Is it anybody here, who like me was Eurovision fan in the past, but lost the interest to contest for any reasons ?

I lost it in 2003. It became horrendous due to televote only finals. I slowly gained interest from 2010 onwards. In this decade it has become properly interesting. The volume of camp detritus has diminished and the number of excellent, innovative songs has increased. This year seems to have been a set back but we still have Lithuania and Austria to challenge us.

Jemini is better than all 2024 entries combined.

2003

1. Esther Hart - One More Night (Netherlands) - 8 / 10

2. Birgitta Haukdal - Open Your Heart (Iceland) - 7 / 10

3. Jemini - Cry Baby (United Kingdom) - 7 / 10

4. Mando - Never Let You Go (Greece) - 7 / 10

5. Lynn Chircop - To Dream Again (Malta) - 7 / 10

6. F.L.Y. - Hello From Mars (Latvia) - 6 / 10

7. Fame - Give Me Your Love (Sweden) - 6 / 10

...

21. Tatu - Ne Verj, Ne Bojsia (Russia) - 2 / 10

22. Alf Poier - Weil Der Mensch Zahlt (Austria) - 2 / 10

23. Beth - Dime (Spain) - 2 / 10

24. Lou - Let's Get Happy (Germany) - 1 / 10

25. Urban Trad - Sanomi (Belgium) - 1 / 10

26. Sertab Erener - Everyway That I Can (Turkey) - 1 / 10

2024 (first full listening) :

5 / 10 - 1 song

4 / 10 - 6 songs

3 / 10 - 6 songs

2 / 10 - 11 songs

1 / 10 - 8 songs

0 / 10 - 5 songs

Edited March 22Mar 22 by Last Dreamer

Jemini is an example of watered down Hear'say (which was already very bland) tedious, melody-less, waste of time.

Is it just me who feels like the live performance of Cry Baby is nowhere near as bad as people make out.

Iceland was my winner in 2003

The studio version is also horrendous.

Beth, Tatu and Urban Trad were my fierce top 3 in 2003, what a year

Not enough bland blonde white women without a personality this year?

2003 was great and a breath of fresh air after the very poor 2002 where I liked seven songs and only really loved about three.

Well staged and hosted, charming presentation and a lot of great songs.

My favourites were actually Iceland, Netherlands and Malta (very underrated but it was a fun stat that the previous year’s top three were the bottom three in 2003).

But I regularly listen to Turkey, Belgium, Russia (how did UK snub them when at this point they were so huge here, I really thought they had the win easily in the bag), Sweden, Poland (one of their best, so stirring), Spain, Romania, Ireland’s Fly on the Wings of Love tribute, Germany’s corny schlager, Croatia (I loved their 00s female pop entries), Portugal (beautiful and so underrated) and even the studio version of UK is catchy (the live I hate as they were so off key compared to the backing singers and it clashed badly).

This contest reminds me of my last few weeks at school, I had the CD on repeat.

On 22/03/2025 at 05:50, Last Dreamer said:

Jemini is better than all 2024 entries combined.

Oh my God 💀

12 hours ago, Silas said:

Not enough bland blonde white women without a personality this year?

Laura Thorn needs to dye her hair :(

You mixed up my 2024 and 2025 rankings. I don't like any songs from 2021-2024, from 2025 year I like three : Luxembourg, UK, Ireland.

Lost interest in 2020, after that awful line-up. Ireland was exception.

For comparison my 2012 vs 2020 scores :

2012

10/10 - 1 song (Anmary - Beautiful Song)

9/10 - 1 song

8/10 - 1 song

7/10 - 1 song

6/10 - 3 songs

5/10 - 7 songs

4/10 - 10 songs

3/10 - 7 songs

2/10 - 3 songs

1/10 - 3 songs

0/10 - 5 songs

2020

8/10 - 1 song (Lesley Roy - Story Of My Life)

4/10 - 6 songs

3/10 - 13 songs

2/10 - 7 songs

1/10 - 9 songs

0/10 - 5 songs

Edited March 24Mar 24 by Last Dreamer

I took a pretty big gap from the contest in 2008 that wasn’t fully over until I first watched it live in 2016, between then I really only knew all the winning songs, the UK entries and the occasional other smash like the Russian grannies. I did watch a lot of 2011 at a house party but the songs that year didn’t really convince me to return full time, it’s really 2014 on where I really start enjoying lots of them again.

More recently, last year’s live experience was so horrible for how angry the crowd were it hasn’t given me huge hope this year will be calmer yet, if Basel is just as bad then that’s me out of travelling to go see it I think for the foreseeable future.

My love for the show hasn't waned - I love exploring what Europe et al has to offer each year and generally find a few songs that I absolutely adore.

I would say that I like the current voting format more - it really shows me that the Jury are there to protect the musical integrity of the competition (they may not always get it right but there's a reason Loreen/Nemo/Sam Ryder etc scored highly with them in recent years). If other songs had won I fear the competition would go back to the early 2000's, where the contest became a bit of a joke.

Interesting point on the audience - I do think they have sometimes fallen into negativity, in a way that reminds me of pantomime booing (the hate Loreen got is a good example for me)

It's such a shame hearing people's experiences of 2024 because Liverpool was such an electrifying and positive atmosphere the year before. But of course understandable, with everything that was going on.

It's hard to tell how 2025 will be in comparison to last year, things haven't exactly got much better, but the EBU need to do a much better job of looking after artists and listening to concerns. I can't sadly afford to go to Basel (and I'm going to a Delta Goodrem gig the night of the second semi anyway, the ONLY thing I would ever consider missing Eurovision for).

I certainly would not have liked to have been in the audience for the live final last year, the tension came across quite a lot on screen. Hopefully things will be better this year.

I have only been twice to Eurovision (and only been in the audience for the final once, in Malmö funnily enough, in 2013) but I had such a great time on both occasions. I think you can kind of curate your own experience when you go to the host city. People can probably try and avoid a lot of the negative stuff if they stay away from the main action for a lot of the time and just enjoy the fringe activities. I think it's fun to try and get tickets for dress rehearsals and then watch the live show at a public screening with friends, and make the most of the city/culture/food etc.

On 24/03/2025 at 09:56, BillyH said:

I took a pretty big gap from the contest in 2008 that wasn’t fully over until I first watched it live in 2016, between then I really only knew all the winning songs, the UK entries and the occasional other smash like the Russian grannies. I did watch a lot of 2011 at a house party but the songs that year didn’t really convince me to return full time, it’s really 2014 on where I really start enjoying lots of them again.

More recently, last year’s live experience was so horrible for how angry the crowd were it hasn’t given me huge hope this year will be calmer yet, if Basel is just as bad then that’s me out of travelling to go see it I think for the foreseeable future.

While I agree last years experience nearly put me off not going this year, I wouldn’t blame this on the crowd as much as I would the EBU for continuing to allow a genocidal nation to participate. I think this year will be less hostile but it’ll still be there for as long as they’re permitted to enter.

17 hours ago, RobBot said:

While I agree last years experience nearly put me off not going this year, I wouldn’t blame this on the crowd as much as I would the EBU for continuing to allow a genocidal nation to participate. I think this year will be less hostile but it’ll still be there for as long as they’re permitted to enter.

100% this. Last year really soured things for me, from this particular problem to the whole drama with the Netherlands being DQd. I felt the politics had majorly eclipsed the show and the usual great atmosphere around the contest, and as a result I am nowhere near as invested this year.

Liverpool was such a high, it's such a shame things have gone downhill since.

Yeah, I was in the crowd on the Friday night for the final jury show, and the response to Netherlands not performing was SO loud and the booing for Israel had intensified much more in the two days between the SF2 jury show and the final jury show. I'd never been amongst so much anger and hostility, but honestly, I kinda felt it in myself and there was genuinely a real feeling of worry in the air that they could win after the leaked Italy televote.

It’s rigged but I still like the event and concept. It seems like it used to be a lot better but I don’t know if that’s just nostalgia