Eurovision 2019 – It appears that Iceland entry, Hatari, have already paid a small price for their display of Palestinian scarves during this year’s Eurovision Song Contest. Social media posts by an Israeli El Al member of staff appear to show that the Icelandic band members were deliberately split up and given the worst seats on their flight home by the Israeli national airline.
Hatari member Einar Stef put on his Facebook page:
“Thank you EL AL for the “special treatment” #coolkidssitintheback
Reports from press and fans leaving Tel Aviv today also shows that the warm welcome received last week appears not to apply so much when leaving the country. KAN, the Israeli broadcaster, had warned people to continue to wear their accreditation passes as it may help, but it didn’t stop some unlucky press and delegation members being profiled and searched in some depth as they tried to leave Tel Aviv.
People were interrogated for up to thirty minutes with questions such as ‘which hotel did you stay at in Azerbaijan 7 years ago?’ and why have you visited all these countries in your passport. Some were asked what their names meant, and relatives’ names e.g. the name of the grandma of an ex-wife! One was asked why he didn’t want to visit Jerusalem during his stay. One had to remember what he ate in Baku in 2013. Another, who couldn’t remember the name of a relative who had died before he was even born, had his passport taken away for further checks. Luggage was gone through, items removed and some felt it left a bit of a sour taste to be profiled as high risk travellers after what had been a good fortnight.
The Eurovision Times 
I’m still not over the new televote reveal! they totally screwed the big of televote their moment to shine (not enough moment on Norway, they had like 1mn to enjoy and not the whole build up tension towards their win) and US of a MUCH BETTER excitement
none of us expected Sweden and NMacedonia to overtake either NL or Italy. If they had done the old way, the top 10 would have been shown, we’d all have gone “how far did San Marino really go? which of them will do well?” and Macedonia would already have been out. With Sweden 9th out too, we would have a great top 5 with Switzerland, Russia, Italy, Netherlands and Norway, 4 expected contenders and the big wow. In the end, they go down one by one, all beating one another in the full ranking except… Norway is still up! And then Italy! so Norway got top 2 and will prevent Italy winning? Then NETHERLANDS! OMG, how much did Norway win and can they go all the way? and then no, but still 5th!
THAT’s the true reveal we NEEDED and DESERVED!
Yes but with Norway and The Netherlands being the last 2 standing we would know Norway needs 445 pts to win which would be impossible
mh maybe, but the potentiality would be there for many casual viewers and their televote would get SOME recognition!
I fail tos ee how the new system is in ANY way better: everything is worse in it
I agree. It was very lame, in particular the fake suspense they created before announcing the Swedish televoting points. At least we, the fans, knew that a song like ‘Too Late for Love’ would never collect more than 150 points in the televoting.
I allowed your old comments, which was sent to SPAM! you’re the new spamed one from wordpress lol
I know the word that caused the trouble but I forgot about it when I wrote that comment. I have no clue why this word sends you onto moderation. It’s the nick of an ET regular from the UK (one I never agree with when it comes to politics). Is that nick on moderation? If yes, that might explain everything.
no, if we put someone on mod it’s by IP!
remember Max Cinamon last year in DE? lol
Yes I do.
Then it’s a complete mystery …
I agree. It was very lame, in particular the fake suspense they created before announcing the Swedish televoting points. At least we, the fans, knew that a song like ‘Too Late for Love’ would never collect more than 150 points max in the televoting.
I didn’t. There were people who did their maths, who knew. But most people had no idea how many points were left.
then it would have been the same if Norway instead of Sweden was left out right? now we didnt see Ben being disappointed but saw John, and it’s unfair in itself the spotlight is not on KEiiNO!
I did not count the points but we knew how many points the similar Austrian song got last year. Add a possible Swedish flag bonus to that and you get to 150 at best. You probably didn’t know because you were too tense and too busy biting nails. ;)
Also their expression before every country that received high points was also a gave away. And that finale with Sweden was awkward…it was obvious there weren’t enough points. I counted several 200s so I new Sweden would receive 100+ at best. Let’s go back to the 2016-2018 system.
yes, and the time they spent to big results against the rushed results for Cyprus or France who did poorly
Exactly. And that made sure that those too didn’t do well, atlhough we expected to receive more..the fact they didn’t even bother waiting for people to calm down and then announce the points made obvious those two didn’t get much.
That, plus waiting for one hour until the stage was ready for Madonna’s travesty. They should NEVER again have a voting window that’s longer than 10 or 15 minutes. It killed all the excitement and made people nod off or change the channel.The new reveal is baaaad, we all knew it from the beginning and it makes no sense whatsoever.
yeah, way too long: either you go for 20 votes or just one-five max, so it can be done in 20/30mns: every single interval act besides Madonna were nice on their own (maybe one too many)/ I’d have kept the amazing “sing my song” with former top 2 artists and the local amazing artist with Idan Raichel and that’s it
I agree with them, Madonna and waiting for her staging was the problem. Well, at least she was good for laughs.
she did become the big talking things for outside the bubble, including the US! but I still could have gone without: in the long run she’ll only help RUV rests its case lol
If the israelis really wanted to impress us they should have gone for Gaga who thrives in this sort of awards settings. But I doubt she would have agreed as she is riding high at the moment.
Agreed, I never understood why they made this change for this year. It seemed horrible from the start, and if anything this year proved that it didn’t work. Please go back to the older system.
I hated San Marino but them being revealed as 10th in the televote in the old way would have been one of the greatest moments in ESC history I feel.
The only real highlights this year of Germany’s 0, UK’s 3, and Sweden’s 83 would have all happened in the old system too. Robbing Norway of the televote winner recognition was bad.
I just noticed that Israel jury have Iceland in 25 th place ( in last place ) and Iceland jury have Israel in 21 place . This reminds me how Azerbaijan and Armenia voting for each other :/
except everyone had Israel last: and without the fake Belarus jury, Israel would have been dead last 0pt overall in the final. Iceland had pts from many juries and was 14th from them. We all know how Kan and the Israeli powers reacted to Hatari as soon as they were picked…
Ranking according to the old systeme – until 2015 I guess.
Griezmann is the new cover boy for gay magazine Têtu! <3
Not really liking his new hair
at some pt he looked like a teenager experimenting on it and it wasn’t the best; but this one is nice, a bit angelic, nice to grab when you ride him but not too long; and you know he’s hot when he can pull both the dirty look and the angelic one
Agree. There is too much of it.
He looks like Sebastian Rejman.
My bf liked Sebastian and doesn’t care for Griezmann, so weird comparison to me!
Maybe I am still too much in the bubble.
Really hope he doesn’t go to Barca…would be a waste there imo.
https://images.app.goo.gl/6tB5oqqB7RWYzyZZA
For u guys!
You can already vote for the Barbara Dex here:
https://songfestival.be/barbara-dex-award-voting-2019/?fbclid=IwAR3GsZppUPgl9GheB2lPS7Y12UB1Uv6QVp6vyQjFen6WvR1hsMBmn0rCGDA
I already cast my vote for Albania :)
Belarus… she looked like child prostitute so it was not even amusingly bad.
I thought she was OK…. I think S!sters were the worst by picking clothes from their own wardrobes and for the guys walking chinese lantern mahmood or the parachuter Eliot
I also did not like Katrine’s… Waist down it was disaster
Performers picking their own clothes seems to be an NDR thing; I think this is at least the 4th year in a row. At least the black-haired one went Zara, which was more than either the blonde or, for that matter, Spain.
I don’t vote in this but if I did, my vote would go to Tamta. I have always supported Cyprus in ESC …
I was thinking Cyprus too or Greece. Both did not look good in those outfits 😐😐
Tamta would have been my second choice but at least she looked like a regular hooker and not a child prostitute like Belarus.That was really uncomfortable.
Belarus for me
Your hate about Jonida is bottomless…
Like Jonida’s cleavage?
She was worse than all those mentioned together (Belarus? why Belarus?) and then some.
I don’t think so. I think just like Hjallis you are scared of such singers ;)
I am scared of her dress which is the stuff of nightmares.
Because Belarus ooked cheap and like a child prostitute made up to look older. I don’t think Albanaia was bad actually; I’m guessing it had traditional elements to go with theme of song?
I didn’t even notice what she was wearing, so obviously it did not bother me.
I would pick Greece. She thought she was going for some ethereal princess look I guess, but she just looked like a mess. Australia is another top pick for me. I bet something like Iceland will win though, because people have forgotten what the Barbara Dex Award means – Hatari were not trying to dress to fashion standards!!!
I thought both Belarus and Cyprus had very modern, stylish outfits. Obviously I wouldn’t wear anything like that in my everyday life, but if I was a performer I would definitely want to dress like that.
Greece was serving the concept. She was not trying to dress to fashion standards.
true! but what if one genuinely thinks the dress failed to carry the concept and distracted instead of pulling you to it?
You could argue it fit- concept and dress both were a mess
I only sort of agree. I think she was going for a concept yes, but in the same way every other act was going for a concept. It’s not the same situation as Hatari where they knew they did not look appropriate and weren’t trying to be. Katerine wasn’t purposefully trying to look bad but she did.
I voted for Croatia. That white leather jacket deserves all the hate it gets.
You mean he should have worn just the wings, nothing else ;-)?
How can you vote. I am clicking but nothing happens.
You should enter with FB or some other account I think
Or Twitter or Google.
The 2020 DMGP edition is scheduled to be held on Saturday 7 March 2020 at the Royal Arena in Copenhagen.
As for the Barbara Dex award I have quite few I didn’t like:
Armenia, Belgium, Estonia, Finland, Georgia, Lithuania, Malta, Austria, Romania and UK.
All of the boring, uninspiring and unflattering.
From those you mention i would only pick Belgium
I just made an account since I don’t have fb twi etc – 30 seconds and I ROM compensated w dancers’ look tho…
When your favorites ends up scoring high:
You look AMAZING in that pic!
lol,thanks! It’s a photo taken at one of Galina Brezhneva’s (Leonid Brezhnev’s daughter) parties, I was reading an article about her. It turns out much to her father’s dismay she was quite a party animal.
Interesting question also – who dressed the best/most appropriate for song? I wouldn’t wear Lake Malawi Bel Ami boys clothes but I think they looked fine and matched song v well. Not counting all black/white which looks fine but really just says “I read this is ok on a lifestyle site.”
And Madonna was dressed by Turkish designer Dilara Fındıkoğlu🤗
Mahmood was wearing Maison Margiela
https://www.vogue.com/fashion-shows/spring-2019-menswear/maison-martin-margiela/slideshow/collection#25
I prefer his rehearsal shirts
If he gets license fees for all the carnevale and halloween costumes every gay guy anywhere will want to model on the Mad queen’s look, he will be a rich man!
Images from the green room
It is now official! The Belarusian jury is now rectified.
https://eurovision.tv/story/ebu-issues-statement-on-eurovision-2019-grand-final-result
*jury ranking
Grrrr!Gutted Norway,the indisputable televoting winner lost a place to Sweden.
I don’t know what to make of this. I do understand EBU stands by its principle that all countries should have two sets of votes. However, in that case I disagree. Belarus should have not deliver jury points.
Ugh yes – generally I’m wondering whether the juries ought (for the time being) to be abolished. Blind televote for Russia/ex-YU/Nordic faves seems to longer be assured or ensure victory.
#justice4IlVolo
And Azerbaijan lost a place to that bore from North Macedonia. Horror. Other big changes: France losing 2 places and Cyprus gaining 2.
Yeah both changes in the top10 are rather unfortunate.
Having the big televoting winner outside of the top-5 just doesn’t feel right. Juries did a bad job with their top-2 this year especially with North Macedonia.
I agree completely. The most irrelevant song in the top10 by far. They went big with their “underdog” syndrome…
Juries have turned ESC to a talent show nowadays.
If they really wanted to vote for something like that, “Scream” was much better.
Not really. Not the best vocals and an empty interpretation. If it was’t for the staging this would have done much worse.
You are right about the interpretation and the staging, but I thought his vocals were quite fine even though I prefer Tamara as a singer. However they both sounded like numbers from bad musicals (“Scream” from a more gothic musical perhaps).
Towards the end he loses control of voice somehow. I ranked both almost equal:
19 RUS
20 MKD
Lifeless and emotionless ballads. The only thing I remember after both songs were performed was the staging (RUS) and the voice (MKD).
That’s true, even though he tried to “steal” it in the final (make it a little less obvious). It was a minor thing anyway.
Another option:
And a much better one:
I ranked her 18th. In this case you feel it and it wasn’t even in English! The revamp as well helped a lot.
Slovenia changed places with Cyprus (-/+2), Malta with France (+/-2), Albania with Serbia (+/-1) and San Marino with Estonia (+/-1)
And sad news for Slovenia. They were far more appealing to the public and the winners among the Balkans in televoting,
They are astill ahead of that group though.
Yes, but losing to Cyprus is unfair, imo.
It lost to Malta too.
That too.
So the juries are telling us that in a year of rather good songs, the best song of all was a pompous female ballad. Right…
Indeed.Truth be told,they didn’t have a landslide winner but still with the likes of Italy and The Netherlands it’s a joke.
Sexist monster! #s!sterzpower#
S!sterz are the heroes of Eurovision. Everybody said they would finish last and (deservedly) they didn’t. Personally I agreed the UK was much worse.
It was the only upset in a year without big upsets (apart from North Mac. being pushed into the top10 and Norway freakishly topping the televote). That and Belarus making it to the final (with the votes of the juries no less!)
What I wonder at the same time is whether a microstate like San Marino actually has a real televoting and how many people it is that votes then. I remember seing some statistics from ESC 2004 which showed that Monaco that year had 110 votes in total, and that it didn’t count, so they had to use a back-up jury instead. It’s kinda weird how much power they have there in San Marino, just vote for your song like 5-10 times and that might be enough to put it Top 3 there.
No, they share their phone network with Italia. Just like what was done with the Belarus jury vote, the San Marino tele vote is an artificial construct using an algorithm.
(Did I really write Italia instead of Italy?)
They don’t have a televote in San Marino. Their televoting represents the average of the five countries in the same pot (Cyprus, Malta, Modova, Greece and Romania).
Interesting trivia: Slovenia got 0 jury pts from their fellow ex yugo countries. :(
Too modern and western for them.
That’s a shame!
SLO was never really part of that group tho – generally seems more modern and western in many ways, e.g. first – and I think to this day biggest – Gay pride in ex -YU.
Indeed. Just checked Slovenian jury and they only gave 2 pts to North Macedonia and nothing to Serbia.
But their televoters gave 12 to North Macedonia and 10 to Serbia.
Yes, i know.I was talking about the jury pts, though
I love it how people know how to divide countries in “progressive” and “regressive” ;) Why does western equals modern? Japan is very modern :-P
None spoke about ”progressive” and ”regressive” cultures.
”Why does western equals modern?” Modern art for example started in the West, hence the many modern arts museums you have in such countries.
Modernity started in western Europe anyway. However I don’t find dividing cultures into camps based on totally western criteria very helpful. As I said Japan (and increasingly the big urban centers of China) are probably the most modern places in the world right now. Not to mention several Gulf states…
I don’t think anyone divided countries based on those concepts. We are also talking about culture. Gulf countries might be rich and modern (infrastracture) but the arts sector is non-existent.
The Louvre just opened in Abu Dhabi and they have a (fake?) Da Vinci as well :-P Anyway, I don’t think the criterion of modernity is necessarily western concepts like gay prides.
Expensive musuems isn’t an index either. Do they have univesrities teaching social, humanities and the arts? Or any other fora representive all those concepts therefore defining and shaping future societies? I don’t think so.
”I don’t think the criterion of modernity is necessarily western concepts like gay prides.” Not the only index either but one of them. It isn’t surprising that for example Norway has tolerated homosexuality but in Cameroon the send you to prison.
I think we confuse modernity with particular concepts of individual and sexual freedom that are the products of a particular society and epoch (the baby-boomer generation in the postwar West). As for postmodern art, it is by its nature international and cosmopolitan and you can find the same things all over the world. The best modern art museum I have been so far is in Istanbul and features the works of mostly turkish artists.
So, in your view China megacities and the Gulf states are progressive?
They are the edge of modernity. People who have been to Shanghai tell me there is nothing comparable in the world right now. But nobody knows how modernity will turn out or whether it will be what we call progressive. Personally I can’t see in 50 years’ time. Who knows how it might turn out.
You were talking about the definition of progressive and now you mention modern infrastracture and museums.
No, I was talking about the definition of modernity. Japan is a very partiarchal and xenophobic society, governed by the same party for most of the past 70 years and executing criminals (like the US do). Yet nobody would not call it anything but ultra-modern.
Yes, but a progressive society and modern and edgy infrastructure shouldn’t get mixed. I don’t think Dino’s initial comment was about modern architecture and museums.
No they shouldn’t. That’s what I am saying. Progressive or western does not equal modern.
We learned making that distinction from Greeks who constantly remind everyone that they invented democracy.
And butt sex ;)
You’re quite good at it, too thx God 😜😘
I’m reading many anti Swedish comments online lately. Has it always been like this or is it their high placement with juries for yet another year the reason?
What makes it more interesting is that not only hardcore esc fans are aware of the juries’ sympathy for Sweden. It has reached out of the bubble too. This year I watched esc together with my brother who hasn’ t watced it for years and he was like “It’s Sweden, winning it unfairly again, Nordics are always overrated in this contest etc…”
And I mean who can blame him? Norway won the televoting, Sweden almost won the juries again and even Denmark with THAT song ranked #12 despite just missing the Final…
On anothet note, Keiino stated they want to see juries out of the contest 😜
Based on the results we have seen (no big upsets, no fan flops), it seems to me more and more hardcore (or at least loyal) fans are doing most of the voting anyway and they make up their minds long before the contest starts. But perhaps there are more of them now than they used to be? By hardcore or loyal I don’t necessarily mean people who follow every little detail all year long. People in my house were also saying the same things about Sweden and their only contact with Eurovision is watching the final every year.
It’s also interesting that OGAE poll got it VERY right for the first time!!!
That’s my point exactly. It is as if the lives did not even matter all that much.
Well in case of Proud, LIVE did matter.
I would say Cyprus is ”partial FFF” given it’s televoting result was poor.
And Bilal is the bookies’ flop or more likely, the big bookies’ trap.
I am sure someone made a lot of money out of Belarus qualifying as well with the kind of odds they had.
But, i don’t understand why you’re mixing things. Norway was the televoting winner not because they are a Nordic country but because their song was liked by people across the continent. Denmark had a rather balanced Jury/televoting score so nothing to moan about there, either.
Of course Keiino said that LOL. Who cares ? These are the rules of the contest, they knew it before they entered. It doesnt go like that – if the rules dont work in my favour change them. And they (Keiino) are blaming them for what ? Northern bias as well ? ROFL.
And yes anti-swedish sentiment has been the trend in the bubble and with the esc “press” for years now, reaching its peak last year with all the vile behaviour against Benjamin. You should have noticed.
Fire Papi welcomed home:
I am gutted that Tamara was robbed of her big moment in the final. :(
On the other hand, the host country was saved from receiving 0 points from the juries in the live show.