ETSC 8: Get to know the songs!

/ Sekhmet Morgan

ETSC – Every year, the summer is the calm after the storm so it’s the perfect time to resume the highly anticipated the Eurovision Times Song Contest! 43 of you entered for the August 2017 edition and a random draw was made! Discover the songs live tonight at 9 PM CET!

Each summer, a good number of regular readers stay around for different reasons (they don’t get breaks from work or don’t go on holidays…) but there aren’t much news to keep us going. So the last few years we introduced all sort of games. The Eurovision Times Awards (Fridas) and the Douze Points Trivia Quiz kept us going in 2013 and Fridas have made come-backs the past four years. Three years ago, a lot of you asked for a fake Eurovision where each one of us would send songs and get to vote. And that was it: the Eurovision Times Song Contest, from then on known as ETSC.

We’ve therefore had 7 editions of ETSC, two in 2014: July 2014 and August 2014, both won by France; the third edition was held in July 2015 and won by the United-Kingdom; the fourth edition was held in Augusut 2015 and was won by Austria; the fifth edition was held in July 2016 and was won by Israel; the sixth edition was held in August 2016 and won by Denmark. Last month, the 7th edition took place and crowned France’s Juliette Armanet with “L’Amour En Solitaire“. For more information, you can discover our new page dedicated to the contest, with its history, all songs participating and the rankings here. You can also find it by clicking on the “Specials” section of the site, in the top menu in the red box, just under the site’s name. “ETSC 8 – August 2017” will be officially held in Paris and as for venue, it’ll be the Palais des Sports!

After a first round open for people to sign up with a country and send a song, we got 43 people in. In the meantime, to keep us busy, I made a random draw. I also made personal postcards for each entry which will be revealed along with the songs. Everyone can request to see their own postcards for now. Someone did not send a song in time, so we move to 42 official entries in this edition!

Here are a few facts about the 42 entries:

  • This is a rather well spread out contest: 22 female vocals / 17 male vocals, plus 3 duets, an almost equal result for once!
  • Well just like in the Eurovision Song Contest, English has won us over… and the blind edition may have pushed us a tiny bit more than usual in that department… as we moved from 15 songs in English in ETSC 7 to 19 in ETSC 8! But we’re still below Summer 2016 with ETSC5’s record of 28 songs in English and 21 in ETSC6! Ok besides that, we keep the now tradition of 1 song in French in the edition and the rest is as follows: 3 songs in arabic, 3 songs in serbo-croat, 3 in Russian, 2 in Albanian, 1 in Czech, 1 in Finnish, 1 in German, 1 in Greek, 1 in Hungarian, 1 in Italian, 1 in Latvian, 1 in Maltese, 1 in Slovakian, 1 in Spanish and 1 in Swedish
  • We only have 2 ETSC returnees!

Before the show starts, we get the live reprise of the winning song:

Can we beat last years’ editions in comments? ETSC 7 reached an all time record of 2,704 by the end of the voting! You can also use the playlist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UsYbProrac&list=PLgCuJvprQh4wh3e3vEWNgaHtALywqE2qY

Rules: the voting will open at midnight Sunday 13th CET! You can vote until Wednesday 23rd at midnight CET! Results will probably be revealed Friday 25th at 9PM CET! In the meantime, you cannot do promo for your entry in the comment section here (because this is a blind edition). So in order to do so, email me what you want me to post! Once you’ve voted, you can not change your votes, so wait until you’re sure. Also, you have to send me your 11th and 12th in case something goes wrong and we sadly have a DQ. Moreover, you need to send me a city, a hall venue and a host for the next edition if you win!

Good luck everyone!

4,214 thoughts on “ETSC 8: Get to know the songs!”

  2. Hi guys! I’ve been absent for a while because I’ve been moving back to Dallas and into an apartment, so me being able to write this means that I’m all set up! I’m taking today to vote, since school starts on Monday and I don’t know how busy I’ll be, so might as well get it done today. Also tonight, me and Patrick will be seeing Allie X from FdlC live here in Dallas, so that should be a bunch of fun! Happy ETSC!

  3. Votes sent.
    It was torture.
    I don’t think I’ll be able to rank the songs below #15 :(
    So sad about my #14-22. And especially my #11-13 :(

    PS: Listening to all 42 songs again now :) <3
    Thank you for the music, ET people!

  6. Official Promo Material: BULGARIA

    How does a part of the world
    leave the world?
    How does wetness leave water?
    Dont’ try to put out fire by throwing on more fire!
    Don’t wash a wound with blood.

    No matter how fast you run, your shadow…
    …your shadow keeps up.
    Sometimes it’s in front! …it’s in front…
    Only full overhead sun
    diminishes your shadow.
    But that shadow has been serving you.

    What hurts you, blesses you.
    Darkness is your candle.
    Your boundaries are your quest.

  10. 3,500 comments? LOL
    We better stop, if we go on we’ll never be able to break this record!

    One great Pop Summer Song for Saturday night with a quiz:
    who’s playing that wonderful guitar solo from 3:02 min.?

  16. As we’re not allowed to reveal who we are……..the *%$JL”0*d delegation have decided to retreat to the Antipodes (Pigeon Bay, NZ) for some much-needed “quiet-time” and to make some voting decisions.

    Feel free to join us for some outdoor barbecuing, lots of walks and fresh air……great food and plenty quality wine. Feel free also……to chip in with the cooking. 😀

    http://images.adsttc.com/media/images/582c/ccbb/e58e/ce89/fa00/0083/large_jpg/Commercial_-_Annandale_Seascape_-_Patterson_Ass_-_Photo_Simon_Devitt.jpg?1479330979

    https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0606/2893/files/Seascape4.jpg?6082972422090365821

    Designed by Patterson’s Architects

    http://pattersons.com/residential/seascape-retreat/

  19. Sorry guys, the past month have been like a prelude to internal turf war of the ET old guard. Stakes are high, the editorial policy ET. It’s very difficult to control.

    Of newbies Michos, David, PJ and me are all hyper active contributing editors along with is three times as many
    Older hyper active members here creating the sound of ET. I love, it’s totally ok not to. It’s different, it would be crazy if it wasn’t. It’s member made.

  21. No less than 25 songs survived after the 3rd time i’d listened to them and 16 made it after #4.Really dissapointed that i have to leave 6 of them behind. :(

  22. Votes send. All regions are present. Points went to 3 countries for the first time. Male voices predominate and so does one third of the draw.

    • In the end several songs grew to me and therefore I could give points to more songs. I would say 17-18 entries in overall could reach in a way my lower top10.

      • He’s the man behind Ireland’s terrible results in ESC in recent years while making lots of money from X Factor rejects..(that’s a short summary of events!)

            • I only hope for Ireland 2018, they will distance themselves from such stuff for so many years, ESC suddenly becomes a kind of “mafia” and Ireland became part of it ie Louis Walsh , I can let you know there are journalistic investigations involved in such things so let’s wait and see :-)

            • I hope so Paul…….Ireland’s moved so far from their great music traditions, I’d like to see them move back. Maybe then, Ireland will start winning again…….but not under Walsh, for sure! Ireland’s music is better that candy-cane pop!

            • “Candy cane pop” indeed, as Portugal so represented the fact that a song from the heart in one’s own language can win ESC, am hoping Ireland will get rid of such influences based around promoting their own stuff/singers send a singer from their heart , that they do well or not, at least they promoted Ireland, nobody cares about ex boy band/X Factor shite songs via Sweden Ireland! get real!

            • Gotta admire Portugal…….they stuck to their music traditions (mostly) for 50 years, and finally win with one of the biggest points score in esc history. Ireland could do the same……again.

            • Lol…….yes, it should be Oiracle. I was gonna say the same thing but thought most might not understand. 😂

            • With so much ‘Oirish’ stuff being posted on here I would think most would get it alright :)

            • You’d think so……especially with Rob and Irelandhod posting so much comedy stuff too.

            • I genuinely like it more than the 92 winner for instance, I do like 93, but really love 94-96 Irish entries, then indifferent to Ireland 97, 98 kinda like 99, hate 2000 and well many of them since… :$

            • The only winner from Ireland I like is Dana. I prefer a lot more other entries like 1976 or 1977, that I really love!

            • I loved Dreamin’ too but it nearly never made it as it was it was considered too close to Julie Felix ‘s Moonlight but eventually was given the green light to go on and be the entry that year.

            • I didn’t know this, thanks Martin. Oh wow, it really is almost a duplicate. How did Eire ever get approval for their Moonlight?

            • I have no idea tbh. I was in London then so wasn’t following the nf so closely then, just over the years I looked into it all.

            • I think they’re only allowed less than a dozen bars similar before they call it plagiarism. Maybe the others can clarify this?

            • PJ seems to know quite a lot about Ireland, dont you think? Maybe PJ is Ireland? He’s been stringing us along all this time.

            • Indeed it did but I still think they should have sent her and faced the consequences. Scooch was catchy and had some funny lines but was also rather tacky though some saw it as fun.
              I’m not sure on the plagiarism rules with Eurovision , there have certainly been a few numbers down the years that have been close (even Mickey Joe Harte’s ‘We got the world tonight’ was very similar in chorus to ‘Fly on the wings’)
              PJ is a likely enough candidate for Ireland for sure….. :)

            • Beeb knew Cyndi’s would be thrown out, the verse was almost entirely note for note “The Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond”……. somebody at Beeb didnt do their research, if they had they’d have known it was almost a carbon copy of an old Scottish song, and the chorus a carbon copy of “You Raise Me Up”.

              Tbh the Scooch song is everything I dislike about Beeb’s mentality towards ESC. Not surprised it bombed.

            • Perhaps they had also been aware of those close calls by Ireland not to chance it.
              Seemed daft to have allowed it into the national final at all really and then to go through the whole Terry Wogan calling out the wrong name fiasco too. to add insult to injury.

            • Lol…….I reckon someone’s head at Beeb rolled that night, and Terry got a severe telling off.
              Would it have been beyond Wogan to “deliberately” announce Cyndi as winner? Especially as votes could have been “manipulated” by Beeb. He always had that look of bedevilment in his eye! 😀

            • He was probably aghast at the prospect of such drivel being sent to represent the UK . He pretty much gave up after that and that was his last year hosting after all.
              I remember Dana being just as furious at the prospect of Dustin being sent for Ireland the following year.
              Did you know that Donal Skehan was also an entrant in our NF the year of the turkey? Our ubiquitous ‘Oirish cook’ on practically Every cook show these days, has done well for himself to be fair.

            • Aaaaah Dustin……..one of the finest WTF ESC moments in history? Lol.
              I dont know Donal Skehan, had to look him up. I’m so pleased he found his calling. Making meatballs is certainly his forte, rather better than singing. 😂

            • LOL For sure. And he;s straight! Married to some lass from Sweden and they recently had a little ‘un. Go figure! He’s so camp.
              He’s on so many things! Lots of RTE tv cook shows and also often on Saturday Kitchen and Kids Masterchef for the Beeb.
              He gets on my wick tbh. Lol :)

            • Lol……..closeted then? Mind you, I’ve met a few str8 guys who could take the title of camp of the year. Maybe some day you’ll hear of him coming out in a fanfare and we’ll all say, “so what”!

            • Whatever floats his boat. He’s not my type The ‘mammies’ seem to love him though.
              Look how camp the late Sir Brucie was and also Lionel Blair!

            • Lionel Blair especially……and Brucie bagged himself a Miss world, lol.
              One of the funniest/smartest things I ever heard was from a couple of stunningly gorgeous girls on a gay beach in Spain. (There were losts of them, girls I mean). They said they felt safer there, because they weren’t pawed, ogled and checked out as a piece of meat…….it got me thinking. If a straight guy wanted to score big time with all these beautiful women, he could do no worse than pretend he was gay, hang out at the beach and befriend these lovely ladies. Like sitting ducks if he played it properly, lol.
              Mind you, he’d then feel what it would be like for girls on the beach getting drooled over. 😂

            • We had a lot of that in quite many of the clubs in London back in 1989-94 when everyone was off their faces on something and raving. Heaven on Saturdays, Troll at Soundshaft, FF, Trade, Kinky Gerlinky. The list goes on. All the girls felt safe in the gay clubs and the str8 guys who also came were often hit on and dabbling for sure. I nabbed a number of ‘straights’ myself PMSL :D

            • Lol……..said it before Martin, you gotta start writing these stories down. Yeah some of those “straight” boys are only a couple of G&T’s away from their first gay experience, ROFL.

            • Ain’t that the truth.
              Never mind popping a wig, frock and some decent make-up on! Add that to the mix and it gets very blurry for them…… bless LOL

            • And comedic too, as they try to pretend the moment never happened.
              Wont it be great when we (Man) learns to live and let live, no prejudices, no hate, no agendas? 😀

            • It’s changing already tho Martin, imo…….still a long way to go but definitely changing. 🙂

            • For a while it looked like the 2nd placed song would have been the ’95 representative.

            • Sweet…….but Eddie Friel’s was better imo. I wonder if he got “punished” that year for being so close to Felix’s?
              It’s a bit like that uk fiasco in 2007, when they sent Scooch (boak) instead of that lovely French lady Cyndi. But they had no choice with that cock-up………Cyndi’s song was a complete plagiarism of “The Bonnie Banks o’ Loch Lomond” and “You raise Me Up”. What a perfect Celtic mash that was.

              When I heard it, I went straight into the words I learned in primary school as a kid.

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