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! Each one of you can represent an European country and get to send a song and then vote in a fake Eurovision! 41 of you entered for the July 2018 edition and the voting went on for ten days! And the results are in and we have a winner!
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 sorts 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 five years. Four 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.
After a first round open for people to sign up with a country and send a song, we got 42 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.
You can click on the picture below to listen to the songs again:
This ninth event is officially hosted in Thessaloniki, Greece. The hosts will be Katia Zygouli (model-actress), Nikos Kouris (actor), and Avgoustos Kortó (writer)! The venue is the Music Hall, nicknamed by locals as “Megaron”.
Results lasted for 4h! 1,280 comments later… Here are the full results (click to see in big):
So the winner is Switzerland! The song is “Brotherlove” by CRIMER (stage name of Alexander Frei). It’s the 10th track of CRIMER’s album Leave Me Baby and was produced by CRIMER and
It was chosen for this contest by Ovidarch, who wins ETSC for the first time! The winner got points from 25 people out of 40 possible and got four times the infamous “12pts”! It’s more or less on par with the other two entries that made this one of the most exciting ETSC to date and the first three-horse race: Denmark was second only 2pts behind, with votes from 23 people and five 12pts while France, 5pts behind the winner, was voted by 24 people with also five times 12pts. This is only the third win by a male solo act, which was the trend this edition as the entire Top 3 was male vocals. Here’s the winning entry:
Others can be happy this edition: Jerry, Patrick and newcomer Dominik get their first Top 10 results ever! Razvan is in the Top 5 for the fifth time out of 6 editions in which he took part, with this his second runner-up placing! Morgan gets his 8th Top 3 results out of nine editions too! As for countries, Switzerland breaks the Top 10 again in a remarkable fashion, and it is joined there for Lebanon which ends at a great 4th place. After never being in the Top 10 before, Poland now ends up twice in a row 9th! Belgium, Finland, Denmark, Norway and Greece secure themselves as power houses. More importantly, France and Israel have been Top 10 in 8 editions out of 9! Fun fact on flags, as Switzerland joins Denmark and Austria in ETSC winners with all red/white flags (Greece and Israel are the winners in all blue/white flags, with Uk and France with all three colors).
Now time for the prediction game! It was first started in ETSC 4 “hint” article and back then I wrote this: “We can play a guessing game, people wishing to participate can post a “prediction” top 10 and I’ll award points based on the countries that are in the actual top 10 and predicted in yours accorddingly. I wont reveal the results until after the voting and winner is announced, but we’d get an extra side bet to care about ;)” In the end, it has secured itself has an ETSC standard: former winnets were Donnie (ETSC 4), Nick P (ETSC 5), Donnie (ETSC 6), Dimitris (ETSC 7), Gregor (ETSC 8).
| PREDICTED TOP TEN | CORRECT TOP TEN | |||||
| 1 |  |
Ireland (16) | 1 |  |
Switzerland (6) | |
| 2 |  |
Denmark (2) | 2 | |
Denmark (2) | |
| 3 |  |
France (3) | 3 | |
France (3) | |
| 4 |  |
Belgium (8) | 4 |  |
Lebanon (7) | |
| 5 |  |
Greece (7) | 5 |  |
Norway (9) | |
| 6 | |
Switzerland (1) | 6 |  |
Finland (N/A) | |
| 7 | |
Lebanon (4) | 7 | |
Greece (5) | |
| 8 |  |
Russia (11) | 8 | |
Belgium (8) | |
| 9 | |
Norway (5) | 9 |  |
Poland (27) | |
| 10 |  |
Iceland (17) | 10 |  |
Israel (12) | |
So a better result than the last two editions with 7/10… However, some serious mistakes: Ireland predicted as winner ended up far below, same as Iceland predicted 10th: fun fact, both ends up tied at 58pts. It’s not as bad as France last edition predicted 3rd but ending 26th; however, it’s the first time we predict a song to win that’s not even in the Top 10. Russia was very close, and was Top 10 throughout but came 11th by 1pt on the last vote! On the contrary, Poland was named only once as a possible Top 10 and Finland wasn’t even tipped once! They end up 6th and 9th! Israel was overlooked, when it finished in the Top 10 almost every time! Norway and Greece did ok: it’s fine again to predict them! As for HoD, it was very close (and one of the weakest results wise, mostly because of Ireland): Razvan won with 3pts above Dimitris and 10pts above Cathal. They’re followed by Donnie, PJ and Ovidarch in the Top 6 ;) Congrats to them!
The Eurovision Times 
Today marks the 74th anniversary of the Roma people holocaust.
You may like this
They are really good! Thanks, mermaid!
Just noticed this phrase in the article:
“This is only the second win by a male solo act”
Isn’t it the third? Austria, Israel and now Switzerland.
Totaly out of topic but some thoughts about politics.
Wonder how much time our new government will play it’s game with mr Putin. Right now they play cat and mouse with Putin: a game that soon or late will make naughty Putin very just very angry. They arrested Putin’s Nato general secretary and announced that they shouldn’t consider it as geopolitical act, they arrested former president (local Putin, Putin’s friend) and the same announcement, and again they announced that they have nothing against Russia and appointed this guy deputy Diaspora minister….
Waiting for Russia’s thunder and lighting :D :D
The guy holding the sign?
Yes . If it wasn’t bit dangerous that would be really funny :D
Armenia is testing the waters.
This popped up on my feed and really made me laugh. They’ve been around a while. The narrator, Ze Frank, is hilarious.
A whole series of True Facts – The Cuttlefish, The Tarsier, The Dung Beetle, all work a look if you fancy learning something whilst having a giggle.
https://www.facebook.com/buzzfeedtruefacts/
*worth
Monsoon season doesn’t seem to be over soon here. And i’m not in the Indian Ocean region.
Hopeless, seriously…
Still hot here and no rain in sight … Yesterday I read that the village of Etzleben in Thuringia hasn’t had any rainfall since May.
Tomorrow I have tickets for ‘The Name of the Rose’ in Ötigheim Open Air Theatre. We expect 35 degrees and there is no shade there. The Freilichtbühne Ötigheim is the oldest and biggest open air theatre in Germany. It was founded in 1906 and was a place of resistance during the nazi terror.
I want a normal summer back! Am I asking for too much?! :P
PS: Have fun! It sounds an interesting place.
I go there once every year. :)
Summer, summer!
Looks lovely. :)
:( for the map
:) for Roy Orbison!
:D
Will you break Greece’s european record for higher temperature? The city of Trikala registered 47.2 degrees back in the summer of 1958 :)
[Most sources cite instead the 48 degrees registered in Eleusis on July 10, 1977. However that must be an erroneous record, as the reading seems to have been influenced by a nearby forest fire. Temperature in neighboring Athens that day was “only” 44 degrees…]
If I remember correctly, it is 47.3 for Spain.
Germany stands only at 40.3 (twice in the town of Kitzingen in 2015).
So we have already lost the record :-P
Yes, I remember reading that last year. I think it was in the beautiful town of Montoro. :)
Portuguese record – 47.3ºc in Amareleja, Alentejo back in 2003. Yesterday, Alvega (Ribatejo) reached 45.2ºc. Badajoz reached 44ºc, yesterday’s Spanish record.
In 2003, we had 47,4 in Amareleja.
https://www.jn.pt/sociedade/interior/recorde-de-temperatura-foi-de-474-em-2003-na-amareleja-1627898.html
Público mentions 47,3ºc, but most sources say 47,4ºc indeed.
https://www.publico.pt/2003/08/12/jornal/este-e-o-verao-de-todos-os-recordes-em-portugal-204381
Não vi que já tinhas respondido… Sorry :)
No problem. :)
I am still in Lisbon and it’s hotter than that map implies – around 40ºc in Alvalade. It’s cooler by the river (Belém) where I had lunch.
A song for parched Europe:
ETSC makes one find new stuff. :)
I’ve just discovered the fantastic work of Adam Koziol, a twenty-six-year-old photographer from Poland.
He documents dying tribal cultures around the world.
Worth a visit:
http://www.koziol.gallery/
Never believed, I would say this but…
I miss winter😥
Madonna must be feeling hot in Portugal right now:
http://dlisted.com/2018/08/01/madonna-moved-to-portugal-to-be-a-soccer-mom-and-make-new-music/
lol.I’m sure she had good ventilation.I rrad the other day that she worked with Portuguese musicians for her new album and that it’s influenced by her life in Lisbon.
She still tries to make albums? Bless her…
You never know what she’s up to. Maybe she’ll please us with another moral tale:
ROFL :-D
Henry Cavill is reading some lusty tweets and making us all lustier in the process:
Both my neighbours are on holiday (children at school, so they need to go in August or early September …). I have to water the plants in 3 gardens, on 5 terraces (one house does not have a roof terrace) and on 3 balconies. I want rain! I never thought that I would say this. LOL
What a wonderful neighbour you are. I wish I had neighbours like Togravus. I will even start a campaign : “A Togravus for every neighbourhood”.
LOL They do the same for me when I am on the road. :)
Btw, this is where I went today. Besigheim is my favourite historic town in Ludwigsburg County. It is known as Germany’s most beautiful historic wine town. :) Commentary is in German but the visuals speak for themselves. If you wonder what Mr. Obama is doing there … one of his great-grandfathers was from Besigheim. :)
Very nice! Did you buy some wine?
Of course I did. :)
Some Soviet nostalgia.This happened today 38 years ago:
Video unavailable for me…
Yes,Olympic channel blocks it and you have to watch it on fb.It’s basically the moment Misha,the Moscow Olympics mascot waves goodbye to the crowd shedding a tear and people crying too.
One of the strongest memories of my childhood :)
I can understand why. This one is pulling on the heartstrings, and as a child you haven’t experienced enough to be cynical about it …
I never watched it before because Germany did not participate in 1980. :(
Since you liked “Ligo Ligo” here’s a more ethno-oriented song from Pavlina taken by the same album:
Thanks. I have just come home from a fantastic experience at Ötigheim Open Air Theatre. Btw, it is still 30 degrees here … I will check the song tomorrow. :)
We finally had a clouds-free day here too.Good night!
G’night to you too. :)
I like this one a lot too. But then you know that I love almost all Greek music. LOL
So during Olympic games there were political issues and boycots? I didn’t know it! Anyways the best thing in the opening ceremony of Moscow Olympics ceremonies was the respectul tribute to all Soviet Union Nations and their culture.Regardless to many mistakes and bad things Soviet had some positive and good sides after all.
Yes, the USA, West Germany and Japan boycotted completely and other western countries boycotted partly due to the invasion of Afghanistan. Eastern bloc countries reciprocated 4 years later in Los Angeles.
True.
Great Britain, on the other hand, is a special case. They took part but they used the Olympic flag (instead of the Union Jack) and the Olympic anthem instead of their national one in case one of their athletes won a gold medal.
That’s why Great Britain is one of the very few (5) countries in the world never to have missed any Olympic games (Australia, France, Switzerland and Greece the other four).
In the 1984 games there were two remarkable cases of Eastern bloc countries that took part despite the boycott: Romania and China :)
The pretext for the boycott was, ironically, the US invasion to Grenada in 1983.
That’s some serious Olympic spirit we are talking about :P
I think french and italian athletes also participated under the olympic flag that year. Like russian athletes more recently.
Don’t remember about France and Italy, tbh.
sweetie, I’m old, I remember those 1984 OLympics very well, Zola Budd and Mary Decker controversy, Daley Thompson etc, Romania was flavour of the month because they defied USSR etc! China’s first appearence etc :-)
I remember Daley Thompson too :)
he was kind of hot and controversial in the 1980s, in UK he is a sexy legend I guess, if u ask anyone there!?
Eagerly waiting for the 2009 retrospective ;) :)
An article about Turkey’s future participation in esc. It seems Conchita is one of the reasons TRT is not eager to come back.
https://news.am/eng/news/465058.html
am guessing that equals a gay guy with HIV, who never did anyone any harm?
Summer songs! Yeah!
wow I so remember that song I was 11 years old :-)
Oh dear Austria didn’t do that great after all :(
Thanks to BT and their fantastic internet service I’ve been without internet since the 28th of July, which is when I got back from France, so I’ve not seen anything of the results until now.
Congrats Switzerland! My 8 points ended up doing amazingly well, as well as my 10 points :) And Portugal didn’t do too bad either! That was my favourite song by far this edition.
Thank you so much for the 12 Anders, very much appreciated in the Austrian camp! A very big thanks to Donny, Rosalina, Dominik, Caolan, Donnie, Luke and Mermy <3
Thank you for your 12 pts, Tecku. The Latvian and Austrian flags looked the same on the detailed results! Sorry for the mistake. :)
I just saw Heidrik’s Polish tour documentary from last year. Had I known him earlier I’d have gone to his concert in Sopot where I had been in the summer of 2017.
I appreciate his efforts to speak a few words in Polish (Even native speakers like me struggle sometimes with correct grammar). He’s right about young people changing the country, but it’s still a long way to go for Poland. Especially after PiS doing their best to dismantle democracy.