Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) 2016, Stockholm, Sweden
Well, it's time for my annual ESC posts, 2016 already! I'm really heading towards 30 years of ESC fandom.... my goodness!
Anyway, this one will be a general post, I'll break down the entries in my next post.
My general imperssion of this years' contest is - WAY TO GO SWEDEN! I love the way they've done the show, Mans and Petra did an amazing job with their ESC musical songs, showing the wide range of songs and winners we've seen in the past. A bit less, yet still impressive, was the list of Swedish artists, had no idea Army of Lovers are Swedes. Didn't care for the robot-human dance, nor Timberlake's presence. He isn't Swedish, I'd rather see E-type on stage! Or Abba (dream on, dream on....).
This years' voting kept me in suspense!!! First of all, there was no clear favorite, at least not for me, this years' songs are all mediacre. I totally don't get the jury's obsession with the Australian entry. It isn't that great and we've heard it before. From Malta. Or Poland, some Balkan country.... even Andrew Lloyd Weber composed something similar. So, no, sorry Australia. I totally disagree with the jury. It was clear, the rest of the televoters also disagreed, they gave most points to Russia. Obviously for the best act. The act is unsurpassed in its technical and physical parts, yet the songpart didn't do it for me.
As for the winner, well.... It's sad there's a petition to review the votes. I mean, Ukraine wasn't the winner when it came to jury votes, nor was it a winner when it came to televotes. Yet, the combination (hence the suspense of the new voting system) made it an unexpected winner. Interesting, I wonder where this pettion will lead and what it will mean for ESC in the future. Will the jury be abandoned? But what about diaspora voting? Wasn't that the whole reason for the jury to count for 50% in the first place? Dunno. We'll see what next year will bring.
Anyway, this one will be a general post, I'll break down the entries in my next post.
My general imperssion of this years' contest is - WAY TO GO SWEDEN! I love the way they've done the show, Mans and Petra did an amazing job with their ESC musical songs, showing the wide range of songs and winners we've seen in the past. A bit less, yet still impressive, was the list of Swedish artists, had no idea Army of Lovers are Swedes. Didn't care for the robot-human dance, nor Timberlake's presence. He isn't Swedish, I'd rather see E-type on stage! Or Abba (dream on, dream on....).
This years' voting kept me in suspense!!! First of all, there was no clear favorite, at least not for me, this years' songs are all mediacre. I totally don't get the jury's obsession with the Australian entry. It isn't that great and we've heard it before. From Malta. Or Poland, some Balkan country.... even Andrew Lloyd Weber composed something similar. So, no, sorry Australia. I totally disagree with the jury. It was clear, the rest of the televoters also disagreed, they gave most points to Russia. Obviously for the best act. The act is unsurpassed in its technical and physical parts, yet the songpart didn't do it for me.
As for the winner, well.... It's sad there's a petition to review the votes. I mean, Ukraine wasn't the winner when it came to jury votes, nor was it a winner when it came to televotes. Yet, the combination (hence the suspense of the new voting system) made it an unexpected winner. Interesting, I wonder where this pettion will lead and what it will mean for ESC in the future. Will the jury be abandoned? But what about diaspora voting? Wasn't that the whole reason for the jury to count for 50% in the first place? Dunno. We'll see what next year will bring.