Lessons From 2009

[kompressaur]

Has anyne got eurovision dementia? I cant stop singing the greek entry' always on my mind, always on my ....blah blah blah. I still do a good 'is it true is it over ..drrruu raaa daaa dooo'. what about you? amything left an imprint in your brain from this year?

[MickeyPaul]

That's Azerbaijan you've been singing I think, Komp.

I've gone Moldova daft personally. Can't stop watching them. Amazing too as I hated it quite passionately until their semi-final.

[smk415]

the very start of the bosian song is in my head, have to hum tom jones every now and again to get it out

[Beanie]

While im passing by the forum, a few others that struck me...

- firstly that the ballads are super strong at the moment, particularly with the jury vote. The final was choc a block with them, almost every second or third song, and there were still enough votes to go round to get Iceland 2nd and the UK 5th, with plenty others finishing respectably. If one is head and shoulders above the rest next year, I dont fancy the others chances...

- the live vocal ability is becoming less important...as shown by Greece and Azerbaijan this year(amongst others) even if the lead vocalist struggles, a cleverly used backing singer off to the right of the stage in pitch black can save almost any song. Greece didnt do that well, but could have been a lot worse if Sakis was left to himself. On the flipside, the use of backing singers can also complement a song brilliantly(Iceland) - so certainly something to look out for next year.

- songs with a lot of 'advertising' do well. Russia won last year on the back of huge exposure in Eastern Europe - Norway this year I think benefited from being the only song being anywhere close to registering outside the Eurovision bubble, mainly because it was such a huge favourite and people tuned in early to check out what the fuss was about, and that guaranteed a lot of extra fans which seemingly propelled it to a huge win. The UK marketing campaign also seemed to do well.

Blah blah, Mick was right, Bosnia was too 'boring' for the masses. More later.

[Radoslav]

Definately Azerbaijan had good marketing too.....Esp in eastern Europe....

[MickeyPaul]

Ooooh, you sounded really bitchy there Beanie. Bosnia was a difficult one as although it was a bit 'boring' and even a little 'depressing' the eastern ballady/anthemy stuff had done well before. I recall you and I trying to work out where they'd finish with only 'friendly'votes and average jury backing and it wasn't easy coming up with an answer. Top 10 looked like it would be a hell of a lot easier than it was though.

I think we can safely ditch all the daft, novelty acts next year though huh? They were absolutely destroyed this year. I can't really remember anything particularly silly qualifying.

[Beanie]

Haha, wasnt meant to sound like that...it's just it was meant to be a full paragraph but I had to dash out so made it a sentence. You were right though - I think for those that like that sort of music it was perfect, but in terms of mass audience appeal(and mass jury appeal) it didnt make any sort of impression. The slightly more upbeat(and its a pretty fine line) Bosnian and Serbian efforts of the years before fared far better.

[Beanie]

Thread from the aftermath of last years contest - good to read a few of the things that would probably have dropped out of our brains by now...

[Gavster]

Only one lesson. Don't be taken in by the Netherlands ever again! And listen to Mickey a little more.

[MickeyPaul]

I ended up thinking Holland would qualify though. Seems the gay community no longer take an interest in this now though so I'm ruling out everything that's camp and silly.

[Gavster]

Originally Posted by MickeyPaul

I ended up thinking Holland would qualify though. Seems the gay community no longer take an interest in this now though so I'm ruling out everything that's camp and silly.

There was a borderline element to The Toppers though. And they totally arsed it up live too; which was a surprise!

[Beanie]

I was 50/50 on the song but based on the type of rubbish that managed to qualify from the pimp slot before(almost every single year too) it was a good punt...just badly executed on the night and the gays all up to something else that night.

With the jury vote in the semis this year too that final slot is of even less relevance so we can certainly take starting slot way down the priority list this year.