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It's that time of year.

We all have our favourites from the past. My money this year is on the consistently entertaining Ukrainians. This is theirs from five years ago...

Verka Serduchka, Dancing Lasha Tumbai

2008, a more traditional approach - the Bosnia-Herzegovinian Village Fete interpretation...

anytext

Quite why we put Engelbert forward this year I'm not sure - THIS is how to win...

anytext

Simon Cowell may or may not be in that line-up.

spot;1394304 wrote: Quite why we put Engelbert forward this year I'm not sure - THIS is how to win...

anytext

Simon Cowell may or may not be in that line-up. That was before we Invaded Iraq.

oscar;1394310 wrote: That was before we Invaded Iraq.


I seem to recall we once invaded Germany but the sausage-eaters still vote for us on a regular basis.

spot;1394312 wrote: I seem to recall we once invaded Germany but the sausage-eaters still vote for us on a regular basis. True but the obvious lack of votes In previous contests tell a different story....

I do have high hopes for Engle this year however...... who decided to become American some decades ago.....

oscar;1394318 wrote: True but the obvious lack of votes In previous contests tell a different story....The obvious lack of votes in previous contests is a pretty good indicator of the trash acts we sent forward, oscar. They'd have been booed off the stage of my local pub, they had no place standing before an international jury. Do, please, post youtube links to any exceptions which might occur to you.

spot;1394323 wrote: The obvious lack of votes in previous contests is a pretty good indicator of the trash acts we sent forward, oscar. They'd have been booed off the stage of my local pub, they had no place standing before an international jury. Do, please, post youtube links to any exceptions which might occur to you.


What's the point ?

Any reference would be merely against your opinion. The rest of the country may not agree with you.

Ahem....what the devil is "Eurovision?" Is it some kind of "American Idol" or "America's Got Talent" type of contest?

oscar;1394327 wrote: What's the point ?

Any reference would be merely against your opinion. The rest of the country may not agree with you.


It's an open thread, sugarplum. Most of the while when you speak I don't offer any opinion at all, I don't see why your complete lack of musical taste should prove any different.

spot;1394330 wrote: It's an open thread, sugarplum. Most of the while when you speak I don't offer any opinion at all, I don't see why your complete lack of musical taste should prove any different.


Because fairydust, my knowledge of Eurovision Is no greater than a passing ' huh' at the announcement of our entrant. I'll leave the expertise to you.

Saint_;1394328 wrote: Ahem....what the devil is "Eurovision?" Is it some kind of "American Idol" or "America's Got Talent" type of contest?


I'll let Spot explain... he's In the know of all things Eurovision.

Saint_;1394328 wrote: Ahem....what the devil is "Eurovision?" Is it some kind of "American Idol" or "America's Got Talent" type of contest?


Once a year a conglomerate of five European broadcasting stations each chip in enough cash to fund a $25 million 200 minute music broadcast of one act per qualifying country. To be a qualifying country you have to get Euro-satellite broadcasts, so it's the whole Mediterranean rim and all countries north of there, and you have to either be one of the funders or pass a voting stage to trim the acts on the night down to around 25. The broadcast is from the territory of the previous year's winner, judging is half by by phone-in and half by a national panel, nobody can vote for their own act. It's been running fifty years, Britain's won it five times, Ireland seven and Israel twice, to give examples. A few acts are exciting, most people in England watch it to groan and mock.

LOL. Kind of an "American Idol / International Olympics" of music, eh? sounds pretty fun!

spot;1394341 wrote: Britain's won it five times, Ireland seven and Israel twice, to give examples.
I got that wrong, I now discover. Israel won it three times, not twice. Mea maxima culpa.

spot;1394330 wrote: It's an open thread, sugarplum. Most of the while when you speak I don't offer any opinion at all, I don't see why your complete lack of musical taste should prove any different.


How can you put 'Musical taste', anywhere near a topic about Eurovision ?

Bruv;1394557 wrote: How can you put 'Musical taste', anywhere near a topic about Eurovision ?


Be fair, my phrase was the reverse of what you imply.

Chirpy cheep, chirpy chirpy cheep cheep, chirpy chirpy cheep cheep chirp.

All kinds of everything remind me of you. Bop showaddywaddy.

Saint_;1394547 wrote: ......... sounds pretty fun!


It is more a duty, it takes up the best part of a long evening, due to the fact that once upon a time we won it, we all pretend not to watch but most of us do, in the hope the glory days will return.......................................bit like the Empire.

The songs (which the contest is supposedly all about.....hence the name) are at best third rate, performed by wannabes or has beens.

The production is a generally very slick looooong advertisement for the hosting country, that may or may not bear any resemblance to reality.

Most votes are cast on a regional political or protest basis, eastern Europeans, southern Europeans and northern Europeans sharing their votes between themselves, with some deviation amongst the liberal countries (suspect to garner support next year)

The best bit is the results, where votes are totalled country by country with a running score, but only to see the exceptions to how predictable they are.

I did actually watch most of it, and to be honest cannot for the life of me, hum any of the songs.

Can't wait for next year.

Sitting comfortably, are we? Got sufficient cans in, have we?

Then we'll begin...

bored, you seem.

Have managed to miss it all so far, apart from the trailers.

I will catch the results later on.......it does go on and on and on and on till nearly midnight tonight, the last half hour will do for me.

The Austrian peach-dressed floaty woman wrote the song with her dad and sang it in French. Not a recipe for success. Not that I've herd any of it, I looked at the news report. On the other hand I finally got to hear Conchita for the first time. He really did belt it out, he should be asked to do a Bond song one day.

Britain is represented by some over-eager youth and his love interest who have no doubt enjoyed leaving the UK for a weekend, it'll be something to tell their friends next week.

Conchita is female......get with the program will you.

The UK entry is by two heterosexual males.

The biggest surprise is that Australia (that famous European country) is currently winning

UPDATE

After the most confusing scoring system I have ever witnessed I can report the winner.......UKRAINE......nice to see their luck is changing.

Bruv;1495883 wrote: Conchita is female......get with the program will you.I was going on appearances.





The UK entry is by two heterosexual males.I was going on appearances.

You should go to school in Brighton

If I might interject, just to get it off my chest - I have no idea who Inga Beale is, but Kirsty Young has been saddled with the most unmitigated bore this morning on Desert Island Discs. Not mere dull but smug with it. Radio 4 can't cope with that many "I"s.

Smugness must come of having the best of both worlds, being the bi-sexual CEO Lloyds, what would you expect ?

Tell me do, when did somebody move Australia to the north of the mediterranean ? I understand that America may be involved with next year's European Eurovision Song Contest, and quite possibly China ! Oh dear. methinks Eurovision Song Contest is dead, long live The World Annual Song Contest !!!! I s'pose it was bound to happen, particularly as the Americans seemed quite envious of our ESC. Ah well the ESC was quite a lot longer this year despite having a couple of 'semi finals' to eliminate the worst of the worst and reduce the finals to a manageable 26 songs. Next year the semi finals may have to be on 3 nights instead of 2 !!!

Well Ukraine, in the end managed to pass European Australia ( :rolleyes: ) and reach the top slot, and I am not so sure that Ukraine should have been in the contest as the powers that be had stipulated that there should be no protest songs and no political songs, and one could be excused thinking that the Ukraine song was a possible political song. Ok it was entitled 1944 and was about Stalin, Russia, Ukraine and Germany in 1944 and the carnage that was involved then on the 'Eastern Front', but you can bet that it would be likened to Russia v. Ukraine of recent times ! I do believe the Ukraine song 1944 should not have been included in the contest. Besides, I always thought that the ESC was about cheerful things and was 'light' entertainment, not dramatic explosive gloom subjects !

At least, with Ukraine winning instead of European Australia, the problem of which country should host next year's contest is not,now, a problem !

Funnily enough, I actually thought that the Russian song would be a runaway winner, but there you go, the Ukraine a surprise late runner !

G#Gill;1495902 wrote: At least, with Ukraine winning instead of European Australia, the problem of which country should host next year's contest is not,now, a problem !


That can only be a satirical observation. How Kiev, of all places, is expected to police an event like that with the citizens of 30 nations coming through their land borders - I think it'll be cancelled to be honest. We can bump the thread next year and say how wrong I was, if you like. Are you expecting them to lift their visa restrictions for the week? Can they go ahead if they treat Russian citizens differently as far as border-crossing is concerned?

spot;1495903 wrote: That can only be a satirical observation. How Kiev, of all places, is expected to police an event like that with the citizens of 30 nations coming through their land borders - I think it'll be cancelled to be honest. We can bump the thread next year and say how wrong I was, if you like. Are you expecting them to lift their visa restrictions for the week? Can they go ahead if they treat Russian citizens differently as far as border-crossing is concerned?


Maybe that was a good reason to not include the Ukraine 'heavy duty' song in the final. Problems, problems. I can't actually see the contest being cancelled, but of course I could be wrong. I'm sure there will be one or two headaches caused, but perhaps the third place finalist could host the proceedings ? That in itself could open a can of worms, as the third place was Russia ! Oh well, we will see what happens eventually. But they will have to make up their minds soon, to allow the host country to have enough time to organise the event if the contest goes ahead.

The whole thing really is a load of nonsense IMO, and that is a pity as it could be such an interesting contest. There is so much 'I'll vote for you so long as you vote for me !' these days, at which of course Sir Terry ***an used to extract the urine unmercifully. Possibly except for the first few years, the contest has been just like that, and didn't give an honest reaction to songs. I'm sure many people watch the contest on their TVs, just in case countries vote according to how good/bad they think a song is. As it is, and has been for years, it's an absolute farce IMO !

I will say, however, that the general quality of the songs this year has been improved over last year, and that has to be a plus !!!

Oh for pity's sake !!!!!!!!!! I typed Terry double-u ogan and it's contained within a proper name !!!!!! Why can't that damn 'pc' checker differentiate between an iffy word on it's own and an innocent portion of a larger word/proper name ? It is extremely annoying, nearly as annoying as spot's phonetic spelling. What is quite funny is that "arsehole" is acceptable (and that's the correct spelling !) , whereas "*******" (a55hole) is not! Obviously something to do with the American pronunciation ! Ra****, (rakoon) is another !

G#Gill;1495906 wrote: .....................nearly as annoying as spot's phonetic spelling.


It is not phonetic it is attention seeking eccentricity........ignore it.....he will grow out of it.

The profanity filter is probably set the way it is for the same reason.

spot;1495915 wrote: The profanity filter is probably set the way it is for the same reason.


What reason is that Mr. spot ?

G#Gill;1495928 wrote: What reason is that Mr. spot ?


...........it is attention seeking eccentricity...........?

I dislike profanity filters but I also recognize that some users require a safe-at-work forumgarden environment, so references to ******ing, ****ers,****ing and *******s is unacceptable.

Terry ***an will just have to put up with it.

I anyone would actually like to change the profanity filter settings, send me a PM and you can choose what's in it.

spot;1495936 wrote: I dislike profanity filters but I also recognize that some users require a safe-at-work forumgarden environment, so references to ******ing, ****ers,****ing and *******s is unacceptable.

Terry ***an will just have to put up with it.

I anyone would actually like to change the profanity filter settings, send me a PM and you can choose what's in it.


Oooh, I would but I don't know many profanities !



BTW you missed the 'f' in if !

G#Gill;1495938 wrote: BTW you missed the 'f' in if !


Reminded me of the Kenny Everett sketch obscured with staged fog, captioned with a sign "A foggy day in London town" the F toppled over, followed by an apology for the F in fog...........still makes me laugh.

Countries outside of Europe, such as Australia are not only allowed to enter, but are guaranteed a place in the Final in return for financing the competition. I'm not sure if I'm missing something here, but under any other circumstances, wouldn't that be considered as being classed as bribery?

Bruv;1495945 wrote: Reminded me of the Kenny Everett sketch obscured with staged fog, captioned with a sign "A foggy day in London town" the F toppled over, followed by an apology for the F in fog...........still makes me laugh.


:yh_rotfl:yh_rotfl

FourPart;1495950 wrote: under any other circumstances, wouldn't that be considered as being classed as bribery?A bribe is a secret illegal payment made to a person who has no authority to take the money. It's not a bribe if it isn't secret, or isn't illegal, or isn't unauthorized. The word you're looking for is entry fee.

spot;1495963 wrote: A bribe is a secret illegal payment made to a person who has no authority to take the money. It's not a bribe if it isn't secret, or isn't illegal, or isn't unauthorized. The word you're looking for is entry fee.
Ah, so the donations made to the Conservative Party in order to attain massive Government Contracts, because they are declared & not secret, can just be classed as Entry Fees.

If "in order to attain" is true then the purpose of the donations wasn't declared, was secret, and they would be bribes. But you can't know that to be true until a court of law says it's so. I would doubt very much that it is true.

spot;1495993 wrote: If "in order to attain" is true then the purpose of the donations wasn't declared, was secret, and they would be bribes. But you can't know that to be true until a court of law says it's so. I would doubt very much that it is true.


Oh, but of course it can't be true. It's pure coincidence that the same Party Donors just happen to have massive interests in the corporations that get handed the best contracts. Who could possibly imagine anything else?

Where the heck did The Eurovision Song Contest thread bugger off to ?

We're discussing how the organizers generate funding.

Don't they have a donations tin any more then ?

Apparently not. Apparently the financing of the competition is achieved by guaranteeing a place in the Final to Countries outside of Europe such as Australia, in exchange for sufficient money to run the show, and we're to call this process bribery.