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Eurovision 2015

Jonathan

Jonathan

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Yes, I know it's over three months away, but I couldn't resist the chance to make a topic now. Especially given today's news that Australia will be taking part in this year's contest. Yes, you read that correctly. No, it's not April Fool's Day. Australia will indeed be sending a contestant to the grand final at the Wiener Stadhalle in Vienna on Saturday 23rd May. Now, I know you're probably wondering why on earth this is happening, but to summarise the article:
  • It's the 60th anniversary of Eurovision this year
  • SBS, an Australian broadcaster, show it live every year
  • It has a big following down under
It's just as a one-off, apparently, but there's also the question of what happens if Australia manage to win. If they do, then they will not be hosting it in Australia. However, SBS will be allowed to host it alongside a European broadcaster somewhere in Europe, and as winners, they will be allowed to send a contestant to wherever it takes place in 2016.

Countries across Europe are currently making their minds up as to who they want to represent them in Vienna this year, but there's no word on the British entry yet. I'd imagine that it'll be announced in the next few weeks. Here's to hoping we'll do better than we did last year with Molly, even though her entry was one of the better ones we've produced in recent years.
 
No big surprise that they've been included really, their appearance last year was simply to test what the response would be to their inclusion into the competition proper. I'm still in two minds about them being included to be honest, as it could really throw the voting due to it being a one off - in addition to the Eurovision being, well, European . They are also straight through to the grand final, and won't participate in the semis, although with the UK being part of the big 5 doing the same thing, I can't really complain too much about that I guess.

One thing that does grind my gears though, is Australia being able to vote in both semi finals. Every other country is only permitted to vote in one. All down to the "one off nature" of it I guess.

As for the UK, early March is when we should expect to hear our entry, so not long to go at all! I think there's been plenty of lessons learned over the past few years, so I'm excited to see what they come up with. Molly was great last year, but the actual performance on the night for me was a bit iffy in comparison to when she was revealed as the entry back in March last year.
 
I'm happy for Australia to be in it but with them and Israel i think we may need to change the name soon.
 
The BBC have just announced that our Eurovision act will be revealed on Saturday 7th March on BBC Red Button after The Voice has finished on BBC One. Not long now!
 
Australia's entry was revealed a couple of days ago to be Guy Sebastian, with the song yet to be decided. I'll be honest - I didn't have a clue who he was, but he won the first series of Australian Idol in 2003, and is big in Australia. I reckon he's going to do quite well for Australia this year.

As for us? Well, wait no longer, because our entry has been revealed! It's by Electro Velvet, and is called 'Still In Love With You'.


It's quite catchy, and it's certainly more upbeat than a lot of previous entries we've sent. Don't think we'll win with it, but I have a hope that we'll do quite well.
 
We will never win. Although nice to see us enter with a more upbeat song, love the visuals too.
 
Sooooo, after hearing our entry at the weekend, I thought I'd spend a bit of time going through the entries for this year so far. First up, it's a very ballad heavy year this year, presumably thanks to the runner up songs last year (let's discount Conchita as I doubt anyone could copy that!). There are, however a couple of standout tracks for me which I'll go through in a tick. Beware, there be spoilers ahead if you're a fan of watching on the night and prefer to be surprised.

United Kingdom
First up, the UK's entry though, which I've now had chance to listen to a few times. And nope, it's still not growing on me whatsoever. Whilst the melody is a tad catchy, I can't help but think this is trying to get on the Gatsby bandwagon two years too late. Top that off with comparisons of the Birds Eye Potato Waffles advert, terrible lyrics, sounding like a mix of the 90's most annoying songs of Cotton Eye Joe, I'm a Scatman and Doop and it really doesn't make for good potential.

I also have a fear that vocally it's going to sound utterly awful, especially from the guy in this. I know we won't win, but I think the only way we'll get any sort of way up the table is with a good position in the running order and some inventive staging. It's about time we went the way of Sweden (see below) and made a proper publicly voted competition of this again. Molly was a great step to seeing something serious for us, but clearly her not doing well just resulted in our "selection panel" throwing the hard work out of the window and going for novelty again :(.

As for the other entries so far, the majority is a bit flat in all honesty, although there's a few I'm keeping an eye on.

Iceland
For some reason this is sitting at 50/1 with the bookies at the moment, but I reckon this could be a bit of a dark horse in this year's competition. I've got a good vibe about this one and it's very catchy:


Estonia
Taking a bit of inspiration from The Netherlands runner up The Common Linnets last year, the song itself is pretty good. However, vocally they sound a little off in this live performance. Currently second in the betting


Italy
The current favourites in the betting odds, Il Volo *sigh*. Not a fan, let's say no more than that.


Finland
Well there's been a lot in the press about these guys, but I'm looking at this from a completely musical/Eurovision point of view. It's awful. Sure they've had some past success with the excellent Lordi, but this just doesn't suit the contest at all. I'm sure it'll do fairly well thanks to the story behind the band, but not a fan myself and can't see it storming to a win.


And now a little bit about Sweden
Yup, they've been showing how it should be done again. They have a HUGE national contest each year consisting of multiple heats, full on staging and even an international jury alongside a public vote. Their grand final is this weekend and current favourite to win which seems to be well ahead of the pack is Måns Zelmerlöw with Heroes:

Note: The videos below are likely to be pretty much the staging for the contest should it go through - so spoilers ahead

Sure it's a MASSIVE Avicii rip off, but it's catchy as hell and the really inventive staging is utterly brilliant for Eurovision . I can see this doing extremely well should it be the one that goes through. Even away from this track, the others in the contest are pretty damn good too.

Currently second is Jon Henrik Fjällgren, which to be honest I wasn't a huge fan of at first but it's kind of got stuck in my head after a few listens and everyone loves a good bit of chanting right?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqRP_tXjLTs

And finally, currently third place, although swapping with second constantly is Mariette. A bit too downtempo for me, but it's still a hell of a lot stronger than the countries who've currently announced their entries.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plnDqCD7Rjs

I'm also considering having a good old TowersStreet Chat for the semi finals this year. This kind of fell on it's backside last year, but if enough people are up for it I'll glady give it a shot again with a bit more notice for people to join :).
 
Completely missed this being uploaded to YouTube a couple of weeks ago, but here's 'Tonight Again', Guy Sebastian's entry for Australia.



Dare I say it, but I think this could stand a chance of doing quite well. I really like it.
 
That moment when you forget to return to TST for your yearly Eurovision visit.

I do apologise. Sweden was alright but I preferred other songs of recent Swedish years like "Euphoria" or "Popular".
Aussie for permanent member anyone? Would certainly spice things up.
 
I'd like to have Australia as a permanent contestant, even though they were only supposed to be an entry for this year only. Also, interestingly, China have apparently expressed an interest in participating in future.
 
I wouldn't mind if they had one 'worldwide' guest per year, just rotate through certain countries.

As nice as it would be to have Australia as a permanent member, it defeats the object of Eurovision (don't think Eurovision ft. Austraila sounds as good does it), I'd be open to them making an appearance every so many years though.
 
The original "object of Eurovision" was to make sure people in Soviet countries could recieve the broadcast and see how much fun we were having in the "free" west. It was created as cold war propaganda. ;)
 
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