Iz 🌟

'Not making noise' was pretty much the strategy this year! They were placed in an uncompetitive slot and barely anyone talked about their entry all season. Unfortunately this is going to keep happening, an astroturfing campaign of 300-odd points for the Israeli entry no matter what it is because they have enough people behind it (them being trolls seems far more unlikely than them being right-wing Zionists, though I suppose I repeat myself a bit) to dominate the televote in a large number of countries in my view illegitimately. The contest can't be dealing with spinning a roulette every year to see if something can beat an entry that at present would destroy the contest. It'll certainly remain so while Israel continues to bomb Gaza at this rate.

For some people, maybe? If they haven't heard many songs before and like rising ballads. Far more compelling ballads on offer tonight, France, Switzerland, even Netherlands and Italy are more interesting and better-written songs - this is all arguable as a matter of taste but only to a point. To the extent Israel outperformed its competitors, no, that's not a genuine expression of love for the song. The extensive vote campaign targeted at partisan Israel supporters across Europe that has been at a consistent level for the past few years is undoubtedly more of a reason and if the EBU aren't going to do what they should have done and ban Israel, they should at least ban such anti-competitive ad campaigns that are explicitly targeted at people who will not watch the show or ever consider the rest of the acts.

first of all what an incredible show, I was watching it with friends so chose not to do live commentary here but I think at least 20 songs out of the lineup were very enjoyable - I sent votes to Lithuania (big indie fave), Latvia (didn't intend to vote for them tonight but they gave such a good performance they deserved it), Sweden (sauna) and Albania (zjerm nation). For the results, very pleased the UK did well on the jury, we actually got an impressive points haul and it's unfortunate that the point numbers of songs around it caused us to place technically lower than last year, and we absolutely did not deserve nul on the televote - we have to think of ways to capture public attention as well as the juries next time. Very stellar performance from Remember Monday, they've been excellent entrants for us, more like them in the future please. obviously my heart was in my mouth, we were so close to absolute disaster for the EBU and while it was far from my first choice, I'll absolutely take Wasted Love over a dull propaganda ballad making a mockery of the contest. Good winning performance, I was sorta sure France was going to be winning after everything had been performed, but on both predictions and taste it seems I'm slightly out of step with the public this year, somewhat unusual. Zjerm finishing top 10 and Bara Bada Batsu finishing 4th is a pretty decent consolation though, justice for Lithuania.

thank you to all of the remember monday stans for voting and voting hard, keep them rolling in ❤️❤️❤️

I can't call who will win which is very exciting. France, Finland, Sweden, Austria and Albania all seem like they could realistically walk away with the trophy tonight and I wouldn't be surprised. Very much hoping it's a televote winner though, the contest needs that.

Might have to see if I can go to one of their shows. This is pretty cool too. And I agree, their positive energy throughout the entrant process has been fantastic, I'm really hoping it helps them tonight.

fucking hell Everyone is equal before the law is a pretty universal principle. Not really much more to say about it.

Two of the best of all time next to each other with The Wire and Next Generation then, both have given TV so much in completely different ways, TNG is full of timeless moments that are unmatched in introspective sci-fi, and The Wire.... just excellent on all fronts in its portrayal of Baltimore. And DS9 in the top 40!!!

Value there, I'm biased but it's nowhere near as cut and dry as that, Spain, Portugal, Armenia, Iceland, Norway (among others) all have arguments for why they might end up being the one that's last instead of UK, challenge is just picking the right one.

It's under 'Account Settings'. There shouldn't be any restrictions on changing it that I'm aware of.

Some people have always voted against higher immigration, helped by it being a pervasive wedge issue that is always encouraged as a point of discussion by newspapers to keep people like crabs in a bucket fighting over scraps. That Telegraph poll doesn't seem too relevant, at least to how important immigration is as an issue to people, it's just how well they think the Labour government is doing on it for most questions and I'm not a fan of its question on net migration, 'putting a number on it' is likely to bias towards lower levels because people see only the number there and not its impact. (that's a horrendous poll question!) Which you are saying, there are two different realities. Yet those who constantly want it to come down do so without any regard for what lower immigration actually means, it means becoming like Japan or South Korea, still an aging population, still below birth replacement rate, with shortages in jobs that can't be filled because British people don't have the qualifications. The government is I believe looking at making it so that businesses should prove they can't hire from within Britain before going abroad, which is ideal, but they will need to still be allowed to recruit from abroad where it's necessary. You need people who are thinking about the consequences of such a complicated issue in government and not reacting to headlines. That's not a comment on what Labour are or are not doing, by the way, they've had their immigration plans in the works for a while AND they've stepped up the rhetoric in the past few weeks, that's just a statement on what ideal governance is. This is a couple of useful polls on practical issues to deal with immigration (social care is one of the lowest occupations on that list for the YouGov one). And then I like this one from British Future, as it's a poll that directly asks people about how they would feel about the impacts of immigrants working here, which is a more 'real' situation to present them with than scaremongering about immigrants, and generally shows the public with a more balanced view on immigration with tradeoffs. 'Don't reduce' at 71% for care home workers for example and a clear focus on reducing illegal immigration, hence Starmer stepping up the rhetoric in that area. https://www.britishfuture.org/white-paper-attitudes-research/

Incredible top 4 01 🇦🇱 Albania: Shkode Elektronike - Zjerm (I really want this to win, the performance was everything, this song has such great progression, beauty and sound, and they would be such a good winner for the contest. ZJERM NATION) 02 🇸🇪 Sweden - Kaj - Bara Bada Bastu (incredibly repeatable song, I will absolutely be bopping to this hugely on Saturday) 03 🇬🇧 United Kingdom - Remember Monday - What The Hell Just Happened? (I keep falling more in love with the song each time I hear it, it's such a well-produced song even if it sounds a mess at first. I would 100% be sending this votes if I could, and I'm not sure I'd have said that about any other UK Eurovision entry in the time I've been watching, the song and the girls are just so lovable) 04 🇱🇹 Lithuania: Katarsis - Tavo akys (Tavo tavo tavo tavo tavo tavo tavo tavo tavo tavo tavo tavo tavo tavo tavo tavo tavo ) ( insane how quickly Lithuania have pivoted in the space of a few years from being one of the least essential countrie to being one of the most essential) Great finalists and ideal winners if not one of the top 4 05 🇫🇮 Finland: Erika Vikman - Ich Komme (pop songs with power yay) 06 🇺🇦 Ukraine: Ziferblat - Bird of Pray (another song whose unconventional structure sneaks up on you) 07 🇮🇸 Iceland - Vaeb - Roa (I bop out hard to this rap) 08 🇱🇻 Latvia: Tautumeitas - Bur men laimi (bringing Latvian to the final for the first time in a great folk form, expecting it to finish low down but would love them to surprise me further) Good songs I'll enjoy on Saturday 09 🇸🇲 San Marino - Gabry Ponte - Tutta L'Italia 10 🇨🇭 Switzerland - Zoë Më - Voyage (that semi-final performance was fantastic, winning the battle of the French ballads imo) 11 🇮🇹 Italy - Lucio Corsi - Volevo essere un duro 12 🇵🇱 Poland: Justyna Steczkowska - Gaja 13 🇱🇺 Luxembourg: Laura Thorn - La poupee monte le son (gone backwards and forwards on this but it was very cheery in the semi) 14 🇩🇰 Denmark - Sissal - Hallucination 15 🇬🇷 Greece: Klavdia - Asteromata 16 🇩🇪 Germany - Abor & Tynna - Baller 17 🇫🇷 France - Louane - Maman 18 🇳🇱 Netherlands - Claude - C'est La Vie 19 🇦🇲 Armenia - PARG – Survivor Average 20 🇦🇹 Austria - JJ - Wasted Love (would be the least exciting winner out of the plausibles, not keen on the idea of a jury winner carried over the line with a flashy stage show, it's an okay song at best) 21 🇲🇹 Malta: Miriana Conte - Serving (the shine is wearing off divas) 22 🇪🇸 Spain: Melody - Esa Diva 23 🇵🇹 Portugal - NAPA - Deslocado 24 🇪🇪 Estonia: Tommy Cash - Espresso Machiato NO WAY NO WAY 25 🇳🇴 Norway: Kyle Alessandro - Lighter NR 🇮🇱 Israel: Yuval Raphael - New Day Will Rise (musically it wouldn't be ahead of many if any, confirmed with how uncomfortable I felt seeing it on stage on Thursday night as you can't divorce it from the context it exists in etc. The one bit I like is the bit in Hebrew, which just makes it more sad because Hebrew is a lovely language when sung, yet it's going to take a long time before I can look at an Israeli entry in a neutral or approving light again, if ever) Actually a fantastic final, helped a lot by so many songs in their native language, never thought I'd see a final with Swedish, German, Latvian and Lithuanian all together *.*

It's too far away to be seriously talking about projections for the next election, but it indeed looks like at this early stage we might have what the US had in 2024, a competent government doing well on the economy and quietly making long-term improvements, only to be drowned out by relentless negative media coverage highlighting whatever flaws they had and a bellowing populist promising magic quick fixes as their opponent. Constantly having to worry about such things is a detriment to good governance, so I do hope the Labour team continue with this plan, which they largely are, the immigration white paper was being prepared well in advance of this week and many of their most controversial cuts have been to fund the NHS, which is trending in a good direction. No. It's not irrelevant and to dismiss it as such is incredibly anti-intellectual, besides, I was kinda directly discussing how useful it was as applicable to people's real lives so why shut conversation down like that? What is true is that it is a marginal, generalised snapshot of how much money people and businesses are spending and it's entirely plausible that plenty of people do not feel it from one quarter to the next, so it's important to turn it into sustained growth. Q2 may well be bad, it's also being talked up as the one to feel the impact from the employers' NI rise, we'll see how that goes, though I feel the impact of that policy has also been somewhat overstated by the media. It being a similar figure from that quarter last year is growth from the relatively good work that the Sunak government sorta managed just before they got thrown out, that's what every Conservative pundit keeps bringing up from here until the end of time probably about how they were the fastest growing economy in the G7. This government have managed pretty much the same, and again we are the fastest growing economy in the G7, with 4 years left of the term. 'majority of people by far' - you do this a lot, claim your position has majority and that it's just 'sensible' without qualifications. It's a stupid way of engaging and appeals to your inability to grasp other people's opinions, any real opinion polling done on this subject shows that immigration is a contentious issue and everyone has a myriad of different opinions about it, most broadly support it being used as a way to fill shortage jobs for example. I know my position is a real minority one, I support largely open borders combined with an aggressive international aid program to remove the push factors from poorer countries as protective nationalism in the long term leads to bad outcomes between nations, but I have sympathy for the position that supports the more immediate humane immigration controls that are being proposed, and some forms of the Labour immigration white paper are exactly what is needed - they're shooting themselves majorly in the foot by ending care visas though. Starmer's definitely having a major problem with authenticity, shouldn't have lied to the Labour membership then, it all started from there.

The significant thing for me here is Starmer dropping to slightly unfavourable among Labour voters. Who would have guessed that effectively saying 'Farage is right, but don't vote for him, vote for us' would cause no increase in popularity from those who are already against you, to alienating the people who already don't like Farage and voted for you with the idea that you are not him. Anecdotally I've seen a bit more wider praise for the government stepping up the immigration rhetoric as much as I disagree with it, it helps with the 'look we're getting things done' approach, which they sorta are, but the government's goals are more long-term. Good question on QT last night about 'if the economy went up by 0.7%, is it too early to celebrate'. That's a great number for a single quarter, that works out as 3% over a year, but the important thing is that people need to feel it, and they aren't yet.

I did my best already 😭 They'd be getting my 12, 10 or 8 in the Buzzvision final if they got through.

Nooo Australia, completely robbed. Sad for Ireland and Serbia too

Yasss Latvia , I was getting worried for them

Oops But that was always going to happen

We start well!

I love this segment idea and I hope a future contest does it for artists that didn't just return in 2021 oops

I predict Montenegro, Ireland, Czechia, Georgia, Greece and Armenia out. Maybe Demmark or Latvia too but that would be bad so hopefully not.

Managed to get a vote through for Latvia, Lithuania, Finland and Australia, in order of how much I loved their perfs this evening

what a finish go Erika Would love it to enter the conversation as a winner contender again, that felt huge

I have been starved of the classic Big Balkan Ballad for a little while so I'll take this fairly solid attempt Serbia

Bit of a fun bop, please do well for Germany and convince them to send songs in German every year