[Durham Giant]

Re: Eurovision song contest : Sat May 18, 2013 8:42 pm  

Listening to the chorus of the Finland song i am sure she is singing, " i'll f ook you".

[Durham Giant]

Re: Eurovision song contest : Sat May 18, 2013 9:16 pm  

I dont know whether to vote for Belarus' legs or Norways Ass

Song wise i quite liked Malta and Denmark

Re: Eurovision song contest : Sat May 18, 2013 9:28 pm  

Who let Bonnie near the Vodka?

Iceland was my favourite tonight.

Re: Eurovision 2013 : Sat May 18, 2013 11:45 pm  

Ferocious Aardvark some time ago wrote:

My main bet, since you ask, is on Norway

Bombed. BOO.

My half-size bet is on Denmark as the blatant formula is a clever one - from Titanic-esque flute opening to blokes with big drums (which seems to go down well in many places)

Winning favourite. I move into a modest profit.

If you want my sneaky outsider then you could do worse take Betfred's 25/1 on Azerbaijan, who seem to get near the top 4 every year whatever they do, and have a tuneful young fella on the case.

Woot woot! What a tip. Narrowly beaten by the red hot favourite, and a big pickup for me.

Ferocious Aardvark earlier in the week wrote:

The "bolter" is Ukraine, with a weird "anthem meets house" song by a statuesque young lass, with a memorable if very annoying pizzicato accompaniment throughout and some background rapping. Weird. Second favourite now, between 3/1 and 4/1 - if you want to make your mind up then type "Zlata Ognevich - Gravity - Eurovision 2013 Ukraine" into a popular search engine.

Ukraine finishes 3rd - a bit more for the pot.

Not the funniest ever contest. Not enough weird and wacky. But overall a good laugh, and Bonnie actually made a good fist of it. Still a pisspoor song choice, but a whole lot better than she was on Graham Norton. And all contributions to the Aardvark finances gratefully received. 1st, 2nd and 3rd backed.

Re: Eurovision 2013 : Sun May 19, 2013 9:49 pm  

Ferocious Aardvark wrote:

Bombed. BOO.
Winning favourite. I move into a modest profit.

Woot woot! What a tip. Narrowly beaten by the red hot favourite, and a big pickup for me.

Ukraine finishes 3rd - a bit more for the pot.

Not the funniest ever contest. Not enough weird and wacky. But overall a good laugh, and Bonnie actually made a good fist of it. Still a pisspoor song choice, but a whole lot better than she was on Graham Norton. And all contributions to the Aardvark finances gratefully received. 1st, 2nd and 3rd backed.

You did well in your forecasting Aardvark.

Personally I liked Norway's effort, it was just that bit different from the formulaic Denmark offering, which I was disappointed to see win.
Bookies favourite and all that.

The neighbour voting got on my manboobs again.

Was surprised Ireland came last.
What's your take on that?

Re: Eurovision 2013 : Mon May 20, 2013 11:30 am  

Stand-Offish wrote:

...

Was surprised Ireland came last.
What's your take on that?

I just thought it was a very weak song. I am a little surprised it came last but it was a poor effort.

Anyway the substantial majority of the voting is NOT bloc votes,under the system, OK you can give 12 to your neighbour but you HAVe to give plenty of points away to many other countries. And if Ireland's song had been any good, then it would have got more than 1 point from the UK, which is hardly known for bias against them.

I don't disagree that there is some bloc voting that they are unable to get rid of, but actually Ireland is a case in point. What they have done well in the past is strong, sickly-schmaltzy nostalgia and when they did, they won. More than once. Dana. Johnny Logan. So this goes back to my original point - come out with the right song, and you'll get enough votes to win, bloc voting or not. Ireland have in fact won it more times than anyone else.

I think Ireland used to know how to do it, but have lost their mojo. I mean, Jedward, ffs. yes, they did relatively "well", but never a hope in hell of winning it.

Finally, Eurovision wins are often derivative; songwriters watch, listen and steal. If you listen to it again, would you agree that the winning song is more Irish than the Irish entry? The winning writers presumably got that throwing in some Celtic themes would be popular, and so threw plenty of them in to what was almost a Eurovision by numbers effort; not great, but effective enough (just) in the absence of any good opposition entries.

Re: Eurovision 2013 : Mon May 20, 2013 12:12 pm  

The break up of the Soviet and Balkan states have sadly meant the need for semi-finals, which means only half a dozen nations know they're going to be in the final no matter what rubbish they send.

So there's less room for lunacy than there was in the days of the Irish sending puppets. The Russians knew they could get away with it with the grannies last year, they still get enough votes from the old Soviet bloc. Sadly, not enough nations are wary of Montenegro, so this year's dubstep astronauts didn't make it to the main event.

Re: Eurovision 2013 : Mon May 20, 2013 12:42 pm  

Had a couple of quid on Azerbaijan at 25-1. Disappointed they didn't win it! Thought the song (coupled with the 'man in a glass box' routine) was better than Denmark's effort. Can't say I've ever really liked a Eurovision song enough to listen to it more than once but Euphoria was a brilliant winner last year.

Re: Eurovision 2013 : Mon May 20, 2013 2:05 pm  

Still can't beat ABBA or Lordi for me.

Re: Eurovision 2013 : Mon May 20, 2013 3:36 pm  

Stand-Offish wrote:

You did well in your forecasting Aardvark.

Personally I liked Norway's effort, it was just that bit different from the formulaic Denmark offering, which I was disappointed to see win.
Bookies favourite and all that.

The neighbour voting got on my manboobs again.

Was surprised Ireland came last.
What's your take on that?

The Irish - after many years of pi$$ing the contest - have realised that it costs a fortune to stage the following year.....cash they no longer have - so they have, for the last few years, gone down the 'pile of pap' route, in the hope that no one will vote for 'em.......last year the genius of employing Jedward to vocalise almost back-fired on them, but they've obviously got the formula sorted this time round!!