Thanks to the Peacock streaming service swinging the deal at the last minute, the Eurovision Song Contest is available for watching here in the US.

The events all happen in the afternoon on US time, and since they’re not going to let me watch the show at work, I can only see the Grand Final – held on a Saturday – live. I’ve been to a couple of “watch parties” before, but there’s none that I’m aware of this year. So I get to watch it at home – and comment on the show as I watch!

This will NOT be a “live blog” – I don’t think I can type and post that quickly. But it will be my impressions in order of the entire show. There are a bunch of “professional snarkers” like the legendary Graham Norton out there who can and will do a better job at this than I ever could. I’m not a professional music critic / pop culture expert, so….
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Among the many events that have become “casualties” of the coronavirus is this year’s Eurovision Song Contest. With the pandemic raging across Europe, it was decided that it just wouldn’t be safe to have an event bringing thousands of people into Rotterdam for an international “battle of the bands”. When the announcement of the cancellation was made, there was no small amount of wailing and gnashing of teeth from fans, expressing dismay that their favorite artists and songs would be forgotten.

As it happens, all the participants and their songs had been announced prior to the cancellation. So one could easily support their favorites by purchasing their music – even the official CD compilation. Also, Eurovision officials have stated that while this year’s songs will NOT be eligible next year, there’s nothing to prevent any of this year’s performers from being chosen to represent their countries next year in Rotterdam (the host city this year, and the presumptive host next year).

As far as the Grand Final show is concerned, organizers are working on a special concert in lieu of the finals.

And if you miss the voting and drama (such as it is), the people behind the “My Eurovision Scoreboard” app have set up a polling among their users to pick a winner. It’s being done along the same lines as the real competition, with two semi-finals and a Grand Final. They’ve already done their voting for the First Semi-Final:

I can’t tell if that’s some careful editing or if they actually did manage to get two real Eurovision hosts to announce their winners. If it’s the latter, you have to give some real applause to them.

I wonder who they will announce as their winner…..

Yep, it’s that time of year.

All the official videos are out, the running orders for the semifinals are set, the host city is getting ready for the crowds, bookies are giving odds…

Having looked over and listened to all the entrants, I have to say that nothing really stands out. Maybe I just haven’t listened to them enough.

Anyway, here’s the “compilation” video if you don’t want to spend over two hours listening to the songs in their entirety:

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Well, another Eurovision has come and gone. Portugal’s Salvador Sobral won everyone over with his passionate love song, “Amar Pelos Dios”.

But of course, no one watches it for the songs, right? You all want to see wacky staging and crazy costumes!

A few weeks ago, I posted a “Eurovision Camp Factor” scale, setting up scores from 1 (a basic, straightforward performance) to 10 (way over the top in everything). How did the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest turn out?

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Another Eurovision approaches, and commentators here in the US are, if they talk about Eurovision at all, will often bring up the “campiness” of the proceedings, and go on in a snarky attitude about how silly the whole thing is.

While it’s true that the show has been campy in the past (thanks in part to scoring rules that tended to favor spectacle), and still gets there occasionally, the acts you see are more like those who would appear as the musical guest on a late night talk show. The performances aren’t really different than what you’d expect to see for an act with a similar career arc (a few years in the business with an album or two under their belt) at a similar venue.

If you insist on watching the show for the campiness and not for the great number of fine performances, here’s a handy 1 – 10 scale for judging the Camp Factor of a performance (with examples from the past five years of Eurovision). There’s no “zero” score (or “nil points”, to use the Eurovision term) for campiness. Simply by association, you get a bit of campiness rubbed off on you.

(lots of embedded videos after the jump)

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No Love for the Czech Republic? Gabriela Gunčíková got gornischt from the televoters. This was the first year that the C.R. made the cut for the finals, and although “I Stand” got some points (41) from the jurors, not a single country’s televoters saw fit to toss them a point or two. I suspect that this was due to the flat and uninspired staging. The song was fine, her performance was fine, but there was nothing in the staging to help Miss Gunčíková stand out. No fireworks, no light-up costume, no backup dancers, no cool graphics or lighting. In a competition this intense, you can’t afford to miss any aspect of the performance.

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Thanks to the new method for announcing the scores, it came down to the very end. Only forty-three points separated the Top Three. Here’s the Top Ten, and the predictions from my post last time:

Looks like the bookies had it best, but even so, they had quite a few misses in the Top Ten. Everyone overrated France, YouTubers blew it on Ukraine, and the expert fans at Wiwibloggs…. Well, let’s hope no one lost too much money on the outcome…..

I’ll have some personal thoughts and observations in my next post.

The rehearsals are all done; the first semi-finals are tomorrow.

Now’s a good time to take a look and see what songs are predicted to win Eurovision this year. I’m going to go by country names and not song titles or artists, because that’s what everyone else does. I know it’s not really fair to them, but that’s the way it is.

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