Eurovision 2019

No, neither the Jamala or SuRie invaders were my doing :p There was an interview section between Mans and two former Eurovision winners and I'm visible in the background throughout it, going a bit embarassingly crazy once I realised that I was on TV in front of hundreds of millions of people around the world. Fun to show at parties along with my selfie of me and last year's Czech Republic contestant, when he randomly exited rehearsals and said hi to everyone queuing outside the arena on the afternoon of the final.

On my way home this year I stopped over in Athens (as that was the cheapest Tel Aviv-London route when I booked) which meant I shared a plane with this year's Greek entry, witnessing a rather nice moment of her arriving at the airport to TV camera crews and cheering fans & friends/family - with a brief group singalong of her entry to welcome her home. Nice that they made so much effort given that she only came 21st - I doubt Michael Rice had anything similar at London Heathrow.

(yes, I genuinely love Eurovision this much :p )

Oh dear, the substitute Belarus voting was incorrect .... The EBU have had to correct the final result

EBU issues statement on Eurovision 2019 Grand Final Jury Result https://t.co/PwilGd8k0X

— Eurovision Song Contest (@Eurovision) May 22, 2019

The corrected result

Netherlands (498 points)

Italy (472 points)

Russia (370 points)

Switzerland (364 points)

Sweden (334 points)

Norway (331 points)

North Macedonia (305 points)

Azerbaijan (302 points)

Australia (284 points)

Iceland (232 points)

Czech Republic (157 points)

Denmark (120 points)

Cyprus (109 points)

Malta (107 points)

Slovenia (105 points)

France (105 points)

Albania (90 points)

Serbia (89 points)

San Marino (77 points)

Estonia (76 points)

Greece (74 points)

Spain (54 points)

Israel (35 points)

Belarus (31 points)

Germany (24 points)

United Kingdom (11 points)

Michael Rice's total is now lower than before.

So they even faked the results wrong?

Seen something on Twitter to about one jury member voting in the wrong direction, giving one point for their most favourite rather than least favourite show.

Wow certainly a few (granted relatively minor) changes on the scoreboard. One big change would have been that that very tense moment where it was between the Netherlands and Sweden right at the end of the night actually would have been between the Dutch and North Macedonia who topped the jury vote.

In a way it’s worth the mistake just so we got that truly GIF-worthy moment when John Ludvick’s face drops as he realises he hasn’t won.

It does beg the question why they didn’t just discount the Belarus’ jury results completely rather than inventing a set of completely fictional set of jury results for them.

I think they do something similar in San Marino for the televote because the country’s too small to have one. Not sure why they can’t just have a second jury made up of non music professionals of all ages to represent their televote.

So now the dust's begining to settle, what did everyone think of the presentation from Tel Aviv?

- I was amazed they managed to make the relatively small main arena look so big on tv
- A great kinetic set, very adaptable, amazing lighting
- A golden circle now seems here to stay
- No stage invasion
- Great to see the LED screens back and they looked pin sharp with relatively few pixels showing on the tight shots
- The green room, which I believe had paying audience members, seemed under used. Can't remember seeing any wide green room shots with them in it
- Past Eurovison mash-up was fabulous
- Madonna. Least said soonest mended (and I am / was a fan)
- Its a shame interval act Shalva, from semi two, didn't get a reprise to a wider grand final audience
- New voting system was great
- Not sure about the hosts
- Start of the show and into the nation parade was relatively fast
- Why such a long gap between last vote and first jury result? The juries have all voted the night before anyway. It seems to be getting longer and longer. Last year in Lisbon I was standing in the arena, couldn't hack it any longer and got a taxi back to my hotel and was in bed with a glass of wine watching it on tv before the voting started
- All in all, much, much better than I was expecting
- Would love to hear thoughts from anyone that was there on the night
- Norway should've won

That's the only junction they can put the final (and longest) ~8 minute commercial break in the latter part of the show. You can't put a break within the phone vote window, nor can you put an 8'00" break in the jury spokesperson slot. They are kind of stuffed. The only real solution is to reduce the length of the phone voting window, which seems to have got longer in recent years?

I was at the Eurovision Song Contest in Tel Aviv. This was my fourth Grand final and I have to say one of the best (only Stockholm 2016 was better IMO). The run-up to Eurovision week was it’s usual chaos but in the end I felt the city embraced the contest much more than Lisbon did last year. In Lisbon you almost felt the resentment from the locals whereas in Tel Aviv you genuinely felt the excitement in the build-up. After all I was in McDonalds at 4am in the morning and they were playing ‘Better the Devil You Know’ by Sonia, that’s dedication!

In the end I saw the two jury semi-finals and the three live shows. Of most interest was the fact that Netflix were at the contest filming the new Will Ferrell film about Eurovision that will be released next May on the streaming service. Before each show the audience were filmed for reaction shots and atmosphere shots. They played for us the Icelandic and Russian entries in the Netflix film and filmed our reactions to these. Throughout the show there was also a Netflix crew in the standing area taking candid shots of the crowd.

The venue was much smaller than last year however I felt it worked so much better. The Altice Arena in Lisbon was huge and you felt like you were totally disconnected from the stage. In Tel Aviv everyone had a clear view of the stage and those of us in general standing were still really close to the stage. The stage worked very well and certainly appeared to have great depth on screen.
The Green Room did have an audience for the Grand Final. Patrons paid around £450 for these tickets. They had free food and drink all night, as well as a goodie bag. I’m surprised that they didn’t make more of the audience on screen as the Green Room did appear quite sterile.

I thought the overall standard of the songs was really high this year and very equal across the board. Any one of those that finished in the Top Ten could have easily won the contest. The new voting system had its pros and cons. Whilst the reveal of Germany’s nil points and Jon Lundvik not winning were good TV they were also quite brutal and not something that Eurovision is used to. The other main con was that Norway did not receive the due attention that they deserved for finishing top of the televote. Their success was somewhat hidden away.

I thought the hosts were excellent and in Assi Azar we have finally found a true successor to Petra Mede. He’s easily up there with the best Eurovision hosts of all time. Shalva are interesting. If they were not opposed to performing on the Shabbat then they would have won Rising Star and been the Israeli entry this year. The audience absolutely loved them and their performance in the interval of semi-final 2 was my highlight of the week.

Nevermind Madonna but the length of the interval is an issue. The gap between the last song finishing and the first vote being given was 1 hour 4 minutes. Undoubtedly the need to shoehorn Madonna in did exacerbate the issues with the interval however the EBU need to look at ways of streamlining it. In Tel Aviv it worked OK because KAN put on such a good show, however in Lisbon it was a total snoozefest.

Overall Tel Aviv ranks up there with my favourite shows of all time. The atmosphere all week was electric. The city was beautiful and we were able to do some sightseeing, as well as having a few beach days. On top of that the television shows were top rate! I know we say it nearly every year but this will be a tough act to follow in 2020.

Roll on The Netherlands!!

Really? I actually thought the Green Room had loads of atmosphere on TV, certainly more than recent years. I'd happily see them keep it in a separate room to the arena. They did a really good job at getting everyone in shot and waving their flags! I was very surprised to see there was an audience there, I didn't notice them till Duncan was walking past them to do his reprise.

A couple of more points, I’m not sure if they were picked up earlier in the thread. I have just skim read most of the thread, though I see a printing issue seemed to be a big deal

Days before the Grand Final Christer Bjorkman was hospitalised with a blood clot. He had surgery a few days after the final and is now recovering.

https://www.eurovisionary.com/christer-bjorkman-hospitalized-had-a-blood-clot-yesterday/

Someone online did an analysis of how the interval has expanded since 1999 (the first contest with advertising windows). I’ve shared it on Twitter. Although the interval was generally around 30 minutes in length for around 10 years it has doubled in length since 2014. Even last year, when there was nothing worthwhile in the interval it lasted 45 minutes!

Stolen from elsewhere but interesting to see just how ridiculously long the interval has become in recent years. Some of it undoubtedly Madonna’s fault but it seriously needs dealt with! #DaretoDream #Eurovision pic.twitter.com/fl6evDtZ9U

— Chris Woods (@chriswoods1978) May 19, 2019

At long last, my in-depth review of the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 Grand Final is now available. Sorry it's taken me this long to complete it for various reasons. Admittedly nearly three calendar months have now past since the event, but better late than never. The link is below:
Eurovision Song Contest 2019 Grand Final

Debatable.

My Extended Voting Analysis of the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 Grand Final is now available. Sorry it's taken me until nearly three months after the ESC 2019 Grand Final to put it online.
Eurovision Song Contest 2019 Grand Final Extended Voting Analysis

This report also includes alternative voting scenarios:
1) Jury voting first, followed by televoting totals announced from bottom of the jury scoreboard to top of the jury scoreboard (BUT starting with the corrected set of Belarusian jury scores)
2) Jury voting first, followed by televoting totals from lowest televote score to highest televote score (as 2016 - 2018)
3) Televoting first, followed by jury totals from bottom of televote scoreboard to top of televote scoreboard (opposite of 2019)
4) Televoting first, followed by jury totals from lowest jury score to highest jury score (opposite of 2016 - 2018)
Click here to jump directly to the alternative voting scenarios.