Eurovision 2021 - Netherlands - NPO/AVROTROS/NOS

Am I right in thinking one country (possibly San Marino?) still don't?

I think you might be right - something like their phone system isn’t / can’t be separated from that of Italy?

Yes and it must be impossible to police people not being able to vote for their own country if they’re in border areas and chose to use the neighbouring mobile signal to register a vote? And for countries like San Marino, Monaco and Andorra I suppose that’s a significant chunk of the country?!

With mobile phones you may be able to restrict voting based on the country the phone number is registered in - so roaming phones can't vote for their 'home' country. The problem with San Marino is that their landlines are effectively on the Italian phone network.

France Television had a wraparound show from a studio in France - which started about 6 minutes before the main show, and that they went to during the ad breaks, and for a 15 minute or so discussion afterwards. During some of the show they also overlaid their studio in a small box over the Dutch show (kind of like in-vision commentary) or went to split screen boxes.

Same goes for mobile phones. San Marino does not have an operator of it's own, they are just served by the Italian networks.

Yep - so that explains why they can't have a televote - but I think the 'mobile phone roaming' thing can be mitigated (and may well be)

BBC's Eurovision: Come Together Top 10:

Waterloo - Abba (Sweden) - 1974
Rise Like A Phoenix - Conchita Wurst (Austria) - 2014
Euphoria - Loreen (Sweden) – 2012
Love Shine A Light - Katrina & The Waves (UK) - 1997
Heroes - Måns Zelmerlöw (Sweden) - 2015
Fairytale - Alexander Rybak (Norway) - 2009
Dancing Lasha Tumbai - Verka Serduchka (Ukraine) - 2007
Making Your Mind Up - Bucks Fizz (UK) - 1981
Save Your Kisses for Me - Brotherhood of Man (UK) - 1976
Ooh…Aah…Just A Little Bit - Gina G (UK) - 1996

Mostly the same results had they just broadcast a blank screen with the words "Name the first Eurovision song that comes to your head", although I'm pleasantly surprised how high Conchita is there - I guess the 1960s winners/almost winners (Sandie, Cliff, Lulu) are a bit too far away in time for most people's consciousness now, as they'd have all filled a top ten well into the noughties.

There's a significant shift in the post-Wogan age to music that sounds a lot more current and international than before, which is either a good or bad thing depending on what you watch the contest for.

I think that’s a pretty fair top 10. Whether you like Abba or not, it’s pretty hard to argue with that winning. You can’t imagine Mans song still being played in the same way in 40 odd years time. And most of the others in there are iconic songs that people remember.

Funny even when we can vote for ourselves we only come 4th. I doubt Katrina and the Waves song would have made the top 10 percent if it wasn’t a UK vote though.

Yes, and in the Eurovision Song Contest Companion book, they mention that in that contest the UK performed second last, and Iceland performed last, and then in the voting Iceland only got eighteen points, but six of those were from the UK. They say Wogan's theory was that hardly anyone in the UK was paying attention until Katrina, so the only other song they saw in their drunken haze was Iceland's, and voted for it. The book says "who knows what results we will get when all the juries are made up of whoever is sober enough for dial the numbers?".



It certainly is strange times when we end up with Eurovision fans saying the Beeb's programme was really good and the official Eurovision one was awful. I thought it was absolutely dire, I had to bail out of it. I think they got the tone totally wrong, as someone said on Twitter, starting the show with "Our original venue is now an emergency hospital" is the ultimate buzzkill, followed by that interview with Johnny Logan, who seemed absolutely devastated, and his dirge of his song.

I mean, they clearly meant well, but there are only so many times you can hear people tell us to stay safe. There is an earnest side to Eurovision that is normally well-disguised, but the nearest equivalent here is probably the 2012 Olympics opening ceremony, but minus all the bits by Danny Boyle. I know it's a horrible time but there is a way to do something a bit lighter and uplifting without the funereal tone they adopted throughout. The Big Night In did it better, that actually had a reason to be a bit maudlin, because it was an actual appeal, but even then there was plenty of levity and jokes. Again, strange times when you're suggesting a show would be improved by the presence of Paddy McGuinness, but here we are

Indeed, the other thing is at least on The Big Night In there was something you could do. Here it probably seemed more depressing because, well, what can we do about it? Of course this was always going to be a struggle because it was being shown in so many countries, all of whom have been affected in different ways and all now have their own unique situations and different rules for coming out of lockdown. So you couldn't say "Stay at home" or anything, or do anything practical, so the message was just "It's bad, I guess?". I agreed with the Eurovision fan on Twitter who suggested they would probably have been better off with every nation doing their own show but with them all offering up contributions to each other's.

Also as well, again this sounds harsh, but it feels a bit like we've already done all this. If it was two months ago, it might have been a more moving and relevant show. But since then we've had the Together At Home concert and here in the UK we've had the Big Night In, and I think there's a sense of the audience thinking, well, we've been through this. It felt a bit unneccessary. Again, we are where we are and they were being very sincere about it, but it reminds me of that bit in The Nation's Favourite where they debate bringing back Mark and Lard the Monday after Diana's funeral when they'd been on holiday, and decide not to, partly because they thought if they referenced it, the audience would go "Well, we've done this, time to move on". It's a bit as well like Kevin Lygo saying he's fed up with shows on Zoom and wants to see proper telly shows again. It's not Eurovision's fault it's now May, but I fear we may be reaching the limit of how much we're interested in seeing people at home being very earnest.

I mean, I wouldn't wish having to produce a show like this on my worst enemy, and I think it was particularly tough on Dutch TV because they haven't mounted it for forty years (a couple of people on Twitter said Sweden would have done a better job, because having produced it quite frequently in recent years they'd have presumably been better placed to have a bit of fun with it). I know it's tough times and everyone was being very sincere and they tried their best. But it was really bloody boring.

Someone's helpfully collated all the public votes that have been done in some countries of who they would have voted for if the show had gone ahead. Lithuania, Russia and Iceland predictably do well.

http://www.escforum.net/forum/showthread.php?35172-Eurovision-2020-the-event-the-news-...&p=6224537&viewfull=1#post6224537

Also not listed there is Austria who voted for Iceland in first, Malta second and with Austria themselves coming third!