Eurovision 2012 - 22/24/26 May 2012

My eyes didn't fall out you know - I could see the scoreboard already. Did you think we weren't keeping up with the points and placings?



No, I mean like:


I mean, what the hell is that? Have you any conception how many possible outcomes there are if you start to hypothesise about the scores? Why would you think this is useful? Why would you invest your time working this out with a pencil and presenting it?



What I fail to understand is your motivation for presenting a "report" in the first place.

I *am* interested in people's opinions of the songs and singers - even yours. That also extends to reminiscing about previous songs and shows - but really, your report is the answer to a question no one asked.

Hells bells, next time have a glass of wine and blether about it in a chatroom as it happens.

Unless of course you're not particularly interested in what others think?

I for one am happy that TT has decided to get himself a blog and put his long rambling predjudice filled rants, sorry, reports on there rather than here. I hope he does the same with the inevitable repeats of his requests for Jimmy Cricket and Boogie Beebies to appear after 1am on Children in Need / Comic Relief / Sport Relief when these events occur in the future. It's been a breath of fresh air not having his posts in this thread (apart from the summaries, which are actually quite accessible) this year.

As previous years have shown, he's not interested in what anyone else thinks, so if his opinions are sidelined to a quiet, lonely, obsessive about potential scores corner of the internet, all the better. The day he becomes interested in anyone else's opinion is the day he should be asked to join a chat room or to resume posting here.

Of course I expected other people who saw the Grand Final to have seen the scoreboard, just like me.


I was trying to explain the moment in the voting when Sweden effectively won the Contest.

At the start of Georgia's turn to vote, the worst that could potentially have happened was Russia could have tied with Sweden on 294 points. In that case, how would the winner have been decided?

When Georgia gave 5 points to Russia (taking its cumulative total to 215) and 8 points to Sweden (taking its cumulative total to 302) Sweden were uncatchable, and had won no matter how the remaining countries awarded their points.

During Italy's round of voting I heard Graham Norton say something like "Sweden can't be caught", and after a quick bit of maths I believed him. Watching my video recording of the ESC final during the week, I spotted that it was during Georgia's turn to vote that Sweden became uncatchable and thus won.

As for a different matter, two years ago, someone left this post when I said I liked Belarus - 3+2 "Butterflies" better than Turkey - maNga "We Could Be The Same". Well I quite liked "Butterflies" in 2010, it was a sweet, soothing song which deserved better than 24th place, 18 points. Last year I said I liked Azerbaijan - Ell & Nikki "Running Scared", it was a beautiful, soothing ballad with flowing arm movements and I was therefore pleased to see it win.

For the record, here are those songs:
Belarus 20 - 3+2 "Butterflies"
Azerbaijan 2011 - Ell & Nikki "Running Scared"

Compare them to this.

Of all the 42 countries that entered the Eurovision Song Contest 2012, I don't think there was anything similar this year.

Turgid.

Someone? If there was a raised eyebrow smilie it would be used right now.

It seems that you value the songs and the singers quite highly. You want the best songs with the strongest lyrics and the decent singers to win. Which is brilliant!

Only problem is, you're watching Eurovision. Which means old women and representatives of tiny countries with about 10 friendly neighbouring states are almost certain to do better than good songs, good lyrics and good singers.

I've posted some statistics on my blog about the history of the Eurovision Song Contest, taking Sweden's 2012 win into consideration.

The statistics shown there are as follows (you may click the following links to jump directly to the following sections).
Thirteen Years Of Different Winners
Years Taken To First Win Eurovision Song Contest
Still Waiting For A First Win
When Will They Win Again?
Gaps Between Wins
How Many Wins?

Here are just a few statistics arising from Sweden's 2012 win "Euphoria".
a) It was Sweden's fifth win to-date, having previously won in 1974, 1984, 1991 and 1999.
b) The gap between their previous win and this win was 13 years (1999 - 2012).
c) That was Sweden's longest gap between wins to-date.
d) Also that was the eighth longest gap between wins overall in the history of the Contest.
e) A different country has won the ESC every year from 2000 to 2012 inclusive (13 years).

Here's the final BARB ratings and how they compare to those since 1999:

1999: 8.91 million
2000: 6.54 million
2001: 6.98 million
2002: 7.81 million
2003: 7.94 million
2004: 8.38 million
2005: 7.97 million
2006: 8.33 million
2007: 8.77 million
2008: 7.15 million
2009: 7.91 million
2010: 5.59 million
2011: 9.68 million
2012: 7.59 million

Somewhat down on last year's huge high, the hot weather/lack of Blue playing somewhat of a part there, but still much higher than 2010's all-time low!

I think all's been said that can be said, but I can't help thinking that if the internal selection is to continue, we need to send someone who's got a bit of equity across Europe.

It's utterly bizarre that the UK has the best music industry in the world, yet we send lukewarm turds to Eurovision. As the promotion trail for Jade Ewen in 2009 proved, if the song gets a lot of promotion and the artist (or songwriter in the case of "My Time") is well-known, the viewing public across the continent will respond to it.

We probably won't get the likes of someone massive like Adele or Robbie Williams or even Gary Barlow writing the song (which would be fantastic!) but why couldn't we send Jessie J, Pixie Lott or Ed Sheeran? Someone who would guarantee a decent amount of airplay on Europe's radio stations?

We got it right in 2009. We arsed in up in 2010. 2011 was halfway in the right direction. 2012 was a bit of a p**stake, really.

Time for a change in attitude.

Presumes they'd be up for it (which I'd expect they wouldn't).

Pixie Lott's team were supposed to have approached the BBC to do it this year but they turned her down, allegedly because she's crap live.

I can't imagine that happened.