Eurovision: Europe Shine A Light (16 May 2020)

Yeah but he still has that hair. That's some comfort, at least.
 
The only things the producers knew that they HAD to work with last night were a) filling 2 hours of television, b) honouring the 41 artists and songs in some way and c) acknowledging the current situation we find ourselves in. That’s it. That leaves a lot of potential and yet a big defence that I’m seeing this morning seems to be that it was somehow the only show they could possibly have made in this climate.

I never thought I’d say this about ANYTHING but they would have done well to take a leaf out of Comic Relief’s book. Ok so the actual content of that is often painfully unfunny, but Eurovision has much better content to actually draw from. The point is when you make a show 80% entertaining, fun and uplifting, then when you bring the mood down for the other 20% and offer a sobering reminder of “why we’re all here” then the emotional bits are genuinely emotional.

When you string the attempts at being tear-jerking together one after another for two hours, most people will just get numb to it all. You can acknowledge the strange times we’re living in and be sensitive about it without continually referencing it and refusing to let the viewers forget it.
 
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VoR said:
With a certain crushing inevitability, Michael Schulte has actually been one of the few breakout stars of Eurovision in recent years as far as I can tell.

He does well on Spotify and appears to have had some modest post-Contest hits in Germany, anyway.
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You Let Me Walk Alone was a pretty big hit here. Probably biggest Eurovision hit since Euphoria (excluding Dutch entries). Although it was definitely more successful than our entries from 15, 16, 17, 18 and 20.
 
Pingu said:
The only things the producers knew that they HAD to work with last night were a) filling 2 hours of television, b) honouring the 41 artists and songs in some way and c) acknowledging the current situation we find ourselves in. That’s it. That leaves a lot of potential and yet a big defence that I’m seeing this morning seems to be that it was somehow the only show they could possibly have made in this climate.

I never thought I’d say this about ANYTHING but they would have done well to take a leaf out of Comic Relief’s book. Ok so the actual content of that is often painfully unfunny, but Eurovision has much better content to actually draw from. The point is when you make a show 80% entertaining, fun and uplifting, then the 20% when you bring the mood down and offer a sobering reminder of “why we’re all here” then the emotional bits are genuinely emotional.

When you string the attempts at being tear-jerking together one after another for two hours, most people will just get numb to it all. You can acknowledge the strange times we’re living in and be sensitive about it without continually referencing it and not letting the viewers forget it.
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Yeah, I don't get the defensive 'FUN WOULD HAVE BEEN INAPPROPRIATE' angle at all. If that were the case, surely all light entertainment would have gone off the air since March?
 
I think we can call it misjudged since all of our broadcasters are trying to deal with these strange times without turning to sap.

There was so much scope for a creativr Eurovision show that didn't rely on miserable renditions of 'sad, appropriate' songs, that actually acknowledged some of why we love the show.
 
The clips of the songs were nice and even the talky postcards giving the acts a moment to themselves (even if the tone of those was hit and miss).

The pan-Europe bits (lighting up landmarks and the LSAL singalong at the end) were beautiful.

But the rest of it... there were lots of ways they could have gone with tone; absolutely some sort of sombre tone was needed in places but they completely miss that lots of people were looking to this show for the fun, frivolity, and escapism the contest usually provides. And we got NONE of that at all. Even some sort of "and now here's a lighter-hearted look at..." would have been good.
 
Pingu said:
The only things the producers knew that they HAD to work with last night were a) filling 2 hours of television, b) honouring the 41 artists and songs in some way and c) acknowledging the current situation we find ourselves in. That’s it. That leaves a lot of potential and yet a big defence that I’m seeing this morning seems to be that it was somehow the only show they could possibly have made in this climate.

I never thought I’d say this about ANYTHING but they would have done well to take a leaf out of Comic Relief’s book. Ok so the actual content of that is often painfully unfunny, but Eurovision has much better content to actually draw from. The point is when you make a show 80% entertaining, fun and uplifting, then the 20% when you bring the mood down and offer a sobering reminder of “why we’re all here” then the emotional bits are genuinely emotional.

When you string the attempts at being tear-jerking together one after another for two hours, most people will just get numb to it all. You can acknowledge the strange times we’re living in and be sensitive about it without continually referencing it and not letting the viewers forget it.
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This nails it really. Post-booze-guzzling (when you want everything to be up up UP!) I can understand the tone a bit more, but it was relentless - not at all like a celebration of the contest but a wake! Coronavirus has affected everything everywhere so it didn't need to be so sombre - there is enough of that out there if you want it. Sticking to the fun side would have suited everyone all round and be more in the spirit of things, especially for Saturday night entertainment escapism which is surely what people want from Eurovision, arguably now more than ever.

That said I've seen plenty of nice comments and I suppose it doesn't really matter in the scheme of things, does it? It's a one-off (pray and hope!) to fill the void. Nothing was ever going to come near to being a suitable replacement
 


And that Hooverphonic guy is is kind of a loser for refusing to do this because he doesn't like the song.

Remixes of Release Me out now though!
 
I don’t know about you lot but I lost the will to live at the point Måns turned up to do an acoustic version of Heroes from the back garden of his two-bed semi in Basildon over a montage of health care workers. Who the fuck asked for that?!

I ended up popping on the 2020 playlist and watching the SUNSET whilst waiting for the 30 second Italian snippet :)
 
Soldi said:
I don’t know about you lot but I lost the will to live at the point Måns turned up to do an acoustic version of Heroes from the back garden of his two-bed semi in Basildon over a montage of health care workers. Who the fuck asked for that?!
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I know right, he wasn’t even shirtless.
 
dmlaw said:
I hope the EBU remember that Hooverphonic guy wouldn't take part in the singalong when they are deciding his place in next year's running order.
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If people get their way he might not even be there next year. He will though of course but VoR please sing Love Shine a Light during every one of his press conferences.
 
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This got 2.4m last night on BBC1 and the 6.30 show got 2.9m (for comparison Pointless was nearer 4m :D)

I mean I knew it was going to be lower but that's horrific. However much as I'd love to say it was the doom and gloom format, this likely would have happened even with a poppers-fuelled camp as tits vibe. Clearly the casuals had no interest whatsoever
 
Yeah, Eurovision content that isn't the proper Grand Final always tanks on the BBC. The 60th anniversary concert was a resounding flop too.
 
Raining On Me said:
This got 2.4m last night on BBC1 and the 6.30 show got 2.9m (for comparison Pointless was nearer 4m :D)

I mean I knew it was going to be lower but that's horrific. However much as I'd love to say it was the doom and gloom format, this likely would have happened even with a poppers-fuelled camp as tits vibe. Clearly the casuals had no interest whatsoever
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If only there were stats for the number of people who tuned in and then gave up after a few minutes.

I don't agree that this would have happened regardless of the format - of course it wouldn't rate as highly as a real contest but if the tone had been 75% positive and 25% sombre you'd have held people's attention.
 
David_5000 said:
If only there were stats for the number of people who tuned in and then gave up after a few minutes.
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There probably is a breakdown somewhere but if lots of people tuned in at the start you'll never know for sure that wasn't down to people genuinely assuming it was Eurovision as normal.
 
David_5000 said:
If only there were stats for the number of people who tuned in and then gave up after a few minutes.

I don't agree that this would have happened regardless of the format - of course it wouldn't rate as highly as a real contest but if the tone had been 75% positive and 25% sombre you'd have held people's attention.
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There will be. Or at least there is usually an average and a peak figure.
 
VoR said:
In other news, apparently Hooverphonic refused to participate in the Love Shine a Light singalong because Alex Callier quote "hates that song"

What a WANKER :D
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My respect for him has SKYROCKETED. :D
 
You know I don't love Love Shine A Light, but I completely GET IT. It's anthemic. It just shows him to be a JOYLESS PRICK.
 
Oh I love the song and it would have been a fairly harmless thing for them to be a part of but if he thought it was all going to be a bit crap and didn’t want to do it then so be it...

Of course the sheer OUTRAGE among the Eurovision Twitter fraternity makes me all the more #TeamHooverphonic the more I read of it.
 
Pingu said:
Oh I love the song and it would have been a fairly harmless thing for them to be a part of but if he thought it was all going to be a bit crap and didn’t want to do it then so be it...

Of course the sheer OUTRAGE among the Eurovision Twitter fraternity makes me all the more #TeamHooverphonic the more I read of it.
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IKR! How dare they have a CHOICE and OPINION! :shock:

I’ve already seen HATE CAMPAIGNS against them and PETITIONS to make sure their last in their semi final or something RIDICULOUS next year.
 
If they shit out something as boring as 'Release Me' next year, I'm sure they'll accomplish that all on their own anyway. No hate campaign needed.
 
Might be worth pointing out this hit UK iTunes...

7. Love Shine A Light
8. My Last Breath
11/31/72/77 Think About Things (including Hot Chip Remix)
13. Heroes
23. Move
29. Fairytale
30. Euphoria
42. UNO
44. A Little Peace
45. Cuckoo (!)
50. Rise Like A Phoenix
55. Fai Rumore
69. On Fire
78. What's Another Year
81. Toy
83. Fuego
86. Sound of Silence
 
Lithuania were surely still a lock for our televote douze
 
And let’s not forget Poland and Bulgaria would have both likely managed to sneak into our Top 5 also.
 
Oh Iceland would definitely have won the UK televote. You know what THEY’RE like :side-eye::zombie:

I don’t think I realised until last night that Doddy is SIX FOOT NINE. Luckily I’m not engaging in any cock size thoughts à la my Richard Osman ruminations yesterday as I’d rather have a cucumber up me than that MONSTER. Also handy for a tasty salad afterwards :disco:
 
Not that I’m still thinking about it OBVIOUSLY, but I think that last night’s show was clearly targeted at FANS AND LOONS (:disco:) even if hardly any of us fans and loons appreciated how they did it. I mean AS IF any casual viewer would give a flying fuck about a touching personal message from Raven Queen, a cheery little chat from Damir or indeed Carol swanning around on her de luxe SEA VIEW BALCONY!

Whereas we Eurovisionistas have LONG-ESTABLISHED AND INTIMATE relationships with all of them :disco::disco::disco:
 
I’d like to think they hadn’t planned it to all be ballads - I mean they should’ve seen Acoustic Heroes coming but I can imagine

“Well we got Netta, she should brighten things up a bit”
“Yes she said she had a song called Cuckoo! Total nonsense I’m sure, it’s perfect”

*rolls out claustrophobic relationship ballad*
 
Netta stroking her box was better than Mans strumming in the garden of his semi.
 
I quite liked Netta!

Måns well... he’s still really hot. Why does he have such powerful diffuse lighting in the back garden? Or is it the security light? Good job Heroes is only 3 minutes, the light goes off after 4 minutes and you have to wave to turn it on again
 
Diddy said:
I’d like to think they hadn’t planned it to all be ballads
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I think they definitely did. I know it would have been nice to see someone’s tit fall out mid-performance but it’s only a certain demographic (:side-eye::disco:) who were there for THAT
 
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