The Horribly Late (and Passé) Eurovision 2022 Thread!

[Jules]

So, this discussion actually started on the Disney Mania forum while the Gremlins were hard at work taking down DVDizzy.

For the benefit of those unaware of the existence of our glorious spare forum, I am reproducing here what was already said in the other place. I guess that makes the following the digital equivalent of reheated leftovers. But what wonderful reheated leftovers they are.

OK, I'll stop being stupid now. From this point on, only scholarly discussion is permitted.

Without further ado:

By the way, Jules, as you probably know, tonight's the Eurovision final. I saw you made a thread about the contest last year, but I rarely visit other sections of the forum apart from the Disney one, and didn't see it until much later. I thought of commenting this year and say how much I agreed with what you and Farerb said there, but since the forum is down now I haven't been able to do so.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks Eurovision was much better in the past. I used to be quite excited for the festival each year, but now sometimes I don't even watch the semi-finals and just the final or use the phone while I watch it, for instance (which is something I normally never do), due to the quality of the songs, many of which sound the same to me. Some countries take it more seriously than others, though, and tend to do a good job. Your country is one of them, in my opinion, and also Israel or Sweden, for example. The Swedish song is my favorite this time for the second year in a row. Though, my favorite usually doesn't win, so that doesn't bode well for that country. I also like Belgium or Switzerland. I've heard the favorite is Ukraine and I'm not surprised. I wasn't sure if they would participate this year or not due to the war, but I knew if they did and the song wasn't too bad, they would be likely to win. And it turns out it's quite catchy, plus it's like a tribute to mothers, so I think there's a high chance they will. I don't think it's the best song, but I wouldn't mind them winning this year. Have you listened to the songs? If so, which are your favorites?

Edit: Finally, Ukraine won as it was expected. I doubt they would've achieved it if not for the situation in the country, but the support they've received from the public of Europe is nice to see. And I didn't expect Spain would end up so high on the ranking! We don't usually do so well.

D82 - I haven't watched the Eurovision this year because I'm not a fan of Michael Ben David and our song was embarrassing and we didn't make it to the finals, first time in 8 years I think. Which isn't surprising because this year was the first time the winner of the X Factor in here got to go, usually it was a different contest that did it, and they usually knew who should represent us (it was more Eurovision focused I guess).

D82, I was thinking of creating a Eurovision thread this year as well, but I wound up never doing it. I think when the site is back up I will create it anyway and call it the Late Eurovision Thread, lol.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks Eurovision was much better in the past. I used to be quite excited for the festival each year, but now sometimes I don't even watch the semi-finals and just the final or use the phone while I watch it, for instance (which is something I normally never do), due to the quality of the songs, many of which sound the same to me. Some countries take it more seriously than others, though, and tend to do a good job. Your country is one of them, in my opinion, and also Israel or Sweden, for example. The Swedish song is my favorite this time for the second year in a row. Though, my favorite usually doesn't win, so that doesn't bode well for that country. Razz I also like Belgium or Switzerland. I've heard the favorite is Ukraine and I'm not surprised. I wasn't sure if they would participate this year or not due to the war, but I knew if they did and the song wasn't too bad, they would be likely to win. And it turns out it's quite catchy, plus it's like a tribute to mothers, so I think there's a high chance they will. I don't think it's the best song, but I wouldn't mind them winning this year. Have you listened to the songs? If so, which are your favorites?

It was the other way round for me this year. I watched both semis, but abstained from the final, which I know sounds dumb. I was tired of the contest, and didn't feel like investing another 3.5+ hours of my time watching a show in which I'd already listened to the majority of the songs. Of course, I missed the Big 5 songs, and I will have to listen to them later since I haven't yet done so.

Agreed that it's not fair to tar everybody with the same brush. I'm glad you like our entries, though I'm not happy at all with our latest contributions. I think we were at our best in the '90s and and early 2000s. In my opinion we were sending quality songs with almost total consistency, and even the rare "dud" wasn't too bad or unlistenable.

I wish I could remember more of Spain's entries. I know you guys tend to send good songs too, but right now I can only remember two! The first I wasn't fond of; in fact I think it might have been a joke entry. I remember a weird guy with a moustache, singing a retro-sounding electronic song. It was in Spanish, and I recall the words "Robocop". The music video had the singer in a lot of poorly green screened shots. (I think the poor quality may have been intentional.)

The second one was a lovely song which sounded like it escaped from a stage musical. I don't remember the name, but I recall the word "chiquitito" was repeated often in the lyrics. I can also roughly remember the main melody, lasting about 30 bars in 3/4 time (waltz.) It had a striking stage presentation, looking like a toybox. I think the singer had curly ginger hair. I loved it.

Oh yes! And during the performance, somebody from the audience went up on stage for his "11 minutes of fame." I remember noticing, and thinking wtf?

Later, the announcers said Spain would repeat its performance, so I knew I wasn't crazy, lol.

I think these date back to about 10 years ago. I haven't watched or listened to them since, and I purposely did not look them up before writing this. All the above is from memory.

I'm not sure re favourites yet. I watched both semis, but was really tired and started to space out after the first 8 songs on each night!

I can vaguely remember some of the ones I liked, but cannot remember which countries they represented! Hmph ...

Farerb, I definitely remember Israel's entry. It mesmerised me! Though maybe not in a good way.

Thanks for your replies about Eurovision, Farerb and Jules. Now that Dvdizzy is back maybe we should continue the conversation there. If it's OK with you, I'll reply to your comments on the Eurovision thread you created, Jules, or on a new one if you want to create it, as you said.

I did.

[D82]

Thanks for creating the thread and reproducing the conversation we started on the other forum, Jules! I love the title. And your introduction was hilarious as well.

I haven't watched the Eurovision this year because I'm not a fan of Michael Ben David and our song was embarrassing and we didn't make it to the finals, first time in 8 years I think. Which isn't surprising because this year was the first time the winner of the X Factor in here got to go, usually it was a different contest that did it, and they usually knew who should represent us (it was more Eurovision focused I guess).

I understand it. When you know your country has no chances of winning, it's not that interesting to watch. I guess that's also part of why I'm less excited for it than before. My country used to take the contest much more seriously at the beginning, especially in the '60s and '70s, and sent famous artists and good songs. Back then we used to get good results as well (that's when we got our only two wins) and as a consequence, the contest was much more popular here. Nowadays, with a few exceptions, Spain's public TV, which organizes it, doesn't seem to really try. Sometimes I wonder if they do it on purpose because they don't want to win and host the following year's event, since it's not something cheap. However, this year they've created a musical festival to select the winner, similar to what Italy does, and it shows, as we have achieved our best result in 27 years. I didn't like our song much myself, but I have to admit it had a catchy chorus. They've also offered to host next year's contest if Ukraine is not able to, so who knows, maybe next year Eurovision will take place in Spain!

It was the other way round for me this year. I watched both semis, but abstained from the final, which I know sounds dumb. I was tired of the contest, and didn't feel like investing another 3.5+ hours of my time watching a show in which I'd already listened to the majority of the songs. Of course, I missed the Big 5 songs, and I will have to listen to them later since I haven't yet done so.

Well, it's not that dumb. I think I did that too one year and only watched the ending of the final since like you I didn't feel like watching all the songs again.

I'm glad you like our entries, though I'm not happy at all with our latest contributions. I think we were at our best in the '90s and and early 2000s. In my opinion we were sending quality songs with almost total consistency, and even the rare "dud" wasn't too bad or unlistenable.

I've listened to a recap of all of Malta's songs and I agree that those were the best years. It happens to be the time I was also more of a fan of Eurovision, so that's probably why I had that image of the country. I didn't remember many of the more recent songs. It's true they haven't been that good lately. Two of my favorites are the ones from 2002 and 2003. I remember the latter was one of my favorites that year. I see it didn't get many votes, though. It was nice listening to it again after all these years. Of the more recent ones, I also like 2013's entry. 2021's wasn't bad either, though it's not a favorite of mine.

I wish I could remember more of Spain's entries. I know you guys tend to send good songs too, but right now I can only remember two! The first I wasn't fond of; in fact I think it might have been a joke entry. I remember a weird guy with a moustache, singing a retro-sounding electronic song. It was in Spanish, and I recall the words "Robocop". The music video had the singer in a lot of poorly green screened shots. (I think the poor quality may have been intentional.)

The second one was a lovely song which sounded like it escaped from a stage musical. I don't remember the name, but I recall the word "chiquitito" was repeated often in the lyrics. I can also roughly remember the main melody, lasting about 30 bars in 3/4 time (waltz.) It had a striking stage presentation, looking like a toybox. I think the singer had curly ginger hair. I loved it.

Oh yes! And during the performance, somebody from the audience went up on stage for his "11 minutes of fame." I remember noticing, and thinking wtf?

Later, the announcers said Spain would repeat its performance, so I knew I wasn't crazy, lol.

I think these date back to about 10 years ago. I haven't watched or listened to them since, and I purposely did not look them up before writing this. All the above is from memory.

I know what songs you're referring to. The first one is called "Baila el Chiki-chiki" and its performer isn't actually a singer but a comedian. Yes, it was a joke entry. It didn't get too many votes, but from what I remember, it did win the Spanish selection contest that year. Personally, I don't like it at all and I hated we sent a song that clearly didn't have any chance of winning.

The second song you mentioned is "Algo pequeñito" and yes, the word "chiquitito" is also repeated a lot in the lyrics. I think it was inspired by circus music. It's not one of my favorites, but it's not bad.

You only remember two songs, but you recall many details from them! If you don't remember more Spanish entries, though, it's because as I said before, for the most part they have been quite forgettable lately. I hope that changes thanks to the new way of choosing our candidates we now have.

I'm not sure re favourites yet. I watched both semis, but was really tired and started to space out after the first 8 songs on each night!

I can vaguely remember some of the ones I liked, but cannot remember which countries they represented! Hmph ...

That's OK. I was just curious what other people's favorites were.

[Farerb]

Here's our recap, which is a bit depressing to see:
https://youtu.be/us9XSbOvwzY

Most of the songs from the 70's - 90's became iconic in here, something that I can't say about any of the songs afterwards. Our worst years were 2006 - 2014.

[D82]

Here's our recap, which is a bit depressing to see:
https://youtu.be/us9XSbOvwzY

Most of the songs from the 70's - 90's became iconic in here, something that I can't say about any of the songs afterwards. Our worst years were 2006 - 2014.

It's not depressing at all! It's true that the period you mentioned wasn't very good (like it happened to me with Malta, I had forgotten many of the songs from the last decade or so), but Israel has had many great songs over the years and it's one of the countries with most victories. "Hallelujah" (1979) and "Hi" (1983) are among my favorite Eurovision songs of all time, and there are many others I also like such as the first one (which I don't think I had heard before) or the ones from 1978, 1982 or 1995. More recent ones like 2002's or 2005's are not bad either, and last year Israel was my second favorite after Sweden.

[Farerb]

The songs you have mentioned are really good songs and I like them as well. I think Shiri Maimon with "The Silence that Remains" (2005) was the last really good song until "Golden Boy" (2015). I also love Eden Alene, but I thought the song that was ultimately cancelled was better and better represented the Ethiopian community than the song she eventually competed with, not that it was bad or anything. By the way, Eden Alene did the Hebrew version of the latest Disney Princess song: https://youtu.be/rCZpnlqc6yo
It wouldn't surprise me if she did the Hebrew dubbing of Ariel in the remake.

"Hi" (or "Chai") is such a powerful song, the singer is Ofra Haza, she was the voice of Yocheved in Prince of Egypt. Unfortunately she died because of HIV related Pneumonia in 2000. The whole country was in mourning because of how beloved she was.

[D82]

"Golden Boy" didn't stand out much to me at first in the recap and I hardly remembered it from before, but after listening to it again, I see it does have a catchy tune. By the way, I didn't mention the two other Israeli winners, "Diva" and "Toy", but that doesn't mean I think they're bad songs. "Diva" is just not among my top favorites, and while I don't like "Toy" much personally, I do think it's original and has a catchy chorus. And "Diva" has some Spanish words in it, right? Or does "viva" mean something in Hebrew as well?

Since the 2021 contest was cancelled I didn't listen to any song from that year, though I knew the music videos were available online. I've now listened to Eden Alene's first song in full. I think I still prefer her second one, but that one's not bad either. She seems a good match for the Hebrew dubbing of Ariel in the upcoming remake; maybe you're right she'll get that role.

I actually didn't know what the lyrics of "Hi" meant. I just liked it because of its music. I've looked the translation up and I agree it's a really powerful song. I like it even more now. It's a shame it didn't win. I actually watched a rerun of that whole edition of the contest because we had satellite TV for some time when I was a child and it aired on a German TV channel, I guess because Germany hosted the contest that year. I remember I was quite disappointed that it didn't win as I thought it was the best by far.

I didn't know Ofra Haza was the voice of Yocheved in Prince of Egypt either. According to Wikipedia, apart from the original version, she voiced the character in 17 other languages, including Spanish. I never noticed the voice actress in our dub wasn't Spanish, so that means she did a really impressive job. And she had a beautiful voice. It's sad to know she died so young.

[Farerb]

I don't like Toy either.
There's no other meaning in Hebrew so I guess it is Spanish or French?

[D82]

Oh yes, it could be some other Romance language, not necessarily Spanish. However, I think in French that word ends with an "e". I don't speak French, but I've seen it in sentences like "vive la France!" (long live France!). In Italian, though, I think it's the same as in Spanish.