Eurovision Song Contest 2023

I think they are trying too hard. Better off having a bit of craic with it. Our acts are too fake and it’s extremely difficult to be too fake for Eurovision. The lead singer should have told someone to F off when asked to wear that outfit and do the terrible dancing.

We seem to be obsessed with following the "winning formula" which usually means we are a few years out of date and look extremely wooden and fake.

We have tried all the different ways of picking songs and sending straight or funny stuff but it always seems forced.

We should go back to an open public vote. Probably won't get a winner but at least people will have a sense of ownership and also will have less reason to cry to Joe Duffy if it's a song we picked.

Blaming this bloc or "geographical" voting is embarrassing.

Geographic voting is only one element, we can overcome it with an excellent song/ production but it is a notable handicap for us.

Aus - they're still a 'novelty item' and are so far removed from Europe, that this catches at the public imagination and gives them a bit of lift in the tele votes.

For your average voter on mainland Europe, Ireland is of little consequence. Despite our own high opinions of ourselves.

I agree with the last paragraph. But most counties to most other countries are of little consequence. It's not a handicap where we are placed on the map. Our only handicap is sht songs.

let's be honest you need to flood social media (easier said than done), go round Europe promoting the song.

just sticking a song in and expecting it to do well is old school thinking

We did flood social media but it backfired. The stunt with the band sacking that guy and then standing back waiting for the applause didn’t work out. That stunt just added to the fakeness that the band unfortunately went along with. I feel sorry for them but age wise they are not young anymore so they need to take responsibility.

A bit late to this but I’ve just listened / watched Sweden’s entry now. They really know how to visually dazzle the viewer. The passion of Loreen is hypnotic and the contortions she’s in while still managing to sing to stellar levels is mind blowing.

I may be alone on this but I’m not terribly keen on the song. It’s very repeaty throughout and I’m not sure how it would translate to hearing it on eg a radio play etc.

Her last entry in 2012 was much more catchy.

I agree. Loreen's song isn't great but god the staging and the performance carry it. I think also the enthusiasm of the act helps. I listened to the Australian entry on apple music after last night's contest after they kind of blew me away on stage. The song isn't that great in recorded form but gosh did it come across well live.

We need to be putting effort into stagecraft and performance as well as picking a non generic sounding song. Another thing I noticed from skimming through the eurovision playlist was how jarringly out of touch our entry was, and that's before you get to the staging. Banal by the numbers pop with a smidgen of U2 which only served to be patronising in a 'Vot for us because we (Ireland) gave the world the gift of U2' kind of way. I'm not surprised Europe gave us the middle finger on that alone. Just for good measure thougha and to compund the problem, we spend about €50 on staging and as long as the other lads in the canteen in RTE thought the band looked OK and every body said 'sure they're grand', it was fine.

Look at Albania. I shouldn't have liked that song but she gave it socks and her family on stage with her gave it a realy nice feel. I can't remember the song but I remember enjoying it a lot at the time. They didn't do anyting wild or fantasic but the song carried it and the performance. We didn't even achieve that. Flat performance, flast staging and a flat generic song. Like, how do you not know this, especially if you're working for RTE and routinely interacting with other broadcasters and, hell, getting live feeds of eurovisions all the week of the contest. You know, you should be a subject matter expert on the thing with that exposure. Crazy!

On top of that, Wild Youth were barely visible.

We cynical (some would say!) British and Irish can see right through the transparent schmoozing like a 10-year-old hospital gown. But in this era of Eurovision it has to be done.

Take this year’s German entry as an example.

Lord Of The Lost have really taken to this year’s theme of ‘United By Music’ and have been omnipresent both in the City and online.

Recording and posting stripped-down cover versions of the other songs this year…

Even visiting a school in Liverpool to promote equality and diversity…

From their final LLS interview before travelling over to their appearance on the Turquoise Carpet, Wild Youth were nowhere to be seen. They should have been performing everywhere and anywhere to both the Irish and Ukranian communities in Liverpool.

So in conclusion, to win Eurovision…

ACTUALLY LOOK AS IF YOU’RE HAVING FUN, GO COMPLETELY OVER THE TOP WITH THE PERFORMANCE AND SCHMOOZE, SCHMOOZE, SCHMOOZE! :D

Yes, they lost because they did a woke and upset the famously conservative Eurovision fan base.

I'm sure the fact that the song was generic and the lead singer looked like he would rather be anywhere else for most of the song had nothing at all to do with it.

The point is basing their social media strategy off the sacking backfired. There was so much wrong they probably would not have qualified anyway. But as has been pointed out by others, a positive social media strategy can lead to a lot of votes.

They made the wrong call. 99% would agree they made the wrong call. Let’s be honest, they sacked him for social media likes. It didn’t work.

The drummer was the best part of the act I thought. At least he was visible and looked like he was happy to be there.

Precisely. Any courious person checking out their Twitter page before voting would have been appalled. It wasn't even moderated. It's SM PR 101.

JFC. That's not all Bantham said though is it? He didn't just confine his anti-trans comments to that one incident did he?

And as an added bonus, he throws in some conspiracy theory nonsense about covid and Ukraine and the Eurovision. Comments highly critical of Ukraine winning the Eurovision last year.

But you knew all of this already??? And didn't think it worth mentioning???

He also calls being trans a “cult”.

Several tweets also congratulate the United Kingdom for “winning” Eurovision in 2022, despite Ukraine garnering by far the most points at last year’s competition, with the UK in second place.

The account wrote: “There’s a reason they call it the Eurovision ‘song’ contest. Not Eurovision “support contest”.

Other tweets posted to the same account are anti-vax in nature, with one in reply to a GB News tweet reporting a predicted upswing in COVID-19 deaths, saying: “Starting to ramp up the fear as the Ukraine plot is fading?”

https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/04/25/wild-youth-eurovision-ian-banham-transphobic-tweets/