I stayed away from this thread but I can imagine Buzzjack is not a fan of the current winner. Personally, I think we have had 2 amazing winners in a row now. Very happy that Jamala and Salvador showed that you don't have to send something like those cheap-ish songs that Sweden sends every year (don't get me wrong I kind of liked the song last night but Sweden sis...), or novelty acts like Romania and Moldova, to win.

 

I'm extra happy that Portugal won in their own language, showing that you don't have to sing in English to touch people.

 

My personal top 3 last night:

1. Hungary

2. Portugal

3. Armenia

I do hope we get a fun winner next year though, as happy as I am for Portugal as a country, I'm not particularly here for Eurovision having some deep winner every year. But, that's just my personal taste. Jamala was awful but as proved by her performance last night, that's as much down to her shrill falsetto voice as anything. Salvador - just simply not my style, that's all there is to it. I'm more than happy for a plastic, manufactured pop song like Heroes to win next year, if it breaks up this need for everything to be so serious.

Salvador found fame in Portugal through Idolos, the Portuguese version of Pop Idol, the bastion of authenticity. On the show he performed timeless standards including Maroon 5's Sunday Morning and Michael Jackson's Heal The World.

 

----

 

Disclaimer: I actually didn't really care that much about the comments he made last night, and the song has continued to grow on me since I first heard it - I think it's a worthy winner, and I'm very pleased for Portugal. However, it's not as if he slogged his way up to the top of his game by performing for years in back street jazz bars. He found fame singing pop on a manufactured reality TV show...

Edited May 14, 20178 yr by gooddelta

My ranking of the final songs:

 

1 Armenia

2 Bulgaria

3 Austria

4 France

5 Belgium

6 Croatia

7 Norway

8 Sweden

10 Hungary

12 Romania

 

And our group's votes:

1 Azerbaijan

2 Denmark

3 Belgium

4 Austria

5 Bulgaria

6 Norway

7 Croatia

8 Sweden

10 Romania

12 Hungary

 

 

Edited May 14, 20178 yr by JackJones

I'm still so annoyed with his speech. That's the kind of pretentious nonsense Ed Sheran would say but they don't realize they make "disposable fast food music" too. They're not classical geniuses and are no Mozart. They really need a wake up call if they think they are "better" than other pop music. They ARE pop acts.

 

A bit off topic but when exactly has Ed Sheeran ever said anything like this? I may be wrong but it seems to me the idea that Ed Sheeran is one of the 'le real music' people seems to be entirely perpetrated by people who don't like him, just because he happens to play instruments sometimes.

If the jury and public votes were still combined under the old system, the scoreboard would've been:

 

01 | 417 | Portugal

02 | 346 | Bulgaria

03 | 227 | Sweden

04 | 216 | Belgium

05 | 210 | Moldova

06 | 174 | Italy

07 | 115 | Romania

08 | 101 | Hungary

09 | 083 | France

10 | 078 | The Netherlands

 

11 | 072 | Norway

12 | 060 | Australia

13 | 052 | Azerbaijan

14 | 042 | Belarus

15 | 040 | Croatia

16 | 039 | Greece

17 | 037 | Cyprus

18 | 034 | United Kingdom

19 | 022 | Israel

20 | 021 | Armenia

 

21 | 015 | Denmark

22 | 015 | Poland

23 | 009 | Austria

24 | 007 | Ukraine

25 | 002 | Germany

26 | 002 | Spain

 

He actually smashed Alexander Rybak, technically 'Amar Pelos Dois' is the most successful Eurovision winner ever.

 

One change from the semi finals as well under the old system, Switzerland would've qualified over Denmark after winning a tie.

yay for the new system giving us a finish 3 places higher! still really annoyed we only got 12 from the televote though, what do we have to do to get people to like our entries??

Ffs I'd have won money from that system :kink: Ew at it being bigger than Alexander Rybak, tragic

Ha!!!! Since when is coming 15th something to be proud of?!! 15th is a terrible result for a country that has arguably the best pop music pedigree in Europe. We've come 2nd 15 times and won it 5 times, so 15th is a resounding failure; granted it's better than last year! Granted the UK, struggle now with the perception of us in Europe. Granted it's very hard for us to score highly without any real politically alligned neighbours (damn you Ireland :-) !!!)

 

The fact is, the UK keeps getting it wrong, and has done now for a very long time, and there will be many solutions offered up as to why. My betting is next year, middle-aged Gary Barlow will be given the task of writing the song, the following year it will be someone equally out of touch. Sending Englebert, Bonnie etc were terrible decisions.

 

We just need a great song and a great performer (and a gimmick or two wouldn't harm things). It's not rocket science. But please let's not celebrate 15th. At best we can be glad it's not last, but we need to aim for first; like Sweden do. We're better than 15th.

Jamala regretting that hair style change :lol:

 

Ha!!!! Since when is coming 15th something to be proud of?!! 15th is a terrible result for a country that has arguably the best pop music pedigree in Europe. We've come 2nd 15 times and won it 5 times, so 15th is a resounding failure; granted it's better than last year! Granted the UK, struggle now with the perception of us in Europe. Granted it's very hard for us to score highly without any real politically alligned neighbours (damn you Ireland :-) !!!)

 

The fact is, the UK keeps getting it wrong, and has done now for a very long time, and there will be many solutions offered up as to why. My betting is next year, middle-aged Gary Barlow will be given the task of writing the song, the following year it will be someone equally out of touch. Sending Englebert, Bonnie etc were terrible decisions.

 

We just need a great song and a great performer (and a gimmick or two wouldn't harm things). It's not rocket science. But please let's not celebrate 15th. At best we can be glad it's not last, but we need to aim for first; like Sweden do. We're better than 15th.

15th is something to be proud of when we've been doing much worse for the past so many years (our last top 15 was Blue)...

Portugal won by a landslide and they only have one neighbour!

 

Obviously 15th isn't a massive result - when Nicki French reached 16th in 2000 it was seen as a total and utter disaster, but our track record was much better then and we'd never been that low before. It just hopefully feels like a step in the right direction this time after ranking so low year after year since the start of this century.

 

My only worry is that both Jessica and Jade (our two best results since '99) were followed by two of our biggest flops, and any momentum got completely lost after that. Hopefully 2018 will bring us back to the left side of the scoreboard.

 

Random thought - that Bulgaria contestant is surely going to return in a few years, given his age? Could landslide a win for them in the early 2020s...

He could well do but I do think him 17 was part of a backstory that an audience could buy into. Really young cute boy with a fantastic voice was certainly a talking point in my house.

He strikes me as a younger, Bulgarian Dima Bilan - who we all know returned a couple of years later to win for Russia.

You have to look at it relatively, considering we've only had one top 15 this decade with Blue, 15th is really good. For say Sweden it'd be a disaster but for a country that consistently flops to various degrees n the 21st century it's undeniable good.

 

Also I agree with Rob about Kristian, I think his age did tie into it. Same in our house, a lot of the buzz about him seemed to be "oh he's brilliant for his age". He does have a great voice though and if he gets even better in the next few years he could come back and have a real chance but I suppose you could say that about a lot of runner-ups :lol:

Guys, he will still look 12 in two years. He certainly has a shot at winning if he enters again within two-three years.

I mean, his voice will only get better, so if he has a killer song then obviously there's no reason why he can't.

He did say in an interview that he'd never take part in a singing contest again after this but I get the impression that he might have said that with the expectation of winning. It's hard to argue against coming back as a career move assuming he can do well again and he seems like he has a good head on his shoulders, so I could see him coming back in a few years.

Just noticed UK jury member Mary Hammond ranked Portugal 15th out of 18 in the semi and then 1st overall in the final :mellow:

 

Quite a u-turn!?!

I noticed Emma Stevens had amazing taste putting Belarus in her top 3 if I remember rightly when I looked earlier! :heart: