Category: Let's talk
Well, tomorrow is the eurovision song contest, and despite the stigma attached to it, and the fact that everyone appears to say it's dreadful, it is one of the most widely watched events in the world. Literally billions of people tune in every year to watch what could possibly be described as some of the worst music ever written. so ... confession time ... who will be watching tomorrow night?
Absolutely. Of course I'll be watching. I haven't missed a single Eurovision for about 6 years I think. I think it's the best music contest in the world because of the way it's done. I like the voting process. Boznir Herzegovina is the best country so far out of the songs I've heard but I have to listen to a lot more yet and I'll give you all my final tip either today or tomoro depending.
ah but of course in this country it wouldn't be the same without terry wogan would it!
never! I wouldn't lower my self..
Well, just when it looks like I may actually have to work on a Friday night *gasp* I am rescued by shiny, glitter-flavoured crack, otherwise known as Eurovision! The uni tavern down the road from me makes a party of it, and the beer helps with the shame...
Aah, I think the Bosnian song is way too Eurovision, sure it would've won back in the 1980s but I really hope people have embraced a broader view of what Eurovision music should sound like. It's not a bad song, just too traditional for me. Moldova and Norway are my two favorite entries this year, both break the mold, try something different and both made it through to the finals. The Austrian song was my fav but the yoddeling just didn't cut it <grin>.
It's a great event and fun to watch and in Iceland people play all sorts of drinking games around both the songs and the awarding of points at the end those are someof the best parties I've been too although when you decide tohave a shot whenever Iceland gets no points you are inevitably in trouble. It won't count this year since Iceland was knocked out yesterday.
Cheers
-
B
I love that line the beer helps with the shame....
mind you, none of the entries will be as bad as
My Lovely Horse.
I have now completed listening to every Eurovision entry and have to say that Norway is the best, a fantastic very loud very rocky son. I still think Bosnia and Herzegovina should be second, Switzerland should be third with their what seems to be a classical music and rock fusion. Maltas song was sang well, but don't know if it's strong enough to go all the way. Wasn't into Latvias song. Finlands song was o.k I think but a bit depressing.
I have now completed listening to every Eurovision entry and have to say that Norway is the best, a fantastic very loud very rocky son. I still think Bosnia and Herzegovina should be second, Switzerland should be third with their what seems to be a classical music and rock fusion. Maltas song was sang well, but don't know if it's strong enough to go all the way. Wasn't into Latvias song. Finlands song was o.k I think but a bit depressing.
where on earth can we listen to these songs?
What a sad sod!
hahahaha, listening not once, but twice, after all we can all watch them on tv again tomorrow! and if we so require, can vote, either via phone, interactive tv, or text!
No, no, Switzerland should be first! Not that I've listened to the song yet, but it's a matter of principle. :-)
No, no, Switzerland should be first! Not that I've listened to the song yet, but it's a matter of principle. :-)
Greece will probably win, I would almost want Norway too, fun song, Moldova should also be up there, love that song and it should get a lot of East European votes, the Romanian song is decent the "Don't Break My Heart" song was better and ended up #12 but I always liked the odd songs (anyone remember Belgium from 2003 Urban Trat I think was the band, it was a fantastic song, really really smooth and the melody sticks in yourhead for years).
cheers
-B
p.s. sure the swiss canhave it <grin> why not, hehe hope Susanne is appeased
Yes. I watch it. Not because I'm a fan of Gracia, the German singer, but because i'm interested in the music of the other countries, especially of the not that well-known ones.
Hey, no, Wildebrew, I'm not appeased! I'm appalled! "The Swiss can have it"!?! That's pretty patronizing from someone whose country has already been kicked out of the competition for sucking so badly! :-)
Hehe, Swiss's record in this competition is quite abismal hehe, just look it up <grin> hehe I think no win for 37 years <grin> hehe now that's a bit scary hehe <grin> ok Iceland has had no win but we've onlypart taken about 15 yers now, no wait 20 .. jeez I'm getting old hehe.
cheers
-B
Okay, so let me get this straight. Switzerland has actually had a win, even if it was a while a go (as a matter of fact, embarrassingly, Celine Dion won it for us before she became famous and *she is no where near that old*, so you'd better go check your facts there sharkie boy :-)), and Iceland has never won, and yet *you* call Switzerland's record abyssmal, and imply Iceland's is better?!? Okay, that's not even controversial, that's just plain and simple ridiculous! *grin*
Hehe, oh the fact that it took Celine Dion to do it for you guys and eeehm quit frankly we all know what she turned out to be *shivers* has anyone ever caused such ear ache and pain <grin> is something you should not be awfully proud over <grin> and when has Switzerland finished top 5 since then I wonder hehe or even top 10.
cheers
-B
It did not "take Celine Dion to win it for us". It's simply that our intelligence and foresight is so superior to yours that we knew years before she became famous that she could, justifiedly or not, sell CDs. We noticed, and asked her, and voila, we won, while you guys were still shivering in your snowbanks and fishing the Grand Banks dry... Besides only mediocre people worry about finishing top 10. In our circumspection we have the taste to stay out of the limelight until we can really pull it off and be number 1! *grin*
aah, if youhad the foresight you should've stopped her before she made such a horrific impact on modern day music, kept her away from microphones and recording studios, giving her a yodelling job or at least something where the impact of her talent would be less horrific and felt across the world. ;)
Hehe and, wait, didn't she move to Canada from Switzerland .. familiar path that <grin> so may be we are finding out about a Celine Dion stalker on the boards here <grin> it's ok, you can admit it. <grin>
cheers
-B
Okay, okay. First things first. She moved from Canada to Switzerland, and then back to Canada. Then to Vegas. So technically, I'm just making sure I'm as far away from her as I can be. Secondly, why should we stop her when there is a pretty good chance we might make some money off of her (which I'm sure we did...). You ought to know, being the ivy-league gent you are, that Switzerland is not in the habit of stopping a great many bad things before they happen, but is very much in the habit of profiting from them when they actually do happen. Besides, supporting her in getting her career on the way was actually the fastest way to get rid of her and ship her off to larger shores. Furthermore, yodelling is so horrible even without Celine Dion that the practice simply could not have taken the added horribleness without imploding and taking the entire country and its inhabitants with it. So you see, the foresight stands.
Still, just extremely unethical, to say the least, profiting from the world wars I'll give you is just merely bad taste but inflicting such pain on the world is not forgiveable not even the Swiss watches are accurate enough to measure the amount of time one can tolerate her singing. ;)
Ah someone's running out of steam... whenever the phrase "plain wrong" enters a verbal exchange, that's a pretty good sign that your oponent is ready to receive his coup-de-grace :-). But either way, I am glad to see that you have your moral priorities straight. By the way, we never look for forgiveness because, well, we don't apologize. We win. :-)
... and we shall keepthat in mind for tomorrow's big competition <grin> I shall eat my hat (even a baseball cap) if Switzerland is in the top 3 tomorrow <grin> so look forward to it ..
I do want to see that, actually. Could you hold off until your next person-to-person meeting? And better yet, do I get to pick the hat? How would some nice little traditional mountaineering hat suit you? Served in a fondue pot? To Celine Dion's first attempts at yodelling?
Hehe you set the terms <grin>
And if Switzerland is not in the top three, I shall eat some rotten shark, but only under your personal supervision.
Aaah, nice hehe, I shall bring a friend and your husband will be more than happy to testify I'm sure <grin> that the shark was indeed eaten .. already looking forward to this .. hehe although the time this activity shall commence has not been determined yet, almost reason engoh to take that drive from Detroit <grin>
cheers
-B
Almost? Geez, how often do you get a chance to see innocent little Swiss girl chew on rotten shark? *grin* But sure, if you decide to forfeit this prize, I'm sure I can go on living without having tasted this particular delicacy...
Susanne be glad you have never had the opportunity..urrrghhh I would rather munch on a climber's underpants, after he had climbed the Eiger in a heatwave!...and the whole eurovision thing is pants!
Switzerlands song is very different and I like that style of music though I@m not familiar with it very. I also think the Maltan song is sang well. I hope they do well because the singing is good. The song is probably not memorable. My favorite song from lat year incidentally was the Icelandic entry.
The BBC website has all the videos from this year the last year and the year before. I have All the contests from about 2002 I think it is on tape. I'll be taping this years event as well.
As I said your sad!
Well I have to say the German one has a good voice but that's all. Haven't heard the other countries yet.
Ok, I'm a stupid yet curious American. So what is this Eurovision you speak of? Is it like the international version of American Idol or something like that?
<grin> and the word is out. I expected Greece to win but Malta was a nice surprise in 2nd place, it's a good and kind of a pretty song. I would havelikd to see Moldova do better because their song was jus brilliant and I was amused but a little surprisedto see Germany end up at the very bottom. But it was definitely fun and the songs better than last year, over-all Ihated the Icelandic entrylast year actually <grin> but that's just me, the last Icelndic song I really liked was "Tell Me" in 2000. Goblin, why exactly is Eurovision sad but e.g. watching Formula 1 is not? To me neither is sad, Eurovision has a lot of good music if one can get past the prejudice and sit down and watch it and take it for whatit is, it's gret entertainment, especially when the Eastern European countries have joined, sure they change the balance but also bring different type of music in.
Krisme, well it's sort of like American Idol in a sense I guess. Basically every country in Europe (that so chooses, 39 of them did this year) writes an original song and finds a singer/performer to perform it (it can be a band a singer, boy/girl band etc). The song cannot exceed 3 minutes and they also come up with stage setting for it, someties dancing or coryographed shows, sometimes they don't do aything of the kind. Then all the performers get together in the country that won the comptition the preious yar (and is hence the host tis year) and perform their song live on tv. Then each country can give 10 songs points (from 1 to 12 .. 1 2 .. to 8 and then 10 and 12 points) and that score is decied through televoting (people call in and inicate their favorite song). Then the rsults are announced. It's fun, horrible music 90% of it but well done and the 10% are often great songs.
Cheers
-B
That sounds really cool. So it's like a musical Olympics of sorts. They don't show that here in the States but it'd probably interesting to watch.
didn't even know what it was really. still kinda don't.
Awa guys, I knew it! Nobody except Moldova and Monaco voted for Germany. Typical!! But, well, Claire and all the other English people on here, I wished you would have wo nbut, bad luck!!
well, the english did badly because she was so awful. that entry would have been better off in the turkish camp, grin. as for germany, wel fraid she just didn't have it. norway were alright but they could have been bonjovi, kiss .. any one of those typ rock bands .. just a view ... personally i wanted the abba sound-alike types from .. think it was bsnia, to win, purely because that song just had eurovision written all over it!
Oh man, do I ever have a bigger mouth than is good for me... Bring on the rotten shark! *shudder*
For those who keep asking and don't get a reply: Eurovision is a song contest. All european countries can participate and the best song wins. Until some years ago eachcountry had to use their own national language, but then the rules changed and each country could sing in any language they chose to for as long as they would use their national language somewhere throughout the song. The votes are casted from juries in each participating country and as you can understand there is some politics involved in that, too. For example Greece will not give Turkey high scores and vice versa as these to countries have been 'enemies' for ever. The same goes for other countries too. Anyway, the scores that a country's jury can give are devided into 1 point, 2 points, 3 points etc up to 8 points. Then 10 points and 12 points. There are no scores of 9 or 11 points. The country that get the most points is the winner and the Eurovision song festival will be held in that country the following year. It usually takes place in May every year. That was that. Star
Susanne, I loved the song from Switzerland. It was good. Well I think Greece desserved to win.
Both the swiss and German songs were written by the same artist. Personally, I thought there were a lot worse than Germany's. The Russian song was poor. The Maltan one was sang very well, although it could have been better. Still an excellent effort though from them. I agree with SB and the British entry got more points than it deserved. The Icelandic entry was a disappointment a lot worse than the one from them a year before which was fantastic. I am writing an over 3000 words long article about Eurovision for our college newspaper have made good progress so far still got about about an hours work left though. Worked 2.5 hours yesterday on it. I thought also that the Croatian song was catchy.
I actually think the Malta song was good. It sounded awful in the beginning but on repeated listen that song really stuck out and she really sang it amazingly well that night, which is more than can be said about a lot of the other folks on there, German and UK singers notably really bad (I liked the German song for what it's worth but they did not come through durint the performance). I think the Moldova song deserved more points, I didn't like many of the other East European song did like the Hungarian one definitely. It's interesting to see how the artists tried to immitate the winning formula from previous years. This time around it's the Turkish and middle eastern tinged dance songs, it used to be Abba stuff (1985, 1999 e.g.). I think the NOrwegian entry was refreshing and I wish they had done a bit better but I pretty much expected the top 3 songs to be, well, top 3 so no surprises. I have to admit not liking the Swiss song at all (and really it was an Estonian song, the artists came from Estonia, not Switzerland).
cheers
-B
well, the english entry said she had a throat infection earlier that day - one wonders whether she conveniently brought up this excuse just in case she did badly, grins. as for Germany, I also liked the song but the singer, I am afraid to say, was dreadful!
I know that both, German and Switzerland's song, were written by the same man. But that doesn't matter I think.
well actually I think it does matter. after all, the song is supposed to be representative of the country that is entering it. so if two songs from two different countries were written by the same person, who is from a third, unrelated country, who, as it happens, also have an entry into the competition, then the only thing that makes those songs unique to the countries they are supposed to be representing, is the fact that the singers come from those countries.
Except in Switzerland's case where the singers come from Estonia .. so it's in fact not Swiss at all, they sing in English even so Switzerland happens to have nothing to do with the song, from beginning to end, except funding it.
wow that's crazy. so ... maybe if i wrote 26 songs, sent them to 26 countries, one of them might let me represent them? grin
That's right SB, perhaps it's time for me to get writing all those songs, I'm sure you'd make a fortune if you did that.
Well, you know, at least the fact that the guy wasn't Swiss makes for a good excuse now... what do you expect if you hire an Estonian? *grin*
Exactly. The singer for switzerland was not a native speaker.
There is a Eurovision Karaoke in our college bar tonight and they've got all the songs of the Eurovision Song Contest. They've also got the flags for each country. There's a prize for the winner, I think though that we should get all the things which were sent for the karaoke if we win.
well, on the night of the contest, if you had sky, you could press an interactive button and get the karoke function and sing along to the songs at the time!
Awa that would have been fun. Hahahaha.