Eurovision Season 2018: What Have We Learned
The sun has finally come up on Monday morning and I for one am still in shock. We all expected a shock result and in a year when there was no clear front-runner, perhaps we could say that the song that was a front-runner for so much of the contest winning is a shock shock result. I am in a state of mourning for Cyprus who came so close to pulling off what would have been the greatest Eurovision promotions story of all time and let's not forget, still managed to be the best Cypriot result of all time! I am disappointed about how low so many of my favourite entries placed this year, particularly the United Kingdom who didn't deserve to come 24th. I am shocked by Austria and Germany who I'm sorry to say, shouldn't have come as high as they did. I am not sure what the juries were looking at when they placed this song highest. Maybe something sensational happened in the Jury performance but I can't see how it would have been enough to win. This isn't even mentioning the Semi Finals! Anyway, there will be many posts coming up on this blog that reflect on this year's contest, but let's start with simply exploring what we learned this year.
The Bookies Are Useless
According to the bookies, Ireland were set to come third in the run up to Saturday's final. Let's not forget the part where the British odds were slashed to 10/1 following the stage invader. The bookies got this year all wrong, evidenced by their desperate seismic shifting of the odds every time something tiny happened. Sure, they got in and around the ballpark on Israel throughout enough of the contest, but you only needed to look at the YouTube stats to see how popular that song was. As a Eurovision fan, I have paid way too much attention to the odds and next year, I will be taking them with a liberal pinch of salt. Yes, there are a perspective, just like how the OGAE poll is a perspective, but on the subject of both of them, I will remind everybody that the French placed 13th this year (worse than the previous two years despite being heavily tipped for the victory). If the bookies are meant to be able to predict the future on who will do well at the contest as a means of pricing the gambling figures right, they failed miserably this year.
POLITICAL VOTING AT EUROVISION IS A MYTH!
For everybody who suggests that countries in the East simply vote for each other, I will remind everybody that none of Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Romania or Greece managed to qualify. Countries that had stellar qualification records at Eurovision and none of them made it through at the expense of countries like Ireland. Every country starts from 0 and as this year really demonstrated, anything is possible! The Germans have had a terrible recent record at Eurovision and yet this year they wormed their way into the top 5 with an emotionally manipulative and mediocre song. Do politics exist at Eurovision, yes! However, it is unfair to suggest that somehow they define the entire contest. As pointed out multiple times already, this year came down to two countries who had no neighbours to vote for them. Why did they do well? Because Europe decided that the staging was worth it! People who don't know or appreciate Eurovision, stop downgrading talented artists and start acknowledging that they can do well regardless of where they're from.
The End of the Line for the Juries?
I have to explain to people outside the Eurovision fandom all the time why we still have juries. I argue that they are observing the more technical aspects of the performances and making sure that things that the televoters may not consider at home are represented in the score. It has taken one year for me to completely lose all my faith in their presence. Let's genuinely talk about the technical aspect of this year's performance that people are judging - staging, camera angles, vocal ability. Will somebody please explain to me how on these elements alone, Austria was the best this year? Will somebody please explain to me what the Germans did that was so technically excellent? Will somebody tell me how SuRie ended up near the bottom of the scoreboard and most frustratingly of all, will somebody tell me how Cyprus did not deserve a top 10 placing in 15 juries? It's clear to me from this year that the juries exist so that a small number of people can give their personal opinion and that can represent 50% of the vote. There is no standard whatsoever in diversity in terms of the people on these juries and therefore, I am ready to use this platform to say that I believe the juries are outdated and I am ready to advocate for a 100% televote result!
The EBU Need to Hire Edward af Sillen
This may be an unpopular opinion but in terms of hosting and production, this year was genuinely the worst I have ever seen. RTP made what went down in Baku look like a well-hosted extravaganza. The postcards were mediocre and senseless, the styling was weak and at times cheap, the hosts were appalling. Many people are advocating (perhaps jokingly) for Petra and Mans to host every year but I feel like it's a good opportunity for local hosts to be able to have the Eurovision gig. What needs to change is the scripting. The jokes need to have character, the hosts need to have personality and we need to see that they are enjoying themselves up there. Everything about the organisation part of the show this year felt awkward and dull. I am hoping that Israel can go better than their Portuguese counterparts.
A New Start for the United Kingdom?
Now, in fairness, this was the first outing for the new British head of delegation at Eurovision. However, I think that he needs to take stock from the experience of what has happened this year. Firstly, the staging was perfect, the costume was perfect, her vocals were perfect, the song was perfectly lovely and is set for the best chart position for a UK entry since Blue in 2011. There was nothing more that they could have done and it still came 24th. So where do the BBC go from here? They need to look at the identities that Bulgaria and Moldova have managed to create for themselves and their entries over the next two years and ask themselves how the UK want to be perceived at Eurovision. Currently, we are sending songs that are perfectly conservative, perfectly lovely, perfectly sweet but we're not challenging the top of the leader board. When the BBC are shifting through their song options for 2019, I think they should consider six songs for the National Final that in their own way are taking a risk. 2019 needs to be the year that the British send something bold, fierce and full of character and identity. That is the next step and I very much hope that this is something that the BBC consider in reflection on this year.
It is Possible to Stage an Entry Badly and win Eurovision
As happens every year, everybody is split on the winner and everybody has winners they love and winners they hate. From my perspective, I think that this year's Israeli win is the worst in my years of watching the contest live. Chicken noises aside, the song is not awful. It has personality, it has sass, it has different sounds all brought into the mix using Netta's looping machine. Right up until Lisbon, I was just about ready to accept that this was our next winner. Once the staging was revealed however, I was sure that Netta couldn't win. What's with the waving cats? What's with the kimono? What's with the weird dancing from the backing dancers? What's with the weird facial expressions? What's with the weird camera angles? Nothing on this staging was done right. Yet here we are, talking about going to Jerusalem next year! The song shone through the poor staging and ultimately, that is what people voted for. I don't agree with that as a choice, I don't agree with that being enough to win the contest and to be frank, I don't even like the way that Netta uses the song to advocate feminism by calling men "stupid boys" and making needless chicken noises. All this aside, the experience has unfortunately taught me one thing, it is possible to mess up your staging and also win Eurovision.
That's all from me for now. Coming up will be an article on this year's winners and losers, a profile on Jerusalem (the city set to be named as the 2019 host city) and in celebration of the Israeli victory, an article on my top 10 Israeli entries of all time. Subscribe to the blog in order to be kept up to date with all the latest content!
The Bookies Are Useless
According to the bookies, Ireland were set to come third in the run up to Saturday's final. Let's not forget the part where the British odds were slashed to 10/1 following the stage invader. The bookies got this year all wrong, evidenced by their desperate seismic shifting of the odds every time something tiny happened. Sure, they got in and around the ballpark on Israel throughout enough of the contest, but you only needed to look at the YouTube stats to see how popular that song was. As a Eurovision fan, I have paid way too much attention to the odds and next year, I will be taking them with a liberal pinch of salt. Yes, there are a perspective, just like how the OGAE poll is a perspective, but on the subject of both of them, I will remind everybody that the French placed 13th this year (worse than the previous two years despite being heavily tipped for the victory). If the bookies are meant to be able to predict the future on who will do well at the contest as a means of pricing the gambling figures right, they failed miserably this year.
POLITICAL VOTING AT EUROVISION IS A MYTH!
For everybody who suggests that countries in the East simply vote for each other, I will remind everybody that none of Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Romania or Greece managed to qualify. Countries that had stellar qualification records at Eurovision and none of them made it through at the expense of countries like Ireland. Every country starts from 0 and as this year really demonstrated, anything is possible! The Germans have had a terrible recent record at Eurovision and yet this year they wormed their way into the top 5 with an emotionally manipulative and mediocre song. Do politics exist at Eurovision, yes! However, it is unfair to suggest that somehow they define the entire contest. As pointed out multiple times already, this year came down to two countries who had no neighbours to vote for them. Why did they do well? Because Europe decided that the staging was worth it! People who don't know or appreciate Eurovision, stop downgrading talented artists and start acknowledging that they can do well regardless of where they're from.
The End of the Line for the Juries?
I have to explain to people outside the Eurovision fandom all the time why we still have juries. I argue that they are observing the more technical aspects of the performances and making sure that things that the televoters may not consider at home are represented in the score. It has taken one year for me to completely lose all my faith in their presence. Let's genuinely talk about the technical aspect of this year's performance that people are judging - staging, camera angles, vocal ability. Will somebody please explain to me how on these elements alone, Austria was the best this year? Will somebody please explain to me what the Germans did that was so technically excellent? Will somebody tell me how SuRie ended up near the bottom of the scoreboard and most frustratingly of all, will somebody tell me how Cyprus did not deserve a top 10 placing in 15 juries? It's clear to me from this year that the juries exist so that a small number of people can give their personal opinion and that can represent 50% of the vote. There is no standard whatsoever in diversity in terms of the people on these juries and therefore, I am ready to use this platform to say that I believe the juries are outdated and I am ready to advocate for a 100% televote result!
The EBU Need to Hire Edward af Sillen
This may be an unpopular opinion but in terms of hosting and production, this year was genuinely the worst I have ever seen. RTP made what went down in Baku look like a well-hosted extravaganza. The postcards were mediocre and senseless, the styling was weak and at times cheap, the hosts were appalling. Many people are advocating (perhaps jokingly) for Petra and Mans to host every year but I feel like it's a good opportunity for local hosts to be able to have the Eurovision gig. What needs to change is the scripting. The jokes need to have character, the hosts need to have personality and we need to see that they are enjoying themselves up there. Everything about the organisation part of the show this year felt awkward and dull. I am hoping that Israel can go better than their Portuguese counterparts.
A New Start for the United Kingdom?
Now, in fairness, this was the first outing for the new British head of delegation at Eurovision. However, I think that he needs to take stock from the experience of what has happened this year. Firstly, the staging was perfect, the costume was perfect, her vocals were perfect, the song was perfectly lovely and is set for the best chart position for a UK entry since Blue in 2011. There was nothing more that they could have done and it still came 24th. So where do the BBC go from here? They need to look at the identities that Bulgaria and Moldova have managed to create for themselves and their entries over the next two years and ask themselves how the UK want to be perceived at Eurovision. Currently, we are sending songs that are perfectly conservative, perfectly lovely, perfectly sweet but we're not challenging the top of the leader board. When the BBC are shifting through their song options for 2019, I think they should consider six songs for the National Final that in their own way are taking a risk. 2019 needs to be the year that the British send something bold, fierce and full of character and identity. That is the next step and I very much hope that this is something that the BBC consider in reflection on this year.
It is Possible to Stage an Entry Badly and win Eurovision
As happens every year, everybody is split on the winner and everybody has winners they love and winners they hate. From my perspective, I think that this year's Israeli win is the worst in my years of watching the contest live. Chicken noises aside, the song is not awful. It has personality, it has sass, it has different sounds all brought into the mix using Netta's looping machine. Right up until Lisbon, I was just about ready to accept that this was our next winner. Once the staging was revealed however, I was sure that Netta couldn't win. What's with the waving cats? What's with the kimono? What's with the weird dancing from the backing dancers? What's with the weird facial expressions? What's with the weird camera angles? Nothing on this staging was done right. Yet here we are, talking about going to Jerusalem next year! The song shone through the poor staging and ultimately, that is what people voted for. I don't agree with that as a choice, I don't agree with that being enough to win the contest and to be frank, I don't even like the way that Netta uses the song to advocate feminism by calling men "stupid boys" and making needless chicken noises. All this aside, the experience has unfortunately taught me one thing, it is possible to mess up your staging and also win Eurovision.
That's all from me for now. Coming up will be an article on this year's winners and losers, a profile on Jerusalem (the city set to be named as the 2019 host city) and in celebration of the Israeli victory, an article on my top 10 Israeli entries of all time. Subscribe to the blog in order to be kept up to date with all the latest content!
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