The rumors that it nearly bankrupt RTE in the 1900's was that true?
Ireland had to host a ridiculous number of contests in the 90s - including three consecutive events ISTR. I don't think there was a danger of bankrupting RTE - but ISTR it hit their entertainment budgets very hard.
It's always been the fact that the EBU know the result prior to the score presentation though. In the past the results have been faxed to a central point and in the prehistoric time they were phoned in. Tere have been occasions where the EBU scrutineer has intervened to get corrected versions from the National Spokesperson.
Agreed the DIGAME process makes this a lot less problematic.
ISTR that the fax system was a late 80s/early 90s introduction though wasn't it? In the earlier days of the contest the phone link was the main method of delivering the votes?
The EBU have always (when national juries have been used) received the votes prior to them being announced on air to ensure that they aren't changed in accordance with the current running totals.
Even in the 50s and 60s? ISTR that that far back often the only international phone circuits linking countries were used for the voting (manually protected at the exchange to stop someone using them for a domestic call).
Well - it was an interesting evening. Frustrating that Red Bee seemed to mangle the BBC HD audio for the first 8 songs - VERY annoying.
However - the voting was near textbook - and followed the statistcal model that Derek Gatherer has developed pretty well. He tipped Ukraine, Russia, Serbia, Greece and Turkey.
Ukraine and Serbia were both pretty good songs - and Ani Lorak's vocal's were much better in the final than semi 2 - and Turkey's performance was much better than their preview showing IMHO. However Greece and Russia were both pretty poor songs delivered pretty badly. Greece did have its usual regional sound though - which works well for them.
For me the big surprises of the evening were Norway and Sweden. Norway did much better than I had guessed during the first semifinal (4th in semi 1) - and Sweden far worse (jury wildcard - it wouldn't have qualified on the televotes).
Given that all the Scandinavian block countries were in the final - so the votes from that bloc weren't potentially as concentrated across a smaller number of songs - it reinforced that Norway is more popular among its neighbours than Sweden.
It will be interesting to see if the EBU tries to do anything to the format next year.
In the cold-war era there was an Eastern Eurovision-equivalent - kind of - called the Sopol Song contest (named after the location it took place in) - though it wasn't voted for in the same way AIUI. ISTR that there may have been an Intervision contest once or twice (Intervision being the Eastern-bloc equivalent of the Eurovision network run by the EBU)
Can't see a straight East vs West split taking place - after all Yugoslavia was in Eurovision years before the end of the cold war (and would be regarded by many as a "Western" Eurovision nation) I wonder if there will be a suggestion of multiple regional semis rather than a dual split-semi (with each block split in two - as was the case this year)
I'm not going to be stupid enough to deny there are crap songs and political voting - it's blatant, but it's too readily bought up as an excuse - especially by Mr Wogan himself.
Russia last night were one of the favourites from the outset with a half decent song, one of the countries major stars and a song produced by Timbaland - that's probably about as credible producer Eurovision is ever going to get. They also had the advantage of being towards the end of the running order.
Andy Abrahams song (and it's been bugging me all week - what is it a rip-off of exactly), has been universally labelled one of the worst entrants from the UK for ages - yet Mr Wogan was very out of touch in his approval of it - and it showed.
He also fluffed the voting stage many times, predicting top marks would be awarded to countries who had already scored points.
Now, I'm not stupid enough to say the Eurovision should be taken seriously, but if Wogan and co. want the UK entrants to be taken seriously, they've got to show the contest some respect. The way Wogan and the BBC have been treating it the last couple of years means the UK simply don't deserve to win it, and Terry seems to have shifted from laughing with the contest to laughing at the contest.
Unfortunately there isn't a fool proof formula, but it really only takes one good song (not a good Eurovision song, but a good, original, song!) to change things. I don't think the UK is in the same position it was a few years ago with the situation in Iraq etc. and if we were so hated, half of Eastern Europe wouldn't be moving here. Also, the build up to London 2012 should help the rest of Europe look on us more positively, and shift the "political" voting more in our favour.
Though really if the contest was truly political, wouldn't it have the same winner every year? I don't think people were blaming politics when Ireland won about five years on the run.
:-(
A former member
Brekkie posted:
Andy Abrahams song (and it's been bugging me all week - what is it a rip-off of exactly), has been universally labelled one of the worst entrants from the UK for ages - yet Mr Wogan was very out of touch in his approval of it - and it showed.
it.
becasue It was a lot better that those Flying prats and nail point people song!
The rumors that it nearly bankrupt RTE in the 1900's was that true?
Ireland had to host a ridiculous number of contests in the 90s - including three consecutive events ISTR. I don't think there was a danger of bankrupting RTE - but ISTR it hit their entertainment budgets very hard.
There is a classic episode of Father Ted where this is alluded to as well. My Lovely Horse would have been a great entry.
Hopefully Terry does go - he has to really......
......He also fluffed the voting stage many times, predicting top marks would be awarded to countries who had already scored points.
I disagree, Terry guessed more correct than he got wrong.
I personally would have like to have seen the result from the back-up jury, to see how reflective they are to the public vote. It would seem *fairer* if the public vote was only restricted to the semi-finals... the structure of the semi's this year seemed more satisfactory in terms of reflecting a fairer balance of European countries.
The rumors that it nearly bankrupt RTE in the 1900's was that true?
Ireland had to host a ridiculous number of contests in the 90s - including three consecutive events ISTR. I don't think there was a danger of bankrupting RTE - but ISTR it hit their entertainment budgets very hard.
Ireland won in 1992, so the 1993 ESC came from Millstreet, Ireland.
Ireland won again in 1993, so the 1994 ESC came from Dublin, Ireland.
Ireland won yet again in 1994, so under the standard regime, the ESC was expected to come from somewhere in Ireland in 1995.
In 1994, RTE paid for an orchestra. However Ireland's entry "Rock 'n' Roll Kids" by Paul Harrington and Charlie McGettigan didn't use it; Paul and Charlie played the guitar and piano whilst singing. A ballad which was hardly expected to win. It's been rumoured this was a subtle attempt not to win. Surprisingly, it did, with 226 points, so it meant RTE had to cough up and host the show third time running in 1995. Here's a quote from the book "
The Complete Eurovision Song Contest Companion 1999
" (Pavilion Books Ltd), page 130:
"The song Rock 'N' Roll Kids' was a surprise winner. It was widely seen by commentators - both inside and outside Ireland - as a gentle attempt
not
to win Eurovision, as the Irish had won it for the past two years and were not overly enthusiastic about the costs involved in staging another contest."
For goodness sake, WHY should Ireland have been expected to host it in 1995? Ireland had hosted it two years running: 1993 and 1994. Why couldn't another country have hosted it in 1995? Poland came second with their debut entry in 1994, so surely they should have been considered as 1995 hosts.
In 1995, Ireland submitted "Dreamin'" sung by Eddie Friel. What a downright boring song to send anyone (viewers and judges) to sleep. The final line "Sleepy wake up to reality" really was the time to wake up after dozing off for three minutes of such a boring song. No wonder it failed to impress the judges across Europe. I've often wondered if RTE deliberately chose this song in the hope of coming last with nul points. Unfortunately it didn't come last, but didn't win either, it finished 14th out of 23 countries with 44 points. Here it isclick here, judge for yourself.
Norway won in 1995, so Ireland were spared hosting it in 1996, Norway had the honour of hosting it. BUT Ireland won again in 1996, for the fourth time in five years, so Ireland had to host it for the fourth time in five years, at great expense, in 1997.
Again WHY for heaven's sake? Ireland should have been spared hosting it. Norway, the runners-up of 1996 should have also been let off hosting the 1997 contest, having hosted it in 1996. I think SWEDEN, who came third in 1996, should have had the honour of hosting the 1997 contest, since five years had elapsed since they previously hosted it in 1992 (Malmo).
The EBU needs to review the policy on who hosts next year's contest. If the winner has hosted it in the last five years, they should consider a lower placed country, e.g. second, third, fourth etc. until they find a country that hasn't hosted it in the past five years.
