Every Eurovision journey has a beginning
Hello Europe or hello world or hello United Kingdom or to be more realistic, hello friends and family of me, Fin Ross Russell. If you have been invited to delve into the depths of this blog and all that it contains, then I have probably trusted you with my worst kept secret. I am a massive Eurovision fan! How massive? Well, to the extent that I have a) flown to the 2016 contest in Stockholm and watched the grand final live in the Globen off UK student loan money, b) watched back every contest since it was started and c) made the decision to be one of those guys who sets up ANOTHER Eurovision blog!
So why a blog? why now? For one, I have actually been surprised at the amount of media on Eurovision which I feel suitably reflects who I am and what I stand for as a Eurovision fan. At present, I consume the majority of my Eurovision news from Wiwiblogs and ESC Insight (which are both fantastic and informative websites). However, I feel that so often, two incredibly vital and important things are lost with Eurovision. One is that as a Eurovision community, there are many different things that bring us together, but unlike football teams or universities, there isn't one clear defining thing in our personalities that specifically link us. So often (as ESC Insight's Eurovision Castaways has shown me), the stories of Eurovision fans are stories of individual discovery, being brave enough to talk about what you enjoy in the face of social ridicule and just being one of those people who allows themselves to fully enjoy what will always be in my opinion the greatest week of the year in Eurovision week. Secondly (and this may seem obvious), a lot of attention is given to the benefits Eurovision has made for the LGBTQ+ community and the benefits it has given to a unified Europe (I note that I write this post in the thick of the Brexit process). However, I don't think enough attention is given to the extent to which Eurovision has united people everywhere. I felt like one of the only people who seemed to welcome Australia's 2015 invitation to the contest and I fully back the invitation of China, the USA, Morocco and any other countries not considered to be European who are hanging around the fringes of joining our grand European party! The dictionary definition of an internationalist is "a person who advocates or believes in cooperation and understanding between nations". As somebody who has three nationalities, two passports, two languages and has lived in eight different places worldwide, I would define myself as an internationalist. My Eurovision experience has been a part of my internationalism and has been a way I have both expressed and explored my place as a young Brit within the beautiful continent of Europe.
As for a quick intro on me, I am British/Sri-Lankan/Canadian, I speak English and French and have grown up around the world. My first live Eurovision Song Contest was 2012's Baku spectacle which will forever be remembered in my eyes for me voting for Jedward's 'Waterline' a number of times, thinking that Englebert Humperdinck would do alright for the United Kingdom and Loreen winning by so much that the voting process was incredibly dull for those of us who weren't Swedish! I have since thrown many Eurovision parties, backed a song every year, watched every contest and have waded into the world of national finals. I have never watched Junior Eurovision and have no intention of doing so because I don't believe it is healthy to put that much attention and pressure on children. Nonetheless, I thoroughly enjoy most other elements of the contest and as I am sure most fans are, am eagerly licking my lips ahead of hearing any impending announcements on Asiavision.
This blog is where I will express my thoughts and feelings and random musings as they come all-year round. We are still a number of months away from the 2018 contest in Lisbon but as the Eurovision fan never truly lies dormant, there is still plenty of topics worth writing about. For now, I will just say that I predicted the general artistic theme concept that Lisbon have gone for several months ago and so I will just put out there that I think it's brilliant and one of the strongest artistic concepts since Malmo in 2013 which I think got the artistic concept spot on!
I will talk a lot about previous concepts but just to round off this post with something juicy that my fellow Eurovision lovers can get their teeth stuck into, I am attaching below my all time Eurovision rankings! In watching every contest, I wanted to discover every song so that I could confidently rank everything. If I like a song enough to put it on my youtube playlist, it gives the country 1 point, if I like it enough to buy it and put it on my itunes playlist, it gives the country 2 points. Off that format, here are the results (including all countries with 5 points or more)!
Unsurprisingly, the UK, Ireland and Sweden round out my top three. France is also hovering around the top although I have never bought a French Eurovision song and Estonia and Norway are the surprise packages of the bunch! I was very excited once I had seen every contest and officially completed my ranking! However, when I eventually got around to posting this on the Facebook group I am a part of, they believed that in order for the vote to be completely fair, I had to rank them proportionally to the number of times they had entered the contest. With this taken into account, this is the new result!
It's the result above that fully demonstrates what's amazing about being a Eurovision fan! The highest ranked nation in this ranking that I have visited is the United Kingdom in 9th! However I am well versed in the Eurovision entries of the remaining top 10 countries and if I did visit, I'm sure a little bit of local pop music would get me further than I think!
Right, you've met me, I've met you, welcome to this blog and I look forward to sharing some further Eurovision insights very soon!
So why a blog? why now? For one, I have actually been surprised at the amount of media on Eurovision which I feel suitably reflects who I am and what I stand for as a Eurovision fan. At present, I consume the majority of my Eurovision news from Wiwiblogs and ESC Insight (which are both fantastic and informative websites). However, I feel that so often, two incredibly vital and important things are lost with Eurovision. One is that as a Eurovision community, there are many different things that bring us together, but unlike football teams or universities, there isn't one clear defining thing in our personalities that specifically link us. So often (as ESC Insight's Eurovision Castaways has shown me), the stories of Eurovision fans are stories of individual discovery, being brave enough to talk about what you enjoy in the face of social ridicule and just being one of those people who allows themselves to fully enjoy what will always be in my opinion the greatest week of the year in Eurovision week. Secondly (and this may seem obvious), a lot of attention is given to the benefits Eurovision has made for the LGBTQ+ community and the benefits it has given to a unified Europe (I note that I write this post in the thick of the Brexit process). However, I don't think enough attention is given to the extent to which Eurovision has united people everywhere. I felt like one of the only people who seemed to welcome Australia's 2015 invitation to the contest and I fully back the invitation of China, the USA, Morocco and any other countries not considered to be European who are hanging around the fringes of joining our grand European party! The dictionary definition of an internationalist is "a person who advocates or believes in cooperation and understanding between nations". As somebody who has three nationalities, two passports, two languages and has lived in eight different places worldwide, I would define myself as an internationalist. My Eurovision experience has been a part of my internationalism and has been a way I have both expressed and explored my place as a young Brit within the beautiful continent of Europe.
As for a quick intro on me, I am British/Sri-Lankan/Canadian, I speak English and French and have grown up around the world. My first live Eurovision Song Contest was 2012's Baku spectacle which will forever be remembered in my eyes for me voting for Jedward's 'Waterline' a number of times, thinking that Englebert Humperdinck would do alright for the United Kingdom and Loreen winning by so much that the voting process was incredibly dull for those of us who weren't Swedish! I have since thrown many Eurovision parties, backed a song every year, watched every contest and have waded into the world of national finals. I have never watched Junior Eurovision and have no intention of doing so because I don't believe it is healthy to put that much attention and pressure on children. Nonetheless, I thoroughly enjoy most other elements of the contest and as I am sure most fans are, am eagerly licking my lips ahead of hearing any impending announcements on Asiavision.
This blog is where I will express my thoughts and feelings and random musings as they come all-year round. We are still a number of months away from the 2018 contest in Lisbon but as the Eurovision fan never truly lies dormant, there is still plenty of topics worth writing about. For now, I will just say that I predicted the general artistic theme concept that Lisbon have gone for several months ago and so I will just put out there that I think it's brilliant and one of the strongest artistic concepts since Malmo in 2013 which I think got the artistic concept spot on!
I will talk a lot about previous concepts but just to round off this post with something juicy that my fellow Eurovision lovers can get their teeth stuck into, I am attaching below my all time Eurovision rankings! In watching every contest, I wanted to discover every song so that I could confidently rank everything. If I like a song enough to put it on my youtube playlist, it gives the country 1 point, if I like it enough to buy it and put it on my itunes playlist, it gives the country 2 points. Off that format, here are the results (including all countries with 5 points or more)!
United
Kingdom-19,
Ireland-15,
Sweden-14,
France-14,
Estonia-13,
Greece-13,
Norway-11,
Germany-11,
Malta-10,
Denmark-10,
Switzerland-10,
Spain-9,
Netherlands-9,
Iceland-9,
Romania-8,
Italy-8,
Russia-7,
Ukraine-6,
Poland-6,
Azerbaijan-6,
Israel-6
Armenia-5,
Finland-5,
Cyprus-5,
Slovenia-5,
Turkey-5,
Austria-5,
Unsurprisingly, the UK, Ireland and Sweden round out my top three. France is also hovering around the top although I have never bought a French Eurovision song and Estonia and Norway are the surprise packages of the bunch! I was very excited once I had seen every contest and officially completed my ranking! However, when I eventually got around to posting this on the Facebook group I am a part of, they believed that in order for the vote to be completely fair, I had to rank them proportionally to the number of times they had entered the contest. With this taken into account, this is the new result!
Azerbaijan-.6,
Estonia-.56
Armenia-.45,
Romania-.44,
Ukraine-.43,
Russia-.35,
Greece-.34,
Malta-.33,
United
Kingdom-.31
Iceland-.3,
Poland-.3,
Ireland-.29,
Sweden-.26,
France-.23,
Latvia-.22,
Slovenia-.217,
Denmark-.217,
Serbia-.2,
Norway-.19,
Italy-.186,
Bulgaria-.182,
Germany-.18,
Switzerland-.172
Bosnia-.16,
Spain-.157,
Netherlands-.155,
Moldova-.153,
Israel-.15,
Yugoslavia-.148,
Cyprus-.147,
Turkey-.147,
Slovakia-.142,
Macedonia-.12,
Montenegro-.11,
Lithuania-.11,
Luxembourg-.108,
Georgia-.1,
Austria-.1,
Finland-0.09,
Croatia-.086,
Monaco-.083,
Belarus-.07,
Hungary-.067,
Portugal-.061,
Belgium-.01
It's the result above that fully demonstrates what's amazing about being a Eurovision fan! The highest ranked nation in this ranking that I have visited is the United Kingdom in 9th! However I am well versed in the Eurovision entries of the remaining top 10 countries and if I did visit, I'm sure a little bit of local pop music would get me further than I think!
Right, you've met me, I've met you, welcome to this blog and I look forward to sharing some further Eurovision insights very soon!
Comments
Post a Comment