such a shame we're in semi 1, I think we'd qualify easily from semi 2. The reaction to our song all round has generally been quite positive, I'm still not ruling out qualification.

gmisk

Amik wrote: »

Some controversy brewing with Ireland's entry as Russia is threatening to ban Ryan's video!

Hopefully the publicity gives the song a big boost.

https://twitter.com/Ryan_Acoustic/status/973293391621566464

I know it's not scientific but all my friends on the continent genuinely enjoy the song and Ryan's voice. Got a good feeling we'll do
better than last year.

It seems to have a lot of positive comments on youtube...sure keep our fingers crossed it would be nice to be in the final again! But that semi.....cant see it

Final entry has been revealed, courtesy of Georgia:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuCZMdfBqm4

A very interesting choice, and they definitely deserve credit for trying it; it's a real grower with repeated listens and I can imagine it becoming one of my favourites, but it lacks a big hook or instant appeal of a traditional ESC song. If Eurovision allowed live instruments then this could be electrifying live, as the musical flourishes are gorgeous. It's probably the most accomplished composition in the contest, but that won't necessarily translate to votes. Still, it's in Semi 2 so definitely deserves to get through and I'd like to see it do well in the final. Seems like it would be a great song to close the show with.

4068ac1elhodqr

Isr's novelty may turn out to be short lived between now and May, but this tune from the flatlanders below might outlive all of the other europop tunes.
It's perhaps also the most original entry (and not in a novelty manner), that could produce a 16/1 winner particularly for the live tele-vote.

https://eurovision.tv/participant/waylon

Early prediciton:

Neth: 1st
Bulg: 2nd
Isra: 3rd
Nor/Swe: 4th
Fra: 5th

dogcat

Amik wrote: »

Some controversy brewing with Ireland's entry as Russia is threatening to ban Ryan's video!

Hopefully the publicity gives the song a big boost.

https://twitter.com/Ryan_Acoustic/status/973293391621566464

I know it's not scientific but all my friends on the continent genuinely enjoy the song and Ryan's voice. Got a good feeling we'll do
better than last year.

Nobody in Russia has ever threatened to ban the video, the video he shared on Twitter has no sources whatsoever of any Russian broadcaster threatening to ban the video, it merely says it "could" be, not that anyone has actually threatened to ban it whatsoever.