Eurovision 2011(Germany)

[spyretto]

I'm looking at the European map: ex Yugoslavia looks more like central Europe to me, so we put them on the other side. But we can leave some behind, like Croatia and Bosnia to the West, Serbia Macedonia to the East. We gotta break them down

[spyretto]

Cracked it, Hungary, Slovakia, they're more Central Europe for sure

Western semi: Slovenia, Switzerland, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Belgium, Netherlands, Ireland, Malta, Portugal, Austria, San Marino, Croatia, Bosnia H, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia.

Eastern semi: Albania, Macedonia, Serbia, Estonia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Israel, Moldova, Ukraine, Armenia, Cyprus, Greece, Turkey, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Bulgaria.

19 west, 18 east but one will be the winner of last year

We restrict the countries to qualify from each semi to 9 ( instead of 10 ). We got 18+7=25 countries for the final.
And let them poke each other's eyes out with the voting

[spyretto]

Originally Posted by Argos

When it comes to vocal abilities then I wouldn't be proud of Blue. They were weak too, especially in the first half of the song, Lee is the name of the main destroyer, I guess.

They were bad for about the first 30-45 seconds, they were really good afterwards. When I heard Lee the first time I thought his singing would be problematic as he's doing the leading vocals on this one and he's had problems hitting the high notes live. He actually did ok at the end.
Apparently they lost the jury voting altogether, I heard from a friend who was in the rehearsals that their dress rehearsal was a disaster, probably they didn't realise how important that would be in the order of things, possibly due to complete ignorance, unfamiliarity at how things work in a karaoke competition, they'd probably think that 2 minutes of good singing can make it up for 2 days of just warming up their voices
Pretty much what happened to Tatu, I guess.
Done by the juries, I think Blue would be in the top 5 if the jury wasn't involved and they had time to work on their performance. Not to mention the song went virtually unpromoted in Europe. Of course Top 5 is not even close to winning. It's not just the song, it's a whole mixture of things.

The most embarrassing thing was losing to Jedward, of course. I'm not a fan of Blue in any shape or form, I just think that as professionals they should have made a better job amidst all the amateurs.

Then again the hapless Azerbaijani winning performance...damn , that sucked
Something taken out of Stocholm's archives of B lists , I guess.
Drip Drop was a masterpiece compared to that crap.

Please punch me in the face if that song becomes a hit anywhere in Europe except for the former Soviet Asian republic of Azerbaijan. The 90's are over, children.

[fanoff]

Originally Posted by spyretto

Then again the hapless Azerbaijani winning performance...damn , that sucked
Something taken out of Stocholm's archives of B lists , I guess.
Drip Drop was a masterpiece compared to that crap.

The song was actually written by the writers of Drip Drop also, especially for the duo. I think that Drip Drop should have won, but it did not. I have also preferred Russia winning with Serebro, Serbia winning with their 2008 song. But both countries won with worse songs. This is Eurovision

[Argos]

Originally Posted by spyretto

... I heard from a friend who was in the rehearsals that their dress rehearsal was a disaster, probably they didn't realise how important that would be in the order of thing...

Well, proves that something is really wrong with the voting system. On the other hand, I didn't really see them in top condition at the public performance, neither their singing, nor their stage presence was as good as you would expect from a group with much routine. With many teams having their little problems here and there too, they could have been fifth or fifteenth without the jury votes.

Originally Posted by spyretto

Pretty much what happened to Tatu, I guess.

If I remember, what happened to tatu was, that they couldn't sing at all. Only 2 points behind the winner with that performance, that was an ESC miracle!

Originally Posted by spyretto

The most embarrassing thing was losing to Jedward, of course.

Being behind two jumping balls with cat grass hair-cut is embarrassing for any other participant too.

Originally Posted by spyretto

Then again the hapless Azerbaijani winning performance...damn , that sucked

That was strange. With their performance I didn't expect them in the top 10 at all. There was nothing which could convince, not the song, not the singing, not their stage play. It was even for this weak competition below average. I wouldn't be surprised if there was big racket behind the curtains.

Originally Posted by spyretto

Please punch me in the face if that song becomes a hit anywhere in Europe except for the former Soviet Asian republic of Azerbaijan.

Your address, please!

[fanoff]

Originally Posted by spyretto

Please punch me in the face if that song becomes a hit anywhere in Europe except for the former Soviet Asian republic of Azerbaijan. The 90's are over, children.

It reached top 10 in most European iTunes charts. The best chart performance is from Jedward and them actually.

[spyretto]

Originally Posted by Argos

Your address, please!

SA11RL

when are you coming? Just to make sure I'm not at home.

Top 10 itunes? So it's more or less what other ESC winners get to do in the first few days after the final.

Officially it's a little bit like this:

Chart Peak
position
Iceland (Tonlist)[2] 29
Russia (TopHit)[3] 318
Slovakia (IFPI)[4] 57

Virtually no hit...318 in Russia, do they count up to 1000 there? Scandinavia is their best bet, has it been released in Sweden yet?
By the way Jedward new entry at no 82 in the UK charts, but climbing at no 3 in the Irish charts. Blue down 10 places to no 26 in UK, nothing else from the ESC at the moment. My prediction is that the both of them will be out of the top 100 come next week.
You guys are good, I'm way too lazy to check all the charts from every country but I couldn't even find an Azerbaijani top 40.

So next year the final to be held in a country which is in the top 20 of the most repressive regimes/human rights abusers in the world, I can see that the ESC is moving up

[fanoff]

Originally Posted by spyretto

You guys are good, I'm way too lazy to check all the charts from every country but I couldn't even find an Azerbaijani top 40.

Try this one
http://www.apple.com/euro/itunes/charts/top10songs.html

[Argos]

Originally Posted by spyretto

Virtually no hit...318 in Russia, do they count up to 1000 there?

Not really. Their chart list ends at 100. They count the radio airplay of every week and list all the recent new entries in the 'hot track' list, which is usually complete for a month with their actual chart position and the number of radio stations, which have downloaded the song for airplay, the ones being better than place 200 are kept for about 2 months. It's just an information for the radio stations about new tracks. By the way, they are currently No. 272, which is of course the top seller of the year!

Originally Posted by spyretto

So next year the final to be held in a country which is in the top 20 of the most repressive regimes/human rights abusers in the world, I can see that the ESC is moving up

The EU is loving such countries. They would establish those regimes in Europe too with pleasure, they just don't know how to explain to us, that we need such oppression.

[spyretto]

Interesting, according to the itunes charts Jedward are doing better than anybody else. But those charts are all overrated imo, if you check the official Greek charts, "Watch my Dance" is nowhere near the top 20, let alone no 1. It's trajectory in the Greek charts must have come and gone months ago. No trace of any ESC song in the top 40 in Germany either except for Lena's which has a re-entry this week - obviously boosted by the ESC final. However Jedward are indeed at no 3 in Ireland ( a small, patriotic market ) again as a result of their participation and Blue are at no 26 in the UK.
Of course if a song is not released physically as well its chart history could be rather brief based solely on downloads. And I doubt the Azerbaijani song will be released as a single as a result of winning the contest.
"Popular" for example, a former no 1 song in Sweden (!) is still in the top 40 but it's ESC showing did not stop it from falling in the official charts.