Eurovision Song Contest 2024 (Mod warning, see OP updated 10/05 and post #3477 11/05)

I'm glad that Electric Fields are finally going to Eurovision, but the last thing Bambie needed was another strong contender in semi 1.

I must be missing something, that Australian song is just bland. Strong possibility of a non qualifier in my opinion.

Apparently music video for Doomsday Blue will be released on Youtube on Friday morning. Can't wait to see it.

I see there is a lot of negativity and pessimism starting to grow around Bambie's chances of qualifying but I think despite the tough draw we'll qualify. I think the staging and performance will be captivating and memorable to get votes and the song is decent.

I'm a little late to the party, but I finally listened to "Dizzy" earlier this evening. I'd like to say I have a different opinion to most others, but I'm afraid I have to join the masses and say that it is underwhelming. As Terry Wogan used to say "It goes nowhere."

It doesn't help that expectations were sky-high...the biggest star to represent the UK in years, an early (for the BBC) announcement to build the hype up, and a reveal made on one of the BBC's biggest shows. We all expected a lot from this, and I think most reviewers feel they haven't been met. For me, the song just lacks oomph and a bit of a wow factor. But who knows, maybe the staging will bring "Dizzy" to life. Olly's vocal is going to be very important here as well, and there seems to be mixed reviews of his live vocal ability with Years & Years.

It's funny how Lithuania and Switzerland are both sending Olly Alexander-style acts this year, and they both do "Olly Alexander at Eurovision" better than Olly Alexander.

Love the optimism but honestly I think we'll do well to make the final. If we qualify and manage mid table I'll be delighted with that.

It's a very strong year and the song is divisive.

Hopefully Bambie can do something amazing with the staging though. You never really know until rehearsals start.

Agree Lithuania is a massive grower, I didn't really get it at first but it's one of my favourites now.

I think the horrible draw has a lot to do with it, we're in that first half with the top two favourites for the whole competition, and countries with a big diaspora vote.

If we were second half, with a decent running order and weaker songs around us, I think we'd qualify fairly easily.

I think we can do it but it's definitely not guaranteed.

The only songs in the first semi-final that I can't see a path to the grand final for are Iceland and Luxembourg.

Iceland has a great singer in Hera, but the song is dated and nothing special. Bashar, the Palestinian singer who took part in the Icelandic NF, would have been a guaranteed qualifier, but his song wasn't very good either. It would have cleaned up with sympathy votes though. Interestingly, Wiki has changed Iceland's entry from Hera to 'TBC.' It seems that the writer of Bashar's song is claiming voting irregularities.

I feel sorry for Luxembourg. It's their first time competing since Millstreet in 1993 and it would be great to see them back in the grand final, but their song is, as the kids say, 'mid.' There is nothing outstanding about it. Shame, since RTL staged a great national final.

All the others have a chance, unfortunately.

The other really 'mid' song in our semi-final is Moldova. Again, nothing special about it, but Moldova knows how to stage its entry and get the televotes in. The loss of Romania might help them too, while they'll be no 12 points from Romania this year, the Romanian diaspora might switch their loyalty to Moldova. It would be shame if this went through though (Natalia didn't deserve to qualify in 2007 but she did.)

Finland's entry might be the worst song of the year and a horrible reminder of how bad the contest became in the 2000s, but it's pure televote fodder and will easily qualify. Ukraine could send a barking dog and still qualify, but this year it's one of the hot favourites. Serbia is nothing special but it has its Balkan neighbours in the same semi to vote for it. Likewise, Slovenia has Serbia and Croatia to vote for it. And of course, Croatia is the hot favourite to win the whole thing.

Lithuania is another (deserved) favourite, plus it has a diaspora vote. Cyprus is sending the same sort of thing it's been sending for years, but they do seem to manage to qualify, with only a bad vocal knocking them out in 2022. Poland has a strong diaspora vote. Australia tends to get more jury love than televote love, but should be safe. We don't know Azerbaijan's song yet, but they nearly always qualify, and are happy to do it by any means necessary. We don't know Portugal's song yet either, but they've had a great few years in the contest and have been sending strong entries.

So sadly, pretty much every country bar Iceland and Luxembourg has a path to the final.

I'm not saying you need a diaspora to win, but it does massively help you to qualify.

If you look at the stats, Lithuania and Poland get high points from Ireland and the UK in every year that its possible for us to vote for them.

The juries watered that down, but now they're gone from the semi finals.

Premieres 8 Mar 2024 @ 09:00 Have 'they' drop the forehead symbol?

Oh God, that's all we need. The next 2 months are going to be non-stop calls for boycotts of the contest. Country's artists are gonna be hounded on social media to withdraw or make statements condemning Israel or the EBU. It has started already if you look at comments on Bambie Thug's latest posts on Twitter/X...

Unfortunately, you're right. A wave of nostalgia might see them safe. Shame, since the song isn't deserving of a final slot.

Azerbaijan has revealed their participant - Fahree. No song reveal yet.

A surprise choice, since it was widely expected that Aisel would represent Azerbaijan again. She previously did in 2018, and failed to qualify from the same semi as Ryan. Might have been a good omen for Bambie!

Released at 9am it's a lot of fun