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jawnbcThis week is Eurovision week: this time next week we'll know the winner for 2009! Here's a few tidbits to convince you all--yes, including you ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
paterson_si:
+Between 1987 and 2000 only one new country (Yugoslavia; 1989) won the Contest
+In that same period Ireland won 5 times (87, 92, 93, 94, 96), Sweden twice (91, 99)
+No other country (Swizerland, Yugoslavia, italy, Norway, UK, Isräel, Denmark) won more than once
+Since 2001 a new, first-time victor has been crowned each and every year: Estonia, Latvia, Turkey, Ukraine, Greece, Finland, Serbia,and Russia
+Between 1977 and 1998 countries could only sing in one of their official languages
+In that time English songs won 8 times (2 UK, 6 Ireland), songs en français 3 fois, in Hebrew 3 times, in Swedish twice, Norwegian twice, Croatian once.
+Since countries could sing (again) in any language, every winner between 1999 and 2008 except for 2007 was sung mostly or entirely in English
+At the 1998 Contest (the last before the "free language" rule came into effect) the 25 competing songs were sung in 21 different languages
+By 2005 only 9 languages were represented among the final 24 songs
+At the 2008 final the 25 competing songs were sung in 13 languages (counting Serbian, Croatian and Bosnian as different languages)
This year the resurgence of other languages seems to be continuing. There are 42 entries in 20 languages, though several use a mix of a national language and English. For the first time since the 1990s all of the "Big 4" (UK, France, Spain & Germany) have made an effort to send something good: the UK and France are seen by many to have a decent shot at winning for the first time in over a decade (UK, 1998) or 3 decades (France, 1977).
Semi-finals
This is the second year of two qualifying semi-finals. From each 10 songs join the Big 4 and last year's winner/this year's host (Russia) in a 25 song final. The semis are being held on Tuesday and Thursday at 20h GMT/12h PDT. Last year "pods" of countries that tend to vote for one another were created and each pod was split across the 2 semis. It seemed to help a lot. Also like last year the top 9 from the pan-European televote were automatic qualifiers. However for the 10th spot, the scores of the backup juries were compared and if there was a discrepancy between the 10th televote and 10th jury, the jury song was put through. Last year scary Charlotte of Sweden leapt 2 places, keeping ex-Yugo Macedonia out of the final for the first time since 2004.
Semi-1 on Tuesday has 18 songs (Georgia dropped out); Semi-2 on Thursday has 19 songs. When there was just one huge semi-final up to 28 songs competed for just 10 spots. Thus, each country's chance of making the final has gone from about 37% to over 50%. Putting aside song and performance calibre, bien sûr.
In semi-1 the songs considered possible overall winners include Bosnia, Armenia, Turkey, though Malta, Isräel and Portugal are also highly regarded. From semi-2 Norway, Greece, and Estonia rank highly.
Final
The final will be a 50/50 mix of televoting and juries. The juries will vote based on the 2nd dress rehearsal for the final--a day before the actual live broadcast, to mitigate strategic jury voting ("Oh they will be our competition to win, so let's blank 'em"). Both the juries and televotes for each country will consist of their top 10 choices, with a Borda score range of 1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/10/12 points give for 10th through 1st respectively.
These will be added together to create a new top 10. If there is a tie between two songs at any level of the combined scores, the song ranked higher by televotes will be ranked ahead. So when we are hearing the votes called in we are hearing the combined/adjusted score, not merely the televotes.
Les vedettes
This year we see perhaps the greatest number of high-calibre performers since the 1960s, when countries routinely sent their most popular artists. France, Bosnia, Latvia, Turkey, the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Greece, Ukraine, Armenia, Spain, Malta, Switzerland, Lithuania and Moldova have each sent someone who is a popular and well-respected artist at home. Some--most notably Patricia Kaas from France, but also Regina from Bosnia--are established artists internationally.
eurovision.tv will stream the show live for those of us who can't watch it on telly. The feed is strrong: set your monitor to 640/480 or 800/600, open your browser, and there you are! You'll need a special plug-in (Octoshape) too.
paterson_si:+Between 1987 and 2000 only one new country (Yugoslavia; 1989) won the Contest
+In that same period Ireland won 5 times (87, 92, 93, 94, 96), Sweden twice (91, 99)
+No other country (Swizerland, Yugoslavia, italy, Norway, UK, Isräel, Denmark) won more than once
+Since 2001 a new, first-time victor has been crowned each and every year: Estonia, Latvia, Turkey, Ukraine, Greece, Finland, Serbia,and Russia
+Between 1977 and 1998 countries could only sing in one of their official languages
+In that time English songs won 8 times (2 UK, 6 Ireland), songs en français 3 fois, in Hebrew 3 times, in Swedish twice, Norwegian twice, Croatian once.
+Since countries could sing (again) in any language, every winner between 1999 and 2008 except for 2007 was sung mostly or entirely in English
+At the 1998 Contest (the last before the "free language" rule came into effect) the 25 competing songs were sung in 21 different languages
+By 2005 only 9 languages were represented among the final 24 songs
+At the 2008 final the 25 competing songs were sung in 13 languages (counting Serbian, Croatian and Bosnian as different languages)
This year the resurgence of other languages seems to be continuing. There are 42 entries in 20 languages, though several use a mix of a national language and English. For the first time since the 1990s all of the "Big 4" (UK, France, Spain & Germany) have made an effort to send something good: the UK and France are seen by many to have a decent shot at winning for the first time in over a decade (UK, 1998) or 3 decades (France, 1977).
Semi-finals
This is the second year of two qualifying semi-finals. From each 10 songs join the Big 4 and last year's winner/this year's host (Russia) in a 25 song final. The semis are being held on Tuesday and Thursday at 20h GMT/12h PDT. Last year "pods" of countries that tend to vote for one another were created and each pod was split across the 2 semis. It seemed to help a lot. Also like last year the top 9 from the pan-European televote were automatic qualifiers. However for the 10th spot, the scores of the backup juries were compared and if there was a discrepancy between the 10th televote and 10th jury, the jury song was put through. Last year scary Charlotte of Sweden leapt 2 places, keeping ex-Yugo Macedonia out of the final for the first time since 2004.
Semi-1 on Tuesday has 18 songs (Georgia dropped out); Semi-2 on Thursday has 19 songs. When there was just one huge semi-final up to 28 songs competed for just 10 spots. Thus, each country's chance of making the final has gone from about 37% to over 50%. Putting aside song and performance calibre, bien sûr.
In semi-1 the songs considered possible overall winners include Bosnia, Armenia, Turkey, though Malta, Isräel and Portugal are also highly regarded. From semi-2 Norway, Greece, and Estonia rank highly.
Final
The final will be a 50/50 mix of televoting and juries. The juries will vote based on the 2nd dress rehearsal for the final--a day before the actual live broadcast, to mitigate strategic jury voting ("Oh they will be our competition to win, so let's blank 'em"). Both the juries and televotes for each country will consist of their top 10 choices, with a Borda score range of 1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/10/12 points give for 10th through 1st respectively.
These will be added together to create a new top 10. If there is a tie between two songs at any level of the combined scores, the song ranked higher by televotes will be ranked ahead. So when we are hearing the votes called in we are hearing the combined/adjusted score, not merely the televotes.
Les vedettes
This year we see perhaps the greatest number of high-calibre performers since the 1960s, when countries routinely sent their most popular artists. France, Bosnia, Latvia, Turkey, the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Greece, Ukraine, Armenia, Spain, Malta, Switzerland, Lithuania and Moldova have each sent someone who is a popular and well-respected artist at home. Some--most notably Patricia Kaas from France, but also Regina from Bosnia--are established artists internationally.
eurovision.tv will stream the show live for those of us who can't watch it on telly. The feed is strrong: set your monitor to 640/480 or 800/600, open your browser, and there you are! You'll need a special plug-in (Octoshape) too.
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no subject
Date: 2009-05-10 11:07 pm (UTC)(We need to be in the same place one of these days to see this together!)
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Date: 2009-05-10 11:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-11 06:00 am (UTC)Interesting read. I'll be watching! ;-)
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Date: 2009-05-11 06:01 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2009-05-12 12:57 am (UTC)