Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

  Swiss televisions have launched officially the search for the host city for Eurovision 2025 with a logo that made me think of Istanbul 2004 immediately. I have no idea what skyline is supposed to be there but it certainly doesn't make me think of Switzerland! Istanbul hasn't been the only city to feature the skyline or similar in their Eurovision branding as also Helsinki 2007 did so, as you can clearly see even today in this blog, lol. Eurovision song contest is coming back home after this rather chaotic and disastrous 2024 edition as the very first edition took place in Switzerland's Lugano in May 24, 1956 in attempt to unite post-war Europe and bring some entertainment and excitement for the new media called television. Loosley modeled after Italy's Sanremo festival seven countries took part, each with two songs: Switzerland, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. Switzerland won but the next contest moved to Frankfurt in Germany. And ever...

We have 27 different countries that have won Eurovision at least once and still quite a few that haven't. Actually 17 (more about them later).  Seven additional countries have made it to runner up, Croatia joining the club this year. Let's have a look who they are. Two countries have been close twice: the tiny island nations Iceland and Malta. Another island Cyprus joined the club in 2018. Yet another "island" Australia in 2016. Poland did so with their first entry and then we have the odd one out: Bulgaria. Who will be the next one to better their placement to first? POLAND 1994 - Edyta Górniak - To nie ja! ICELAND 1999 - Selma - All out of luck MALTA 2002 - Ira Losco - 7th wonder MALTA 2005 - Chiara - Angel ICELAND 2009 - Yohanna - Is it true? AUSTRALIA 2016 - Dami Im - Sound of silence BULGARIA 2017 - Kristian Kostov - Beautiful mess CYPRUS 2018 - Eleni Foureira - Fuego CROATIA 2024 - Baby Lasagna - Rim tim tagi dim And there's and extra to add: Serbia-Monteneg...

After the highest scoring televote Top-10 (see previous post) here comes the ten highest scoring jury favorites.  Here Salvador Sobral from Portugal still reigns but this year's winner Nemo came close with his endless string of 12 points by juries. One can question does the juries favor Sweden but indeed here we have four Swedes in the Top-10. Does it feel like right? No, if you ask me. Australia's runner up is featured here as is Norway's Alexander Rybak and Kristian Kostov but indeed the Top-10 differs from the televote one as there are only four songs in common: Amar pelos dos, Fairytale, Euphoria and Beautiful mess.  Salvador Sobral - Amar pelos dos  382 (Portugal 2017 /winner) Nemo - The Code  365 (Switzerland 2024/winner) Måns Zelmerlöw - Heroes  353 (Sweden 2015 /winner) Loreen - Tattoo  340 (Sweden 2023/winner) Dami Im - Sound of silence  320 (Australia 2016 /2nd) Alexandr Rybak - Fairytale  312 (Norway 2009/winner) Loreen - Euphoria...

After all those zeros in previous posts let's have a look at the highest scores over the years in Eurovision song contest televoting .For obvious reasons they are all from the past years.  Ukraine's Kalush Orchestra is a runaway winner in this chart followed by Norway's Alexander Rybak with a tiny difference to Portugal's Salvador Sobral. With the same amount of points but fewer countries to colect them is the first non-winning entry, Finland's Käärijä followed by another non winner, Russia's Sergey Lazarev, followed by yet another non-winning entry Italy's Il Volo. Loreen's first win follows and then this year's Croatia before Bulgaria's runner up, Russia's runner up, this year's Israel before yet another Ukrainian winner by Jamala. Kalush Orchestra - Stefania  439 (Ukraine 2022/winner) Alexander Rybak - Fairytale 378 (Norway 2009/winner) Käärijä - Cha cha cha  376 (Finland 2023/2nd) Salvador Sobral - Amar pelos dos  376 (Portugal 2017/w...

The Eurovision song contest points system with the famous 12 points was introduced in 1975 - and invented by a Finn by the way - and the idea was to avoid zero points and make the top favorites stand out more. Until then there were most every year several entries with zero points when the few points to give landed on the same few favorites. Now it was thought it was easy to get a fll ranking and almost impossible to score a zero. Of course history would prove different- The first and most legendary zero came in Paris 1978 when Norway's jahn Teigen got nothoing for his Mil efter mil.  That didn't stop him coming back twice (and trying about a zillion times) with better results.  And three years later another Norwegian, Finn Kalvik followed with Aldri i livet. That Abba produced the song in their studio and Agnetha and Frida sung backing vocals didn't help. In 1982 it was time for Finland's Kojo with Nuku pommiin. He's still known in Finland as "Nolla-Kojo" ...

It happened again. A big flat zero point. This year it was quite unexpected and surprising one: Olly from United Kingdom and his Dizzy. Zero points from the televote. I don't think anyone was expecting that! But how often we do get zero points scoring entries these days? Last year we had two in semi-finals: Romania and San Marino in televoting. Two years ago Azerbaijan scored zero from televoting in the semi-final and but qualified anyways! In the final Germany scored a zero from jury, Switzerland from televote.  Then we come to the crazy year of 2021. Where to start? United Kingdom scored a big flat zero from BOTH the jury and the televote! Now try to repeat that!  But also Spain , Germany and the host Netherlands all scored a zero from televote in the final.  As that wasn't enough also Czechia got a zero in televotes in the semi-final.... In 2019 Austria scored zero in semi-final with televoting. Germany did it again in final's televoting while Israel did it w...

After yesterday's chaos the television broadcast went by without too many hic ups. With booing to Martin Österdahl and Israel. A huge sign of relief when Ukraine passed Israel in the scoreboard. Overpowering jury support to Switzerland that made Croatia's Baby Lasagna even more a Käärijä, part 2. He even got a hero's welcome back party at home just like Käärijä. Meanwhile in Switzerland Geneva and Basel at least have already stepped up to host next year's contest. Apparently Swedish police has let Joost Klein go. But Eurovision song contest is in crisis after all this. It's everywhere, even in the Finnish tv-news as I just watched. Eurovision is broken and needs fixing. Fandom is asking Österdahl and all Reference group to step out and be replaced. Several artists have come out now afterwards that it's been a traumatic experience rather than the best time of their lives and fun.  So many questions open until everything can go on and start getting ready for the n...

All is good that ends good. Israel didn't manage to win the televote being second to Croatia with 323 vs 337. Ukraine was third with 307 and France 4th with 227 and Switzerland 5th with one point behind. But Switzerland totally dominated the jury vote scoring 21 times 12 points and 365 total. France was second with 218 and Croatia 3rd with 210. Only nine countries manages to score 12 from the jury. Besides the 21 by Switzerland France 4 times, Portugal 3 times, Ukraine and Croatia twice and Luxemburg (from Israel), Ireland, Sweden and Cyprus (from Greece) once.  And here is the jury result: Here are the televotes: Croatia  337 Israel  323 Ukraine  307 France  227 Switzerland  226 Ireland  136 Italy  104 Greece  85 Armenia  82 Lithuania  58 Sweden  49 Cyprus  44 Estonia  33 Serbia  32 Finland  31 Latvia  28 Luxemburg  20 Georgia  19 Germany  18 Portugal  13 Slovenia  12 Spain...

  Let the drama come to an end with a peaceful way. Let's pray! In the odds (at 6pm) Croatia is still leading with 43% chance, followed by Israel (22%), Switzerland (14%), France going up with 4%. All the other % are 4 or lowers so I won't add them here. Ireland is steady at 5th, followed by Ukraine and Italy dropping, Finland going up to 8th place (!!!), Greece steady at 9th, Uk, Sweden, Norway and Armenia going up next, while Lithuania and Austria going down. Georgia steady at 16th. Spain and Cyprus going up and Estonia steady at 19th. Then Germany and Latvia going up, while Slovenia going down at 22nd. Portugal and Luxemburg going up while Serbia has dropped to last. So, quite a lot of movement there up and down. I still stick to my fixed idea since November 2023 of France winning followed by Israel, Ukraine, Croatia, Switzerland and Italy in random order. I also think the winner may not win either jury nor televotes, maybe not even be the runner up but in the end maths done...

The past 24 hours in the Eurovision bubble have been the wildest ever and I think I have never waited for the final to start this much in all decades I have been watching! I try to collect all pieces in random order - making it chronological at this point would be impossible already when checking news from social media and official news lets.   Joost Klein and the Netherlands have been disqualified from tonight's final. EBU stated: "We have zero tolerance policy against inappropriate behaviour at our events and work to have a safe working environment for all employees." He already was absent in both yesterdays dress rehearsals. AVROTROS stated: "We have taken not of the disqualification by the EBU. AVROTROS finds the disqualification disproportionate and is shocked by the decision. We deeply regret this and will come back to this later. " The broadcaster is fully backing Joost so this won't end here. Also, what if the police comes to conclusion there was no ...

 Eurovision thing contest! The jokes about Finland continued culminating in the interval act with a look how things may have happened in Helsinki (well, they mean Tampere...) had we won with people having sauna with Moomie whil Ievan polka plays and then comes in Käärijä for some Cha cha cha. Not no! Things didn't go that way. But the Swedes just lobe Eurovision so much. Another great and fun and lighthearted interval act created by Edward af Sillén and Petra & co. Just wonderful. I just laughed out loud when that section started. Great stuff!  The opening with Tattoo solarium was such fun, too! Less great the Allsång/karaoke thingy with Helena Paparizou, Charlotte Perrelli and Sertab Erener. I don't want to comment anyone's looks generally but what has happened with Helena and Sertab? make up team went wild or did they both go under same knife?  It was so nice to see bits of all those old entries, either big names that never made it or who scored null of badly plus t...

OMG. What is going on? I was planning to do my usual day after post after day at work and write something about the bad behavior and bullism towards Eden Golan in the press conference by Greek Marina Satti and most of all Dutch Joost Klein. I mean, grown up people, is this an example you want to give? No wonder kids get bullied at school and social medias are so toxic. I get it when fans do it, as I have already lost hope on them and the youth, but you, adults act like that with your equal in a same table. Shame on you. You should at least try to behave in public and in arena. Keep your thought outside and after contest. I was also planning to write about the Italian televote. 40% of them all versus Netherlands 7% in second place. It is actually exactly what I have been thinking all along. You can't vote against so if and when all pro-Israel people make sure to vote while anti-Israeli people boycott and protest also by NOT voting this happens. It's very simple. This could be ha...

They started with a bang: Latvia! Against all odds he did it and he deserved it, too. Maybe tonight's bext performance vocally and no thrills performance. Latvia's last final was in 2016 so it was about the time, too! Next favorites Austria and the Netherlands. I think both performances were nothing much. Worst vocals - the little that was live - by both. Austria's choreography is also so busy it has no meaning nor sense. Norway and Israel next as expected. Israel's result will be interesting to see once the figures are out. Did they win this with landslide or did they barely make it? Update on that above: Iatlian Rai accidently published their televoting scores. Israel scored 39,31%. Second was  Netherlands with 7,32% Greece and Estonia announced before next big favorite Switzerland, then sadly Georgia and finally Armenia, so Belgoium was out. No wonder. I do like the song a lot but the staging didn't work. I hoped for San Marino until last but no. Same for Denmark...

Oh my. Am I happy Finland isn't in this semi-final? Yes! Why? Because it's simply insane. Only two top favorites Netherlands and Switzerland are in it. Israel is in it. The odds predict a top-10 with a huge margin to the 11th place but in the bottom there are my/my Home jury's  favorites  not qualifying, and some of my/our bottom-5's to qualify easily. What a dilemma. I guess the prediction and what I'd want to qualify lists differ more than ever.  And if we only talk about odds, that usually are quite right, how boring it is. But just to stir things up a little who could be out and who could be a shock qualifier?! And Israel. What will happen? In rehearsals people are booing and Ebu is going to silence all that best they can and insert pre-recorded applause instead and switches off the microphones in the audience. Then again that's nothing new, the same happened with Russia back in 2014 and 2015. Or at least they tried.  It's going to be an interesting nigh...