Eurovision Song Contest 2024

[Griffin]

It's that time of the year again! Who's watching with me?

I know there are big political questions in play so let's just leave it at that - I respect anyone's decision to boycott the contest this year. Let's keep the discussion civilized and focus on the musical performances, please.

Who are your favourites this year? Any guesses as for the winner? If your country is competing, what do you think about the artist? Did you watch the semifinals or just the grand final? The floor is yours.  

 

[Barnacle_lady]

Well, I live in The Netherlands so you can imagine I have this wtf feeling what is going to happen tomorrow. We will have to wait and see.

At the moment I really have no clue who to point as a winner. The contestants are very diverse and I think it will be a matter of taste. I thought Finland was funny, Norway was good and most of the countries of the 2nd semi finals were good. The 1st semi finals didn't had a lot of songs that were interesting.
But aside of this I like to watch it. I was at  the 2019 one in Israël which was a great experience.

[Taffeta]

The media here keep saying the Czech entry is the favourite.

I admit, I don't really watch Eurovision anymore - I used to as a kid but haven't in a while. I have heard samples of most of the songs but I don't really know what folk are likely to vote for.

Just that there seems to be a bit of 'weird'...

[Barnacle_lady]

The top 3 bets over here say Croatia, Israel and Switzerland. If I have to pick one of these 3 it will be Switzerland.
As said in my previous post, a lot is based on taste.

[Griffin]

So it looks like The Netherlands is not competing tonight? Sorry about the whole incident, I hope we'll learn more later.

My personal favourites this year are Norway, Estonia and Croatia. I also like Armenia, Switzerland, Ireland and, I've got to admit, Austria's eurodance piece because that was the kind of music that 'everybody' listened to when I was in elementary school. So it brings back memories definitely. There's something of that genre in Finland's entry as well, and who doesn't love nostalgia and a little silliness? Latvia's song is beautiful and has a strong message but I'm sadly not a fan of the stage performance, and I feel like it will be seriously underappreciated because of that, but let's see. I was happy to see that one get enough votes to enter the final at least!

In general, I give points for native languages, successful blendings of different genres (especially if one of those genres is folk/traditional music), and traditional instruments and/or vocals. I also tend to like pieces with social/political criticism, which can be subtle or not-so-subtle...

[Moonbreeze]

Maaan, we (NL) got robbed from our happy hardcore party (If what is stated by the Dutch broadcaster is true, then the DQ was out of proportion).

I was rooting for Switzerland, France and Ireland, expected Croatia to win and was bummed that Norway got so few points.

[Griffin]

Maaan, we (NL) got robbed from our happy hardcore party (If what is stated by the Dutch broadcaster is true, then the DQ was out of proportion).

I was rooting for Switzerland, France and Ireland, expected Croatia to win and was bummed that Norway got so few points.

Oh yeah I'm so sad for everyone in the NL

I voted for Norway. I expected it to be too niche/challenging to please the crowds, but I was honestly shocked to see the juries disregard the performance. I was expecting them to give at least 1-4 points consistently, but only a few national juries even awarded that much. Maybe the staging was a bit too busy? But I don't think that should've been decisive.

In any case, I don't mind at all that Switzerland ended up winning. The piece started to grow on me, IMO the vocal techniques combined with the athletic balancing were super impressive, and the song had a powerful message of self-discovery that kind of reminded me of Conchita Wurst. Even though I liked Croatia more, I totally understand juries giving their points to Switzerland. And I was very happy to see Ireland's success!

I spent some time yesterday checking out several artists' discographies on Spotify and added many of them to my list. I was sad to see Baby Lasagna only has a few songs so far, I liked them all! The contest piece was definitely inspired by Rammstein, but the other songs are maybe more reminiscent of Måneskin's style. Both are some of my favourite bands so it's no wonder I like BL a lot! I was also pleasantly surprised by Bambie Thug, I mean I liked 'Doomsday Blues' well enough but it's probably not something I would normally listen to. However, the other songs are actually much more approachable in my opinion. They also did a wonderful Cranberries cover that can be found on the official Eurovision Youtube channel - Zombie is not an easy one to do well but I think it was beautifully arranged and performed. I also added Italia's Angelina Mango to my list, I was not a fan of 'La Noia', but it is very different in style from her other, more mellow songs.

My taste in music is all over the place anyway. There was a time I couldn't have imagined to discover something worth listening to through ESC, ever, but times have changed.

[Barnacle_lady]

Yeah, I wish Norway got more points too.
Switzerland is a good deserved winner. But with the after taste The Netherlands could have won too. I hope for an automatic final place next year.
After ESC I always listen to some songs on Youtube for a while. Watching the original videos.

I also liked the interval acts Benjamin Ingrosso and Alcazar. Only to realize there are a lot more Swedish acts I would have loved to see. Like Army of Lovers. But they have a song called Israelism so it must have been a choice not to ask them. So Ace of Base, Neneh Cherry or Leila K would have been good too.