Eurovision 2012 - 22/24/26 May 2012

Don't the EBU use BISS encryption on their 4:2:2 feeds? If so the fans may well be linked to broadcasters...

No not always no, the Eurovision and voting is always in the clear. Previous years I've seen voting feeds come on and off change ID and power levels depending on the broadcaster.

I do wonder if it will be next year now

Next year we could see the rehearsals encrypted but the actual semi's and final clear for compatibility/accessibility with every broadcaster and as backup.

That's good to know. Will make sure I point a suitable dish next year!

Has the voting/jury breakdown been released yet?

This is my favourite moment from the 1 semi-final dress rehearsal.

http://youtu.be/XaPJt5fLjgM?t=1h34m17s

ESC 2012 Final
It's all over for another year. What a great night of entertainment it was.

Firstly I'm disgusted Russia came second. In my opinion, their song was a load of garbage, having made it to the final against my wishes it deserved last with nul points. Several other songs were better and deserved higher placings. Thank God it didn't win. As for the others:

Under-rated:
Denmark: ought to have been 11th to 15th.
Hungary: deserved about 10th to 13th, not 24th.
Iceland, Romania, Greece: deserved top 5.
Ireland: "Waterline" not as good as "Lipstick", but still deserved top 10.
Italy: deserved a little higher than 9th.
Malta: deserved top 10.
Spain: deserved 6th or 7th.
UK: Engelbert gave an outstanding performance of an excellent song.  25th (second last) and 12 points was an insult.  He deserved a top ten placing.

Over-rated:
Albania: (deserved bottom 10, not 5th)
Azerbaijan: (9th or 10th might have been fine but not 4th)
Germany: (should have been 11th to 15th, not 8th)
Turkey

Shouldn't have qualified:
Albania, Russia, Moldova: Latvia and Finland, plus either Belgium or San Marino deserved their grand final slots.
Norway, Ukraine: The Netherlands and Portugal deserved their grand final slots.

Worst outfits:
Denmark: an odd mixture, e.g. cellist's printed purple hoodie, drummer's printed sleeveless T-shirt, lead singer's sailor hat (what was that for?).
Germany: whole group sloppily dressed, why did the lead singer have a hat?

I joined in and copied the dance routine (mostly arm movements, due to lack of space) for lively dance-along songs e.g. Cyprus, Norway, Greece, Sweden, Turkey.  Doing so added to the fun.

Winner: Sweden wasn't the one I wanted to win; I voted for Iceland (though I also saw Romania, Greece, Malta, Ireland and Serbia as worthy winners).  However as the voting progressed, I kept hoping Sweden would win just to keep the Russian grannies off the top.

An in-depth review is on my blog.

If you'd posted that about 5 days ago I might be bothered to read it, but almost a week after the event when everyone's discussed it endlessly and moved on, it's pointless.

Don't worry, his Jubilee review will be out in a months time.

Sorry, it was only last night that my in-depth review was ready to post on my blog. Writing that took time you know. I've had numerous other things that have had to take priority over writing my in-depth ESC 2012 Final report the last seven days.

I wasn't keeping Eurovision fans waiting for nothing.

Your personal musings on each song would have been better placed in real-time in this thread, a chatroom or on Facebook - and you've peppered it with the kind of minutia that Alan Deddicoat places on how many times the number 46 has been drawn in the lottery.

By posting this you're obviously seeking a response, so you can have mine - it's a week out of date and about as insightful as the side of a Cornflakes box. We all had songs we loved and songs we thought were weak. We all had something to say about their hats or their dancing or how energetic or attractive they are. The point is to discuss it all together as it happens and have a sense of community.

I don't disagree with you. However the beauty of writing about the songs after the grand final was over was that I was able to quote the points and placings, and criticise which songs I felt were over or under rated.


I take it you mean things like:
a) Jedward's second attempt at representing Ireland, and comparing "Waterline" to "Lipstick" last year.
b) My saying Željko previously sang "Lane Moje" for Serbia and Montenegro in 2004, and comparing "Nije Ljubav Stvar" to "Lane Moje".

I just thought it was worth saying things like that. When I wrote my ESC 2008 Grand Final review here on TV Forum 4 years ago I said, under my bit of chat about Sweden, that Charlotte Perrelli (formerly Nilsson) who sang "Hero" for Sweden in 2008 had previously won for Sweden with "Take Me To Your Heaven" in 1999.


Sorry it took me until last night to post the big report on my blog. I managed to get the semi-final 1 and semi-final 2 reports on my blog the day after the applicable show, but bear in mind, there was less to write about each semi-final. I said a bit about each song, whether each one ought to qualify or not. Only the ten qualifiers were announced both evenings, with no indication of points or placings, so I was only able to say how I felt about countries I wanted to qualify that did or didn't, and countries I didn't want that went through or didn't qualify.

The final was different, I wanted to say whether each song was over or under rated (points / position). Furthermore analysing the voting took a considerable time, something I couldn't do in the immediate aftermath of the semi-finals. Do you understand now why it took longer to produce a report for the final than the semis?

I don't think anyone knows....

I agree with Gavin, it's clearly been posted for a response.