I’m glad you wrote this, Scott. As someone living in Austria I began drafting and researching an article along these lines for the upcoming contest, but found it too stressful and political! Somehow you managed to give an informative, neutral overview for a charged topic. It was also nice to read about your specific experience in Sweden.
Thanks, it's of course a very complicated issue, so it was important to me to just report on what has happened and has been said by others. I tend to want to have people sit with it and draw their own conclusions. I'm glad to hear you were thinking of writing something similar and it is indeed stressful at times.
I've been an on/off Eurovision fan over the years. From the early 2000s to 2020 or so, I'd say I was a big fan. Then my interest sort of waned, and strangely, it was 2022 when Ukraine won where I kind of lost interest, even though we'd just left Ukraine and 'Stefania' won. My wife was ecstatic with the victory but I was sort of ho hum.
Now, my daughter (8) is really into Eurovision and she went to the first semifinal with her mother Tuesday night. I don't want to dampen her enthusiasm though my head is spinning from the endless Eurovision playlist from the past few weeks!
Re: all the politics and it being apolitical - do you remember alyona alyona and Jerry Heil's performance? The political messaging in the lighting effects wasn't exactly subtle.
I still listen and love a lot of old songs. For what it's worth, this year my daughter's favourite is Belgium and Lithuania. She loved Georgia as well, but sadly they're out already.
Re: your favourites - Sweden is clearly good at Eurovision and most years their songs are bangers. That Cornelia Jakobs song is one of my all-time favourites. There are some beautiful acoustic versions of it out there too.
Here's a small sampling of past favourites if you want to check them out:
Past winners:
Emmelie de Forest - Only Teardrops - Denmark 2013
Alexander Rybak - Fairytale - Norway 2009
Ell & Nikki - Running Scared - Azerbaijan 2011
A few all-time favourites:
Ilinca ft. Alex Florea - Yodel It! - Romania 2017 (this one is very divisive)
Frans - If I Were Sorry - Sweden 2016
Elina Born & Stig Rästa - Goodbye to Yesterday - Estonia 2015
Freddie - Pioneer - Hungary 2016
Vanilla Ninja - Cool Vibes - Switzerland 2005 - you may recall that Vanilla Ninja are Estonian and represented Estonia this year - they sadly lost in the semifinal
The alyona alyona and Jerry Heil performance was one of my favorites in Malmö and yeah the political messaging was anything but subtle.
I'm glad your daughter went with her mom and that she's into it now. Eurovision is one of those things you can dip in and out of, and it really does connect generations. Thanks for the list of recommendations, I'll check out the ones I don't know.
Glad you mentioned that it goes two ways........Israel is not the bad guy here.......using the word "genocide" is a stretch when Hamas (Palestinians), committed mass murder on 10/7 and was okay with their own citizens being killed by Israel while using them as shields......funny how stuff like that never gets mentioned. Spain might as well join Russia with their music deal......Vietnam deserved to win by the way!
I’m glad you wrote this, Scott. As someone living in Austria I began drafting and researching an article along these lines for the upcoming contest, but found it too stressful and political! Somehow you managed to give an informative, neutral overview for a charged topic. It was also nice to read about your specific experience in Sweden.
Thanks, it's of course a very complicated issue, so it was important to me to just report on what has happened and has been said by others. I tend to want to have people sit with it and draw their own conclusions. I'm glad to hear you were thinking of writing something similar and it is indeed stressful at times.
I've been an on/off Eurovision fan over the years. From the early 2000s to 2020 or so, I'd say I was a big fan. Then my interest sort of waned, and strangely, it was 2022 when Ukraine won where I kind of lost interest, even though we'd just left Ukraine and 'Stefania' won. My wife was ecstatic with the victory but I was sort of ho hum.
Now, my daughter (8) is really into Eurovision and she went to the first semifinal with her mother Tuesday night. I don't want to dampen her enthusiasm though my head is spinning from the endless Eurovision playlist from the past few weeks!
Re: all the politics and it being apolitical - do you remember alyona alyona and Jerry Heil's performance? The political messaging in the lighting effects wasn't exactly subtle.
I still listen and love a lot of old songs. For what it's worth, this year my daughter's favourite is Belgium and Lithuania. She loved Georgia as well, but sadly they're out already.
Re: your favourites - Sweden is clearly good at Eurovision and most years their songs are bangers. That Cornelia Jakobs song is one of my all-time favourites. There are some beautiful acoustic versions of it out there too.
Here's a small sampling of past favourites if you want to check them out:
Past winners:
Emmelie de Forest - Only Teardrops - Denmark 2013
Alexander Rybak - Fairytale - Norway 2009
Ell & Nikki - Running Scared - Azerbaijan 2011
A few all-time favourites:
Ilinca ft. Alex Florea - Yodel It! - Romania 2017 (this one is very divisive)
Frans - If I Were Sorry - Sweden 2016
Elina Born & Stig Rästa - Goodbye to Yesterday - Estonia 2015
Freddie - Pioneer - Hungary 2016
Vanilla Ninja - Cool Vibes - Switzerland 2005 - you may recall that Vanilla Ninja are Estonian and represented Estonia this year - they sadly lost in the semifinal
The alyona alyona and Jerry Heil performance was one of my favorites in Malmö and yeah the political messaging was anything but subtle.
I'm glad your daughter went with her mom and that she's into it now. Eurovision is one of those things you can dip in and out of, and it really does connect generations. Thanks for the list of recommendations, I'll check out the ones I don't know.
Glad you mentioned that it goes two ways........Israel is not the bad guy here.......using the word "genocide" is a stretch when Hamas (Palestinians), committed mass murder on 10/7 and was okay with their own citizens being killed by Israel while using them as shields......funny how stuff like that never gets mentioned. Spain might as well join Russia with their music deal......Vietnam deserved to win by the way!