Eurovision Song Contest 2011 (Düsseldorf, Germany)

[Australis]

We don't get the Norton, we have our own these days. Miss the Wogan. But everybody does.

My choice for a Brit entry would be a Bill Bailey/Biran May collaboration on a 3 minute epic laced with humour (BB is an excellent muso) an make it rock. You Brits, make it happen!

I think Slovenia was a better song than Azerbaijan, better singer too, but I'm not bitter or irritated or somesuch, just surprised and curious.

Next year, Baku!

What times, and what customs! (Cicero).

[iBender]

Maybe, if a group unknowns or an all out international superstar line up paid tribuit to Eurovision by performing an overture of all that Great British music that seems to have sold soo well.

Or better yet, if we just had Holly Valance, heck, I'd fly to Azerbaijan if it was to see that.

[{ Emilia }]

Eyes wrote:

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Azerbaijan WIN!!!!

Best win ever!!!

And Eric in 2nd is brilliant as well.

ETA: Or 3rd. Bloody Italy, with their shit song that everyone seems to have voted for to keep them from leaving again.

Funny, cause I thought the Swedish entry was utter shite. Uninspired, unsubtle, poser pop with shallow, stupid lyrics and synthetic 1990's dance background music. Oh, and did I mention the annoying flashy show of stupid dancing, light flashes and general uber dumbness of a ridiculous pop show where the music itself matters f**k all.

Yes, I hated it. But hey, from the country that tortured the world by producing Abba... so no surprise.

While I think Italy's entry was one of the few entries that actually had some quality music, real instruments, style and swing. It seemed inspired in comparison to Sweden's standard pop crap.

I watched the ESC with a bunch of Germans and we were cheering and laughing when Italy went past Sweden after the last vote.

[Jono]

Shaytan wrote:

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Because it's forgettable...hey, I already don't remember it.
It's made to please people who doesn't really care about music, who are happy with something easy to the hears. But when you think about it, there is no material in it, nothing to remember.

That's the general consensus where I am as well by those who saw the show. There were two people who didn't stay up for the voting and both needed it spelt out to them what the winner's song was.

SBS, the TV channel that shows Eurovision here, put up a poll for Aussies to vote on for our choice. You could vote as often as you wanted, plus you could give songs down votes as well.

Here is how we voted:

1. Ireland
2. Greece
3. Serbia
4. Bosnia
5. Moldova
6. Hungary
7. Sweden
8. Denmark
9. UK
10. Ukraine
11. Finland
12. Romania
13. Iceland
14. Russia
15. Italy
16. Germany
17. Estonia
18. Slovenia
19. France
20. Austria
21. Georgia
22. Spain
23. Switzerland
24. Lithuania
25. Azerbaijan

I don't know about the voting. I think they were having a laugh with putting Jedwood first. Moldova coming so high was probably because it was crazy. Azerbaijan, I suspect got a hammering of down votes when people found out it won as a protest rather than it being what people thought was the worst of the finalists. I didn't check the site until after the final had finished over in Germany, but I'd think it would really be a bit higher than that...maybe around the 18 mark.

[iBender]

Yeah, I voted for Iceland, twice, tried a third time, it wouldn't let me.
I even tried a fourth time, no luck.

[Angel4576]

We didn't vote, but if we had have done, then we'd have voted for Moldova - t'was absolutely insane!

[Eyes]

{ Emilia } wrote:

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Funny, cause I thought the Swedish entry was utter shite. Uninspired, unsubtle, poser pop with shallow, stupid lyrics and synthetic 1990's dance background music. Oh, and did I mention the annoying flashy show of stupid dancing, light flashes and general uber dumbness of a ridiculous pop show where the music itself matters f**k all.

Yes, I hated it. But hey, from the country that tortured the world by producing Abba... so no surprise.

While I think Italy's entry was one of the few entries that actually had some quality music, real instruments, style and swing. It seemed inspired in comparison to Sweden's standard pop crap.

I watched the ESC with a bunch of Germans and we were cheering and laughing when Italy went past Sweden after the last vote.

It's called Scandi-pop. A subgenre that's sadly been struggling in recent years internationally, imo, Scandinavian countries produce the best pop music (and they're not bad on dance either), so I'm always supporting most of what the Scandinavian countries put into Eurovision. Personally, I'd emigrate to Sweden just for the music scene. (They've had Popular at #1 for 4 weeks in the lead up to the contest)

Whether you liked it or not, you have to admit the performance stood out, and not in a hilarious way, like with Moldova. Eric's team did very well to get him 3rd, considering he was after Jedward, and after him yet another pop entry. Had he done anything other than an over the top performance, he would have been forgotten like Estonia was.

From where I'm standing, I saw Italy as a boring orchestral song, with a horrible screechy noise in the middle, and it only came second with a combination of the juries scoring it highly and a flurry of 'OMG! Italy's back' votes.
I'm not getting the atmosphere thing. It sent me to sleep and the music sounded like it belonged in the 50s.

[Australis]

Hey, what was all the booing about? Our commentators, uh, commented on that.

[MacLeod]

Thinking back, I can barely remember any song that has actually won the contest. If asked I could perhaps name two off the top of my head.

ABBA "Waterloo" (which was b4 I was even born)
Bucks Fizz "Making Your Mind Up" but then again that could be because of the skirts coming off.

Aside from those no song really sticks in my mind.

[JRS]

Hey, what was all the booing about? Our commentators, uh, commented on that.

It was mostly for the famous "neighbour votes",
It happened a lot again, like almost every year
The voting that is, not the booing..I found that bit rude and silly.

I liked this years Eurovision much more than last years
Germany hosted good ESC, with great stage-desing.
The program was fine, though I found the rap-artists lyrics difficult to hear..and maybe it went on a tad bit long.
Otherwise a great finale..and the voting results where most interesting in years
Left a much better taste to my mouth than last years final, though was not horrible either, just weaker to previous years.

I think we saw many talented singers, heard great vocals
and listened good songs this year
(I am happy that I discovered few new talented artists to listen..and career to follow in the future, like Maja from Slovenia, Nina from Serbia and Poli from Bulgaria)

Azerbaijan won, congratulations!!!
I was fine with them winning and honestly liked this much more than last years winner..
( I did not much like Lena this year either, sorry).

Italy being second was the biggest shock of the evening
I did NOT see that coming at all
Personally, I though it was one of the worst songs in the contest..and I rated it 1/5
"You just dont understand Jazz..": said a person to me in a esc-chatroom, when I let my opinion known.
Well, maybe I do not..but IMHO there was much more better songs out there..and singers
Italy must have had tons of jury votes and lost of "Welcome back, Italy" ones.

My favorites did quite well.
Ukraine was nicely 4th and Slovenia I think 13th, shame that they lost to Moldova the 12th place with only one point
Hungary flopped badly, sadly.
I am bit baffled of why Because this was one of the best songs and well performed.
(Australia seemed to like Hungary more then Europe, any thoughts of why is that?)


Baku 2012 is next then..will be interesting

[Australis]

Every Way That I Can is on my playlist. The Olsen Bros sticks in my mind. There's a couple of others, but not many.

[Jono]

JRS wrote:

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(Australia seemed to like Hungary more then Europe, any thoughts of why is that?)

We're Michael Bolton fans...I actually feel bad that I just made that joke.

[Shaytan]

Eyes wrote:

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It's called Scandi-pop. A subgenre that's sadly been struggling in recent years internationally, imo, Scandinavian countries produce the best pop music (and they're not bad on dance either), so I'm always supporting most of what the Scandinavian countries put into Eurovision. Personally, I'd emigrate to Sweden just for the music scene. (They've had Popular at #1 for 4 weeks in the lead up to the contest)

I only know Scandinavian music through death metal (and they're very good at it, and well known for that). I particularly like melodic death metal. To have them in the Eurovision would be very very entertaining, in several ways

MacLeod wrote:

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Thinking back, I can barely remember any song that has actually won the contest. If asked I could perhaps name two off the top of my head.

ABBA "Waterloo" (which was b4 I was even born)
Bucks Fizz "Making Your Mind Up" but then again that could be because of the skirts coming off.

Aside from those no song really sticks in my mind.

I think I can name a few but the 1st one I can remember is this one :

[Krisno]

Nice songs this year. The Azeri song wasn't my favourite, but I understand why it won. I also liked Serbia, Iceland, Moldova and Denmark. Yes, Moldova wasn't bad if you consider the genre. On the other hand, the UK, Ireland, Sweden and Greece were particularly bad in my view. It seems western countries are becoming the thing that they accuse eastern countries of being: shallow pop circus acts. I had this especially with the UK entry, it was out of tune and the song was just forgettable and unbearable at times. That black guy in the UK's Blue is probably the only black guy in the world who can't sing!

My country the Netherlands again didn't make it to the final. I blame the performance. It was just really bad with horrible styling and chaotic and unorganised choreography. Perhaps we the Dutch should realise that we're not good at this. The Dutch entry was simply blown away by the competition.

Ofcourse a lot of Dutch people are accusing the eastern block again. Personally I don't believe this. In the last 10 years only 4 winners came from the east, and I don't believe Estonia even could be considered as part of the eastern block as a non slavic nation. And ofcourse Azerbaijan definitely ISN'T part of the eastern block because it's an Asian Islamic Turkic speaking nation! This year's top 10 only includes 3 eastern block nations, if you consider Georgia to be part of the Eastern block which is also doubtful.