Eurovision 2020 – No competition this year! So a lot of projects were put on the table, from different broadcasters. BBC, Stefan Raab or SVT have planned some sort of recognition for this year’s entries. Meanwhile, “home concerts” are posted on the contest’s official youtube page.
What do you think of these different projects? Which one do you want to follow the most?
The Eurovision Times 
Dima Bilan: “Believe” (2008) – 1st
Lyrics:
“OPEN every door”
This is almost comical in how cheesy it is. As a winner, I don’t appreciate it.
They surely did open every door when it comes to staging, Getting the song from Jim Beanz was just as over the top too. Loved it then, love it now.
YLE dedicates 3 days to Eurovision.
MAY 14:
-Finnish televoters will pick their top-10 songs of esc 2020
-Broadcasting esc 2014 Final
MAY 15:
-Presenting Finnish public’s favorite esc entries
-Broadcasting Eurovision 2006 Final
MAY 16:
-Broadcasting Eurovision 2007 Final
-Eurovision: Europe Shine A Light
Fuck, I’m late. Anyways, ESC song of the fucking day:
Kenna, can you pick 3 countries for Tuesday for the “OPEN” selection?
Luxembourg
Yugoslavia
Monaco
There, now get to the task, monkey!
Yugoslavia, will not compete as a country, for I’ll include songs from all the nations that were once part of Yugoslavia. Can you pick another one, please?
How about Montenegro?
Sure! :)
Mermy’s husband. :)
One of many great entries from Hungary. I hope that they’ll be back soon.
Interesting choice of words for this day given the entrant 🤔
Such a gorgeous man
it drags on, doesn’t it? The whole attitude+look+voice works wonder I guess, but as a song, it’s just ok
I agree. I don’t listen to the studio cut but the live performance was great.
I really like this one.
Acoustic version of LTU 2020:
Lithuania 20 is all about the lead singer. This guy deserves a second chance.
They’re a team and should come back together. They don’t know if they’ll accept the offer, though. It will depend on the songs they have. Also, Vaidotas says the main theme of “On Fire” is a message against ageism(i didn’t know that). His advice is to always be on fire no matter how old you are.
I agree. I did not know that either.
yes in the lines he does wonder why people say he’s “too old” and Donny has interpreted it as also a mean to reflect on “old formula” such as lyrics and composition wise, revisited in the entry as a fresher take on these
Even though, they sound simple they do have a very relevant and deeper meaning:
I’m a human, not a stone
I can make a change and go
Wherever I want to
They told me maybe I’m too old
But there’s fire in my soul
I managed to come here this weekend, which is not bad, considering my very hectic schedule. I am so tired of Zoom, Skype and similar platforms. Here’s a new take on Belarus 20:
I do not know why, but I am not feeling very interested in watching ESC- related shows. I will only watch one with 2020 songs, because they deserve to be heard by the Eurovision universe.
WOOW what a interesting, with ethno elements!! :O GREAT!
Now, Mr. Johnson has been hospitalised. The Queen wore a lovely shade of hopeful green though.
We’ll never agree on the colour green …
And whatever I think of Mr. Johnson, I hope that he’ll feel better soon.
Indeed.
3 countries for the “Open” special selection?
Ireland please 😊
Michos has already requested Ireland. We’l do it on Wednesday :)
Can you pick other 3 countries? I’ll list the countries already requested tomorrow.
Will do 😊
I posted it below, I mean the list :)
Done 😊
Albania, B&H and Spain?
B&H is already there! ;)
Albania and Spain, then. :)
Btw, did you see that VFoS is being hosted in Portugal? You should join this time!
I voted in the NFs, but I forgot about everything else. Working from home can also be very exhausting, but I am managing to have things under some sort of control now. We’ll see. :)
Vasil’s new song is nice and totally different to his esc entry:
I really hope that he will decide to sing in Macedonian next year.
Is he confirmed for 2021??? :O
I don’t know, but I most certainly hope that he will be confirmed.
I checked, he is not confirmed yet, but yes probably will be.. :)
BoNF 2020 news: I won’t be using Deezer nor an equivalent since “Pich” is not out yet. I’ll use a playlist from YouTube and it’ll be the first time live performances will also be counted for the semifinals! Here they are, all 30 in alphabetical order:
Well I decided having an avatar of me outside, in the sun and by the Atlantic ocean (at Varadero) was a good way to remind us it’s spring even though we can’t go out to enjoy it with this lockdown! Stay strong everyone!
Lol, the title is “VAL – Da Vidna” but the thumbnail shows Bulletproof by Dotter.
the tumbnail of the playlist is Dotter! but Belarus’ entry is alphabetically the first to go :o
I’ve also updated some of my playlists: My MF Winners (with Felix as my 2020 winner), My Eurovision Winners (with Switzerland’s official video) and even my MF reprise playlist was updated:
Babben Larsson was like the second worst winner reprise ever, after the 2014 trainwreck. My fave is either Motoboy doing “Hero” or Maia Hirasawa doing “Worrying Kind”. Helena did a marvellous “Popular” as well!
So yesterday we redid 1980 with my bf (year of his birth). This is my top10:
1. NLD
2. DEU
3. IRL
4. CHE
5. FIN
6. PRT
7. ESP
8. FRA
9. AUT
10. TUR
And this is his:
1. NLD
2. IRL (he gave them both 12)
3. DEU
4. TUR (our biggest disagreement; she is great, but I find the song much beneath her)
5. CHE
6. GRC
7. FIN
8. ESP
9. BEL
10. PRT
Cultest moments: How the telephone appliances were changing with each new country calling. Most WTF moment: Papa Penguin. Biggest agreement on horrible song that did well: the UK (of course).
May I have your 3 countries for the “OPEN” selection?
Netherlands, Germany, Ireland?
Netherlands, as the host country, was the first to be done. Another one? :)
Greece! And don’t forget that the Greek word for Spring (Anixi) comes from the been anigo (open up). Essentially it means “opening”.
what kind of opening is implied there :p
Of nature :-P
Óxi took Greece :)
Ok then. Estonia?
Taken by Dimitris… 🤣
Monaco!
Kenna has Monaco…. Sorry… You still have Spain, Italy, Cyprus, Malta, Denmark… and many many more… :)
Ok Italy then!
Sure!
* from the verb “anigo”
Papa pingouin really is a curiosity, but also tinged with sadness, because of what happened to the girls after the contest.
And I do love the phones, as well. If I remember correctly they used a Mickey Mouse phone for the UK? And this is my top 10:
01. Germany
02. The Netherlands
03. Norway
04. Spain
05. Belgium
06. Sweden
07. Ireland
08. Greece
09. Denmark
10. Switzerland
Another very cult moment is how much they were smoking in the green room. We couldn’t believe it :-D
Gross! I don’t like smoking..that’s coming from a former heavy smoker. But of course they would smoke like a chimney in the Netherlands.
Papa Pingouin is a mess, but it’s a hot mess, still one of the most talked about entries of class ‘80. Hot favourite (German disco as it’s very worst and overcooked to it’s most commercial and the cheapeast peak), train wreck performance by most lovely Parisian twin girls and all that happened after. These are the things ESC legends are made of. Enough reasons for me to love it. It’s not just about music, it’s also about stories.
It’s a prime example for the abyss lurking behind the colourful façade of Eurovision. Another curiosity: Jean-Paul Cara, who co-wrote and -produced Papa Pingouin, but also stuff like 1,2,3 or L’oiseau et l’enfant, was wearing the penguin costume. I think Meinunger, Siegel and Cara played Rock, paper, scissors to decide who has to play that part and poor Cara apparently lost.
Hahhahaa, but poor only afterwards because I’m sure they came to win and they wanted to get one of the writers on the stage to share the big moment. So sorry JP, serves you bloody right 😀
Team S/M always came to win. And always using the sledgehammer to make sure even the slowest person can follow the act.
You mean staging or composition? Hmm, maybe both 😀
I had staging in mind, but you could def say the same ’bout composition.
Just keep it simple :-)
Oh no, better keep it coming! I’d rather have trash gems like this one than the beigeness of the latest ESC editions.
Same here! And being talked about 40 years later is an achievement few contemporaries can only dream about. Le Papa Pingouin keeps popping up on regular basis.
I really like Love Enough for Two, fine specimen of UK’s early 80’s style which I love. Cheesy, poppy and very West End 😀
I would like to add Alan Sorrenti’s famous falsetto experienced live among the cutest moments. Studio version of Non se che dare I is my winner of 1980.
I have the same Top2 as you:-)
My 1980 top 10:
1 Belgium
2 Ireland
3 Norway
4 Turkey
5 Sweden
6 Germany
7 Denmark
8 France
9 Netherlands
10 Finland
No Morocco?
Tbh. it sounds a bit indifferent to me, but I appreciate the choice.
It’s my 6th it’s very unique
What a tragic weekend for the UK Labour Party.
But I guess that the BBC, The Guardian etc are satisfied, so, all is fine.
Anna Maria Jopek: “Ale jestem” (1997) – 11th
Lyrics:
“My eyes OPEN: the world comes into being”
(“Oczy otwieram: staje się świat”)
My favorite of the 1997 contest! <3
Want to pick 3 countries, Trekks?
Sure. Let’s go with Belgium, Slovakia and Sweden :)
Thanks! Thursday we’ll do those 3. :)
I look forward to it :)
That’s the opening line too. :)
❤❤❤
The best we ever had! Also covered by Anneli Saaristo in Finnish:
Sorry for being a little picky here, but the lyrics say “I open my eyes”. “Oczy otwieram” is an active sentence. Do you use diggiloo? Because I noticed that mistake there, as well. However their translations are usually good.
Thanks for the correction, Dominik… Yes, I took it from Diggiloo, I’ll correct it in my file!
Was this the one you were expecting?
No biggie ;) And big, fat YES!
A beautiful song. I notice a slightly unusual time signature here. The last of the great Polish trilogy of the 90s and my second favourite of 1997.
It’s in 6/8 but because of the quick tempo it’s counted in two. Not a particularly unusual time signature, though it doesn’t really appear in pop music. You can find it in a lot of classical music, however.
Yeah, I meant an unusual time signature under the confines of Eurovision: such a musically limited world.
Sopho Gelovani & Nodiko Tatishvili: “Waterfall” (2013) – 15th
Lyrics:
“I’m swept away, I look into an OPEN sky”
Thank you Sir Keir Starmer. We won’t hear much of that Corbynista sloganeering machine known as Richard Burgon for the forseeable future. Everytime I listened to Mr Burgon speak, some of my brain cells committed suicide …
Maja: “Na jastuku za dvoje” (2002) – 13th
Lyrics:
“Welcome, sister, the club is OPEN, sign in”
I did the right thing that year and went on holiday to Thassos. And because we didn’t have internet I only learned about Latvia winning when we were back on Dutch soil.
I like it and in my top 5 of this awful year
Tanel Padar/Dave Benton/2XL: “Everybody” (2001) – 1st
Lyrics:
“leave the windows OPEN wide – Why nobody can’t stay?”
I remember the voting, the Netherlands opening and Marlayne Sahupala giving this our 12 points and I was like WTF, it was as if Europe was on drugs that evening. How on earth could this win.
I like it a lot. :)
You know that it is Estonia 2001 we are talking about?
I do, and it is my favorite winning song between ‘Love Shine a Light’ and ‘Molitva’. :)
Not a great period when it comes to quality in general. But for most of those winners I can at least understand why they won, Estonia 2001 will always remain a mystery to me. Then I would have preferred Denmark doing a double. Or France winning although not my taste. My favourite songs however were from Lithuania and Bosna-H that year.
I was very surprised to see Estonia win in 2001 too because I did not expect the song to appeal to many people. And I agree that it is much easier to understand why f. e. Sertab, Helena or Lordi won.
I have Russia in 1st place in 2001, followed by a bunch of songs I find all right: DNK, FRA, DEU, GRC, BIH, TUR, ESP … and EST. However, I haven’t watched the contest for several years, and thus I might think otherwise these days.
Bosnia was my winner back in 2001 and now my 3rd. Lithuania my 5th. France my 4th. I cant stand Dk at ALL
I feel the same about Germany that year.
I dont like it but dont hate it. Dk is the one I dont ger but probably coz country is hateful to my ears (hate Germany 2006 for instance). Btw I have the NL in my top 10. But then I have the UK too lol
I like the UK too. Love the strings and Lynsey has great vocals.
yeah, just a bit dated europop, but it was decent imo
I remember that feeling. However I had a warning as I was watching it with my parents, very excited because Greece was favoured to win. I remember their pretty indifferent reaction when the greek song was on, but when this came on they were both like “yes that’s it, that should win!”. As you said I thought they were on drugs. Some kind of mass mind-control phenomenon :-P
My mom did the same since France was a favorite she saw it and went “wont win” but loved Estonia when it was on and called it right away. It was a huge win pointwise too!
It was the song for al the moms and dads it seems :-P
I agree… And listening to it now it sounds more dated than the songs from the 50’s…
+1 One of the weakest winners.
Also I think Tanel Padar was so extremely hot a year earlier in Stockholm. In 2001 however he looked as if he was still lying in bed when they told him to go on stage.
Tanel is incredibly hot
I love it. Underrated by fans but remember this is a televote winner that’s actually gimmick free ans the only person of color who won it
Ugh! Never took to this song or the performance.
Rollo and King were my favourites.
Silje Vige: “Alle mine tankar” (1993) – 5th
Lyrics:
“All my dreams are OPEN” (3x)
(“Alle mine drømmar é åbne”)
Back then it was my winner, but I don’t think it aged very well. And her weak vocals are not as cute anymore as I thought they were. Song would have benefited from a more engaging audience apart from the 5 Norwegians clapping along.
Had the venue been larger, perhaps 15 Norwegians would be clapping along ;)
But on a serious note, I like this a lot. However, it is more the instrumentation rather than her vocals that appeals to me.
I do think it’s not great live. Her vocals the look etc. The song’s amazing as an entry it’s not even my winner of the year
In my all time top 50 … if I had one. It’s just gut feeling if I say stuff like that.
Very nice song, indeed.
In mine as well… should have played for victory back then…
Sheldon, want to pick 3 countries?
Ehm, sure, I just have to admit that I didn’t follow the forum lately that much (corona is driving work crazy), so I’d need a short roundup how you guys intend to do this…
Sure! It will be very easy to understand.
Okay, how about Latvia, Lithuania and Switzerland?
Another beautiful and haunting song. I love the spoken word style of the verses and the instrumentation is great. My winner of 1993 by a mile.
<3
A masterpiece
I still revisit this on occasion
Sweet.
One of the best Norwegian ESC songs.
I ADORE Israle 2020 now – Eden Alene – “Feker libi”:, it is so uplifting these days.. :) I listen to it a lot.. :D and that performance and choreography! <3
I hope in 2021 she will have similar and GREAT entry!
I agree it is very uplifting. Moreover, musically I’m starting to like it more as well, it is very dynamic with its constant shifts, I’d like it even better if it were performed with more organic and native African/Middle Eastern instruments.
I have a feeling it would have done Top 10 in the televote. Europe loves the ethno-Disney tunes (DNK 18, NOR 19) and she is incredibly likeable and cute.
Norway 2011 failure incoming imo
It was possible but televote taste has changed since then…
ESC song of the day:
Cyprus 92, 94, 95, 96, 97 … probably my favorite cluster of songs from any country in ESC. <3 <3 <3
I love this song and its live rendition. :)
P.S. – Not his shirt though.
Well more like 4th one with PJ going for lyrics
This was my 12th when I redid esc 96 for PJ’s game. I dont like Cyprus in esc at all and dont think I have it in my top 5 once. I have it in my top 10 a handful of times mostly in the 80s ans 90s
Who would have guessed San Marino being the leader of the rebellion vs the EBU
https://wiwibloggs.com/2020/04/06/san-marinos-carlo-romeo-says-eurovision-shine-a-light-loses-appeal-without-competition-aspect/253191/
Who wou
I always support San Marino in Eurovision no matter what. They deserve their chance to shine for playing against such big countries and not backing out like Monaco and Andorra did.
Monaco was just France’s proxy as was Luxembourg most of the times.
Imagine if MF had TWO countries to pick their 2nd and 3rd to go to Eurovision and you get how France dominated and French chanson in general. It does happen for MF like Dk 2010 going for a reject that got 4th in the contest and Sweden failing to Q because it got an average song with a poor performer! Like France vs. Luxembourg in 1973 :D
Imagine if MF had TWO countries to pick their 2nd and 3rd to go to Eurovision and you get how France dominated and French chanson in general. It does happen for MF like Dk 2010 going for a reject that got 4th in the contest and Sweden failing to Q because it got an average song with a poor performer! Like France vs. Luxembourg in 1973 :D2
Don’t give CB any ideas or soon will have independent Gotland and Åland 😀
According to Wikipedia, Andorra is considering a come-back in the near future if they can secure the funding for it.
I sure hope they do. They never got a moment to shine.
Robbed in 2007 but don’t like any other one. 2005 was decent
I like 2006 LOL. Also, 2009, I have a soft spot for that one.
I actually like more of them… Marian van de Wal, Marta Roure, Susanne Georgi and ofc Anonymous… Gisela was their worst one IMO…
The following countries have already submitted their entries:
The Netherlands
Finland
Belarus
Portugal
Greece
Iceland
Russia
Poland
Georgia
Bosnia & Herzegovina
Estonia
Norway
Ukraine (DQ)
Countries scheduled for the next days:
Luxembourg, Monaco, Montenegro, UK, France (tomorrow)
Australia, Azerbaijan, Ireland, Germany, Italy (Wednesday)
Belgium, Slovakia, Sweden, Spain, Albania (Thursday)
Malta, San Marino and Andorra
Good! Thanks. Friday, most probably!
Someone is loving the tiny ones. :)
I thought I’d give the micros some love <3 :)
Great gesture. They certainly need our love in the brutal ESC universe. :)
Boris Johnson moved to intensive care apparently. Wishing him all the best as well as all patients in intensive care units of course. I hope he pulls through it and comes out wiser from this adventure.
I hope is recovers and gets to raise his child. Who will be the deputy PM? Do you know?
Mr. Raab, I gather.
Indeed. Mr. I have just discovered that the Calais Dover crossing is essential to British trade and supplies. It’s getting worse and worse in the UK. Who’s next? Mr. Duncan Smith? Failing Grayling?
They got there because the voters chose them. Unfortunately, voters (like televoters) do not always make the right choice.
Amen to that. :(
And the Tories got rid of all their competent MPs because of Brexit: Mr. Grieve, Mr. Gourke, Ms. Greening etc.
Especially since the person in charge is like the worst UK politician ever? (I just checked his résumé and it’s only a first reaction but my god). Anyway I wish everyone sick to recover. Good luck to him and his family!
There’s a lot of competition for that in the UK atm: Mr. Duncan Smith, Failing Grayling, Liz Truss. And Ms. Patel is probably the most morally corrupt of the whole conservative bunch.
I stopped following with brexit tbh
It was superb comedy until the corona virus spoiled all the fun.
Here’s the woman at her worst. You should remember putting your brain in before giving interviews … She’s a quite exquisite comination of being evil and stupid …
Worst UK politician ever is a title I would reserve for Pritty Patel personally.
Apparently Toggie agrees, so there has to be something there!
Patel was the last name of the gay boy in “Champion”, the Netflix dumb sitcom I watched in one go one of the first nights of lockdown to clear my head lol
She’s like Maleficent.
Mistress of all evil? slick!
No Maleficent was stylish and smart. Pattel is neither.
not smart enough as she relied on her goofy minions instead of her crow :p
Unlike Johnson, Raab is very hot though.
Ah! I still find Jared hot. I once dated a Marine Le Pen voter and then f*cked him and his new bf also a Le Pen suporter. My friends say I have a thing for fascist twinks lol. But hey no harm done in trying to convert them to socialism with my d!ck.
Trudeau Macron hot?
I find him hotter than them. Tall, athletic, manly. They are too preppy and not-a-hair-out-of-place, especially Trudeau which looks like a Ken doll. I want to be his secretary:
so more your type than mine. Im still team Macron
Before him, the ones I found hot were Sanchez and (if we include royalty) the king of Spain. I find Macron good-looking which is different from hot! Trudeau has the plastic model looks that leave me indifferent.
I agree on both the wishes to get well and the becoming wiser bit.
That’s a nice tribute:
Nice lyrics, Val!
Oh, how small, small of a girl you were
Oh, how early, oh early, white rose, to whom did you start to blossom that way?
Marko had already alluded to the quality of these lyrics. This song will be one of the best moments of this unique season.
So many songs i like and discover slowly. Slovenia is another worthy one. The lyrics combined with the orchestration:
Indeed. Thanks for the link. :)
I’ve liked it quite a lot on the EMA night, and it was my winner on the night. Now I do prefer “The Salt”, but I’m sure it would have Q! great vocals, nice song!
I’d like to see it on the big stage with the known background of the big leaves and the element of water present. It would have been quite mystical.
Quality. :)
ESC song of the day:
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://m.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DXA_SIOCX-l0&ved=2ahUKEwjY5oDm0dboAhWPT30KHRfGBUkQjjgwCHoECAUQAQ&usg=AOvVaw2GtXUOi8Tv2op8hrPsE_RH
I can correct that for you ahah *webmaster power*
In one of the best years ever, this isnt holding the comparison while helping the year. If its worst songs are this level, it’s gotta be a good year
I agree. 1963 is undoubtedly my favourite Eurovision year ever, both in terms of music and presentation, and had it been sent the year before or the year after it may have stood out but it didn’t stand a chance here.
Who See: “Igranka” (2013) – 12th (semi)
Lyrics:
“OPEN a can, life is a miracle”
(“Načinjem limenku, život je čudo”)
Absolutely robbed of a place in the Final imo. Fun and creative song we’re lacking at times in modern ESC. Finished 4th in the televote in that SF but somehow didn’t qualify due to the stupid voting system that year.
The voting that year was awful and definitely a reason why people are now vrry dubious with svt power over the ebu. We still dont have the full results!?
Nope, no full results because my guess is Denmark didn’t win the juries or the televote if it had been the system used any other year post-2008. Which now doesn’t seem anything bad since we’ve only had 1 winner take top place in both sets of votes since 2014, but would have been even more scandalous back then imo.
2013 is prolly the second worst year of the 2010’s imo. Denmark was always going to be the safe winner, as it was a safe entry itself in a year of not much quality.
totally agreed, with everything you said. I do think Norway would have been a better winner
Also I just noticed something I had forgot. Spain finished last with both sets of the vote in 2013, yet somehow didn’t finish last overall. Ireland finished 14th with the televote and 23rd with the juries, yet finished last.
yeah, but the old system had weird stuff: check Iceland and Lithuania final results in 2011 ;)
This is actually one of the best Montenegrin entries ever sent…
not that it’s very hard… I do prefer 2005 if we consider, like PJ does, that all the “group” countries (Yugoslavia, Serbia-Montenegro) are split to the country of origin, and 2016 which is my favorite of Montenegro on its own
2005 is not bad as well, especially the guys :-)…
hmm yes!