Iz様 🌟

Harmonica and A-Konohagakure are both great entrants to see through at this stage <3

oh what a relief, thank you voters! I wasn't entirely confident on qualifying and I often tend to finish the year off with a DNQ so very pleased to break that this time, thank you for voting for my banger <3

Haha yes, congratulations Freeze, I thought this one might be in danger actually but pleased to see that's not the case.

Oof, all of the DNQs are not good to see, I understand most of them but I'd have liked to see several of these through.

yesss Taahino and POPHub

oh hell no Deandria had one of the best in the semi - on par with Luukered, didn't expect to see that one out at all :/

Aww that was a sweet entry from Macromia and I'd have liked to see it in but it did feel quite borderline.

hell yeah Flynnonda the other rock entry in too pls x

Congrats to both long-gap returnees on smashing it, great entries to come back with.

just a little scared but bring it very good start to semi 1, happy to see Pagasa wasn't affected by the deduction

Like I said before, I am happy to comment on the shitshow this turns into, from a news-related perspective. That is interesting to me because I care about the concept of the contest, as much as I hate what it has turned into. I don't feel motivated at this moment to listen to any of the eventual entries with any sort of positive feeling towards them doing well in a song contest. They have robbed me of that, with their political stances. The lie that anything is non-political with nation states has always been a bristling one but for them to gaslight us in that way is a solid reminder of the Israeli and EBU immorality. I may musically follow some of the national finals, particularly those that exist as more than just a selection show for Eurovision, I'm not going to stop enjoying pan-European pop. I can't see myself wanting to watch the show in May though for any reason other than documenting what is surely going to be a stilted, joyless car-crash of a contest. Eventually, I want this contest to be reclaimed from the current heads of the EBU and their acceptance of Israeli, and all other malevolent interference from Azerbaijan to historically Russia to conservative heads of broadcasters like ÖRF. For now, that starts with 2026 being a failure, I hope to see at least a few NF winners whose contracts aren't tied up tight refuse to go, I hope that artists in general resist the EBU clamping down on them to speak out, very few creatives at the average age of Eurovision artists have no opinions on the Israel matter. Too early to say exactly what form it will take but I hope and anticipate many controversies that even the EBU's contracts can't shake. Much respect to all the departing countries, all some of the most valuable Eurovision members over the years and on the right side of history, and a side-eye to every one that stays in.

Scotland get Brazil and Morocco again. Ha. Mexico get South Korea again. Ha. Argentina get a '-geria' team, eh, close enough. France/Senegal/Norway is quite tough (the Mbappe vs Haaland match clearly the big draw from the first round), but whichever team is the 4th is going to be dumpstered as the options are Bolivia, Iraq and Suriname, which I'm sure are all quite valid teams but clearly a step below those 3. Definitely hope a variety of nations make it through to the knockout stages though, in most groups I bet people will be 'picking' an easy 4th like I just did there and the best part of the World Cup is when those teams defy that. Could be some entertaining fights to achieve a more favourable draw position (e.g. if England doesn't come 1st there are several possibilities where our opponent in the round of 32 is Portugal, either by them being a runner up in Group K or them winning Group K and us coming... 3rd). anyway see you at the all-important Congo vs Uzbekistan match.

The second nul-pointer, Marc Philippe - Dancing With Your Eyes (East Rukahavian 149) fits that description far better (with apologies to Mack). Not that I remembered it very well, I just had a vague memory of there being another one not long after the Trifoski one so I looked it up. Don't think there's been a third yet. always been proud of myself for preventing one nul-pointer, B.A.P's Warrior from 41, because that was a banger that deserved far more than the one point I chucked at it, far more similar to Inanimate Insanity, which was quite good/interesting tbf.

Voted, I moved at least 8 songs I didn't end up voting for in and out of my votes; there's such a good baseline of quality in this contest and I hope as many of those as possible get enough to be in.

I have very little motivation to follow along now. Except for any further news-worthy events that occur, it's still interesting to me on that level, but I have absolutely no desire to engage with the EBU's sham at 'peace and inclusion' while letting Israel completely off from their soft power exploitation and obfuscation. the more countries that withdraw the better

A vote was held today at the EBU to accept the proposed rule changes. Talk was that if these vote changes failed to pass, then a vote would have been held to remove KAN from Eurovision. They passed, so that did not occur. Netherlands have wasted no time and have officially withdrawn from Eurovision 2026.

In a sense, quite, as regardless of what's actually gone on with Siddiq and her connections to her ousted Bangladeshi political family, she was tried and convicted in absentia and quite rightly the Labour Party isn't going to recognise such sham conclusions of a foreign court that we have no extradition treaty with, sets a bad precedent. Definitely underscores why juries are such an important thing to have in a democracy. The language Lammy has used, 'putting victims first' is all well and good and probably plays well, but it hides a rather worrying approach to justice and kind of shows that he is not good at his brief. Pretty much the point of courts is that they are not pre-judged, and while most cases certainly do have victims, it's very important that guilt is not presumed just because of an accusation.

Trans girls banned from girlguiding are in the headlines. ...what? Who does this help? How is this not shamefully discriminatory?

Jury trials now scrapped for cases under 3 years. Fucking appalling decision; yes there is a huge case backlog, no, removing some of the fundamental rights of a democracy is not the way to get it back down, the case backlog is largely in cases where there is no jury trial recourse already and it's not even a temporary decision.

Does really just lurch from disaster to disaster doesn't it. I can't see how they do anything at any real electoral test.

Most of the recent songs in this thread I have very few strong feelings towards, so haven't commented (except to say that 'Smack That' is hilariously inept), but 'No Tomorrow' is definitely one I like and hopefully a signal that we're getting into the good side of the 2006 #1s. Love its energy even if I could go years without thinking about it.

Not to downplay it at all and it is relatively a low Q ratio compared to the last few contests but I remember a long period where 60 was a common lower-bound of contestants and in comparison to the occasional contest that had a few more (63-66ish), the 60 contestant contests felt quite comfy to qualify from. Though of course I didn't make it out of the semis of several of those, it's just that a while ago, only 9 DNQs felt quite low (in part because you'd expect 10 on 60 songs with 20 from each semi but the AQs sorta 'gave' the semis an extra one). Little hard to call where the votes may go in semi 1 of course, it looks on paper slightly more pop-leaning than the other semi but plenty of opportunity for votes there to go in many directions.

https://sync-tube.de/room/1ozdeAIp join me as I figure out how to do Sync-Tube playlists, kicking off soon after 8pm (with standard warm-ups)

I'll claim up listenthrough hosting duties, will post a thing at or near 8 x

very cool to see a bbno$ and ironmouse collab in tbh, I have considered the former on occasion here and there despite his inevitably increasing internet presence year-on-year and though I don't know much of the latter's music she's been a great internet presence for a while. Also every time I see the name Oneohtrix Point Never I add a note to listen to their albums some time so good that this contest will get me to do that x my track was, like many others, fated to the mentioned-on-no-one-by-Buzzjack-aside-from-uhstings-charts so I'm excited to change that