National broadcasters for Spain and Belgium have now complained to the competition’s organisers, the European Broadcasting Union, after Israel won the public vote by a large margin.
RTVE, Spain’s public broadcaster, and VRT, the Flemish broadcasting company, are demanding that organisers investigate the televoting system, which allows voters at home to vote up to 20 times for a small cost charged to each vote by text or phone call.
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The EBU confirmed that RTVE and VRT had been in contact and said it took the complaints “seriously”.
Martin Green, the director of Eurovision, said: “It is important to emphasise that the voting operation for the Eurovision Song Contest is the most advanced in the world and each country’s result is checked and verified by a huge team of people to exclude any suspicious or irregular voting patterns.”
Forgive my American ignorance, but do people actually watch Eurovision as entertainment? I feel like I’ve only ever heard of it as an arena for politics/protest/controversy, never “hey listen to this great song that won”. Is the controversy part of the draw?
I love it. That week is a highlight in my year, where I can watch some fun performances and shitpost about it all on Mastodon. It’s great fun.
And yes, the competition is political by design, but that’s part of the fun. Imagine my shock when hearing that Cyprus gave Greece 12 points. Again. But the way Israel fuck it about every year really sours the whole thing.
I haven’t watched it the last few years because I can’t stomach the idea that a genocidal state is allowed to compete :/ I love Eurovision but the EBU has made all the wrong decisions. They were even going to let Russia compete in 2022 after the invasion of Ukraine, until public outrage forced their hand. They claim the competition is neutral but guess what? Allowing Israel, a country actively committing genocide who isn’t even a part of fucking Europe is a political statement whether you like it or not
I also watch it as a 20-odd year old straight man alongside my wife, encouraged by myself. (sexuality added due to common stereotypes). I find it entertaining; most singers this year used their native language and there’s a fine variety of songs with some bangers from otherwise unknown artists, like the Italian representative.
I personally hope Israel will be banned next year and MoroccanOil removed as a sponsor. It grosses me out and I don’t think I’d watch it next year
Absolutely, a lot of people watch it as entertainment. For myself and the people I know it’s crazy, campy and funny entertainment first, a singing competition second and politics etc. a distant third.
For the most part it can be great entertainment and i used to enjoy it for many years. Thinks started to become slightly weird for me, when i learned about the regime in Azerbaijan and not remembering anything to that extent being said in the mainstream media in Germany (or at least that i noticed) when it was there in 2012. Then things got more weird as Russia had annexed Crimea but was still allowed to participate, with there being some mention of it at least.
So i remember many years where politics did not play as much of a role and the “drama” was about the acts themselves or the national preselections. The preselections are always a drama in Germany as the German broadcasters work hard to get the most bland, boring and forgettable acts on instead of having any chance at winning.
It is a lot of fun, if it isn’t tainted by criminal regimes using the stage to get legitimacy. In that sense ignorance can be a bliss and i don’t know if i was just blissful because of that in the earlier years or if there was “a good old time”.
I didn’t know who Maneskin was until they won Eurovision, so I’d say so
Remember how big American Idol was? How many careers it launched? How many spin offs it spawned?
Americans would eat that shit up if we were involved.
There’s already an American Song Contest, and no one has heard about it or cares about it.
Well… They had Madonna on some years ago and that failed spectacularly when she lip synced the entire act…
I don’t think Eurovision would work with America in it because of American exceptionalism. That’s why you’ll stick to your national song contests.
Oh I’m sure, but it seemed like a different beast. American Idol was really tuned into the characters and personal drama, there was never that much meta-drama. Almost like the Super Bowl vs. World Cup
2024 had a slew of great bands (bambie thug, joost, nemo) but this year was a little slim (tautumeitas is great but I probably wouldn’t put them on for a road trip)
All depends on taste, I guess. I enjoyed this year more and definitely wouldn’t include Bambie Thug in the “good music” category, even if I enjoyed the performance
idk, this year was good… it introduced me to Katarsis, Lucio…