Colm

I love Albania for carving out their own niche. Suus and Shaj are sublime.

This is the superior version of Fall from The Sky https://youtu.be/rRo8BJGuffM?is=xs38KERD98BD0Emz

Oh, I need to revisit this era. I gave up on Eurovision in 2003 because it was so poor, quality wise,

Off to buy some shredded wheat for the listen through.

We can put it at the end too 😁

Do we actually have to have a tie-breaker announced? I know it's dramatic but I feel it's a bit punishing if you DNQed the month before.

I really feel for those in semi 2 who entered with strong tracks only to end up in a high quality semi-final but not advance.

Semi 2 was ridiculously good so good stuff was inevitably going to suffer.

So glad to be in but this is awful for those left.

😭😭😭😭😭😭

Can someone tell me how many are Left? 😭

😭 Me also

I rarely make comments.

I'm chasing an 8 Q streak. Have I finally figured out how BJSC works?

The posters' names are very handy to have. I am old and forgetful

My votes will be voting.

10 Salvador Sobral - Amar Pelos Dois 5.5 I just listened to this to assemble my top 10. I used to like it but it's got very little going for it now. 2017 was so weak. 09 Nemo - The Code I just don't get the song here. I do like the rap part and the operatic bits - especially the climax but the chorus does nothing for me. I never listen to this, or watch the performance. 6.5 08 Kalush Orchestra - Stefania This is ok. It would have been so much better if the bass was higher in the mix for the flute part. 6.8 07 Netta - Toy In 2018, I hadn't really become the Eurovision fan I am today so I didn't hear Toy until Eurovision week on the Spotify playlist. It just seemed like such an obvious winner to me at first listen. The second verse is still genius. This is just so full of original hooks. Hooks that I certainly had never heard before. It's bizarre in all the best ways and still a marvelous listen. 7.5 06 Dara - Bangarang The peaks here don't match those in Toy but overall it's a more consistent song. The studio version is fairly average. One I only watch - never stream. Still buzzing about this winning and love watching professional musicians analysing this and praising in it on Youtube. 7.7 05 Loreen - Tattoo I love this so much more than Euphoria. I know it robs its hooks from other songs. I don't care. It's magnificent. 8.0 04 Måneskin - Zitti E Buoni This was a grower with me. 2021 was a strong year so this finished only around 7th or 8th for me back then. A few things remain impressive - for a start, it oozes pure rock and roll essence. Secondly Damiano's double timed vocals in the second verse accelerate the excitement, and the middle eight melody which has such strident confidence. 8.1 03 Jamala - 1944 Quite rightly regarded as one of the most arresting performances ever seen on the Eurovision stage. Still the bar that every Ukrainian entry gets measured against, 8.5 02 Duncan Laurence - Arcade This should have won the jury. At least the public treated it slightly better. 9.5 01 JJ - Wasted Love I've watched this 100 times and never noticed that the blanket that is wrapped around him at the start turns into the sail of the boat. The melody is just incredible for me. I'd like a version that didn't have the 4/4 kick drum. 9.8

I forgot that It Began in Africa existed. I don't like that sample in Galvanize. I found that a very weak single, I'm afraid.

I retract my comment but they managed to make me hate it because of how rubbish the performance was and yet points flowed. They couldn't sing it on stage. Had zero chemistry and it looked awkward. And the studio version was ruined with vocal effects..

One word: Brividi A song so awful that the studio and live versions are awful for two entirely different reasons. And still Albania decided to give it 12 in the televote.

It worked for Estonia last year

Here's my take on the whole thing. In general, I am really pleased with the results. Not because my favourite won but because some of the results were unpredictable. Bulgaria winning is great. I didn't really get into the song until the live shows brought it to life. I like the mix of genres, which seems to be the key to winning Eurovision now. A first time winner is always good because it gives hope to other countries that haven't won. We also needed a Balkan win because they often struggle to attend due to internal budgeting issues. A contest held on their doorstep should help more of them come back - North Macedonia might see a way back and I hope Montenegro stay in the competition. I assume Romania and Moldova will enter next year given their success this year. Speaking of which - Romania's result is also incredibly pleasing. Another song with multiple genres - although the juries didn't see fit to rewarded it very much at all. Fantastic televote for them too. For two countries to come back and excel to such a level is also wonderful. They didn't come back to make up the numbers. Whether it was the expansion of the national juries to 7 members and for 2 of those 7 to be from the age group 18 to 25 that made the difference to the Bulgarian jury, it feels like something changed this year. We needed a new era when unpredictable songs can do very well. It was also great that the public and the jury agreed on the best song - if only to stem the flow of toxic spite on Youtube and Twitter about the televote winner being the "real winner" that we had to endure when Nemo and Loreen won. Some other thoughts. It seems that Italy can do no wrong. While I don't really dislike Italy - I certainly loved them a lot more between 2017 and 2021 - they could send anything from almost any genre and because it's in Italian Europe will throw points at it. Their last nine finishes - 6 5 2 1 6 4 7 5 5. The UK should take a break. Hear me out. This year they tried something different. It didn't work. There just seems to be something of a mismatch between what the UK sends and what the voting public of Europe find entertaining. And that's fine. That's not an indication of the quality of the entry - just that it doesn't work in Eurovision Just take a break for a few years and spend a while thinking about a different approach. The standard of staging was much higher this year. There weren't many bad ones. I've made no secret about this but I think this is the weakest year since I started following the contest to this level in 2018. Finland was the only one that gave me proper Eurovision vibes. I liked Sweden a lot too. That was kind of it. There were some I admired - like Romania, Bulgaria and the UK. Finland just made my heart sing. They have put the work in, and deserve a victory soon. France too but France is internally selecting and that comes across like they're trying too hard when they almost engineer their entry. Perhaps like Switzerland and Austria, they need to change genre before they get their victory. Greece are hungry for it too - although I failed to see how Ferto was the path to success. Also...I said this a few months ago. I got half of my wish.

It was definitely one of the songs expected to get less than 10 points.

How so?