DE
Well why not? Her songs were extremely good on both her previous performances and in the 1998 Birmingham contest you might argue that had it not been for the press attention given to the Israeli entry, she could well have won. It was by far a much better song than Diva IMO, but of course, it's never really been about the songs! I remember El Tel always saying that Malta take the contest very seriously and desparately want to win.
TT
Well I don't think Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote the lyrics, I think he composed the tune.
It's a good ballad, and quite a simple one really. That's the sort of thing that seems to have excelled the last couple of years. Will it be too tame for Eurovision? We shall see.
Juicy Joe posted:
Well, is that the best that Andrew Lloyd Webber can come up with??? 5 weeks this show has been on for and all that waiting for that!? 
How he expects the UK to win with that abomination of a song is beyond me! Utterly heinous!
How he expects the UK to win with that abomination of a song is beyond me! Utterly heinous!
Well I don't think Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote the lyrics, I think he composed the tune.
It's a good ballad, and quite a simple one really. That's the sort of thing that seems to have excelled the last couple of years. Will it be too tame for Eurovision? We shall see.
MD
I've met Chiara she's a lovely lass and somewhat of a Maltese national icon, which is probably why she has won again.
Personally this isn't a very strong song, I just hope it gets through to the final as I have a feeling my fellow Maltesers will be cutting all ties with Europe if it doesn't! LOL!
Personally this isn't a very strong song, I just hope it gets through to the final as I have a feeling my fellow Maltesers will be cutting all ties with Europe if it doesn't! LOL!
JA
It's a very bland and samey song, and Chiara's style is almost exactly the same as it has been in the past two years she's tried. It amazes me that out of 20 songs that was the best they could do - for a show that went on for about 5 hours.
Besides wasn't Chiara involved in some sort of political controversy? I wouldn't have thought she'd win.
Besides wasn't Chiara involved in some sort of political controversy? I wouldn't have thought she'd win.
MD
A five hour programme on TVM is nothing new. I've seen longer.
JAH posted:
It's a very bland and samey song, and Chiara's style is almost exactly the same as it has been in the past two years she's tried. It amazes me that out of 20 songs that was the best they could do - for a show that went on for about 5 hours.
Besides wasn't Chiara involved in some sort of political controversy? I wouldn't have thought she'd win.
Besides wasn't Chiara involved in some sort of political controversy? I wouldn't have thought she'd win.
A five hour programme on TVM is nothing new. I've seen longer.
TT
Well I've just watched Jade singing "It's My Time" again. I'm quite impressed with it, it's a simple ballad which viewers of other countries should be able to follow.
Let's compare it with the UK entries of the last four years.
2005 Javine - "Touch My Fire"
Score: 18 points, 22nd out of 24 finalists
An eastern style drums and dance song. I wasn't that impressed really, in my opinion Javine's voice was not strong enough. There were so many other songs of this style. The winning song from Greece "My Number One" was another eastern style drums and dance song, and I felt that its artist, Helena Paparizou, had a much stronger voice. Hardly surprising that Greece won and UK finished in the bottom four.
2006 Daz Sampson - "Teenage Life"
Score: 25 points, 19th out of 24 finalists
What a disgrace to the UK when this was picked. Remember the hype the few days leading up to the big night that “Teenage Life” could finish top ten, top five or even win. Well it turned out to be another flop. As far as I was concerned, EVERYTHING was wrong with it.
1) Rap doesn't work in Eurovision
I still really don't think rap is the sort of thing for Eurovision. Since the mid-nineties, I clearly remember the following three entries which included rap, none of which did very well:
1995 UK "Love City Groove"- Love City Groove 10th out of 23 (76 points)
1997 DENMARK "Stemmen I Mit Liv"- Kolig Kaj 16th out of 25 (25 points)
2001 UK "No Dream Impossible" - Lindsay Dracass 15th out of 23 (28 points)
2) The girls’ costumes
a) The hats. Is there a school ANYWHERE where the kids wear hats these days? If anyone knows of one anywhere, please name it.
b) The stripy blazers. Blazers are now (largely) a BYGONE in schools these days. In almost all primary schools, and many secondary schools, the kids now wear sweatshirts bearing the school logo, not blazers. Indeed, it's only a matter of time (within the next five years max) that sweatshirts replace blazers in ALL schools. Who agrees with me on this statement, by the way?
The combination of the hats and stripy blazers means that this was surely portraying an outdated image to the whole of Europe. The viewers of other voting countries (whether in the final or not) may well have thought we were behind the times seeing this. If the girls had donned sweatshirts (bearing the Avy logo), and dispensed with the hats, that would have portrayed a more modern image to foreign viewers entitled to vote for us.
3) The desks
They were the old-fashioned lift-up desks. Are they still used these days? Again, this was portraying an outdated image. They should have used modern desks.
4) Tossing the papers into the air
About two thirds of the way through our entry the girls lifted the lids of their desks, took out wads of papers and tossed those into the air to land on the floor. There were two things wrong with this pointless, silly gimmick:
a) The whole principle. If children did this in a real school surely they would be disciplined by the teachers (at least a good telling off). Surely this act was
(i) A bad example to children watching in the UK or elsewhere in Europe – they could copy.
(ii) Suggesting to viewers all over Europe how badly kids behave in our schools.
Maybe countries which gave us nothing were disgusted by this unnecessary stunt.
b) What was on the papers. On the night, I just thought it was papers, I didn’t notice what was on them. When I watched our entry again next day, I noticed some of them had flags of other countries on. One could argue that was degrading the countries whose flags ended up on the floor, in effect saying “we hate you”. Did any countries whose flag was treated in that way take offence, and decide not to give us points on the grounds that “They hate us, so nul points for them”?
5) Right at the end
a) Formation Was it really necessary for the girls to huddle together on the desks with Daz in the middle? An unnecessary gimmick, I say. I noticed a couple other countries earlier did a funny formation at the end though.
b) Daz's Call At the end Daz called "Vote for the music". Was this a bribe to get the other countries to vote for us? Or was he admitting that the girls' singing, and his rapping a pointless waste of space and the tune was the only thing worth voting for?
I could go on, but you see, everything was wrong with "Teenage Life".
By the way, that year I set my heart on, and was routing for, "Beautiful Thing" by Antony Costa. In fact I voted for that. I was so gutted when it came second. Maybe we’d have done better that year if he'd gone through to represent us instead of Daz.
2007 Scooch - "Flying The Flag (for You)"
Score: 19 points, 22nd out of 24 finalists
Well what a disappointment. In the national final that year, I felt it was the best song of the six contenders, i.e. the best of a bad bunch. At the time I felt it wasn't a good song, but a good Eurovision song. It ticked all the right boxes: ABBAesque style pop song, catchy, etc. A thousand times better than "Teenage Life" the previous year.
Naturally enough then, I was gutted at how badly it did. I wasn't expecting it to win, but hoped it would do a lot better than it did, maybe top ten.
2008 Andy Abraham - "Even If"
Score: 14 points 25th out of 25 finalists
Again, I was disappointed with this when it was chosen last year. Once again there were six entrants in the UK national final, and Andy was Terry Wogan's wildcard choice. Amazingly, that's the one that won to represent the UK in Belgrade. At the time, I felt it was the best of a bad bunch again, but a no-hoper.
To me, it seemed like a weak imitation of Estonia's winning entry in 2001: "Everybody" by Tanel Padar, Dave Benton & 2XL. I was very disappointed with the UK's entry "Even If" last year, and much preferred several of the other countries' entries, including Armenia "Qele, Qele", Latvia "Wolves Of The Sea", Sweden "Hero", Georgia "Peace Will Come", Serbia "Oro", Russia "Believe" and Norway "Hold On Be Strong". On the other hand, Andy Abraham definitely didn't deserve to come last. I thought there were other far worse entries including France (to me it was a poor imitation of "Hippy Hippy Shake") Azerbaijan and Spain.
So on now to this year...
2009 Jade Ewen - "My Time"
For once, we have picked a ballad. Its lyrics are now available on The Diggiloo Thrush, here they are. I've been led to believe that Webber musicals (e.g. CATS, Phantom of the Opera etc) have been a success throughout Europe. Is that true? If so, surely that will be to our advantage.
Any likelihood that we'll have Torvill and Dean doing three minutes of professional figure skating around Jade, as an extra winning gimmick? I have a firm impression that Russia wouldn't have won last year had it not been for the skater.
Best of British luck to Jade in Moscow this year. At least we've picked the entry much earlier this year than past years, so more time for her to showcase it all over Europe before the Contest in May. Also there's plenty of time for her to perfect her performance of it before the big night.
Let's compare it with the UK entries of the last four years.
2005 Javine - "Touch My Fire"
Score: 18 points, 22nd out of 24 finalists
An eastern style drums and dance song. I wasn't that impressed really, in my opinion Javine's voice was not strong enough. There were so many other songs of this style. The winning song from Greece "My Number One" was another eastern style drums and dance song, and I felt that its artist, Helena Paparizou, had a much stronger voice. Hardly surprising that Greece won and UK finished in the bottom four.
2006 Daz Sampson - "Teenage Life"
Score: 25 points, 19th out of 24 finalists
What a disgrace to the UK when this was picked. Remember the hype the few days leading up to the big night that “Teenage Life” could finish top ten, top five or even win. Well it turned out to be another flop. As far as I was concerned, EVERYTHING was wrong with it.
1) Rap doesn't work in Eurovision
I still really don't think rap is the sort of thing for Eurovision. Since the mid-nineties, I clearly remember the following three entries which included rap, none of which did very well:
1995 UK "Love City Groove"- Love City Groove 10th out of 23 (76 points)
1997 DENMARK "Stemmen I Mit Liv"- Kolig Kaj 16th out of 25 (25 points)
2001 UK "No Dream Impossible" - Lindsay Dracass 15th out of 23 (28 points)
2) The girls’ costumes
a) The hats. Is there a school ANYWHERE where the kids wear hats these days? If anyone knows of one anywhere, please name it.
b) The stripy blazers. Blazers are now (largely) a BYGONE in schools these days. In almost all primary schools, and many secondary schools, the kids now wear sweatshirts bearing the school logo, not blazers. Indeed, it's only a matter of time (within the next five years max) that sweatshirts replace blazers in ALL schools. Who agrees with me on this statement, by the way?
The combination of the hats and stripy blazers means that this was surely portraying an outdated image to the whole of Europe. The viewers of other voting countries (whether in the final or not) may well have thought we were behind the times seeing this. If the girls had donned sweatshirts (bearing the Avy logo), and dispensed with the hats, that would have portrayed a more modern image to foreign viewers entitled to vote for us.
3) The desks
They were the old-fashioned lift-up desks. Are they still used these days? Again, this was portraying an outdated image. They should have used modern desks.
4) Tossing the papers into the air
About two thirds of the way through our entry the girls lifted the lids of their desks, took out wads of papers and tossed those into the air to land on the floor. There were two things wrong with this pointless, silly gimmick:
a) The whole principle. If children did this in a real school surely they would be disciplined by the teachers (at least a good telling off). Surely this act was
(i) A bad example to children watching in the UK or elsewhere in Europe – they could copy.
(ii) Suggesting to viewers all over Europe how badly kids behave in our schools.
Maybe countries which gave us nothing were disgusted by this unnecessary stunt.
b) What was on the papers. On the night, I just thought it was papers, I didn’t notice what was on them. When I watched our entry again next day, I noticed some of them had flags of other countries on. One could argue that was degrading the countries whose flags ended up on the floor, in effect saying “we hate you”. Did any countries whose flag was treated in that way take offence, and decide not to give us points on the grounds that “They hate us, so nul points for them”?
5) Right at the end
a) Formation Was it really necessary for the girls to huddle together on the desks with Daz in the middle? An unnecessary gimmick, I say. I noticed a couple other countries earlier did a funny formation at the end though.
b) Daz's Call At the end Daz called "Vote for the music". Was this a bribe to get the other countries to vote for us? Or was he admitting that the girls' singing, and his rapping a pointless waste of space and the tune was the only thing worth voting for?
I could go on, but you see, everything was wrong with "Teenage Life".
By the way, that year I set my heart on, and was routing for, "Beautiful Thing" by Antony Costa. In fact I voted for that. I was so gutted when it came second. Maybe we’d have done better that year if he'd gone through to represent us instead of Daz.
2007 Scooch - "Flying The Flag (for You)"
Score: 19 points, 22nd out of 24 finalists
Well what a disappointment. In the national final that year, I felt it was the best song of the six contenders, i.e. the best of a bad bunch. At the time I felt it wasn't a good song, but a good Eurovision song. It ticked all the right boxes: ABBAesque style pop song, catchy, etc. A thousand times better than "Teenage Life" the previous year.
Naturally enough then, I was gutted at how badly it did. I wasn't expecting it to win, but hoped it would do a lot better than it did, maybe top ten.
2008 Andy Abraham - "Even If"
Score: 14 points 25th out of 25 finalists
Again, I was disappointed with this when it was chosen last year. Once again there were six entrants in the UK national final, and Andy was Terry Wogan's wildcard choice. Amazingly, that's the one that won to represent the UK in Belgrade. At the time, I felt it was the best of a bad bunch again, but a no-hoper.
To me, it seemed like a weak imitation of Estonia's winning entry in 2001: "Everybody" by Tanel Padar, Dave Benton & 2XL. I was very disappointed with the UK's entry "Even If" last year, and much preferred several of the other countries' entries, including Armenia "Qele, Qele", Latvia "Wolves Of The Sea", Sweden "Hero", Georgia "Peace Will Come", Serbia "Oro", Russia "Believe" and Norway "Hold On Be Strong". On the other hand, Andy Abraham definitely didn't deserve to come last. I thought there were other far worse entries including France (to me it was a poor imitation of "Hippy Hippy Shake") Azerbaijan and Spain.
So on now to this year...
2009 Jade Ewen - "My Time"
For once, we have picked a ballad. Its lyrics are now available on The Diggiloo Thrush, here they are. I've been led to believe that Webber musicals (e.g. CATS, Phantom of the Opera etc) have been a success throughout Europe. Is that true? If so, surely that will be to our advantage.
Any likelihood that we'll have Torvill and Dean doing three minutes of professional figure skating around Jade, as an extra winning gimmick? I have a firm impression that Russia wouldn't have won last year had it not been for the skater.
Best of British luck to Jade in Moscow this year. At least we've picked the entry much earlier this year than past years, so more time for her to showcase it all over Europe before the Contest in May. Also there's plenty of time for her to perfect her performance of it before the big night.
TT
An excellent achievement, I say. With so many countries entering now, surely just making it to the final in a particular year is an achievement to be proud of, even if you then finish last with nul points in the final.
Grampian4ever posted:
Thats true, although she did make the final (albeit via the jury wildcard) which I suppose is a small acheivement
An excellent achievement, I say. With so many countries entering now, surely just making it to the final in a particular year is an achievement to be proud of, even if you then finish last with nul points in the final.
GO
2) The girls’ costumes
a) The hats. Is there a school ANYWHERE where the kids wear hats these days? If anyone knows of one anywhere, please name it.
b) The stripy blazers. Blazers are now (largely) a BYGONE in schools these days. In almost all primary schools, and many secondary schools, the kids now wear sweatshirts bearing the school logo, not blazers. Indeed, it's only a matter of time (within the next five years max) that sweatshirts replace blazers in ALL schools. Who agrees with me on this statement, by the way?
The combination of the hats and stripy blazers means that this was surely portraying an outdated image to the whole of Europe. The viewers of other voting countries (whether in the final or not) may well have thought we were behind the times seeing this. If the girls had donned sweatshirts (bearing the Avy logo), and dispensed with the hats, that would have portrayed a more modern image to foreign viewers entitled to vote for us.
3) The desks
They were the old-fashioned lift-up desks. Are they still used these days? Again, this was portraying an outdated image. They should have used modern desks.
4) Tossing the papers into the air
About two thirds of the way through our entry the girls lifted the lids of their desks, took out wads of papers and tossed those into the air to land on the floor. There were two things wrong with this pointless, silly gimmick:
a) The whole principle. If children did this in a real school surely they would be disciplined by the teachers (at least a good telling off). Surely this act was
(i) A bad example to children watching in the UK or elsewhere in Europe – they could copy.
(ii) Suggesting to viewers all over Europe how badly kids behave in our schools.
Maybe countries which gave us nothing were disgusted by this unnecessary stunt.
b) What was on the papers. On the night, I just thought it was papers, I didn’t notice what was on them. When I watched our entry again next day, I noticed some of them had flags of other countries on. One could argue that was degrading the countries whose flags ended up on the floor, in effect saying “we hate you”. Did any countries whose flag was treated in that way take offence, and decide not to give us points on the grounds that “They hate us, so nul points for them”?
Ok, I'm going to have to write about this because I remember you posting this all years ago and I thought it was just as idiotic then as I do now. I'm assuming you're trying to take the piss, but just incase this is somehow your actual opinion:
The costume was supposed to look like a generic school uniform. Given the fact that most Europeans didn't/don't wear uniform at school they're not exactly going to be up to date (or care quite frankly) with the latest uniform 'trends'. The costumes are instantly recognisable as being that of a generic school. Yes they are. Accept that.
The hats and blazers are part of the generic school 'look'. And while there aren't as many schools that use hats as part of their uniform any more, your argument about the blazers is ridiculous. I can't think of a single secondary school in this area that doesn't use a blazer as part of their uniform. But even if bllazers were outdated, the European public wouldn't give a sh!t.
Once again the old brown tables are completely generic of schooling. I'm sure there are still plenty of places in Europe that still use these kinds of desks. Using a flat modern desk would look crap.
The throwing of paper with flags on them at the end did not encourage anti-social behaviour (I should know, I watched the news for weeks afterwards because I thought there'd be a student revolt in Europe after the paper throwing took place). I doubt anyone with an ounce of sense would have found it degrading to see their flag amongst 38 others including that of the United Kingdom fall to the floor in the space of a second. I doubt many people actually noticed.
Accept that we scored low in 2006 because the song was naturally awful. It wasn't anything to do with choregraphy, costume or props. It was because of Daz Sampson and his 'talents'. The song was meant to be a piss-take, that's why it was performed with tongue placed firmly in cheek.
Honestly, some people.
Tumble Tower posted:
2) The girls’ costumes
a) The hats. Is there a school ANYWHERE where the kids wear hats these days? If anyone knows of one anywhere, please name it.
b) The stripy blazers. Blazers are now (largely) a BYGONE in schools these days. In almost all primary schools, and many secondary schools, the kids now wear sweatshirts bearing the school logo, not blazers. Indeed, it's only a matter of time (within the next five years max) that sweatshirts replace blazers in ALL schools. Who agrees with me on this statement, by the way?
The combination of the hats and stripy blazers means that this was surely portraying an outdated image to the whole of Europe. The viewers of other voting countries (whether in the final or not) may well have thought we were behind the times seeing this. If the girls had donned sweatshirts (bearing the Avy logo), and dispensed with the hats, that would have portrayed a more modern image to foreign viewers entitled to vote for us.
3) The desks
They were the old-fashioned lift-up desks. Are they still used these days? Again, this was portraying an outdated image. They should have used modern desks.
4) Tossing the papers into the air
About two thirds of the way through our entry the girls lifted the lids of their desks, took out wads of papers and tossed those into the air to land on the floor. There were two things wrong with this pointless, silly gimmick:
a) The whole principle. If children did this in a real school surely they would be disciplined by the teachers (at least a good telling off). Surely this act was
(i) A bad example to children watching in the UK or elsewhere in Europe – they could copy.
(ii) Suggesting to viewers all over Europe how badly kids behave in our schools.
Maybe countries which gave us nothing were disgusted by this unnecessary stunt.
b) What was on the papers. On the night, I just thought it was papers, I didn’t notice what was on them. When I watched our entry again next day, I noticed some of them had flags of other countries on. One could argue that was degrading the countries whose flags ended up on the floor, in effect saying “we hate you”. Did any countries whose flag was treated in that way take offence, and decide not to give us points on the grounds that “They hate us, so nul points for them”?
The costume was supposed to look like a generic school uniform. Given the fact that most Europeans didn't/don't wear uniform at school they're not exactly going to be up to date (or care quite frankly) with the latest uniform 'trends'. The costumes are instantly recognisable as being that of a generic school. Yes they are. Accept that.
The hats and blazers are part of the generic school 'look'. And while there aren't as many schools that use hats as part of their uniform any more, your argument about the blazers is ridiculous. I can't think of a single secondary school in this area that doesn't use a blazer as part of their uniform. But even if bllazers were outdated, the European public wouldn't give a sh!t.
Once again the old brown tables are completely generic of schooling. I'm sure there are still plenty of places in Europe that still use these kinds of desks. Using a flat modern desk would look crap.
The throwing of paper with flags on them at the end did not encourage anti-social behaviour (I should know, I watched the news for weeks afterwards because I thought there'd be a student revolt in Europe after the paper throwing took place). I doubt anyone with an ounce of sense would have found it degrading to see their flag amongst 38 others including that of the United Kingdom fall to the floor in the space of a second. I doubt many people actually noticed.
Accept that we scored low in 2006 because the song was naturally awful. It wasn't anything to do with choregraphy, costume or props. It was because of Daz Sampson and his 'talents'. The song was meant to be a piss-take, that's why it was performed with tongue placed firmly in cheek.
Honestly, some people.
NG
Was lucky enough to watch this on SVT HD (though it was only SD widescreen) in quality - and the production values were very high (apart from the slight mess-up running the wrong replay for Alcazar in the final vote-off - meaning they had two layers of graphics on-screen and had to ditch one - which would have caused heart attacks on a BBC show...)
Quite liked the Alcazar track - and Scotts are so brilliantly cheesy - but the others weren't that memorable.
Next week should be better with Måns Zelmerlow, and Markoolio could be interesting (!)
noggin
Founding member
squawkBOX posted:
I'm slightly confused.
Emilia and Alcazar will go to the final.
Does that mean that Scotta - Jag tror på oss and Caroline af Ugglas - Snälla, snälla are the Andra Chansen selection?
However, how does the influence of Caroline winning the international jury selection work?
Emilia and Alcazar will go to the final.
Does that mean that Scotta - Jag tror på oss and Caroline af Ugglas - Snälla, snälla are the Andra Chansen selection?
However, how does the influence of Caroline winning the international jury selection work?
Was lucky enough to watch this on SVT HD (though it was only SD widescreen) in quality - and the production values were very high (apart from the slight mess-up running the wrong replay for Alcazar in the final vote-off - meaning they had two layers of graphics on-screen and had to ditch one - which would have caused heart attacks on a BBC show...)
Quite liked the Alcazar track - and Scotts are so brilliantly cheesy - but the others weren't that memorable.
Next week should be better with Måns Zelmerlow, and Markoolio could be interesting (!)
BO
On reviewing it, I liked the introduction with Martin Stenmarck and Charlotte Perrelli - again, full of cheese but what more do you want from the Melodifestivalen!?
I wish I could watch it on SVT / SVT HD, I've only got access to internet or 28.8E which is rather useless!
It would be nice for the BBC to transmit the final on an interactive channel!
I'm wondering if Markoolio in his "Det blir en pampig ballad" song is as stupid as the rest of his music!
I wish I could watch it on SVT / SVT HD, I've only got access to internet or 28.8E which is rather useless!
It would be nice for the BBC to transmit the final on an interactive channel!
I'm wondering if Markoolio in his "Det blir en pampig ballad" song is as stupid as the rest of his music!