Esc 2023 - Tumblr Posts - Page 3
i'm so sorry for the person I become during the esc
This. It's not even about the music. It's all politics, I tell you. He deserved that win.
you know what really pissed me off? Käärijä wanted to prove that finland can win with a song in finnish language. and it really could have happened. he had a huge chance to prove how important performing in native language is to finland and to the rest of europe. instead they made boring plain pop song IN ENGLISH won. crime
I don't hate her. Her song has been stuck in my head since the final. I just think it's so FUCKING UNFAIR! She had already won and the public chose someone else. Her win it's just about politics.
I don't hate her. I hate the jury and the fact that Käärijä was stolen. That's all.
Friendly reminder: don't hate Loreen.
If you want to hate something hate the juries for being an unnecessary and often biased part of the whole concept of Eurovision.
He doesn't hate her, neither should we.
Efentix is out, KÄÄRIJAN IS IN
I've been thinking about this for a while, not just in terms of Eurovision, but it's a good context to explore the idea in.
I'm not sure it there is an actual term for this, but I've come to think of it in terms of genre literacy, where for certain musical genres you need a base of understanding (and experience) to work from, in order to fully understand or appreciate the more complex or derived works within a particular genre.
This doesn't negate those moments when you're introduced to something outside of your normal experience ("What the **** was that?!") and it completely knocks your socks off, but even then, chances are you're going to be inspired to do more exploring around that song/artist/genre, thus providing you with more background and musical context.
This is why I get so excited seeing variation in some of the less well-trodden genres in Eurovision; to me, Viszlát Nyár by AWS (Hungary, 2018), in addition to being one of my favourite Eurovision entries ever (and being one of the few to reliably make me cry), is wildly different from anything we've seen before or since, including the examples you gave from 2021, Zitti e buoni by Måneskin (Italy) or Dark Side by Blind Channel (Finland, of course).
As much as I would like to feel slightly smug about my taste in music, I very much feel this applies to 'pop' music as well; with a few exceptions (Lizzo, Lana Del Ray, Miley Cyrus, and a smattering of Carly Rae Jepson and Cardi B) I've barely listened to anything approaching the mainstream musical canon for a few years, so turning on the radio it all sounds like a bit of a homogeneous blur. That doesn't mean that mainstream pop music is objectively bad, or less complex or worthy than the music I enjoy, more that I don't have the experience and the background knowledge to judge whether it's good or bad in context.
A lot of my musical taste is so niche, I'm also just really happy seeing other people finding music that they enjoy and that means something to them (even if I would love to have more people to talk to about Epic Nautical Funeral Doom Metal ;) )
This gets further complicated when you consider artists and songs who are deliberately pushing (or breaking) the boundaries or tropes of a genre; you need that grounding in order to fully appreciate what they are doing differently!
One of the reasons I love Eurovision so much is because it's one of the few arenas where we get to see a wide variety of genres (and cultural contexts) in one place, and I feel that has been invaluable for me in terms of my overall musical genre literacy.
That said, if we did ever see a doom metal entry in Eurovision (unlikely, and I'm not convinced it would do well), I would absolutely flip my lid! :D
I sometimes get annoyed at how eurofans trend to treat all rock/metal songs the same, putting very different songs into the same box/genre, while for instance Zitti E Buoni and Dark Side were very different songs. Meanwhile, when listen to the pop entries my reaction to pretty much all of them is “it’s pretty catchy, I could listen to it but I would not seek it out”, and I get baffled when half of them are written of as masterpieces and half of them as trash.
(to be clear: this post is meant to be about how people tend to view music they listen to more “complexly” than music they don’t listen to, and how I can be hypocritical, this is not an attempt to claim that I have superior taste in music)
Skeleton of the Irish Elk, The Museum of Liverpool, Merseyside
A small collection of stolen pics that illustrate how Finland is truly a place on Earth right now
they are so cute 😭 💚
he lost it at some point and there were news articles about it
The merch has arrived
whoever voted for poland shouldn't be passed the aux cord in the car
Okay, this is so fricking cool...
Check out my Eurovision Battle Jacket. Not quiiiite finished but there's the train to Liverpool for final sewings
They dressed the Manneken Pis statue in Brussels like Gustaph 😭
Bunch of women performing ominous chants is one of my favorite Eurovision genres
She's like the child of Cher and Predator
I know they're supposed to be funny but the Australian "need to wake up at 5 am to watch Eurovision" posts actually make me a bit emotional.
Wdym people are so dedicated that they get up at 5 in the morning to watch this crazy music competition taking place on the other side of the world??
You guys....🥹🥹🥹
(muffled cha cha cha sounds)
Scheduled this to reblog the day after the final so I understand all the references...
Eurovision Class of 2023 Dream Covers
So a recent fixture of the Eurovision promo circuit is the Home Concert. To pad out your set, the discerning Eurovision artist needs an appropriate Eurovision cover song to whip out between renditions of their big song for May. Here is what I want to hear:
La Zarra 🇫🇷 - we're talking poise and camp, we're talking disco, we're talking French. She's got to cover Parlez Vouz Français surely.
Lord of the Lost 🇩🇪 - It would be satisfying but a bit route one for them to do Wig Wam's In My Dreams. Alternately, if we're going for a German pick I've always thought that you could easily metal up Glorious. (Almost any schlager floorfiller has the appropriate rhythmic quality to metal up, please book my schlager metal band for your upcoming event)
Marco Mengoni 🇮🇹 - Just do L'Essenziale Marco.
Let 3 🇭🇷 - A full Fuck Putin medley is possible here, if we can have Dancing Lasha Tumbai and We Don't Wanna Put In as some sort of mash up with a tracktor I'm sure our Croatian art dads are the ones to do it.
Wild Youth 🇮🇪 - Anyway, here's Euphoria (I am calling them basic)
Sudden Lights 🇱🇻 - I thought about this one a lot and I think I would want them to tackle one of the other artistic high points of Latvian Eurovision - Love Injected. Imagine that with big post rock guitar solo. Nice.
The Busker 🇲🇹 - They're fun, light hearted and they're in on the joke. We'll have a Rockefeller Street from you boys.
Alessandra 🇳🇴 - This calls for a huge over the top Ukrainian banger with impressive vocal moments? I will take Gravity.
Mimicat 🇵🇹 - Let's have a Bem Bom, but reinterpreted as a world-weary piano song, with Mimicat giving us knowing looks down the camera.
Luke Black 🇷🇸 - Seeing as you've already put the leather kecks on Luke, why don't you give me an industrial take on Minn Hinsti Dans? Yeah, do a verse in Serbian because that would be cool.
TuralturanX 🇦🇿 - Intense acoustic version of Heroes.
Vesna 🇨🇿 - They want to talk to us about pan-Slavic sisterhood so it's My Slowianie but in full choral folk-orchestra style. If they don't want to do that I'll have Wild Dances.
Käärijä 🇫🇮 - Oh! Maybe actually Käärijä should get a go at Wild Dances seeing as Cha Cha Cha is about dancing and is wild?
Noa Kirel 🇮🇱 - Ahhhh, let's go for another Israeli girlie bop with a confusing extended metaphor, let's have Same Heart
Pasha Parfeni 🇲🇩 - Confuse absolutely everyone and do Tornero.
Mia Nicolai & Dion Cooper 🇳🇱 - They see themselves as being quite sophisticated so I think they should give us a Fiumi di Parole. I am not letting them off with A Monster Like Me, no. They could do Chanee and N'Evergreen if they really want to show off their chemistry.
Loreen 🇸🇪 - Do you know what, I would want to see what she could do with something like City Lights. Like Tattoo, it's a mood and it builds, and I'm simply not going to ask her to do Euphoria.
Remo Forrer 🇨🇭- Wars For Nothing so he has another opportunity to think about the semiotics of his big clunky song about not wanting to be a soldier.
Blanca Paloma 🇪🇸 - I bet Blanca could take the slightly lightweight Amanecer by Edurne and turn it into a mystical epic with layers of handclaps etc etc.
Mae Muller 🇬🇧 - Where Are You? please Mae, this should really work for you and it's also a UK host country entry so very thematic.
Tvorchi 🇺🇦 - Stripped down cool af electro take on Razom Nas Bahato anyone?
Brunette 🇦🇲 - Qele Qele, I don't care if you think this is a basic choice.
Gustaph 🇧🇪 - Belgian floorfillers is a surprisingly populous genre, so I'm going to discount the slightly obvious What's The Pressure in favour of a Gustaph take on Kate Ryan's endlessly robbed Je t'adore. I think it's more his era (affectionate, also I'm basically the same age)
Andrew Lambrou 🇨🇾 - If we want to remind everyone that he's Australian, he can do Tonight Again and if we don't he can do Alter Ego
Reiley 🇩🇰 - Delicate twinky take on Fly On The Wings of Love please
Alika 🇪🇪 - Big emotional ballad. Let's go Ukraine. Let's go for a bit of a deep cut. Let's go Sweet People.
Victor Vernicos 🇬🇷 - The only other artist who has gone Full Sheeran is Schulte, so Victor can give us You Let Me Walk Alone (see, i'm not just recommending songs that I like)
Diljá 🇮🇸 - So many iconic Icelandic solo female songs, but I think we'll take an Is It True? from Diljá
Theodor Andrei 🇷🇴 - I want nothing more than to see Theodor absolutely demolishing perspex piano classic Playing With Fire. He is singing both parts. He is stripped to the waist. He is very intense. He somehow keeps his glasses on.
Albina & Familja Kelmendi 🇦🇱 - I'll have Mall just because I really like Mall.
Voyager 🇦🇺 - I deliberately didn't give I Feed You My Love to Lord of the Lost so that I could give it to Voyager. One of my all time faves and I think they could do a 6 minute intensification of it.
Teya & Salena 🇦🇹 - I think these two would be tickled pink by the message behind Beautiful Song. The Mick Jagger bit would make Salena corpse and then Teya would be gone too. The first verse would now have to be about how they were born in distant 1998 or 2000 (the years that Dana International and Charlotte Nilsson won), I hope that's ok with you and it doesn't make you crumble into dust.
Iru Kechanovi 🇬🇪 - She's already done Rise Like A Phoenix and Euphoria on The Voice and she's also got her JESC winning song, so I think she should do a vocally impressive and expressive winning song. Let's have In Your Eyes.
Monika Linkyte 🇱🇹 - I was looking for a slinky Lithuanian language bop to reflect what Monika does outside of Eurovision, so it has to be Sentimentai. The Monikas have a mutual stanning thing going on, so it makes sense to me.
Blanka 🇵🇱 - The first one where I'm drawing a complete blank(a). Oh, I know, let's have another straightforward pop song over which the suspicion of corruption hangs. Sugar. I dare you.
Piqued Jacks 🇸🇲 - I was looking for a ho anthem and then I remembered I Want Your Love so they can make that sound like Maroon 5 too.
Joker Out 🇸🇮 - They've already done Disko from 2022, which is absolutely lovely. One of their great strengths is the ability to smoulder down the camera, so they can get another Eurovision Sexyman song, Zitti E Buoni. Oh no, Bojan already did that. Well shit, let's have an indie-pop swoonworthy No Prejudice then.
Also if any of these actually come true, I'll add in the links to the actual versions.
Eurovision 2023
Trying to process my thoughts about last night in the form of a tumblr post...
Firstly, which songs are stuck in my head today? Well, Cha Cha Cha by Käärijä (Finland), natch, but also Promise by Voyager (Australia), and Who the hell is Edgar? by Teya and Selena (Austria)
Positives
Croatia's Let 3 made it to the left of the board! Yesss!
I'd normally be the first person to criticise the BBC, but I actually feel they did a good job considering. Admittedly my expectations going into this were kinda low, but they didn't make it too, erm, BBC 😅
Also, Hannah Waddingham. New favourite Eurovision presenter. Clearly feeling very protective of Julia Sanina. Presence, crowd control ("We don't boo in this house"). Queen.
Abolishing the jury vote from the semi-finals was a big success. Not all of my favourites got through (sorry Iceland 😢 ), but we had some amazing performers reach the finals that I'm not convinced would have in previous years.
Negatives
There were a number of artists whos performances in the final were not as good as in the semis... I'm thinking particularly Serbia and Australia, which were two of my favourites coming into the final.
Why did Germany and Spain score so badly? I keep telling myself that part of the answer to that is the old thing about the way the points work, if a song is everyone's 11th favourate out of the 26 entries, it'll get zero points, but still... I feel these were objectively two of the best performances of the night, both technically and in terms of everything else. Still very annoyed by this, they were two of my favourites. At least no-one got nil points this year.
On a related note, who was voting for Israel and Poland?! I know that musical taste is a personal thing (believe me, I know :D ) but Poland's song had no energy to it, and the highlight picked for Iceland was the dance break, with no singing...
?????
I'm not sure what else I can add about the winner/second place that hasn't already been said. We love out green cha cha cha-ing blorbo. Europe loves him. The legend of Käärijä will live on!
Related, I felt that Loreen's performance in the reprise was much better than during the main part of the competition... what happened?
Norway put in a very technical performance, and I really want to like it, but as I've been saying all week, there wasn't enough texture, not enough light and shade to the song as it was peformed. We were also missing the growl in Alessandra's vocals from the semi.
Where was the audience interaction? I get that the focus is always going to be getting votes from home, so a lot of the staging will focus on that, but it's still a live music event, and it was disappointing to only notice Belgium and Germany playing to the crowd.
I've yet to listen to the recorded versions of the songs yet (that's my lunch time listening this week), but from what I hear from @itseverydaybear some of the songs that didn't make a great impression in the semis sound much better. I suspect there will be some sleeper hits in there...
Anyhow, catch you later, just going to listen to The HARDKISS and Jann (Poland televoter's choice to represent them this year - once again for those at the back, time to abolish juries...!)
As a bonus, here's Lord of the Lost covering Queen of Kings (they have even more covers on their youtube chanel, it's worth a look!)
i haven’t stopped being sad for kärijää being robbed of the eurovision victory especially not since i found out he brought his bulbasaur plushie to eurovision. such a gem of a human. he’s so bulbasaur coded in the best way