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Who is this weirdo still talking about Eurovision a week after the final? It's the Canadian who can't even vote in Eurovision! :D
It's a week later and I still have feelings. What?!
I think it's partly because I missed out on this last year. I was so terribly sad, both because of the ESC cancellation and because of worldly happenings in general, that I just... didn't want anything to do with it. I didn't even listen to any of the 2020 songs until this week. So now... I guess I'm just soaking up all that Eurovision joy while it lasts. Or maybe this is one hell of an ESC hangover. :'D
With regards to 2021, there wasn't really any particular act that I wanted really badly to win this year, which probably helped. There also weren't any entries in the final that I intensely disliked, so it was easy to be broadly happy about Italy's win, and to feel general goodwill to the whole damn lot.
(Though, okay, if France had won, I think I'd have been very surprised, but it was a very well-done chanson and as far as I can tell was an excellent example of its genre, and it's grown on me a lot since the final, so in the alternate universe where that happened, I think I would have been okay with that....)
Thoughts on the 2020 music: I like Go_A's entry just as much as the one sent for 2021; not sure if I prefer "Solovey" to "Shum" but they're both very very good, and I'm going to have to look up this group's other music later.
Sweden's 2020 entry was so good, ahh. I wish it had been The Mamas for 2021 too - I mean, don't get me wrong, Tusse is a cutieface, and I liked his song, but I don't think I'll remember it later on (I'll probably remember his clothing more than his singing), whereas "Move" is really really good and I think it'll stick with me quite a bit longer.
UK's 2020 entry was also much better than their 2021 entry. 2021's sounds like the ending theme to a Dreamworks knockoff of a Pixar film, whereas the 2020 song is... pretty nice actually?
A few more 2021 thoughts:
At some point after Semifinal 1, I was like, "I'm going to make some Eurovision icons :D". But I only made one before I got distracted by something shiny. Looks like I'm stuck with TIX and his fluffy coat for now.
The more I listen to Netherlands' entry, the more I love it. I really liked the live performance - the singing was good, the dancing spectacular - and it just sounds really really good to me. This is not a 0-point song, man.
....Germany's, on the other hand, is definitely a 0-point song, and I love it. Every time this thing comes up on shuffle I crack up. It's so earnest and at the same time kind of "hahaha fuck you" but not in a serious or malicious way. I recall at the end of the live performance, the singer added, "I wish you a joyful life" - lol Jendrik, well, you've certainly brought me some joy, so thanks for that.
Norway's entry keeps growing on me. I saw someone describe the vibe as "Like 90s-era Backstreet Boys, but with one singer" - and yes, yes, I think that's it! That's exactly the mood it gives off, and probably why I keep listening to it. And that's even though, when I first heard it in the semifinal, I found the song itself kind of underwhelming; but it reminds me so much of some of the stuff I listened to in high school (...though Finland's entry also does that, in a completely different way :D ).
And then I heard that KEiiNO came in second in the Melodi Grand Prix, so of course I had to listen to their entry. Monument is a pretty good song - of course I'm biased, because I like this group, and I loved the entry they sent to ESC a few years ago, but... I think I can see why TIX's song won the MGP. It's like, of the two, I think KEiiNO is better musically, but, TIX's stage show is very Eurovision-y and memorable in a meme-y way (I don't think people will be quick to forget those devils and chains and the silly angel wings), plus like I mentioned before, his song taps into nostalgia in a way that a lot of this year's Eurovision entries seemed to be aiming for.
(Speaking of MGP, come to think of it, it's surprising that I never paid any attention to it before... I think it's mainly that as far as I know, none of my friends follow it, and half the fun of song contests is discussing the entries with other people. And then by the time I remember about Norway's song selection contest, it's over. But maybe I'll look into seeing if I can watch the MGP final next year.)
...Anyway, that led to me reading a whole bunch of months-old Norwegian salt about the MGP win/defeat, haaa. Which is not how I expected to spend my time (nor a method of language practice that I would have thought of before), but there we are. Even if I can see why people voted for that entry, I can't blame people for being mad that KEiiNO lost, either - because they did do a good job, and because the winning song isn't to everyone's taste, and because of TIX's older work being... what it is.
That, combined with all the ESC semifinal/grand final salt of "Norway and Azerbaijan only made it to the final because the singers were fake dating for votes", has meant that ESC has amused me in different ways than it usually would.
This year's ESC has been so damn tropey and weird and delightful, and I'm just going to drink this feeling up as long as it lasts.
It's a week later and I still have feelings. What?!
I think it's partly because I missed out on this last year. I was so terribly sad, both because of the ESC cancellation and because of worldly happenings in general, that I just... didn't want anything to do with it. I didn't even listen to any of the 2020 songs until this week. So now... I guess I'm just soaking up all that Eurovision joy while it lasts. Or maybe this is one hell of an ESC hangover. :'D
With regards to 2021, there wasn't really any particular act that I wanted really badly to win this year, which probably helped. There also weren't any entries in the final that I intensely disliked, so it was easy to be broadly happy about Italy's win, and to feel general goodwill to the whole damn lot.
(Though, okay, if France had won, I think I'd have been very surprised, but it was a very well-done chanson and as far as I can tell was an excellent example of its genre, and it's grown on me a lot since the final, so in the alternate universe where that happened, I think I would have been okay with that....)
Thoughts on the 2020 music: I like Go_A's entry just as much as the one sent for 2021; not sure if I prefer "Solovey" to "Shum" but they're both very very good, and I'm going to have to look up this group's other music later.
Sweden's 2020 entry was so good, ahh. I wish it had been The Mamas for 2021 too - I mean, don't get me wrong, Tusse is a cutieface, and I liked his song, but I don't think I'll remember it later on (I'll probably remember his clothing more than his singing), whereas "Move" is really really good and I think it'll stick with me quite a bit longer.
UK's 2020 entry was also much better than their 2021 entry. 2021's sounds like the ending theme to a Dreamworks knockoff of a Pixar film, whereas the 2020 song is... pretty nice actually?
A few more 2021 thoughts:
At some point after Semifinal 1, I was like, "I'm going to make some Eurovision icons :D". But I only made one before I got distracted by something shiny. Looks like I'm stuck with TIX and his fluffy coat for now.
The more I listen to Netherlands' entry, the more I love it. I really liked the live performance - the singing was good, the dancing spectacular - and it just sounds really really good to me. This is not a 0-point song, man.
....Germany's, on the other hand, is definitely a 0-point song, and I love it. Every time this thing comes up on shuffle I crack up. It's so earnest and at the same time kind of "hahaha fuck you" but not in a serious or malicious way. I recall at the end of the live performance, the singer added, "I wish you a joyful life" - lol Jendrik, well, you've certainly brought me some joy, so thanks for that.
Norway's entry keeps growing on me. I saw someone describe the vibe as "Like 90s-era Backstreet Boys, but with one singer" - and yes, yes, I think that's it! That's exactly the mood it gives off, and probably why I keep listening to it. And that's even though, when I first heard it in the semifinal, I found the song itself kind of underwhelming; but it reminds me so much of some of the stuff I listened to in high school (...though Finland's entry also does that, in a completely different way :D ).
And then I heard that KEiiNO came in second in the Melodi Grand Prix, so of course I had to listen to their entry. Monument is a pretty good song - of course I'm biased, because I like this group, and I loved the entry they sent to ESC a few years ago, but... I think I can see why TIX's song won the MGP. It's like, of the two, I think KEiiNO is better musically, but, TIX's stage show is very Eurovision-y and memorable in a meme-y way (I don't think people will be quick to forget those devils and chains and the silly angel wings), plus like I mentioned before, his song taps into nostalgia in a way that a lot of this year's Eurovision entries seemed to be aiming for.
(Speaking of MGP, come to think of it, it's surprising that I never paid any attention to it before... I think it's mainly that as far as I know, none of my friends follow it, and half the fun of song contests is discussing the entries with other people. And then by the time I remember about Norway's song selection contest, it's over. But maybe I'll look into seeing if I can watch the MGP final next year.)
...Anyway, that led to me reading a whole bunch of months-old Norwegian salt about the MGP win/defeat, haaa. Which is not how I expected to spend my time (nor a method of language practice that I would have thought of before), but there we are. Even if I can see why people voted for that entry, I can't blame people for being mad that KEiiNO lost, either - because they did do a good job, and because the winning song isn't to everyone's taste, and because of TIX's older work being... what it is.
That, combined with all the ESC semifinal/grand final salt of "Norway and Azerbaijan only made it to the final because the singers were fake dating for votes", has meant that ESC has amused me in different ways than it usually would.
This year's ESC has been so damn tropey and weird and delightful, and I'm just going to drink this feeling up as long as it lasts.
Yuu. Fic writer & book lover. M/Canada.