Great topic! I'm not a big fan, but I do watch the finals most years.  I haven't got up to speed with this years entries yet.  I know a lot of people had wanted the UK Kingdolls "UK Hun" from the Ru Paul's Drag Race UK queens to be entered for the UK! 

I haven't got a favourite yet, and usually my favourites don't win.  But the one I really can't get out of my head at the moment is Fallen Angel, the Norway entry from Tix.  The Ukraine entry is really good fun too, typical Eurovision. And I like Cyprus's El Diablo, even if it does sound like a Lady Gaga knock-off (I like Lady Gaga, so maybe that's a good thing), and the Slovenia entry Amen by Ana Soklic (amazing voice!), although that doesn't seem to be popular at all.  I will do some more listening in preparation!

Last edited by Liberty (April 9, 2021 8:31 am)

Yes, I like the Austrian "Amen" too, and the rest of your favourites as well.  I prefer the Slovenian Amen, but maybe the other one will grow on me more.  The Ukrainian one, I like the folk influence.  I've just realised that it reminds me a little of the (Polish folk influenced?) soundtrack to Witcher III:The Wild Hunt video game.  Loved that soundtrack and used to play it in my car a lot!  Poland and Ukraine geographically close so maybe that's why Shum reminds me of it.
Fallen Angel definitely sounds dated!  I can't make my mind up about it!  It's kind of cheesy, but really catchy and feels heartfelt. 
The one that was in my head this morning was the Switzerland one, and I like Bulgaria as well. (Both of them remind me of something else but I can't think what for either of them). I will need some time to decide on a favourite!  Thanks for starting the thread as it's prompted me to try to catch up!  I agree that we don't need to listen to all of them beforehand, but I think it can be overwhelming on the night if you don't "know" some of the songs!
 

Last edited by Liberty (April 10, 2021 7:30 am)

Oh, the low light is an interesting idea! I hadn't heard about this (of I saw anything about it, I didn't know what it was and don't remember). Thanks for sharing! 
I find it cool to see the different performance and recording setups people have when they have to record their parts for things like this. 
Also, as an aside, I appreciate the spoken introductions of the acts. I had no idea how we were supposed to pronounce Go_A. 

Cool video! That would definitely have been a challenge, but the scenery is beautiful!

While we're on the subject of videos, YouTube recommended this one to me today. When I first saw the title I thought "Are you sure that's a good idea?" But it was cool to hear some singers singing traditional Ukrainian music. I have a couple of great-grandparents from there, but I don't know much about the culture.


 

I think Shum is slowly growing on me a little! But yes, I know what you mean about seeing people gathered in groups. Even watching things from years ago, I sometimes feel uneasy watching people in large groups without distancing, breathing on each other. Even if before, people didn't consider it dangerous, it looks dangerous to me now. I'm sure there were safety considerations in the video I linked to, but I get why those thoughts would cross your mind.

I have watched some bits of the semi-finals, but not the whole things.  I'm disappointed that the Amen I liked was out: I thought it was a good song and a fantastic singer, but maybe just not what they're looking for at the moment.  I have a playlist with some of may favourites and they have mostly gone through.  It's funny how listening to the songs several times can change what you feel about them.  Some have grown on me, some less so.   For instance Adrenalina didn't grab me when I first heard it, and now I can't get it out of my head and I liked the performance in the semi-final! 

I don't really mind who wins. I just enjoy watching it!  But glad most of the songs on my playlist are there.  I like Ukraine, Norway, Bulgaria (I said Belgium before but I meant Bulgaria!), Switzerland, Malta, San Marino, Cyprus and Russia is growing on me.  Funny but good that we like different songs (more interesting than if there's a single favourite!).  I do like your choices but they're not my favourites.

If I had to choose one, probably Ukraine! 

Maneskin haven't really grown on me. I prefer this song, and the pole dancing! 


But I thought they gave a good performance and like that they are singing in Italian.   Eurovision rock bands tend to sound very "pop", no matter how rock they look.  I'm thinking of Lordi .... who I loved! 

Really looking forward to tonight! 
 

Sorry for taking so long to respond to your posts. I watched the performances on Sunday and didn't get around to watching the points until yesterday afternoon and I had been staying off of social media so I wouldn't get spoiled.

I think if I were just watching Eurovision just on its own, I would have not cared so much who won. As it is, I just let myself enjoy each song as they went by. But because since last summer I'd become such a big fan of Daði Freyr and Gagnamagnið, I really wanted them to win not only for the one song but also everything they stand for and their personality. I like their quirky performance style because it's not like anyone else's. I like that they work hard to do a good job (he wrote the song himself, did the choreography, his sister made their jewelry, and Daði and his wife made the pretend keyboards that they dance onstage with) but also are about having fun and doing things as family and friends.
I was feeling pretty bummed yesterday when I found out they got in 4th, since I thought they deserved more points, but 4th out of 26 isn't too bad!

I think I wanted The Roop from Lithuania to do well for a similar reason. I liked their song from last year more than this year's. By the time I was watching them in the final I wasn't sure they stood out as much as they did before, though I like their energy and that their song celebrates dancing alone at home (it's something I like doing now and then).

I thought the guy asking for Jaja Ding Dong was funny, even though I think by now the joke is a little old. Daði Freyr begrudgingly recorded a cover of the song because people kept posting comments asking him to sing it (though it hasn't completely stopped them, haha). He did a good job but I get the feeling he didn't love doing it!



I'm with you on Adrenalina. That one definitely grew on me over time. I heard a snippet of it in the video listing who would be in each semi-final and it didn't do anything for me. I tried listening to it in the semi-final, but ended up skipping it. But I watched the whole performance in the final and enjoyed it. I thought they would get more points than they did.
I like the songs you mentioned, too, actually, except maybe the Russian song, which I've never been able to get through even though I like the message. The chorus for the song from Cyprus gets stuck in my head a lot, but I felt that the chorus was the song, the verses weren't much of anything. That one I think was better live than in the studio recording, too.

As for Maneskin. I thought their performance was good, but their song wasn't my favourite. I also have mixed feelings about the fact that their song's title translates to "Shut Up" and I guess I have mixed feelings about the lyrics (though I only know what they mean in translation) overall. Not super important, but I thought their outfits were kind of ugly, too. I didn't know they had been on X Factor in the past, or covered a song by The Struts! That was kind of fun to watch! 

 

Last edited by Yitzock (May 25, 2021 4:01 pm)

I had noticed Greece and Cyprus voting for each other, which I thought was interesting. I also noticed that Denmark gave points to all the Nordic countries in the final (not necessarily a bad thing and it could have been a coincidence, but when I saw the flags I thought "Nordic solidarity!"). But I don't know if it's just a coincidence or not. I doubt that it could be completed due to certain political reasons, but I'm not inside their heads so who knows? But I can only assume some of the points are for performance and musicianship.But nobody can be completely unbiased.

I agree with you about how the singer from the UK took getting zero points. I had listened to the song once a while back and thought it was only OK, but I enjoyed it more when I heard it live.

Those are interesting points about the San Marino song. It's possible it's not everyone's cup of tea on the first listen. And I hadn't thought about the possibility of voting being split between the female solo acts (though I had wondered ahead of the final how much rock fans' votes would be divided between Maneskin and Blind Channel - obviously didn't affect Maneskin too negatively if there was any splitting).
Thank you for sharing those interesting articles! It's amazing how many factors can play into votes that you don't see while watching the show. I thought the comment about diaspora voting was interesting. It made me think about how Canada has so many immigrants from various countries. It made me wonder how the results could be different if we were allowed to vote. I learned just last week that we have more Icelanders living here than any other country (except Iceland, of course, which has the most). 

I had also seen some discussion on some other sites about people not being able to cast their votes for some reason when trying to call in. I found it a bit disconcerting (obviously not the scariest thing - nobody is going to die because they can't vote in Eurovision!) how widespread the problem seemed to be. I don't know enough of the details, though, whether the problems were only with call-in and text voting or if app voting was also affected. Most of the anecdotes I read seemed to have to do with calls and telephone providers. But it makes you wonderwho got short-changed from votes that weren't counted because they weren't received.

Last edited by Yitzock (May 26, 2021 2:49 pm)

Yes, I think it makes sense that certain countries that share history or culture by being geographic neighbours would have similar tastes, though of course anyone from anywhere can like any song.