Eurovision 2017

There was a lot wrong with the show last night. It lacked overall finesse and any atmosphere whatsoever. It was obviously a show done on the cheap. There was a noticeable lack of good inserts/travelogues. Most of the commercial breaks simply featured Timur in the green room, chatting to the contestants. Costs were definitely cut by having Jamala perform twice. I think in semi-final 2 former winner Ruslana will also be performing a few times. The only cheer from the audience was when Verka Serduchka appeared. That video had a hint of SVT Melfest about it. Other touches were missing, such an introductory note to introduce each song. It also seemed that there was no free wristbands with lights given out, they are usually a mainstay of the shows. Also agree about the lack of stage props. The camera work was nowhere near the standard we usually see. I have never heard so many bad vocals at Eurovision. The sound was awful, and it has been awful all week in the rehearsals.

The hosts were pretty dire. I was surprised at Timur being so wooden, he has previously hosted Junior Eurovision and has presented all the elements leading up to the contest, such as the allocation draw. The two main hosts were dreadful. They were obviously picked because of their looks (not necessarily a bad thing) but the script was lost in the wooden delivery. The jokes weren’t awful, just how they were delivered.

The lack atmosphere is down to a few factors. On the one hand there is a fraction of the travelling fans attending this year compared with others. OGAE (fan club) members were treated dreadfully, with a threat of there being no tickets for them. The result was that many diehard Eurovision fans that I know simply decided to give this year a miss. The large number of LGBT fans were also concerned for their safety, and in general many people were concerned about travelling over Russia into Ukrainian air space. The result is a half empty hall. To put it all in context the semi-finals in Stockholm, a Eurovision mad city, weren’t even sold out. Every effort has been made to alienate the very people who pay the money to bankroll the contest each year! I’m sure Kiev is a lovely city but the lack of organisation has robbed the contest of its many fans.

SVT and the Swedes obviously set a high bar in terms of production and overall atmosphere. However in comparison to the 2015 contest in Austria I think the overall production is better.

So far just:

A reasonable second half slot could help us a lot. I don't for a second think we could win (I assume that'll be Sweden or Italy) but we mightn't do terribly if we're on about two-thirds through the contest.

Yes this would certainly help us out. The UK was 7th in the betting odds when I checked this morning.

Italy and Portugal at 1st and 2nd respectively.

I have a feeling we'll do better than expected - BUT I think there's a chance we'll get amazing jury votes followed by a not so good public vote, which will drag us down.

Either way I think we can hold our heads up high this year.

Tickets are even still available for the live Grand Final - it's amazing how easy it is to get them this year, the semi final on Thursday has hundreds of places left (standing and seated) discounted to €17.

Obviously it's a bit tricky actually finding any cheap flights to Ukraine (or hotels) this late though - if Italy or Portugal win (the current two frontrunners) I can see it being much harder to grab a ticket next year.

I agree with most of what you say, but I don't think it looked cheap. I felt it looked rushed and recycled. Technically, it's all there, it doesn't look cheap, they've got more moving lights, video screens and tracking cameras than you'd ever want to set up, the money has definately been spent - but they're not using it as well as they have done in previous years.

Take the credits for example - even the Graphic Design Team have managed to end up with a mangled credit for Aleksey Dyvysenko...

Then there's the stage surface - yeah, nice high resolution led screen under the glass top - but it doesn't look to have been laid with the normal care and precision (normally it's a custom build, I suspect this year it's a second hand / modular system), so when you get a solid colour on that screen, you can see all the panes of glass aren't lined up properly.

We know the production side was basically restarted three months ago, and it really shows. I think it's a credit to those working on it that they've managed to pull this much of a show together in that time.

On the other hand, I really hope the hosts get sacked before Saturday.

A catchy tune but even after watching it with the subtitles I have no idea what it's on about. What is the naked ape referring to,and why the mentions of 'singing in the rain ', nirvana and karma?


On a subtitles related note, I noticed that the Portuguese entry had Portuguese subtitles rather than the usual English translations.

Really don't get how Portugal is so high. That was bloody awful.

I did take a punt on the UK each way at 50/1 so glad to see it drop to 25/1. I honestly think she and the song is better than any other female performer last night, and arguably most of the qualifiers too. Won't do us any harm either that for the first time in three years we definately have the better song than Australia.

Voting wise what will be interesting is how Russia's non-appearance affects things. Traditionally despite their issues they mop up a lot of votes year in year out so potentially there are votes up for grabs there. Obviously Brexit will get the blame if we lose and despite some awful efforts over the years we've ended up at the wrong end of the voting board (as have others) a couple of times in the last few years with entries which should have done better, but in all honesty I suspect Europe care alot less about Brexit than we do. They just think we're fools.

Well the good thing for us is that Spain have got their name all over last place.

Genuinely don't know how we'll do. Every year there's a feeling of "we won't embarrass ourselves this year, we won't win but we won't do badly", just before we embarrass ourselves and do badly. I personally think our song is as dull as anything, but Lucie performs it well so that may lift us higher than normal.

Saw the video of Italy's rehearsal - definitely feels like the winner.

I think the cost and practicality of getting elaborate props couriered to Ukraine, and the difficulty of building locally, probably meant many countries kept props to a minimum.