Eurovision Season 2019: Is Loving This Contest a Losing Game?

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 with what I have to say nor am I trying to start some sort of debate, I am just trying to offer my perspective in the hope that others disillusioned with their Eurovision experience this year might be able to know that they're not alone.

Let's start with our hosts and the way they handled their year of having the chance to showcase their country using the Eurovision platform. Readers of my blog will know that around this time last year, I wrote a post expressing my hopes that KAN opted for Tel Aviv and not Jerusalem to host Eurovision. They duly obliged and proceeded to offer what sounds like a more than competent fan experience on the ground in Tel Aviv (though it should be noted that they promised way more than they ended up offering). They consequently presided over what was one of the most fraught rehearsal processes from a technical standpoint that I have experienced since following Eurovision properly in 2012. This resulted in broadcasters having to compromise on shots, artists feeling like their work wasn't being showcased properly and juries being told to judge acts based on the song and not the overall performance. For the Semi Final interval act, they then get two of their biggest musical acts in Dana International and Shalva Band to do covers of songs that aren't only very western but aren't even European (accompanied of course by a certain American interval act in the final that we will come to). The postcards this year promised to be a good premise but ultimately let down the competing acts by offering a side of their personality that was in direct contrast to the styling and attitude of their songs which I believe was detrimental to their final result. Eurovision offers an opportunity to showcase a nation's culture in all its glory and with the exception of Idan Raichel Israel threw that opportunity away this year for the good of a number of covers. Yes, the Eurovision fan in me enjoyed singing Mans sing 'Fuego' (even if I didn't think much of the other covers) but it is a crying shame that Eurovision legends were on that stage at the expense of some brilliant Israeli musicians.




Funnily enough, for all the will she-won't she about Madonna turning up, she ended up being the biggest metaphor for this year's contest. First of all, the press whipped up a maelstrom around the news that Madonna might perform at Eurovision ages before it was confirmed. It then turned out that the Queen of Pop hadn't actually signed the contract as recently as Monday (though I would love to know who they had as the replacement interval act should Madge have opted to not perform). Then she is used as promotional material over and over again by the Israeli hosts throughout Thursday's Semi Final and then talked about continuously during the final itself. She upstaged the entire competition as she was always going to from the time the rumours that a Canadian-Jewish billionaire was going to pay for Madonna to perform at the contest. So then the big moment came and she had better have delivered and then she really didn't. Not only did she not deliver, she also took all the joy and excitement out of 'Like a Prayer', put on a way bigger stage show than was necessary, gave us her new single featuring Quavo (a trap artist who we will never hear from again), gave us a short play between the two songs that none of us asked for and then ended by being political in a way that she knew would provoke. She effectively took the platform of the contest and used it for her own personal needs and reputation whilst the host broadcaster watched her do it. For all the Israel-Palestine politics that the performance provoked, the powers that be at KAN can't possibly be shocked by this when a provocative, controversial pop star comes to a country as politically fraught as Israel whilst their hosting the biggest TV event in the world and then asks for closed rehearsals whilst refusing to give any details on her performance. Who was really surprised?


Now let's get to the results, a lot of which is going to get unpicked in my coming article on what we learned this year but for now, I am just going to express my feelings on each element that particularly vexed me starting with the presentation of the votes themselves. Now, I'll admit that from a TV viewer's perspective, not knowing the ultimate result until the last moment feels nice. However, it is important to note that we had that with the previous system. The only change that has really been made is that now a big deal is made of each result with the camera going over to the delegation and some of it is really in poor taste. I would much rather have seen the final result come down to the Netherlands vs. Norway and with the final reveal being that Norway won the televote with the Netherlands winning the overall contest as opposed to the final reveal being Sweden's inability to fully connect with televoters (again, no surprise). A TV audience doesn't like seeing hard-working musicians look sad and disappointed so if the powers that be could take that into consideration for next year and we can go back to only putting a camera in the faces of the acts who finished in the top 10 in the televote, that would be fantastic. The negativity and sadness that this year's results presentation format brought is not welcome at Eurovision and I hope the EBU go back to the system they used last year and the two years before that. I said it earlier this year when the change was announced, if it ain't broke, don't fix it, it wasn't broke ergo it didn't need fixing and in fact the change ended up breaking it.

Right, let's start at the bottom and the UK placing last. Look, I think there is a lot of work that the BBC needs to do for the UK to start challenging the scoreboard and again, that is something that we will take a greater look at this summer. However, pure and simple - Michael did not deserve to finish last. I don't know what happened in the jury performance that led to the 30-odd jury points that the Germans received but we were not the worst offering and the part where the UK were outdone by Belarus with both the juries and televoters is just ridiculous. I am not one of those Brits that make the silly argument that we will never do well because people don't like us, however I am saying that whilst a number of factors contributed to the result we got, that doesn't mean it was at all deserved.


Let's move onto Estonia and I hate to use this as an opportunity to keep banging my drum on the poor quality of the Israeli hosting, but after countless rehearsals and a Semi and all the preparation that gets put into the final and over 200 million people watching, you can't mess up the production. If I were on the Estonian delegation, I would feel absolutely infuriated that painstaking hours of work to pick out shots is completely messed up by somebody not pressing a button at the right time to change the camera angle. They were put at a disadvantage with the televoters on the night owing to a mistake that wasn't their fault and that is an absolute shame given that this song was one of my favourites this year.

Coming into Tel Aviv, I was firmly of the view that Cyprus has the best song this year. Then I saw the first clip of the staging and I got excited by the dark aesthetic that was everything I wanted them to bring to the contest for this song. Then I saw the second clip and I was exactly what I wanted, the replay video effect used in the video used to fantastic effect in the live performance. Do that a couple of times and surely Cyprus are on course for the top 5 and possibly even a crack at the victory. And after that, I'm honestly not sure what happened. I'm not sure if it had to do with the Israeli tech issues or if it was just an extremely inexplicable decision from the Cypriot broadcaster but it successfully turned an extraordinary song and a really good performance into a good song with a good performance. Having backed this entry from its release, I feel cheated. I don't know what went down during the rehearsal process in Tel Aviv but combined with Eleni's bizarre costume during the 'Switch Song' the Cypriot broadcasters leave Israel with their tails between their legs and having blown their momentum towards a potential Cypriot victory in the coming years.

While we're headed up the rankings, France, if you're listening, please stop sending Madame Monsieur songs. Nobody appreciates them, they get completely overhyped and they are blocking the way for top-quality, young French talent to come forward.



Iceland, you had to take it all a step too far. This was the entry I voted for on the night and I was convinced that Europe was moving towards feeling and difference in a contest that had been extremely devoid of both those elements. And to be fair, they nailed their performance. The singing off beat on the night which at first seemed like a mistake, turned out to be nothing short of genius and alongside Russia, were the only two performances that I gave 10 to on the night. But they had to use Eurovision as a political platform and for that, they have blown all the respect I had for them as a band. Yes, use Eurovision for disruption, yes, use Eurovision to try something different, yes, use Eurovision as a means of expressing your feelings about the current state of the world around you through music (see Jamala in 2016). But using it as a place to make some bold, political statement is just unacceptable and it simply makes me happy that they didn't win because it would have ruined Israel's hosting of the contest. There is a time and a place to have the discussion on Israel and Palestine, the night of the Eurovision Grand Final was really not that time or place and the Icelandic delegation should be ashamed of themselves for thinking that allowing Hatari to do that would be a good idea. What a total lack of respect!



Sweden don't get out of this unscathed either. I went to Melodifestivalen this year. I love Melodifestivalen and everything that it stands for and gives to Sweden and the rest of the world. The amount of talent on display is remarkable and an example for all of Europe to follow. I want nothing more than to see Eurovision travel to Gothenburg to complete the set of Swedish cities hosting the contest. They have to start sending acts that are going to give their performances a little bit of heart and oomph. Every Swedish entry since Mans has been so calm, cool, collected, perfect, not to mention male (but that's a conversation we will have later this year). When are the Swedes going to send an act who won't put their performance on autopilot and stay there? They deserved to beat the Dutch when it came down to the final two last night but 93 televote points is representative of a much wider problem around Sweden at Eurovision and something they should have heeded the warning call from last year.




And finally, our champion Duncan Laurence. Jamala brought an emotional, raw, honest performance, Salvador brought feelings over fireworks, Netta brought a brash message of female empowerment that resonated with people. Will somebody please explain to me what Duncan brought? Yes, he brought a contemporary song that wouldn't have looked out of place on radio stations, but I don't want that on my Eurovision. I want something to win that has identity, character and feels like it's something that only that winner could have brought. I was not a fan of Salvador or Netta but at least I could appreciate them for what they attempted to bring to the contest and accept that just because it wasn't for me doesn't mean it wasn't for many others around Europe. I don't see who 'Arcade' is for. I maintain that if the United Kingdom had sent that this year, we would have had the same result we got, so what is it about this song that makes it a champion? It didn't win the jury or televote and everybody who I've heard speak on it accepts that it makes sense that it won without any sort of love or passion for that fact at all. This was nowhere near the best song in the competition, this was nowhere near the best performance on the night, this became a beneficiary of its own hype and everybody jumped on its train but much like this year's contest, it is destined to be left and forgotten in the echelons of Eurovision history. The only potential upside is that the legacy for 2020, is set to be honest, emotionally open, contemporary songs. Eurovision 2020 being an incredible show is one of the only things I am clinging to in these difficult and frustrating times following Eurovision 2019.

So I suppose to answer my own question, no, loving this contest is not a losing game. As I write this, the bidding process for Eurovision 2020 is underway and the potential for that contest and a large fan gathering descending on the Netherlands is very exciting. Eurovision has had plenty of bad years throughout its history but those underwhelming editions haven't completely ruined the magic of the contest altogether. All I will say in the more emotional of my reflections on Eurovision 2019 is that there was more negativity, politics and cynicism in both the run up to and then show of this year's Grand Final than I bargained for. This is not a year that I will look back on with fond memories, but I am already looking forward to what the Dutch bring to the contest in their first hosting since The Hague in 1980.