The Internationalist Eurovision Blog

Right, having gotten my previous rant out of the way, I now feel in a calm enough state to discuss when 2019 brought in terms of perspective to the Eurovision Song Contest. What has edition 64 brought us to inform edition 65 and beyond? We should begin considering a hosting threshold Now, I'll admit that our quartet this year were better than the Lisbon hosts but that was a really low bar to traverse over. I know that it's a good opportunity to showcase local presenting talent but it is still the biggest TV show in the world and we should remember that the scripting of these shows are done by people who don't necessarily all have an amazing grasp of English. I know that the video during 2017 of Mans training the Ukrainian hosts was comedic but I actually believe that maybe the EBU offering the potential hosts and scriptwriters a crash course on how to do Eurovision whilst keeping the cultural sense of humour that makes each year's hosting distinctive would be very b...

Upon reaching the end of the four-hour spectacle that was Eurovision 2019, I felt disappointed. What's more, this disappointment wasn't a disappointment of anger or frustration, it was a disappointment of utter emptiness, a feeling I can only describe as similar to when my team (West Ham United) lose to an inferior team, a sense of 'well how could you expect anything else'. So we are headed to The Netherlands next year and that fact in itself brings much excitement that we will explore over the summer on this blog but for now, I want to take a second to reflect on Eurovision 2019 and what has in my opinion been the worst Eurovision Song Contest I have experienced since first watching the contest live in 2012. Before I start this post, let me clear some things up. This is not a news or a fact-based post, this is me expressing my personal opinion as a Eurovision fan in reaction to what I witnessed on Saturday night. I am not asking people who read this post to agree...

It seems to me that the closer we get to Eurovision 2019, the less we seem to know about how events will play out next Saturday. There have been some interesting reactions. In the interests of getting everything out before the contest kicks off with some time added in to digest, I have decided to combine this final roundup post with the second edition of this year's 'Who Needs the Win the Most' where we take a look at the remaining favourites to see what them winning Eurovision would actually be like for 2020. The Big 6 rehearsals have obviously thrown more complication into the situation and with that, let's have a look at what happened at their first rehearsals yesterday. Israel I don't think I have ever felt more let down by a country more than when I heard the revamp to 'Home'. I understand that strictly anything is possible until the final however it feels like an unwritten rule to give the fans enough time to get into and appreciate the version you...

Aaaaand here we go again, another semi-final and another group of entries to make a call on who is making it to this year's Grand Final! Let's get right to it! Armenia It's clear that Armenia are going for a similar sort of vibe to Georgia 2015. That was a great staging but it is all built off of the aggression and energy that the singer manages to pack into their performance of the song. Srbuk is clearly a very talented singer but it is difficult to see whether she is capable of delivering what is a high-tempo, high energy number on her own on-stage whilst delivering soaring vocals and having no people or props to bounce off of. This could be an Armenian staging masterclass or it could be an utter disaster. Ireland The song has a charming simplicity to it. This was one where you don't want to do too much with the staging and let the nostalgic imagery do the work like in the music video. This was a classic Irish entry waiting to happen and they over-cooked the s...

Right everybody, you know the drill! Rehearsals have started, the little clips of each rehearsal are up and we can begin getting a sense of what to expect in the final performance (though admittedly not as good a sense as we had in the initial clips last year). Anyway, let's take a look at each of the first Semi-Final competitors to see who is punching above their weight and who is disappointing. Cyprus It's slick. It's professional. It's dark. It is different enough aesthetically to 'Fuego' whilst taking advantage of all the things about 'Fuego' that made it successful. It's no secret that they are my favourite song in the competition this year. I am just looking for one tiny thing to make it perfect and that is the addition of the replay effect that they had in the music video. If they can find a way to squeeze in an element of the "replaying" into the performance, then I will fully get behind this as my winner this year (even if it p...