Eurovision
Sunday, 23 May 2021 15:47![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
zimenaA couple of Eurovision notes:
* This is a very good year. Maybe one of the best years in the 2000s. I like - to at least some extent - 22 out of 39 songs. Some others are... not bad, but maybe boring from my point of view. Only a few songs are actually bad.
* Italy won! I don't know how I feel about that, because I quite like the song, but I also find it massively overrated. To me, it was good as in "top 15 material" (or maybe top 10 material in the final, because some great songs disappeared after the semifinals), but not The Best and Most Amazing thing at Eurovision, ever.
* Among the songs that were actually fighting for the top spot at the end, I liked Italy the most, though. As usual, my biggest favourites ended up a bit further down the ranking.
* My favourite was Ukraine, but I also liked Finland, Russia, Cyprus, San Marino... and Norway (even though I prefer the Norwegian version of it).
* Some great songs - such as Poland, Denmark, Romania, and Ireland - disappeared already in the semifinals.
* I miss Eurovision the way it was in the 80s and 90s. Back then, this used to be the most important event in the year for me, and I would associate countries and languages with their songs. Nowadays, that connection isn't the same, and I feel like there are many more generic/uninteresting songs now. Even some that I actually like, will probably be pushed out of my mind once I'm not in Eurovision mode anymore.
* Also, the older contests used to be recognisable by things like stage or scoreboard. In the last few years, the show became so loaded with special effects that it stopped feeling like watching people perform on a stage at all. This year, this was extreme. Many songs felt absolutely like watching a video, not a live performance (and I'm not counting those who actually used a recorded version, due to covid/isolation). There's actually no proper stage at all anymore, just effects, effects, effects, all the way. And to me, this is less interesting than a proper, cool stage. (1988 will forever be the best in this sense).
* This is a very good year. Maybe one of the best years in the 2000s. I like - to at least some extent - 22 out of 39 songs. Some others are... not bad, but maybe boring from my point of view. Only a few songs are actually bad.
* Italy won! I don't know how I feel about that, because I quite like the song, but I also find it massively overrated. To me, it was good as in "top 15 material" (or maybe top 10 material in the final, because some great songs disappeared after the semifinals), but not The Best and Most Amazing thing at Eurovision, ever.
* Among the songs that were actually fighting for the top spot at the end, I liked Italy the most, though. As usual, my biggest favourites ended up a bit further down the ranking.
* My favourite was Ukraine, but I also liked Finland, Russia, Cyprus, San Marino... and Norway (even though I prefer the Norwegian version of it).
* Some great songs - such as Poland, Denmark, Romania, and Ireland - disappeared already in the semifinals.
* I miss Eurovision the way it was in the 80s and 90s. Back then, this used to be the most important event in the year for me, and I would associate countries and languages with their songs. Nowadays, that connection isn't the same, and I feel like there are many more generic/uninteresting songs now. Even some that I actually like, will probably be pushed out of my mind once I'm not in Eurovision mode anymore.
* Also, the older contests used to be recognisable by things like stage or scoreboard. In the last few years, the show became so loaded with special effects that it stopped feeling like watching people perform on a stage at all. This year, this was extreme. Many songs felt absolutely like watching a video, not a live performance (and I'm not counting those who actually used a recorded version, due to covid/isolation). There's actually no proper stage at all anymore, just effects, effects, effects, all the way. And to me, this is less interesting than a proper, cool stage. (1988 will forever be the best in this sense).
(no subject)
Date: Monday, 24 May 2021 15:42 (UTC)I see what you mean about the effects and how some of it was more like watching a music video; I noticed that too.
There were some entries where I found myself thinking, "This looks cool on screen, but I bet it looks very weird to anyone looking at the actual stage". And I feel like that is a relatively recent development? Like, when I went to ESC in 2016, there were a few entries with extra effects that were only visible on-screen, but for the most part those things really were just extra embellishments. But this year there were definitely some that were so effects-heavy that without it, the performance wouldn't work (even if the song is good). Which is... not ideal, I think.
Unfortunately I can't compare the recent contests to the much older ones like you can, since I only started watching in 2009. :')