United by Music

[Bayleaf]

Oh, and interestingly, someone said they didn't watch the performance but was just browsing YouTube generally and they kept getting ads saying you could vote up to 20 times for Israel - no other country ads came up.

I guess it's all about who you know ....

"Known as Project Nimbus, the joint contract between Google and Amazon signed in 2021 aims to provide cloud computing infrastructure, artificial intelligence (AI) and other technology services to the Israeli government and its military, which has faced condemnation for its war on Gaza, described by United Nations ..."

[hughnique]

Well I like Ollies song

Definite change of mind it was right pony, singing live was a strain for him.

[tagh]

What a load of unadulterated rubbish both the event and the songs were. The whole thing shamed music and Europe. Time to scrap it or find another format

[edythuk]

What I found bizarre was that the voting started before the show. I thought the idea was to vote for the song you liked best.

[tagh]

Unless you were pro or against certain countries, events or beliefs, in which case you voted for or against automatically regardless of the quality of the song. The voting has always been rigged.

[Wilbro]

I wouldn't waste a minute of my time watching the rubbish collection of stupidly dressed weirdos and their appalling songs. I listened to about 5 seconds of the winner and then switched it off. No quality at all, just noise. What happened to normal singers and normal clothes?

[Bayleaf]

What I found bizarre was that the voting started before the show. I thought the idea was to vote for the song you liked best.

Yes, that was an odd one, but as many people would already know the songs that have been circulating for several months already, and of course played during the semis - they probably already had a favourite.

Voting has been political for years. I think that's a given now, unfortunately. But I thought Sweden were great hosts, a well put together event - light hearted fun for those who want to watch. For those who think it's trash - change channels, why torture yourselves?! It's always been a cheesy event, but there are thousands of people who still enjoy it worldwide, warts and all, and apart from the occasional controversial entry, it's usually without any trouble.

When it began in 1956, there were only seven countries participating! Learnt summat new today!

[Bayleaf]

Here you go, hope this links works .....

[Blaze]

It seems Eurovision has also become a platform for minorities : Remember Conchita Wurst, the bearded lady from Austria in 2014 ? It could have been a complete piss-take though !
Now we have Switzerland's Nemo :

The singer becomes the first non-binary artist to win Eurovision. Fittingly, they wrote the song to explain how they came to terms with their identity.

Surely non-binary should be "it" (singular and neutral) not "they" when referring to one person ?

[tagh]

Blaze, you could get executed for saying such a think; just look what happened to JK Rowling