Shouldn't be long.

As for this year's ESC, there's of course the issue of the Romanian entry being thrown out due to TVR's debt for sports and such (as the fee for ESC 2016 had been paid, actually), and while I understand the need to raise an alarm and try to generate some public backlash to pressure the authorities into finding a way to pay and therefore understood not allowing TVR to broadcast or Romanians to vote, the artist won the right to be there fair and square, took part in the promotional concerts and shouldn't have been punished for what's not in the least his fault.
But moving on to the actual competition, Russia was in a league of its own in terms of show value and I had to rank it first as a package, put Poland second despite being pulled down by the entirely static performance because, seriously, that guy's voice just crushed everything there, and Australia 3rd for being fairly good in all aspects. Clear cut top 3 for me, so does anyone know what the juries had against Poland to put it 25th with just 7 points?
As for Ukraine, sure, good voice and perhaps an objectively good song if you go for this sort of thing, but when I hear jazzy stuff, and this is that, I pretty much turn off and walk away. Sure, I like what it means that it won, in terms of politics, but ranked it 24th myself. Really, REALLY not my sort of thing. So makes it sort of similar to 2009, when I could also recognize the value but ranked Norway then around the botton even in the semi too, not to mention the final.

dance dance dance

for the music

dance dance dance

to the song

forget which is right or which is wrong

the music it encapsulates you

the rapture infatuates you

your struggle is romanticized

a struggle capitalized

'tis better to have dollar value on my head

than have the world think me dead

Politics. Poland is taking hits from EU for switching from left wing government to right wing government. This is the gist of it.

When they brought juries back it was claimed it was mostly to reduce the impact of political voting, but it sure looks like it's the juries that vote by politics and the public that for the most part just likes what it likes and says so.

Yeah, must be something simillar with Germany. Last place.... because of Merkel and her "Come to Europe, people of the world!" thing.

Definitely. Plus I doubt her Manga clothes resonated well in Europe.

Even televoting wasn't fair since you could vote up to 20 times from each phone number which totally distorted the voting picture. Hopefully they will redo the system for next year.

Heh, Ukrainian political announcements surrounding this victory made a good base for jokes in Crimea.
Let's congratulate the song about merciful Stalin which didn't mass murder traitors :)

I liked her look!
But the voting thing is true. The organization profits from each vote, so I doubt it will change.

Silence! They have racism, bankruptcy, war, poverty, dictatorship and now the eurovision! Isn't it great to have another excuse for Poroshenko to demand some more credits to himself? Finally having the most acknowledged jumping ritual of Europe, I bet the place where it'll be held at will all be painted in blue and yellow! Unfortunately, CocaCola will likely be banned there, and those questioning that will be holocausted alive by the liberation force.

There is really no better place in the world to hold the next event! Well, maybe except for previously-Assad-oppressed, I mean ISIS-controlled, territory, but evil dictator Putin has spoiled it... : /

That has been the limit for quite some years now. But I was talking about the actual results.

Australia risking to win, or winning should sort that out. I think it was ok for jubilee - but why would anyone host ESC show unless they won it? Australia is impracticable surely.

After Lordi, I'd now really want to see EDM winner, and preferably UK to be that nation. London has given rise to so many techno styles, and where Lordi rallied rock fans, bold EDM number could do the same.

Or what say u?

Ps. I hardly heard Frans vocals over backing tape... weird he was number five, on those grounds.

Yeah all the spending and none of the 'glory'. I guess it raises the countrys profile somewhat which might be good for tourism, but I'm unsure if it covers the investment.

I don't know, maybe seeing how 80s synth music has made a comeback (with the likes of Kavinsky and Perturbator) it's possible the same could be in the making for techno, though I haven't yet noticed any such trend. I'm hardly a music hipster kind of guy though, so I might just be late to the party.

As for Frans I have no idea why we chose him as I didn't watch the primaries (or whatever they're called) but I guess he's a Justin Bieber typ of teen/tween idol. I found him boring as heck, but I think they intended to go for some kind of less is more approach to make him stand out from the competition (which of course is much more important than to make him stand out from the backing tape ;p ).

I perso always remain conscious of the noble original ideal of ESC, and enjoy it as it stands - but really, rather persuade proper EBU members such as Lebanon and Tunisia to participate than to give Australia a freebie!

Frans... If I wanted to think there was great corruption in ESC voting, him coming fifth would be greater proof than Ukraine winning! (IMO)

I wonder if they're gonna make Australia a fixture of the competition now? I must admit that I didn't watch last year so it came as quite a surprise to me that they were a part of the event.

Frans is Swedish soft power at its finest! (Or possibly the power of the northern Eurovision voting block).

Heh, my comment about the Swedish entry was "I guess there may be a somewhat interesting beat and general sound there if you happen to hear it once and not pay much attention but, to put it bluntly, I can’t find the song in that little rant placed on top of a background too basic to save it in any way. And pretty much no show value either." Ranked it 25th, only above Georgia.
And this seemed decent, albeit... aged, from the Swedish selection, but a mere 5th in the semi. Not that I know the others, just remembered somebody making a (short) list of rock/metal songs in the selections and this was on it. (On which note, do think Germany would have done better with Avantasia or Gregorian winning the selection. Then again, not like it could have done any worse with anything.)

As for hosting, keep thinking it shouldn't be related to winning. Have countries submit bids for hosting, as it is with all sorts of other competitions, maybe some years ahead to have even more time to prepare and schedule expenses, and the winner is the winner, doesn't come with a cost. I mean think of 2009 when Iceland dodged a bullet. Awesome entry, but bet they breathed a huge collective sigh of relief to come in 2nd when the country was bankrupt.