DE
I believe almost all broadcasters taking the show complained to the EBU about it. There hasn’t been a contest quite like it since and I do remember at the time thinking it was quite the shambles. I was struck by how little the scoreboard was shown during the voting, even during the final, crucial vote.
SW
This remains my favourite Eurovision, because it was very much the Eurovision equivalent of the Brits 89 - a disastrous show that it felt everyone was watching and laughing at. Much of that was thanks, of course, to the performance of Toto Cotugno as host, as Tel said "It was a sorry day for all of us when this man won last year!". I loved how at the end Frank Naef was more or less having to present the show. And of course we managed to have a draw at the end of it, which would have been confusing in any contest, but given this one had been such a shambles it made virtually no sense on screen at all.
As you say, it was massively slanted towards the domestic Italian audience - especially given Toto couldn't speak English or French - so it lost the postcards in favour of having the contestants sing Italian songs. The set was really horrible as well. Such a bizarre show.
I believe almost all broadcasters taking the show complained to the EBU about it. There hasn’t been a contest quite like it since and I do remember at the time thinking it was quite the shambles. I was struck by how little the scoreboard was shown during the voting, even during the final, crucial vote.
This remains my favourite Eurovision, because it was very much the Eurovision equivalent of the Brits 89 - a disastrous show that it felt everyone was watching and laughing at. Much of that was thanks, of course, to the performance of Toto Cotugno as host, as Tel said "It was a sorry day for all of us when this man won last year!". I loved how at the end Frank Naef was more or less having to present the show. And of course we managed to have a draw at the end of it, which would have been confusing in any contest, but given this one had been such a shambles it made virtually no sense on screen at all.
As you say, it was massively slanted towards the domestic Italian audience - especially given Toto couldn't speak English or French - so it lost the postcards in favour of having the contestants sing Italian songs. The set was really horrible as well. Such a bizarre show.
W1
This remains my favourite Eurovision, because it was very much the Eurovision equivalent of the Brits 89 - a disastrous show that it felt everyone was watching and laughing at. Much of that was thanks, of course, to the performance of Toto Cotugno as host, as Tel said "It was a sorry day for all of us when this man won last year!". I loved how at the end Frank Naef was more or less having to present the show. And of course we managed to have a draw at the end of it, which would have been confusing in any contest, but given this one had been such a shambles it made virtually no sense on screen at all.
As you say, it was massively slanted towards the domestic Italian audience - especially given Toto couldn't speak English or French - so it lost the postcards in favour of having the contestants sing Italian songs. The set was really horrible as well. Such a bizarre show.
Love the comparison to Brits 89!
I think it's worth noting (probably already has) that they did have a late venue change due to the Gulf War - a decision which must have seemed right at the time, but now looks slightly over cautious. I know this is all on the Wiki page, but it's worth noting this was the last time it was called anything other than the 'Eurovision Song Contest'...admittedly we haven't been to another Francophone country since 1989, but I assume with brand management these days that it wouldn't revert to 'Concours Eurovision de la Chanson' anymore.
I made an effort to watch Sanremo this year and I can't say things have improved that much
, so perhaps this is just the nature of Italian live programming. The show went on for over four hours and I actually gave up at midnight (1am Rome time), way before it looked like they were anywhere near announcing a winner. I've watched many other selection shows and I would say my grasp of Icelandic is as strong a my grasp of Italian but I got what was happening in the RÙV show...Sanremo 2020 just seemed like complete chaos both with the presenters and the format of the thing.
Weirdly though my money was for an Italian win this year - I think the classic nature of the song and the fact Diodato was a great performer would have done well enough with juries and voting public to scrape a win without topping either poll. Although the hype was with Iceland, I think it was based on the video and I thought they had issues with how a quirky song would translate on a glossy stage. Certainly I'd read (with no data of my own) that E European voters don't tend to go for something that quirky.
Anyway, that's my round-about way of saying that it would have been quite a baptism of fire for Martin Österdahl to supervise an Italian Contest first off!
I believe almost all broadcasters taking the show complained to the EBU about it. There hasn’t been a contest quite like it since and I do remember at the time thinking it was quite the shambles. I was struck by how little the scoreboard was shown during the voting, even during the final, crucial vote.
This remains my favourite Eurovision, because it was very much the Eurovision equivalent of the Brits 89 - a disastrous show that it felt everyone was watching and laughing at. Much of that was thanks, of course, to the performance of Toto Cotugno as host, as Tel said "It was a sorry day for all of us when this man won last year!". I loved how at the end Frank Naef was more or less having to present the show. And of course we managed to have a draw at the end of it, which would have been confusing in any contest, but given this one had been such a shambles it made virtually no sense on screen at all.
As you say, it was massively slanted towards the domestic Italian audience - especially given Toto couldn't speak English or French - so it lost the postcards in favour of having the contestants sing Italian songs. The set was really horrible as well. Such a bizarre show.
Love the comparison to Brits 89!
I think it's worth noting (probably already has) that they did have a late venue change due to the Gulf War - a decision which must have seemed right at the time, but now looks slightly over cautious. I know this is all on the Wiki page, but it's worth noting this was the last time it was called anything other than the 'Eurovision Song Contest'...admittedly we haven't been to another Francophone country since 1989, but I assume with brand management these days that it wouldn't revert to 'Concours Eurovision de la Chanson' anymore.
I made an effort to watch Sanremo this year and I can't say things have improved that much
, so perhaps this is just the nature of Italian live programming. The show went on for over four hours and I actually gave up at midnight (1am Rome time), way before it looked like they were anywhere near announcing a winner. I've watched many other selection shows and I would say my grasp of Icelandic is as strong a my grasp of Italian but I got what was happening in the RÙV show...Sanremo 2020 just seemed like complete chaos both with the presenters and the format of the thing.
Weirdly though my money was for an Italian win this year - I think the classic nature of the song and the fact Diodato was a great performer would have done well enough with juries and voting public to scrape a win without topping either poll. Although the hype was with Iceland, I think it was based on the video and I thought they had issues with how a quirky song would translate on a glossy stage. Certainly I'd read (with no data of my own) that E European voters don't tend to go for something that quirky.
Anyway, that's my round-about way of saying that it would have been quite a baptism of fire for Martin Österdahl to supervise an Italian Contest first off!
SW
That reminds me of one of Giles Smith's columns a while back when Hernan Crespo left Chelsea after a few unsuccessful seasons to go back to Italian football, where they'd signed him from, and Crespo gave an interview where he said he wanted to go back to Italy because he missed the Italian way of life, including "Italian television". And Smith wondered who the hell would ever miss Italian television, which is famously appalling.
DV
Time to be Toyed with tonight .....
Lisbon 2018 gets the Eurovision Again treatment.
Lisbon 2018 gets the Eurovision Again treatment.
BH
BillyH
Founding member
Unfortunately it edits out one of the most famous moments of recent Eurovision history, the stage invasion during the UK entry - like the official video already on YouTube and DVD, the song is edited in from the previous evening's jury rehearsal. Only clue it ever happened is the unplanned Green Room interview with Ukraine's entry afterwards (who couldn't speak English well so a translator is used) done unscripted and slightly frantically as they work out on stage what the hell they're going to do now.
I get that they want to airbrush the incident from history, but this would be a good opportunity to show it - especially as SuRie is live tweeting along with the contest tonight, which may have confused her somewhat when the moment didn't happen.
I get that they want to airbrush the incident from history, but this would be a good opportunity to show it - especially as SuRie is live tweeting along with the contest tonight, which may have confused her somewhat when the moment didn't happen.
DV
Ulrikke Brandstorp the Norwegian entrant in the 2020 ESC was invited to open the Impossible Games in Oslo tonight at 'The Impossible Games' by singing the Norwegian National Anthem, which she did.