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Episode 5 - Eurovision for All
46 Plays1 year ago
Gregg and Ross discuss the finer nuances of the Eurovision Song Contest and this year's competition.
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Transcript
Podcast Introduction: 'Unmotivated and Unprepared'
00:00:06
Speaker
You're listening to Unmotivated and Unprepared, a podcast where we take a break from the everyday hustle and bustle to muse about life, liberty, and the pursuit of randomness. Now here's Greg and Ross.
Setting the Stage: Eurovision as Topic
00:00:29
Speaker
What's up, everybody? Welcome to another episode of Unmotivated and Unprepared. I'm Ross. And I'm Greg.
00:00:36
Speaker
And Greg, today we're going to recap something that most of Europe and a total of 12 Americans are talking about today. And what is that? What is that, Greg? Because you know it. That's the Eurovision Song Contest, Ross.
00:00:52
Speaker
Oh man, so for the uninitiated, before everybody just hangs up and says, you know, wasn't that a Will Ferrell movie? Greg, do you want to let some of our listener who might not know what Eurovision is, just give them a brief like one minute spiel?
Eurovision's History and Cultural Impact
00:01:11
Speaker
Yeah, sure. So essentially, it was originally based on the San Remo Music Festival that was held on the Italian Riviera since 1951. And it was a very popular contest that people like to go see songs that were brought out from other areas of Europe. And in a way to try to unify with the European Broadcasting Union was basically public television for
00:01:35
Speaker
for Europe because they're smaller countries. They don't have assets to buy. They pull their monies together so they can buy shows from other places, make shows, produce shows, produce films, etc. They thought, how do we unify all these countries together? And so in 1956, they got together and said, let's start the Eurovision Song Contest.
00:01:55
Speaker
And what's interesting about the song contest, because what Americans immediately go to is, it's American Idol. And it's nothing like American Idol from the context of how it actually operates and works. American Idol is really the record companies trying to get licensing rights for songs that they have in their catalog, right? So that's what they sing covers. So people get on there, it's a singing competition in the sense that you're looking at the talent of the singer.
00:02:19
Speaker
Whereas Eurovision is really more about the song. Obviously the performance matters, who the artist is, and a lot of the performers write their music. So there is some of that, but it's the song that's competing.
Song vs. Performance: What Matters in Eurovision?
00:02:31
Speaker
So from the regional competitions into the semi-finals into the finals, the same song is performed continuously. Sometimes with the same staging all the way through.
00:02:41
Speaker
Yeah, so you've got, so this event is yearly and the big, we just finished the finale yesterday, but it's really the lead up to the big week, which is two days or two rounds of semi-finals, then going into the finals. The lead up to that, to what you alluded to was countries, different European countries, depending on the size of the country and how they do it.
00:03:05
Speaker
have contests for the songwriters and these performers that they may a lot of times people vote from that country to send their representative to the semi finals and then hopefully the finals. That's right. Exactly.
00:03:23
Speaker
And then the big five, as you call them, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy and Spain, always get a buy into the final guaranteed, correct? That's right. Yeah, they give the most money to the European Broadcasting Union and as a consolation for that, they're allowed to send
00:03:48
Speaker
they're allowed to go all the way into the finals. And there's a good reason for that, right? If they're paying the most, I mean, ultimately it's a viewership thing. If you're paying the most money to be there, you should be in the finals. Yeah, you get a crack at it. And those countries have won before. Like they have definitely won because they have big pop artists. They put a lot of money behind this and they have some good songs. But they don't win with the level of frequency. Like for instance,
00:04:16
Speaker
they send big stars through, like stars that are local. Now granted, these are not, these aren't oftentimes not nationwide stars. They're not international stars. They tend to be regional. They tend to be from that country. They tend to be popular in that country, but they may not have a fan base outside because once you get a fan base outside, it can get really
00:04:37
Speaker
difficult to win, because people know who you are, they don't feel like they're given a shot to somebody who deserves a shot. So voting tends to be a little bit against you if you send someone that's kind of already got nation or international
Ross's Initial Impressions and France's Entry
00:04:50
Speaker
press.
00:04:50
Speaker
Yeah, someone who's already like pretty big, famous internationally or not. It's just, it's kind of a, it's a bad look, if you will. It's kind of like, and this is supposed to still be kind of a contest where somebody, you never know who's going to win. And it's somebody trying to get famous. You know, that's probably some of these people's biggest ever stage moment is Eurovision versus an international star could have sold out an arena somewhere. So that's right. Okay. So then let's talk.
00:05:19
Speaker
Let's talk this year because this is this was my first year. Thank you, Greg, for introducing me to Eurovision the last couple of years. This is my first year to watch the whole like final and what was surprising to me.
00:05:32
Speaker
was you talked about like, oh, you'll hear a song. And a lot of these people will either have a produced music video that's released beforehand, or they'll show their performance from their country's competition. But I was so surprised at how different, if you just listen to the song, how it changes when you see the performance of it at the actual Eurovision song contest. So one example for me, France.
00:06:02
Speaker
Like, I don't know French. I have no clue what the guy was saying, but one amazing singer. But when he when he took that step back moment and he started singing from a distance at the end and then like walked up to the mic, what?
00:06:21
Speaker
And for the audience who haven't seen it, the artist's name is Slimane. The song is called Monamur. If you haven't watched it, if you're listening and you haven't seen the performance, I recommend going out to YouTube and taking a look at it or watching on Peacock or however, not that I'm trying to advertise a brand here.
00:06:39
Speaker
It's not just a slight step back. The guy pulls operatic experience and pulls all the way from his diaphragm's volume from the microphone, because when you actually see the side shot that they show, which obviously is for effect, he's standing significantly at least eight to 10 feet away from the microphone. Yeah, he's far away. Yeah, he's far away.
00:06:59
Speaker
And I think that, and I think what made his performance interesting, and the French do this. So the last, if you go back and listen to Lazzara Evadimont, or listen to Barbara Praviz, voila. All my French listeners, of which we have none, probably hate all of my French. Although the Uber driver last night who was French, liked my French yesterday. But I think he was just more thrilled that someone said bonjour when they got into the car.
00:07:24
Speaker
But from a perspective of France, they often come with very big songs. France tends to be much more of a Eurovision traditionalist. Now there's been different ones. I remember when they had the song, Mustache, that was more of a jokey song.
00:07:44
Speaker
And they had another dance song several years ago in 2016 or so. They had a very dancy song, much like Austria's Let It Rave this year. But most of the time, at least since after COVID, every artist that's come from France has been big volume chanson, like that means chanson, like these big, huge Eurovision, blow the doors
Eurovision: Cultural, Economic, and Historical Perspectives
00:08:06
Speaker
off. Yeah, just really, really short. And I mean, it was,
00:08:11
Speaker
It was impressive, because when I first heard the song, I'm like, all right, it's OK. It's good. He sounds really good. But then when you see him and you see him project and everything else, I mean, despite him starting laying on the ground and doing this kind of weird crawl tiger walk thing at first, you know, it's fine. But then it's part of the performance. But then you see the singular focus on him. And I mean, the camera angles are a big deal. I realized that.
00:08:39
Speaker
They work those camera angles and all the performances very well. I mean, it's a heavily rehearsed show. Yeah. One of the things about Eurovision is that it's for a lot for the uninitiated. It's a week. It's a week long. It's like the Olympics for music.
00:08:58
Speaker
They come in and it's no different than the Cannes Film Festival where it's a week, right? But it's a week. It's a week long and they have a fashion show, they have junkets, they have parties for different regions in different countries, host their little like regional get to know us. There's a tourism element to this. So every time before an artist comes on the show, they show a postcard. It really is about driving European economy. It does have an economic bent to it.
00:09:25
Speaker
very much like the Olympics does, right? Just like sports, right? Just like football in America where, you know, American football, right? They try to show the university, they show a lot of commercials. It's a sales piece for getting you to go to that school, right? Having a good football team helps you with the enrollment. Same way with the song contest, it's, yes, the song is there, but you'll notice little representations of their own country being displayed and trying to show
00:09:53
Speaker
something to the audience. Yeah, and I mean, they even talked about like, this was the 50th year since ABBA had won with Waterloo, which is probably if you tell, if you tell an average person who has no clue what Eurovision is, and you said, well, that's where ABBA really got their big start wasn't necessarily their most famous song, really, but that's where they got their like,
00:10:14
Speaker
big known people like oh aha and they did talk a lot about like how you know they it was a lot of throwback to them so you know that country you know the country and everything else getting a lot of like press and everything else but yeah it's it's absolutely a tourism thing is to pump up the the arts and it's it's real i mean i think it was really cool because you get to see a lot of representation and you truly never know what you're going to get like ireland
Diverse Performances and Country Selections
00:10:42
Speaker
did not, I didn't realize one, Ireland has won the most Eurovision titles. Yes. Did not, did not think somebody named Bambi Thug would impress me, but the performance once again, I don't know. Hey man, crown the witch. Crown the witch, man. Crown the witch.
00:11:05
Speaker
Oftentimes, you don't always know what's going to win at Eurovision. Yeah. And you don't know what's going to represent, like what's going to win for your country. I do think oftentimes a country will send an artist like Bambi Thug to send a different message about what their country is about. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.
00:11:28
Speaker
I mean, she's definitely an artist. It's definitely an art piece. You don't have to necessarily, to appreciate, you don't necessarily have to be into what can only be described as European techno death metal. I mean, like... Yeah, it was bizarre. That's probably the best categorization I could come up with after the last couple of days of hearing it a couple of times. I just...
00:11:51
Speaker
It's probably not going to be on heavy rotation on someone's playlist, but it got noticed and it definitely sent a very clear message that Ireland wasn't going to just send campy music, which is what they've been doing the last several years. And I think it's great for them. I mean, Finland sends Windows 95 man as a response to last year's
00:12:11
Speaker
second place. Well, I've gone back to snub. Yeah, I've gone. Well, I think I think what we have to think about from a voting. So for the audience who doesn't know about how Eurovision voting works, the semifinals. So the country sends now countries can do to one or two things. They can either hold a regional competition, which a lot of countries do. Italy did. Spain did this year. There's a lot of countries that send they do a competition locally and they get voted on and they send someone.
00:12:41
Speaker
Or they do what Great Britain does every year, which is just pick somebody and send them. The record company just goes, yeah, this is what we're sending. We're going to send this guy. And last year, Sam Ryder, or two years ago, Sam Ryder took second place, which is the best UKs placed in a very long time. So sometimes they get it right. Sometimes the record companies do get it right. But not every time.
00:13:05
Speaker
So I like the countries that actually have a regional competition and actually throw down something.
Voting Dynamics: Jury vs. Audience Preferences
00:13:10
Speaker
Now, some countries are really small and they don't have the ability to do it. But overall, that's usually how most countries do it, is they have a regional competition. Then you go to the semi-finals. And at the semi-finals, it's actually all now audience vote. There is no jury involved with the semi-final, which I think is a great addition to Eurovision. It's getting more and more...
00:13:28
Speaker
for a very long time it wasn't a audience voting thing for very early on and then they started to add voting in but it was still the audience didn't have the level of influence that they have now so the semi-finals the audience all determines who gets to go so basically the audience eliminates uh this year eliminated 10 countries uh 10 countries from the from the finals uh and i and i think everybody who has at least read some news knows that netherlands got got uh
00:13:58
Speaker
suspended or disqualified for aggression towards a camera person because he didn't want to be filmed which i think is i think he he was out of line and i don't think that was a good thing so i'm glad to see the contest actually take in a stand on something so that's cool except for i would have liked to see another country come in to fill the seat yes yeah give one of the other ones yeah i think unfortunately waking their decision it was too last minute to try to make another country come in and perform in that stead so
00:14:27
Speaker
Then they go to the finals and at the finals, 50% of the vote is handled by international juries. What that means is each country has, they get to watch their own version of the performance. So on Friday, grand finals on Saturday, on Friday, they compete for the juries and an audience, but it's not televised. So the juries get to watch what is ultimately what they're going to vote on.
00:14:50
Speaker
And then they, they assign scores. Uh, they, they assign and 12 points or do the poll. Um, that's the most you can get from a country and that's what you're trying to get. And so at the end of the competition, they have a series where they actually announce each of their, what, what each country is given their 12 points to along with they show the votes that they've given to every other country. And then it turns over to the audience. What you're seeing now.
00:15:18
Speaker
is the juries are starting to realize that the audience has very specific bent that they are going for. And the bookmakers based upon social media and everything else make, make suppositions about what they think the audience is going to vote on. The problem is, is that that's also available to the juries to see.
00:15:41
Speaker
Yeah, juries know how to go to the sports books and look it up. Yeah. So what you're seeing now is the jury. Coming together, right? They're kind of coalescing on at least a little bit. We've seen that a couple of times recently where the jury kind of coalesces on, Hey, like everybody's going for this really campy one. Maybe we should try to balance the balance the force a little bit because they get the 50%.
00:16:11
Speaker
Right. So what actually happened, and I think this is very true in 1997, they introduced audience voting, uh, televoting, and they turned it over to just the audience. They got rid of the jury and said, Nope, we're just going to let people vote. And after, after,
00:16:28
Speaker
about 11 years, in 2009, they basically said, no, we're putting the jury back in. You guys aren't allowed to vote for your own countries anymore, all by yourself.
Geopolitical Influence on Voting
00:16:38
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. It's like, one, that's not fair. Right. Because I think what really happened, and I'm trying to remember, was the semi-finals, the jury would decide who goes to the finals. So that was where the jury would vote all exclusively, then it was the public would vote in the final.
00:16:54
Speaker
Now they let the public vote on semi-finals exclusively. And now there's a jury that does 50-50 on the finals. So what that's done though is the jury kind of knows what the fans are going to go with. And so if they don't like an artist that much, i.e. they did not like Croatia that much, they will sandbag that and give it all over to one artist.
00:17:17
Speaker
Which basically they can, unless the audience 100% votes for that other person, they're going to lose. Right. And that's what happened. I think a few years ago with Italy, uh, I think everybody kind of the mood of the world, it was what it was. And the audience was like, yeah, we're all voting in on Italy.
00:17:38
Speaker
Yeah. Was that, was that, uh, main main skin? That's main skin. Yeah. And yeah, that's, that is, they were so far behind in votes from the jury, but the audience all went. Yep. We all voted, but see the audience doesn't know how the jury's going to vote, which is good, which is great. Except for, except for the jury knows kind of how the audience is going to vote. So it's a little bit unfair.
00:18:00
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. Because if you look at the popular vote, Croatia took it, like took it by a landslide over Switzerland, but the jury, but the audience did not vote high enough.
00:18:11
Speaker
for Croatia. And so they were still split between there was a lot of votes for Ukraine. There's a lot of votes for France and Israel, right? Like when you look at the, when you look at the, and sorry, spoiler alert folks should have said that we're going to be talking about who won and who didn't. Um, so like any type of split of vote, the, you know, the juries are going to take it for whoever they go for.
00:18:34
Speaker
And there's always, I mean, there's always a geopolitical element of the Eurovision. So certain countries vote for other countries, right? Like Cyprus and Albania will always vote for Greece and vice versa. Greece will sometimes will vote for Armenia. Armenia usually goes with the eastern countries a lot. They go with, you know, Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Moldova.
00:18:55
Speaker
Well, Ukraine does Moldova. So overall, that's kind of how the voting works. Each of the countries kind of have their favorite, like the Nordic countries all vote for the Nordic countries. That's kind of how they work. And it makes sense, right? You would do the same, right? If it was United States and Canada, and you can't vote for your own country, we probably would vote Canada.
American Perception of Eurovision
00:19:14
Speaker
Just because of the closest country to us.
00:19:17
Speaker
Yeah, we like Canada and Mexico was there and they had a good song. I'd vote for Mexico. Right. But I'm going to vote. I'm going to vote for one of my North American brethren and sisters. Well, actually, you know, it's interesting as I don't know, I was thinking about this. I mean, I think that would be the case. But what's interesting about America is that people really hold on to their identities of their ethnicity, of their background. I think that's just part of American culture. We hold on to our backgrounds of being
00:19:46
Speaker
Irish or Italian or Mexican or whatever it is that our background is, we kind of identify with that along with being American. Given the choice, if we can't vote for our country, we'll vote for our heritage, which I think is an interesting concept because I don't think everybody in other countries would do the same thing.
00:20:05
Speaker
Yeah. And that's and that's and that's cool to think about. Like, I mean, that's true. It is what makes what I what I like about America that people do really appreciate their culture. And even if they're, I mean, centuries away from it, you know, that's my descendants. You know, I look at that. I appreciate that. You know, it's kind of something where you're from. Right. But we're a country that was from multiple different places. I think, though, what's interesting about that, too, though, is there is this
00:20:36
Speaker
I do wonder about that from an identity perspective because we don't interact with other cultures very much because we are isolated. I mean, people forget how far isolated America is actually from the rest of the world. Right. Giant Pacific Ocean. Yeah. Right. Giant Atlantic Ocean. Right. Everybody always talks about and I think this is important for our conversation about why Eurovision song contest probably will never take off in the US. We don't have context.
00:21:02
Speaker
to understand the rest of the world. I mean, I grew up over there. I grew up in Europe, so I grew up in a world where I was around lots of cultures. That's why I probably like music from lots of different cultures. I've traveled all over the world. I mean, that sounds really snotty and pretentious, and I don't mean it that way. But I grew up with this idea of seeing the world. And in some ways, I've forgotten to see a lot of America. I'm starting to do that now. I'm starting to travel to places like Minneapolis, and I'm going to go to Louisville, Kentucky. I'm starting to learn the United States a lot more in depth now than I did
00:21:32
Speaker
when I was younger, but it is one of those things that I think Americans are very isolated. And because of that, we don't have that sense of nationalism that other countries do. Like this idea of we're Germany or we're whatever we do have nationalism in the sense that we're American and everybody can suck it, but not not the idea of like,
00:21:54
Speaker
Not cultural and regional, because you're right, it's weird. There are small, I mean there are obviously, there are regional state type of, as someone who lives in Texas, there's definitely a sense of pride in people who are Texan. So there's that there, but it's nothing like, to your point, a full culture.
00:22:18
Speaker
You go to Germany, there is a culture of Germany. You go to Italy, there is a culture, and that is a train ride away. I'll buy a longer train ride, but not like you get on a plane and you fly 500 miles an hour for 12 hours to get there distance. We're talking like these countries are connected. They share borders across countries. We share a border with Canada and Mexico.
00:22:47
Speaker
To your point, we're isolated. So, yeah, there are definitely regional things that you could say about the United States and the different states, but nothing compared to the country identity in Europe. But it might be, I mean, in some ways, maybe it's akin to how we view the South and the Northeast and the West. Maybe it is more like that because, I mean, being in Texas, Texans are pretty happy about being Texans.
00:23:10
Speaker
Yes. I mean, it's Texas first, America second, right? That's kind of Texas way, right? So maybe in some ways, it is the same. It's just we don't think about it as different countries because we we all speak the same language. Yes, that's and we have a belief of a unified culture, although it's not. I mean, I don't know if you've been to Mississippi recently. But Mississippi is nothing like Texas. Nope. It's a different it's a different state altogether.
00:23:35
Speaker
Yes, but you're right. There is a different language. People have their own regional language. You go to a small town or a small village in Germany,
00:23:45
Speaker
you're going to get a lot of just pure German speakers. Same with Italy, same with Austria. You also get, they speak English, so they can communicate, a lot of them do, but then you go to these places and they hold on to some of that heritage and that regional dialect that they have and everything else. So yeah, I think it's, you're right, I don't think,
00:24:08
Speaker
I think you're gonna have a lot of people from America that would roll their eyes at the Eurovision Song Contest or to your point just say it's American Idol and I think it's Understanding it's it's a song contest first and foremost like you said it's to make money. It's to promote things But but if you psychoanalyze it like we're probably doing way too much it's
Inclusivity and Themes in Eurovision
00:24:33
Speaker
It still is an interesting exercise. There's geopolitical every year. You can look at it and be like, ah, they won this year. I wonder why. We could dissect all of that, but we're not going to become a political podcast here.
00:24:50
Speaker
No, I have no interest in being a political podcast. There's plenty of them. We'll keep with the with the unmotivated and unprepared part of it. So but yeah, so it's interesting to see how people vote and how these countries some will come with campy stuff some year. And then to your point, some countries always bring the ballad stuff. It's just that's what's interesting to me. And I think what's really interesting is is
00:25:18
Speaker
how Americans view campiness. So I was having a conversation about this yesterday about Ali from London or from England, right? So Ali is the, was, was England's entry. And it was, they very much played up homoeroticism. All right. Let's just call that what that is. They really played up homoeroticism. And what's interesting is that when you watch
00:25:43
Speaker
Eurovision, it can and it does have an element of there is obviously just like modern music today, there is an element of sexuality to some of the artists. There definitely is some level of body display because it's a show, right? It's an art show, right? So there is some element of that. There is definitely some discussion. So you saw Switzerland had the non binary flag, right? So he was very much or they
00:26:12
Speaker
They were very much showing off the non-binary flag. I think that is their pronouns. So you do have some of that, but there's a subtlety to it if it is going to show up. And what's interesting about it is that everybody has a very, and I think the US, it's become a very LGBTQ event, right? So that's why Logo had it for many years, was it had a very, in this country,
00:26:37
Speaker
a very LGBTQ focus. And while I do agree that there is a lot of, there is that in Eurovision, it is not a focal point of Eurovision. It's not just some campy contest that is adored like, I don't know, something that like, it's not the gay pride parade.
Artistic Nature and Global Appeal
00:26:55
Speaker
And I only say that because I think it's important to recognize that in Europe, you have a lot, the artsy stuff, the guys that are, there's just a different attitude to a lot of things. But here's the difference.
00:27:07
Speaker
If you show too much, if you go too far, if you definitely try to stomp on foot stomp on the LGBTQ stuff, you're going to alienate half the countries of Europe.
00:27:19
Speaker
That's true, because Europe, there's a progressive nature, but there's also some countries that are not progressive. And it's not meant to be that kind of contest. It's supposed to be an accepting of all people. It is supposed to be about diversity. It is supposed to be about all are welcome. However, it's not a platform to try to push
00:27:43
Speaker
certain agendas. And I think what happens to Americans who's tuned in and watch it, who are the uninitiated, who don't understand that in some countries, that level of campiness isn't at all related to LGBTQ. And then in some cases, it is, it's hard to connect the dots because it's
00:28:03
Speaker
You've got you've got to understand the whole dynamic and it helps to have the context of the contest and everything else. And to your point, all the different countries. I mean, you see these small countries, to your point, that don't have the money and these people are they're just sending a song. It's like, OK, it's supposed to be inclusive. Right. I think I really started to get big in the US after Kunchita worst one when she won from Austria.
00:28:31
Speaker
when his name is Tom Newworth. When Thomas Newworth won as his drag persona Conchita Worst, I think it played up really big in the US. And I think that's what drove a lot of people to take note or at least the LGBTQ community to take note of Eurovision Song Contest, which is great. It's absolutely awesome. But I think for other people that that may not be their jam.
00:28:56
Speaker
to there to not to give Eurovision a chance. That's all. Yeah, it shouldn't turn someone off from that because they feel it's one way or the other. It's not. It's supposed to be inclusive. It's supposed to let people express. It is art. Do you watch Bambi Thug's performance? I promise you, you will realize it's art. But at the same time, to the point of just like with everything else, if you push it too far to make it seem like it's a platform and not a song,
00:29:25
Speaker
you're going to just get nuked on voting. Like people are just going to be like, no, thank you too much. Right. Exactly. And I think that's, that is, that is something that if you haven't ever watched before to understand, because it, because it really is, I think everyone should take an opportunity to watch the silliness and the campiness and the pseudo seriousness of just what is essentially just a big, I mean, it's not any different than I think the New York fashion show. I mean, it's just, it's a big show. That's all it is.
00:29:52
Speaker
Yeah, it's two hours of live music performed in front of a very, very excited audience, extremely excited audience. So they're pumped. It's their third time seeing it, maybe fourth. And they're just loving every minute. Singing along, loving every minute of it. Right. And I think the other part about Eurovision that's interesting is that 330 million people can't be wrong.
00:30:21
Speaker
If 330 million people are in the world, the second watched, the second most watched television show next to the World Cup finals, right, where a billion people tune in, a song contest is number two to that. And that means there's a lot of people that are probably soccer fans who are probably, whatever, also watching it, denying it to their friends, denying it to their friends, but loving it, right? Yes, loving every second of it. And it's genre defined, right? It doesn't have a set genre. There's heavy metal.
00:30:50
Speaker
there's dance music, there's ballads that are almost operatic. So it's all over the place. Yeah, and that's what I told somebody at work when I was trying to explain to my fellow coworkers who just gave me really weird looks every time I tried to explain it to them. And I'm probably gonna force them to listen to this podcast. Hey everybody, that if you don't like the song, one, wait three minutes, because it'll be over, and two,
00:31:17
Speaker
Pay
Hosts' Favorite Entries and Personal Tastes
00:31:18
Speaker
attention to the outfit, make fun of the dancers, talk about all the lights going on. There's always something that will catch your eye and it just be like, okay, this was their entry and you can sit there and dissect. Why, why did they think this was a good idea? You know, why was that outfit a smart choice? So that's, that's kind of my thing of it. Just wait three minutes. You'll get a completely different song, singer genre, everything.
00:31:46
Speaker
And they do a good job of the lineup, letting you end on a high note. I mean, no one thought Austria was going to win anything. So it wasn't like everybody kind of knew that wasn't winning, but it was a great song to end the competition. It's great. We will rave. Yeah, it is absolutely a great song. But the songs overall, I mean, I never like all 35 or 40 competing countries are competing.
00:32:15
Speaker
competing countries songs. I never do, but I do have my favorites of the five or six songs that I like a year and I will listen to them repeatedly. I think my recap on YouTube music continues to show me at least a Eurovision song every single year. Okay, so with that, as we wrap up then,
00:32:36
Speaker
What is going to be that song from this year that's going to be on repeat for you? I'll give you two. What are two songs that are going to show up in your recap that you were just like? I like this. I could jam to this. So right now, unfairly, right now, I'm really into the big Chanson, the big French songs right now. So I do like listening to Lazara and Barbara Pravie. And I like listening to La Indela and Zoho.
00:33:05
Speaker
So I'm pretty sure Slimane, Mona Morris is going to show up pretty continuously over the next several months. But I think the song that I like the most this year that I really enjoy is La Noya. La Noya is the song I like, which was Italy. Italy's entry, yeah. I really like that song this year.
00:33:24
Speaker
That was probably my favorite. I've been jamming out to that consistently. Was that the one that had like the reggaeton beat or more of a cumbia beat? Like what was the, I don't know, there was one of them that had a very like distinct. No, it wasn't that one. That was, who had that one? It's a Portugal. I think Portugal does have that this year. No, La Noya was just like a dancier beat.
00:33:50
Speaker
It's just it was a good pop. It's just a good pop. Yeah, it's great. But I also like Zora from Spain. I probably will listen to Zora from Spain. Really? From Nebuloso because of the live performance, because the fact that everybody was singing along to that song. Everybody was singing along. Everybody knew it. So that song probably will show up not necessarily in the car, but it probably I'll watch that video continuously. People were into it like it helped. People were into it for me.
00:34:18
Speaker
What was the one? What was I think it and and I think it was like the lowest voted. Was it Norway's that was where the where the music video just had the car in it randomly. But it was like, yeah, prog rock. It was almost like prog rock prog metal. So I'm a big I'm a big progressive rock progressive metal fan. I really liked Norway's. I don't know why. The song though, like the performance I was like, okay, it was good.
Diversity in Winning and Hosting Logistics
00:34:49
Speaker
It was, you know, visuals over this. I liked the song for that one from a performance standpoint. I was hoping for more from Germany because I liked the guy's voice. I liked his song. Yeah, that was always on the run was a good song. I liked always on the run. I just the performance. I was just like, OK, there's some fire. You know, I think Luxembourg was a waste of a vote. I think they put them. I think the audience made a smart decision, though.
00:35:16
Speaker
Because Luxembourg had a hissy fit and quit when they made no points and got to the very bottom 31 years ago. And so I think everybody kind of wants to keep Luxembourg in the competition. So it's good that they made the finals. But I'm not sure because I think Poland's tower was pretty good. There were some songs that I think should have gone a little bit.
00:35:39
Speaker
further than they did. Further than they did. Yeah, there was into your point you we were texting when it was going on and you had said like this is a you're like this is a great song and I'm like really you're like well it's a great Eurovision song it's just a good like you expect this somewhere in Eurovision to slot in as you're listening to that Eurovision play is like here's one you know. Yeah yeah it's just a Eurovision song like it's just yep that's it.
00:36:05
Speaker
Yeah, and I mean, I think my other one would probably be along with Norway. I mean, it's gonna have to be baby lasagna, just because I just I just like rimmed him tagi tim. I can't say rimmed him tagi dim. Yeah, rimmed him tagi dim. The lyrics are terrible. Oh, like he talks about his cow.
00:36:24
Speaker
Yeah. And he's anxiety. His anxiety. His selling his cow. He's leaving home and he's got his anxiety. Terrible. But that move he does at the end where he's stomping his feet with his hands. I was like, if I finish a meeting really well this week, I think I'm just going to do that at the end of the meeting and just see what people say. Classic.
00:36:44
Speaker
I want I want more of those songs to win. Like, OK, a few years ago, they had subwoofer, which was subwoofer, subwoofer. Before that wolf eats your grandma, give that wolf a banana. Nobody thinks that's going to win. It's just a really, really fun song for Eurovision, and it makes everybody happy. No one's given a win to that song. No, no, of course not. But we get more entries like that. Oh, agree.
00:37:11
Speaker
I mean, that's why I think Finland sent Windows 95, man. I mean, again, another middle finger to the fact that the jury sucks. But if you actually go back and look at the performance of Lorraine versus Finland's Cha Cha Cha, Kajiri, whatever, I think it was a good call long term. It is much more of a bigger, better sounding song live.
00:37:34
Speaker
But I do wish, I do wish the heavy driving, chanting, getting the crowd hype songs would win more. Just a couple in there, just maybe one or two a decade. Just throw a couple in there, just to win those. But it all depends. I was really happy this year. The last few times it's gone to Sweden, in any Nordic country for that matter, the countries get a feeling that they need to bring big ballads.
00:38:03
Speaker
Yeah. And this year that was not the case. It was not the case. It was very split, right? It was, it was, it was all over the place, which is good. Uh, that was what was fun for me. Cause, uh, we had some people come over about halfway through who didn't, who had heard of it, but didn't really know about Eurovision. And it was funny, like seeing the reaction of each different artists coming on. It's like, Oh yeah, it's not going to be like that previous one. This is completely different. It wasn't ballot after ballot after ballot.
00:38:28
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's so important. I think that's so critically important for Eurovision to be successful is that they do have music from all over. Now, I'd like to see some diverse countries win. I mean, Switzerland hasn't won since 88 with Celine Dion.
00:38:42
Speaker
So, I mean, it hasn't gone back there for a while, so it's not bad to go to Switzerland. And Switzerland has money and can put on a really good show. Now, is it always in the capital of the country? No, it was in Malmo this year, which is not the capital of Sweden. It was in Liverpool last year as a substitution for Ukraine because it couldn't hold the competition.
Conclusion and Future Plans
00:39:07
Speaker
Yeah, so it just goes wherever they want wherever who bids for it who can put up the best scenario Remember the town has to kind of put a Eurovision town together You have to like have a Eurovision city where they just like the Olympics They've got to have now it's not nearly at the scale of the Olympics Sure European Broadcasting Union isn't like you have to spend all this money and build 90,000 stadiums. It's one stadium It's not like you have to have a whole lot and they don't build a new stadium for it. Yeah, I just reuse I
00:39:33
Speaker
But it does have to have accommodations for a lot of people. You have, you know, a million people coming out of there to go to this thing. So what do you think it's wearing? They might do it in Zurich because it hasn't been there in a long time. So they might do it in Zurich. But they might do it in Bern. I mean, they might do it in Bern. But either way, I think Switzerland is a fun country to go to. I think it's not one that I'm like hesitant to go to.
00:40:01
Speaker
I would have totally gone to Estonia if it would have been there, although they didn't have a chance at all. But yeah, I mean, I am looking forward to actually going to my first live Eurovision, which I will definitely do next year. I will spend the week, I will do the whole thing. I'm gonna buy tickets for every show.
00:40:19
Speaker
Man. I will do the experience for Eurovision. Hey, hey, it is a lifetime experience, I'm sure, to do that and to go through it and just to see all that, so.
00:40:32
Speaker
Well, Greg, this was good. I think the European Broadcasting Group is going to owe us after this because I'm sure they're going to get plenty of more viewers and votes coming in after folks listen to this. What I feel was a very good breakdown of not only this year's Eurovision, but
00:40:54
Speaker
a dive into what Eurovision is and why. So Greg, as always, thank you for entertaining some of my questions, but also thank you for introducing me to Eurovision. It's actually, it was actually a ton of fun this week. So it got me, it got me through the week. So not going to lie. It was a lot of fun. Hey man, for me too, man, it's my Christmas dude every year.
00:41:17
Speaker
All right. Well, only 364 days. Hard of waiting till the next one. Time to hurry up and wait. All right. Great. Take care. Thanks for listening to unmotivated and unprepared. Join us again next time as we continue to meander through random topics at a pace defined by our mood, the weather, and what happened five minutes earlier.