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Post by lynette on Apr 7, 2022 11:03:20 GMT
The thing is that we have always seen the political alliances played out in this competition for better or for worse so why not embrace them now when it would mean something?
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Post by stuartmcd on Apr 7, 2022 11:58:53 GMT
The thing is that we have always seen the political alliances played out in this competition for better or for worse so why not embrace them now when it would mean something? But what would it mean exactly? Apart from lumping them with having to host an expensive song contest next year which would probably just get handed over to some other country instead. And if you look at the winners from the past few years it can’t really be said that they won for political reasons or friendly voting. They won because they were the most popular on the night. That’s it. |
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Post by stuartmcd on May 2, 2022 20:30:16 GMT
So rehearsals are underway and…. the stage is broken.
Well apparently. No one really knows exactly what’s going on as the EBU haven’t said anything and this year the first round of rehearsals have been closed off to press.
But the stage is supposed to feature this rotating “sun” which has LEDs on one side and lights on the other. With each country having figured out how they want this sun to move and how they want to use the LED screens and lights, they have started rehearsals and the sun isn’t turning which means that their planned staging isn’t exactly looking how they were hoping it would.
So you’d think they would try to fix it right? Well the word floating around right now is that they aren’t going to do that. The EBU not commenting on the situation isn’t helping all of the wild speculation that’s going on right now.
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Post by oxfordsimon on May 2, 2022 20:52:14 GMT
In many ways, stripping back the staging might not be a bad thing for the competition going forward.
There has been an over reliance on staging (Australia and the singers on giant springs for example)
Bringing it back to the song and the performance might not be a bad move.
That is not to say they should not be fixing this staging element as a matter of urgency. They absolutely should.
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856 posts
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Post by stuartmcd on May 2, 2022 21:00:47 GMT
It’s hard to say exactly how badly the issue is causing the songs but I feel like this video gives a good idea. You can see that you essentially have a big black semi circle blocking the LED wall. Like I said the “sun” has LEDs on one side and unfortunately that is the side currently stuck facing away from the audience. So it just leaves a back semi circle on stage. Now that black side does have some cool lights but if the delegation was planning to use the LED side then those plans may be out the window.
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856 posts
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Post by stuartmcd on May 2, 2022 21:45:22 GMT
I just wish the EBU would give some kind of comment or statement about what’s going on. There’s talk that it’s broken and it’s up in the air wether or not it’s fixable.
There’s now also a Danish report that says that the Sun is moving too slowly and they can’t get it into position in time for each song. If that’s the case then that’s a complete failure by the organisers. To allow the delegations to create staging concepts around this Sun for it to just not work well enough is kind of unacceptable really and will put some acts at a big disadvantage.
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Post by n1david on May 2, 2022 21:51:01 GMT
There is a report that the presenters are going to introduce each act, whereas in recent years they have largely moved directly from performance to postcard to performance in the body of the show, apart from where there are commercial breaks. There's speculation that the addition of presenters between the acts is to allow for longer set changes. It could also make for very long shows...
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Post by oxfordsimon on May 2, 2022 22:49:39 GMT
I shall be watching from France this year so will be a new experience...
No Graham. But I will be able to vote for the UK!!
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Post by justfran on May 5, 2022 19:34:54 GMT
The Norwegian entry Subwoolfer is like Eurovision meets the Masked Singer! There’s rumours that one of the band members is Ben Adams from A1 and if you listen to the song, it does sound quite a lot like him (he now lives in Norway).
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Post by Deleted on May 5, 2022 20:13:26 GMT
The Norwegian entry Subwoolfer is like Eurovision meets the Masked Singer! There’s rumours that one of the band members is Ben Adams from A1 and if you listen to the song, it does sound quite a lot like him (he now lives in Norway). I love that song, it's one of my all time favourite eurovision songs. Just sums up eurovision to me |
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Post by vdcni on May 6, 2022 5:38:19 GMT
They hold a concert in Amsterdam the month before Eurovision every year where more than half the acts perform and I was at this years one. I got tickets for my husbands birthday, my level of interest around Eurovision is around zero but I quite enjoyed the Norway performance. Think Austria, UK & Iceland also came over well. Ireland was wretched.
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Post by jamie2c on May 7, 2022 10:54:36 GMT
They hold a concert in Amsterdam the month before Eurovision every year where more than half the acts perform and I was at this years one. I got tickets for my husbands birthday, my level of interest around Eurovision is around zero but I quite enjoyed the Norway performance. Think Austria, UK & Iceland also came over well. Ireland was wretched. You cannot say that about another human being. |
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Post by anthony on May 7, 2022 16:40:32 GMT
Serbia is winning<3
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Post by stuartmcd on May 7, 2022 20:07:24 GMT
After todays rehearsals the UK has climbed up to 3rd in the betting odds and closing in on 2nd.
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Post by oxfordsimon on May 7, 2022 20:55:42 GMT
It is a very good stage presentation. Ukraine will still win the public vote. But we won't be nil points this time.
I will be voting for us from France!!
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Post by alece10 on May 8, 2022 14:51:59 GMT
I've loved Eurovision for as long as I can remember and I can remember Katie Boyle being the commentator so that gives you an idea.
Never been to one of the competitions but was lucky enough to go to the 60th anniversary a few years ago. Also used to go to West End Eurovision every year which I loved.
In recent years the music has been less and less to my taste but still watched and enjoyed the spectacle. Mainly to be able to shout at the screen at the ridiculous political voting.
But this year, for the first time, I don't think I'll bother. Yesterday I had a listen to each of the songs (well a 30 second segment of each) and have to say there wasn't a single song I liked.
Could be an age thing as the style of music has changed and developed over the years but my taste hasn't.
I long for the days of Ding a dong", "Eres Tu", Boom Bang a Bang" and Waterloo.
I think my music taste has got stuck in the 70s and 80s.
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Post by oxfordsimon on May 10, 2022 21:15:36 GMT
That was a surprisingly weak first semi final.
And a more surprising set of qualifiers.
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2,412 posts
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Post by theatreian on May 10, 2022 21:30:02 GMT
That was a surprisingly weak first semi final. Have to agree, although after listening to the cd for over a week it wasn't that surprising how weak it was.A dreadful semi final with lacklustre presenting and amateurish presentation including seeing things you shouldn't several times. Thursday should be slightly better though the great years of actual decent songs has probably gone. |
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2,412 posts
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Post by theatreian on May 10, 2022 21:31:46 GMT
Could be an age thing as the style of music has changed and developed over the years but my taste hasn't. Yes I agree. The songs this year are the worst for some time, there isn't one that has stood out as being great. Tonight there wasn't one decent singer either. Oh well getting older I guess! |
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Post by oxfordsimon on May 10, 2022 21:46:33 GMT
The best song of the evening was Italy's entry from 2020....
I do like Poland's entry which we will hear on Thursday
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Post by danielwhit on May 10, 2022 21:58:49 GMT
Anyone else feel that tonight just felt "lazy" from a production point of view? We're back to hosts flirting with each other, shots with steadicam operations running around and cameras doing weird pans and going out of focus mid shot.
Obviously the stage being broken did not do anyone any favours either.
Meanwhile the less said about Wall-e and Eve's drone lovechild and the dozens of Mount Rushmore-a-likes the better. It was interesting for the first few, then just got very dull.
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Post by ptwest on May 11, 2022 6:01:20 GMT
Whether by design or due to the malfunctioning stage, I did appreciate that the performances relies less on visual effects than the past couple of years - I always feel to be fair the footage should be of what you would see if you were there rather than overlays. But what a poor set of songs. Portugal stood out for me, but that was more because it was straightforward rather than because it’s a great song.
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Post by barelyathletic on May 12, 2022 10:08:30 GMT
I saw the full UK performance this morning. Blew my tiny socks off!!!
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Post by Deleted on May 12, 2022 11:33:34 GMT
I just find it hard to get excited by this now. Being of a certain vintage I can remember when it was one of the TV events of the year that the whole family would watch, it then became something to watch to hear Terry Wogan's sardonic commentary as well as evolving into something the LGBT community embraced.
I always think of the UK's glory years in Eurovision as 1967 to 1982 and also perhaps when the contest was at it's peak. The advent of colour TV, UK won 4 times in this period and had a host of well known acts representing us, Ireland won a couple of times and Abba emerged from it.
The show never seemed to be taken seriously by the top pop acts of the day in the UK in this era and in the mid 1980's as there was a drop off in quality of acts UK sent although this improved with a couple of 2nd place finishes in late 1980's. We went back to choosing an artist to perform a range of songs and somehow gave Michael Ball an uptempo number when a slower song was needed to showcase his voice. It probably needed a Stock-Aitken-Waterman type production in this era for UK despite me not being an SAW fan their song template would have worked.
The last time it really felt a big deal in the UK was when we won in 1997 and it was about this time the Pride events were taking off and often former Eurovision Acts appeared there so the two communities really embraced. This perhaps gave Eurovision a bigger fanbase than it had had in the UK or would have had. Voting also became even more political and finally Sir Terry stepped down so my interest ended.
I have a work collegue in his early 30's and he and his partner are huge Eurovision fans and this week is one of their favourite of the year and it is fun to have conversations about my favourite era of Eurovision with him but I don't have much interest in the current version of it.
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Post by barelyathletic on May 12, 2022 12:10:53 GMT
I've been watching since 1971 when the UK entry was Clodagh Rodgers and Jack in the Box. The seventies were fantastic with some glorious winning songs from Vicky Leandros, Brotherhood of Man (my first ever UK win and so exciting), Marie Miriam, Milk and Honey and of course Abba (though I adored Olivia Newton John so was less than pleased at the time). I never liked Bucks Fizz and after Bardo in 1982 my interest waned, only to kick back in in the 90's with the glorious Gina G and Katrina and the Waves. That coincided with my coming out years, so it became a major event for me though I feel it really took off in the late noughties as it grew bigger, brighter and ever more theatrical (I had my biggest ever win betting on Serbia in 2007). I'd say the golden years for me however are from 2009 with a stunning staging in Moscow, a time where everyone except the UK seemed to be trying harder. It's taken a long time for the UK to notice that Eurovision has changed but, finally, this year they have caught on and caught up. It's no wonder Sam has been second favourite. He's a fantastic vocalist and performer and has been a brilliant ambassador for Eurovision and the UK across Europe. Tap (probably rather more than the BBC) have done an amazing job and this year our performance is truly outstanding. The staging is fantastic and Sam just exudes sheer joy at being there. He's demolished the age old arguments about everybody hating us and all the political voting (yes, I think it exists but often for cultural reasons rather than the deliberate undermining of other countries). More than anything he's made the point that if you send a great song and performer you can do well, and I'm sure that will be the result whatever happens on Saturday night. Personally I can't wait to see it and, however disillusioned one might feel, I'd honestly recommend getting some friends together and giving it a go. It's a great theatrical musical event unlike anything else.
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