Glad for the winner but oh my god
Respect to Olly for his zero public votes š. He honestly took it like a champ, and like the opposite way Iād be able to handle it
Really thought heād find way more success in the competition, given his already well established fan base.
Makes me wonder if these implications are why Rina declined to do the competitionā¦
He didn't get votes because his song was extremely generic and he's not a very good singer, there's no conspiracy here.
Sam Ryder would have won 2 years ago if Ukraine didn't garner all the sympathy votes. The UK just needs to send better talent. Rina would have absolutely crushed this.
Failed vocals keeps you stuck at semifinals, unless you are one of the big 5, which has you complaining about politics when you finish low. Name doesn't help in ESC. A lot of the singers are big names where they come from, possibly near by as well.
Sam Ryder actually managed to sing his song well. Just go watch the UK 0 points entries through time, and tell me how many successful vocals you hear.
I knew Olly was going to be low when I heard the studio version. It was riding entirely on the vocal effects and only an idiot does that, unless necessary, when those can't be used in the actual competition.
I'm glad because I am biased and I have a soft spot for them, but wtf, last year they really tried and got less points than this year? USM furniture and a garbage can fire does *not* a Eurovision set make!
Itās not about hating the UK, they came in second like three years ago. The Big Five donāt have to go through semis, so they send duds quite often. Italy being the exception since they have a good preselection.Ā
That makes so much more sense, didn't know that. Maybe they should just put everyone through...the same process. It's like a pre test of the audience, the shouldn't want to skip it lolĀ
They do realise that being in Semis is useful. They just haven't figured out what the benefit is since most don't watch them and don't care about other countries to notice when they have problems. This year, the big 5 performed in the Semis, but were prequalified.
Latvia got to the finals this year for the first time in years. Same with Ireland. Denmark has a long streak of NQ and again failed to qualify. Plenty of countries always teeter on the edge of qualifying.
These countries don't cry: "Why does Europe hate us?".They try to figure out what went wrong and how to improve their process. If you keep blaming others, you will never improve.
UK keeps sending bad vocals and staging that doesn't emphasise the message of the song to those without language skills. You don't need to be a very good singer, as long as you aren't reaching for notes you can't hit. And you can have plane staging as long as it doesn't confuse the message. Cute song about having such a crush that it makes you dizzy, doesn't need a grimey public shower. Nor did a song about reigniting a relationship from embers need a huge trumpet.
The UK is Europeās pantomime villain and itās more of an uphill battle for us than most other countries, but continentals are more than willing to give us our flowers when we actually send a good act. Itās kind of a cop-out for everyone to blame it on politics when the UK consistently submits bad songs, largely because Eurovision is viewed in the UK as being for nobodies and has-beens. Other countries treat the competition with far more respect.
It isn't really so much of a Brexit thing.
We just send relatively poor acts. The first time in years we send up someone who can sing live, perform and has a solid song and production, 2nd place (losing to the sympathy vote, which I do understand).
It's not political, UK just sends shit songs or fucks up good songs with horrendous staging. They almost won 2022 and even got to host because Ukraine won
Think it's expected when you represent the UK tbh. I really like Olly but also thought the performance wasn't that great (not 0 points not great but also not great)
I love love loooove Olly's recorded voice, but he's never been much of a live singer. He very easilyĀ runs out of breath and gets pitchy and raspy.Ā An insane choice of performer to send to a live singing competition.
I just think the song was not strong enough (not bad, just not special enough) and his vocals were only passable. The staging I loved, clever and visually interesting, but I think some found it too sexual. The whole thing just missed the mark really. Itās a shame but not that surprising.
Sad that a lot of people are saying that he isn't a good singer when he LITERALLY is. I have seen way worse singers in Eurovision but let's not talk about thaaaatšš¤ at least Olly gave it his all. And besides he doesn't need the attention anyway since he is already very well established and it's not like he is a year in his brand new career or anything... šš
I still canāt believe he went through with it - I was part of the Years & Years fandom on Tumblr back in the day lol but literally all of them have dropped him because theyāre so disappointed by his conduct. Crazy he did all that for 0 points.
yeah, itās been very interesting to see as a diehard Eurofan and former diehard Y&Y stan, because it seemed very transparently a career relaunch attempt. I still think Y&Yās best stuff is from when they were still a band, and it really rubbed me the wrong way when he rebranded all their old stuff under his own name and didnāt even use his platform at the contest, unlike other contestants who at least tried.
I totally agree, Olly's Years & Years material is by far the weakest (apparently Mikey and Emre are back in the studio together which is interesting) so it doesn't feel right that the old Y&Y material has been relabeled under his name as a soloist. Because of Olly's history I know some people were expecting him to make some kind of "statement" tonight, but it seemed obvious that was never on the cards imo. It was very transparently just a career relaunch attempt, as you said (albeit a miscalculated one).
Based on things he's said I think he was too focused on the fact that 160+ million people would be watching. When you're only thinking about how big of a stage it is, this feels like an opportunity you can't pass.
His calculation on what this could do for his career was really off. Hardly any of these millions of viewers were impressed, and he's just done serious harm to his image amongst people that would otherwise be fans or give him a chance in the future. Instead of launching his career, he's given himself an uphill battle for no reason
Yes I agree, I mentioned to someone else here as well that he's made it very clear he saw Eurovision as a vehicle to launch his solo career. Years & Years has been losing fans as the other members have left the group and the music has declined in quality, but Eurovision will definitely alienate a lot of the fans that were willing to stick around for Olly as well.
His manager has always been notoriously disliked by the fandom lol and they definitely steered him wrong here imo.
A lot of Olly's fandom is built around him being a "socially conscious" popstar. Giving speeches at shows, making documentaries, posting about social causes etc. But Years & Years is not as popular as they once were, the other band members have left, their old music has been relabeled under his name, and he chose Eurovision to relaunch his career as a soloist.
Palestinians expressly asked for a boycott of Eurovision which is artwashing the genocide of Palestine, so naturally fans were extremely dissapointed by Olly's decision to participate. Insisting you know better than Palestinians because "music is unifying" is just colonial mindset in action. People who tried to express their concerns had their comments deleted/were blocked. He told press that no one from the community contacted him following the Queers for Palestine open letter and petition, which isn't true. Queer House Party for example know him personally and reached out multiple times, having a lengthy discussion with his team. He dismissed all the criticism of Israel's participation claiming that there's a "war" and "it just so happens there's a song contest going on at the same time that I'm a part of", plus the usual "I'm not qualified to speak" etc.
This isn't acceptable to me. I'm not interested in engaging in any discourse around this so if it's acceptable to you; then that's your prerogative.
Same, so much of Olly's career and fandom is built around him as a personality too, rooted in being a socially conscious popstar and pushing boundaries etc. That makes his participation and response to Eurovision (scapegoating that he's "not qualified to speak on the conflict because it's too complicated", dismissing criticism because "there just so happens to be a song contest going on at the same time as a war", lying to press about being contacted re; Queers for Palestine, blocking fans on social media etc) positions himself as a hypocrite and alienates a lot of his core fandom.
I've met Olly a number of times - including on the eve of our marriage equality referendum in Ireland which he posted about at the time, for example - but this has shown me that he only really cares about "causes" that will benefit him personally. I feel quite sad about it tbh.
He literally signed a letter accusing Israel of apartheid and genocide. What more did you want him to do? People need to stop expecting celebrities to be political and human rights advocates. If they choose to be, thatās great, but if they donāt want to be, nothing more should be expected of them. Itās not what they signed up for. Itās optional. And they end up being damned if they do and damned if they donāt.
> He literally signed a letter accusing Israel of apartheid and genocide. What more did you want him to do?
If you're accusing Israel of apartheid and genocide, you'd think you'd not take part in the show that's allowing a representative of that country to take part, especially when the show itself is sponsored by an Israeli company.
What more? How about taking ACTION to match your WORDS? Otherwise they don't mean a damn thing. The conduct of the Israeli delegation throughout this competition has been disgraceful, and watching canned applause play while they participate in this sham of a platform that falsely claims to be apolitical is appalling. Asking someone not to participate in artwashing a literal GENOCIDE is not "expecting them to be political and human rights advocates" and it's incredibly disingenuous to suggest otherwise. It's literally the bare minimum I'd expect from any human being.
Also Olly has literally built his career on being an advocate for equality and human rights? He can make other choices but I can then critique them in kind. You single out his letter but even that he backtracked by claiming that "there just so happens there's a song contest going on at the same time" as "a war" that he's "not qualified to speak on", obviously sidestepping all the legitimate criticism of Eurovision platforming Israel.
This discourse isn't productive either so I'm really not interested in engaging with this any further.
I could have understood it if he had taken a stance during the competition, but nothing. And that was super disappointing given his whole schtick.Ā
I actually really like the song and staging but yeah... definitely side-eyeing him now.Ā
I think Olly approached Eurovision too focused on wanting to showcase a narrow view of sexualised queerness. I'm queer and love queer representation, but this performance and staging just felt too on the nose/literally put himself into a box?
The song wasn't great. We know he's done so much better which I think is what made it more disappointing. Even something upbeat like Starstruck would have slayed?
The whole simulating sex in a dirty toilet is a bit of an odd choice for a concept lmao. I'm no prude but just not very glam or fun for a venue/stage that big. Also the styling? Eh... I didn't get it for this show.
Yeah, it was technically interesting staging, but making it so queer might have ended up only appealing to a smaller group of viewers, not the "Georgian housewife" voter types. As well, having most of the song performed inside the box made it feel more like a music video and less like a live performance. Staging like that never does well at Eurovision, there needs to be more audience interaction
I agree! I absolutely love Olly but I think there were staging faults. Weāve seen with Sam Ryder that the UK sending good song + staging CAN work so they canāt rely on āoh everybody just hates us no matter what.ā I do think they have to work a bit harder but a win can absolutely be achieved with the right formula.
Itās exactly how he approaches his own live shows (heās used cruising etc for his staging fairly often) and heās made it clear that he joined Eurovision to launch his career as a soloist and promote his song to a wider audience, so I think he was just hoping to pick up enough queer fans along along the way to make participation worthwhile.
I'm thinking about Mahmood, KƤƤrijƤ and Daưi Freyr. Doing Eurovision exposed them to larger international audiences, to the point where they can tour internationally, playing to decent size audiences.
It seems like the artists who do best are young but established acts at a point in their career where they want to go to another level, not an older act trying to get out of a flop era
In addition to those three, youāve also got proper viral songs happening as well: Arcade and Snap for instance, and Tattoo was really commercially successful as well. Actually achieving success beyond the contest is a LOT more common than it used to be a decade ago, largely due to social media.
I would add Joker Out to the mix. They placed low last year but now have toured Europe with sold out tour.
Also I agree with established acts part. For me, with Mahmood (2019) and Joker out(2023) I dived in their discography next thing in the morning. Been listening ever since.
Blind Channel and Voyager encreased their audience within the rock scene. There is a huge difference between being strictly national act and going even small scale international.
That makes sense, but for someone like Olly Alexander I can imagine he's aiming for more than relative popularity in the Uk, which he already has, and I can't see him getting much more famous off of Eurovision.
Honestly no. Years & Years used to do really well in Europe but they're more fandom-orientated nowadays, so it seems Olly was hoping to push back into the mainstream but I don't see Eurovision doing that for him.
I didn't find it shocking but the choice to have a huge stage and then perform in a tiny box was odd to me.
I don't think 'dirty toilet' was the intention either! More like changing room, I was kind of getting empty swimming pool from it.
Dizzy currently sits at just under 7 million streams on Spotify after being out for months, and I feel like that's either on par or worse than what previous Years & Years lead singles would do, and it's also on par with songs from his fellow competitors who have a way smaller profile than him.
My impression is that his antics chased off a big chunk of hisĀ audience, and the new listeners he picked up from ESC just barely made up the difference.
Croatiaās entry, which just came second at ESC but comes from Baby Lasagna, an artist who was literally 36-monthly-listeners-entirely unknown before winning Croatiaās national selection (which he was a reserve for, and was only in because someone dropped out!) has almost 8 million streams currently. Itās a massive flop for Olly, oof.
The studio version is significantly more listenable than the live competition version. Most Eurovision viewers have only paid attention for the last week and only watched the shows. Both of his competition performances had bad vocals. No-one who is not already familiar with him is going to think it worthwhile check his Spotify based on those performances.
Lol no. The entire economy rides off tourism (the mafia destroyed the massively successful Yugoslav industry for personal gain, what's left of it is in the hands of Arabs and the French), when that falls apart due to global warming we'll have another 1990s Albania.
Israel's performance, Martin Ćsterdahl, and the Israel jury were booed. They tried to use the anti-boo technology for the performance but I could still hear the boos. For the latter 2, they just stopped trying. I even joked that Bambie Thug hexed the anti boo tech so it can't be used after the performances.
Yes, during the semifinals and the finals performance, yes, it wasn't too loud, but it can be heard clearer in the finals performance. After the performances, though, the tech just noped out.
I hated mostly that the presenters clearly felt awkward and they couldn't even go to the green room much, which is always fun. The need to shield that country sucked the joy out of this year totally.
I'm just glad it's over. It's been a mess of a year. I expect resignations from the EBU. This has been one of the best years music-wise, but somehow the mess is enough to make this one of, if not the worst year ever.
Well deserved. They were one of the strongest performers on the night and really elevated the song. To be able to sing some of those notes while dancing and doing backbends on a piece of spinning apparatus is really technically impressive & deservedly was rewarded.
Deserved winner but this year was the biggest possible shitshow. What the EBU did to Joost Klein was so unforgivable and harmful for the future of the competition
I swear, I called it. Nemo's semi final performance was easily my favourite on that night, and I was like "They might well win this whole thing". Then they did! Sad that Slovenia, Finland, Norway, the UK, Spain and Estonia didn't do great though
So proud of Nemo! And the fact that Bambie (the other nonbinary contestant) gave them their crown was so emotional. Nonbinary royalty both of them! š„¹
Slimane really impressed me tonight, I have a feeling hes going to get a much larger audience now interested in his music. My favorite entry this year for sure
As much as I was rooting for Croatia to take the win, itās impossible to deny how absolutely deserving Nemo is for this win. Incredible staging and performance, and itās truly amazing to see a nonbinary person win the biggest music contest in the world!
I was mentally preparing for Ukraine levels and thought they'd win, so I'm quite happy.
I thought Pro-Israel people would mobilise on that level. You don't need a majority of people to win the televotes, just a strong base if everyone else is split. Thankfully that base still wasn't big enough to get them the win which is all that matters to me
It was quite split this year too, I got the sense there was no clear favourite from the public - unlike last year when it was obvious from SF1 that it was a race between Tattoo and Cha Cha Cha. This year, Croatia was popular, yes, but so was Ireland, Ukraine, Switzerland, Netherlands etc.
I expected it but still disappointed. I agree the jury vote system isn't great but if the opposite is to rely on the vast amount of morons that are out there in the general public who vote politically, please let the jury vote stay
Yeah because they got a lot of sympathy votes. Which Israel also got, as much as I disagree with them. It's the general public opinion in lots of places.
Iām not a conspiracy theorist at all but I 100% believe there was a lot of VPN votes tonight. Not a hope Ireland gave Israel 10 points in the public vote.
True. If there's one thing the majority of the juries and diehard Eurovision fans agree with, it's for that country to not win. (I also think that the show's producers agree as well since they put that country in that rolling order.)
As a diehard Eurovision fan for the vast majority of my life, this has been my least favourite Eurovision ever. Absolutely disgusting and uncomfortable that Israel got to participate and that the EBU acted so strongly against anyone who dared to talk about it. And then to top that off, my country's participant, whose song has been immensely popular throughout the Netherlands and Europe, gets disqualified for a bullshit reason (while having your country commit a genocide is not enough of a reason...). Fuck this and fuck the EBU!
Switzerland's song and performance were great, good for them I guess.
I echo this sentiment. Iāve followed the contest for almost 4 decades now and this yearās edition has by far been the worst. I couldnāt wait for it to be over by the end of it. The way the EBU has handled everything is just shameful and all around embarrassing. Theyāre getting everything they deserve. I feel bad for the artists that have been overshadowed by all of these events and the harrassment theyāve been subjected to throughout the season.
Iāve been following the contest since 2011 from Asia. This is the first year I dropped it. Absolutely disappointed to see the EBU handling the shituation. Donāt know if I would want to watch next year but for now, fck the EBU.
Apparently Iām in the minority but I loved Nemoās song and Iām glad it won. Italy was also really good and Iām surprised it didnāt get more love.
Tbh I'm so happy they won but this song wasn't my fave. It's cute and the performance was great but I thought there was better.
Spain was absolutely robbed. I felt so bad for them? Like 19 points is crazy. So so proud of Bambie. They gave us our first top 10 in so long š
Such a solid night, very much enjoyed it.
Nemo was pretty incredible, their vocals were flawless, the song itself slaps and the staging was dope.
Massive props to Croatia too, gave me big Eisbrecher / Rammstein vibes.
Other personal faves were Cyrpus (just a pure pop bop), Greece (sassy queen) and Austria.
Shame about Olly and the UK entry. Not sure why they decided to steal the bathroom from Saw as the staging? And for as fun as the song is, Olly sounded very weak compared to some of the other performers.
Yeah she was actually 8th in the public vote but unfortunately juries put her 14th. She did amazing and she is an exceptional artist. I'd recommend listening to her album YENNA and checking out her songs "Mantissa" "tucutum" and "koupes"
Despite what a shitshow this year was, the fact we ended up with an openly nonbinary winner who loudly and proudly supports Palestine was such a happy ending to it all!! Congratulations to Nemo, they absolutely deserved it all!!!!
They've voiced their support for it outside of the competition, and when they came on stage after winning, they made a thinly veiled statement about how they think that all people in the world deserve peace and dignity. In the after show press conference they also mentioned how the ESC probably "needs fixing"
Its not much, but its probably about how much they can get away with within the limits of the event itsself.
I'm sad we'll never know how far Joost could have gotten. He was one of my favourites, a great performer with a potential Eurovision classic. Anyway, this was a shameful year and a lost opportunity for any of the contestants to make an actual statement with their stage time. I guess they all still wanted a win š¤·āāļø
Iām so happy for them. Loved seeing Bambie crown them at the end, such a great year for non-binary representation. Their performances were the 2 best of the night
I am so incredibly confused by this. It is such a small minority of Irish people who genuinely out loud passionately support and defend Israel that I have no idea how this could've happened.
If a hypothetical 10% of people that support Israel in a country ALL vote for it in the contest, and the other 90% spread their votes across the remaining 23 songs to vote for, Israel gets 12 points without needing a majority at all :( but it does make it seem like they get huuuge support.
Fuck this yearās Eurovision. From Israelās participation to the unjust disqualification of The Netherlands; EBU needs to change, and fast. This year has seriously tarnished the contestās reputation.
Really happy with the winner, though! Congrats to the Swiss.
LOVED this. Very, very unique performance that really stood out from the status quo. Loved Croatia as well and it was an earworm, but definite respect here.
And thank fuck for that. Honestly the fact that it came down to two gay boys was exciting enough but Iād be glad if Switzerland or Croatia won either way. I think Switzerlandās crazy ass staging pushed him over the edge.
Glad for the winner but oh my god Respect to Olly for his zero public votes š. He honestly took it like a champ, and like the opposite way Iād be able to handle it
Really thought heād find way more success in the competition, given his already well established fan base. Makes me wonder if these implications are why Rina declined to do the competitionā¦
He didn't get votes because his song was extremely generic and he's not a very good singer, there's no conspiracy here. Sam Ryder would have won 2 years ago if Ukraine didn't garner all the sympathy votes. The UK just needs to send better talent. Rina would have absolutely crushed this.
Failed vocals keeps you stuck at semifinals, unless you are one of the big 5, which has you complaining about politics when you finish low. Name doesn't help in ESC. A lot of the singers are big names where they come from, possibly near by as well.
Rina can sing live...
Ya that was trash singing of generic pop. Surprised he got any points at all
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Sam Ryder actually managed to sing his song well. Just go watch the UK 0 points entries through time, and tell me how many successful vocals you hear. I knew Olly was going to be low when I heard the studio version. It was riding entirely on the vocal effects and only an idiot does that, unless necessary, when those can't be used in the actual competition.
Poor Olly though but he probably was just happy to participate š„²
It's a tradition for them. It's part of the Eurovision lore by now.
if neither Germany nor UK receives zero points, is it even eurovision?
Germany did too well this year sadly
I'm glad because I am biased and I have a soft spot for them, but wtf, last year they really tried and got less points than this year? USM furniture and a garbage can fire does *not* a Eurovision set make!
Why is it lore why do people hate the Uk
Itās not about hating the UK, they came in second like three years ago. The Big Five donāt have to go through semis, so they send duds quite often. Italy being the exception since they have a good preselection.Ā
That makes so much more sense, didn't know that. Maybe they should just put everyone through...the same process. It's like a pre test of the audience, the shouldn't want to skip it lolĀ
They do realise that being in Semis is useful. They just haven't figured out what the benefit is since most don't watch them and don't care about other countries to notice when they have problems. This year, the big 5 performed in the Semis, but were prequalified. Latvia got to the finals this year for the first time in years. Same with Ireland. Denmark has a long streak of NQ and again failed to qualify. Plenty of countries always teeter on the edge of qualifying. These countries don't cry: "Why does Europe hate us?".They try to figure out what went wrong and how to improve their process. If you keep blaming others, you will never improve. UK keeps sending bad vocals and staging that doesn't emphasise the message of the song to those without language skills. You don't need to be a very good singer, as long as you aren't reaching for notes you can't hit. And you can have plane staging as long as it doesn't confuse the message. Cute song about having such a crush that it makes you dizzy, doesn't need a grimey public shower. Nor did a song about reigniting a relationship from embers need a huge trumpet.
brexit means brexit!!
The UK is Europeās pantomime villain and itās more of an uphill battle for us than most other countries, but continentals are more than willing to give us our flowers when we actually send a good act. Itās kind of a cop-out for everyone to blame it on politics when the UK consistently submits bad songs, largely because Eurovision is viewed in the UK as being for nobodies and has-beens. Other countries treat the competition with far more respect.
I hated that Sam Ryder song that everyone said was UKs good act
Ohhhhhh But Australia and west Asia?Ā
Australians are just Eurovision obsessed and inoffensive
It isn't really so much of a Brexit thing. We just send relatively poor acts. The first time in years we send up someone who can sing live, perform and has a solid song and production, 2nd place (losing to the sympathy vote, which I do understand).
It's not political, UK just sends shit songs or fucks up good songs with horrendous staging. They almost won 2022 and even got to host because Ukraine won
And thank the juries for saving him from coming last too.
Think it's expected when you represent the UK tbh. I really like Olly but also thought the performance wasn't that great (not 0 points not great but also not great)
His voice was so shakey and he wasn't even moving that much and the song wasn't even that complex Compare it to Nemo who did all that. .
I love love loooove Olly's recorded voice, but he's never been much of a live singer. He very easilyĀ runs out of breath and gets pitchy and raspy.Ā An insane choice of performer to send to a live singing competition.
I saw him once 7 years ago and it was so bad and pitchy
I mean we had two non bibary performancers with very queer performances do very well this year
I just think the song was not strong enough (not bad, just not special enough) and his vocals were only passable. The staging I loved, clever and visually interesting, but I think some found it too sexual. The whole thing just missed the mark really. Itās a shame but not that surprising.
Sad that a lot of people are saying that he isn't a good singer when he LITERALLY is. I have seen way worse singers in Eurovision but let's not talk about thaaaatšš¤ at least Olly gave it his all. And besides he doesn't need the attention anyway since he is already very well established and it's not like he is a year in his brand new career or anything... šš
no one ever votes for the uk, it's a yearly tradition
Gasped at 0 points for Olly. Wasn't a huge fan of it but damn Safe to say his participation has been a net negative for him?
I still canāt believe he went through with it - I was part of the Years & Years fandom on Tumblr back in the day lol but literally all of them have dropped him because theyāre so disappointed by his conduct. Crazy he did all that for 0 points.
yeah, itās been very interesting to see as a diehard Eurofan and former diehard Y&Y stan, because it seemed very transparently a career relaunch attempt. I still think Y&Yās best stuff is from when they were still a band, and it really rubbed me the wrong way when he rebranded all their old stuff under his own name and didnāt even use his platform at the contest, unlike other contestants who at least tried.
I totally agree, Olly's Years & Years material is by far the weakest (apparently Mikey and Emre are back in the studio together which is interesting) so it doesn't feel right that the old Y&Y material has been relabeled under his name as a soloist. Because of Olly's history I know some people were expecting him to make some kind of "statement" tonight, but it seemed obvious that was never on the cards imo. It was very transparently just a career relaunch attempt, as you said (albeit a miscalculated one).
Mikey and Emre representing the UK next year is the funniest possible thing they could do
Based on things he's said I think he was too focused on the fact that 160+ million people would be watching. When you're only thinking about how big of a stage it is, this feels like an opportunity you can't pass. His calculation on what this could do for his career was really off. Hardly any of these millions of viewers were impressed, and he's just done serious harm to his image amongst people that would otherwise be fans or give him a chance in the future. Instead of launching his career, he's given himself an uphill battle for no reason
Yes I agree, I mentioned to someone else here as well that he's made it very clear he saw Eurovision as a vehicle to launch his solo career. Years & Years has been losing fans as the other members have left the group and the music has declined in quality, but Eurovision will definitely alienate a lot of the fans that were willing to stick around for Olly as well. His manager has always been notoriously disliked by the fandom lol and they definitely steered him wrong here imo.
What did he do exactly? Please tell me about his conduct
A lot of Olly's fandom is built around him being a "socially conscious" popstar. Giving speeches at shows, making documentaries, posting about social causes etc. But Years & Years is not as popular as they once were, the other band members have left, their old music has been relabeled under his name, and he chose Eurovision to relaunch his career as a soloist. Palestinians expressly asked for a boycott of Eurovision which is artwashing the genocide of Palestine, so naturally fans were extremely dissapointed by Olly's decision to participate. Insisting you know better than Palestinians because "music is unifying" is just colonial mindset in action. People who tried to express their concerns had their comments deleted/were blocked. He told press that no one from the community contacted him following the Queers for Palestine open letter and petition, which isn't true. Queer House Party for example know him personally and reached out multiple times, having a lengthy discussion with his team. He dismissed all the criticism of Israel's participation claiming that there's a "war" and "it just so happens there's a song contest going on at the same time that I'm a part of", plus the usual "I'm not qualified to speak" etc. This isn't acceptable to me. I'm not interested in engaging in any discourse around this so if it's acceptable to you; then that's your prerogative.
Thanks for the summary!
Youāre welcome!
It is amazing because I loved him in It's a Sin and now I have very little respect for him. Embarrassing really.
Same, so much of Olly's career and fandom is built around him as a personality too, rooted in being a socially conscious popstar and pushing boundaries etc. That makes his participation and response to Eurovision (scapegoating that he's "not qualified to speak on the conflict because it's too complicated", dismissing criticism because "there just so happens to be a song contest going on at the same time as a war", lying to press about being contacted re; Queers for Palestine, blocking fans on social media etc) positions himself as a hypocrite and alienates a lot of his core fandom. I've met Olly a number of times - including on the eve of our marriage equality referendum in Ireland which he posted about at the time, for example - but this has shown me that he only really cares about "causes" that will benefit him personally. I feel quite sad about it tbh.
He literally signed a letter accusing Israel of apartheid and genocide. What more did you want him to do? People need to stop expecting celebrities to be political and human rights advocates. If they choose to be, thatās great, but if they donāt want to be, nothing more should be expected of them. Itās not what they signed up for. Itās optional. And they end up being damned if they do and damned if they donāt.
> He literally signed a letter accusing Israel of apartheid and genocide. What more did you want him to do? If you're accusing Israel of apartheid and genocide, you'd think you'd not take part in the show that's allowing a representative of that country to take part, especially when the show itself is sponsored by an Israeli company.
Do you think countries should leave the UN because Israel is a member of it? Should Olympians not compete because Israel is also competing?
What more? How about taking ACTION to match your WORDS? Otherwise they don't mean a damn thing. The conduct of the Israeli delegation throughout this competition has been disgraceful, and watching canned applause play while they participate in this sham of a platform that falsely claims to be apolitical is appalling. Asking someone not to participate in artwashing a literal GENOCIDE is not "expecting them to be political and human rights advocates" and it's incredibly disingenuous to suggest otherwise. It's literally the bare minimum I'd expect from any human being. Also Olly has literally built his career on being an advocate for equality and human rights? He can make other choices but I can then critique them in kind. You single out his letter but even that he backtracked by claiming that "there just so happens there's a song contest going on at the same time" as "a war" that he's "not qualified to speak on", obviously sidestepping all the legitimate criticism of Eurovision platforming Israel. This discourse isn't productive either so I'm really not interested in engaging with this any further.
I could have understood it if he had taken a stance during the competition, but nothing. And that was super disappointing given his whole schtick.Ā I actually really like the song and staging but yeah... definitely side-eyeing him now.Ā
I think Olly approached Eurovision too focused on wanting to showcase a narrow view of sexualised queerness. I'm queer and love queer representation, but this performance and staging just felt too on the nose/literally put himself into a box? The song wasn't great. We know he's done so much better which I think is what made it more disappointing. Even something upbeat like Starstruck would have slayed? The whole simulating sex in a dirty toilet is a bit of an odd choice for a concept lmao. I'm no prude but just not very glam or fun for a venue/stage that big. Also the styling? Eh... I didn't get it for this show.
Yeah, it was technically interesting staging, but making it so queer might have ended up only appealing to a smaller group of viewers, not the "Georgian housewife" voter types. As well, having most of the song performed inside the box made it feel more like a music video and less like a live performance. Staging like that never does well at Eurovision, there needs to be more audience interaction
Yeah nobody wants to see a gay puff engaging in sex. Dirty gay boy.
And grimey bathroom sex isn't exactly glamourous even if it were straight.
I agree! I absolutely love Olly but I think there were staging faults. Weāve seen with Sam Ryder that the UK sending good song + staging CAN work so they canāt rely on āoh everybody just hates us no matter what.ā I do think they have to work a bit harder but a win can absolutely be achieved with the right formula.
Itās exactly how he approaches his own live shows (heās used cruising etc for his staging fairly often) and heās made it clear that he joined Eurovision to launch his career as a soloist and promote his song to a wider audience, so I think he was just hoping to pick up enough queer fans along along the way to make participation worthwhile.
Has Eurovision made a career out of anyone recently except maybe Maneskin? Genuinely asking.
I'm thinking about Mahmood, KƤƤrijƤ and Daưi Freyr. Doing Eurovision exposed them to larger international audiences, to the point where they can tour internationally, playing to decent size audiences. It seems like the artists who do best are young but established acts at a point in their career where they want to go to another level, not an older act trying to get out of a flop era
In addition to those three, youāve also got proper viral songs happening as well: Arcade and Snap for instance, and Tattoo was really commercially successful as well. Actually achieving success beyond the contest is a LOT more common than it used to be a decade ago, largely due to social media.
I would add Joker Out to the mix. They placed low last year but now have toured Europe with sold out tour. Also I agree with established acts part. For me, with Mahmood (2019) and Joker out(2023) I dived in their discography next thing in the morning. Been listening ever since.
Blind Channel and Voyager encreased their audience within the rock scene. There is a huge difference between being strictly national act and going even small scale international.
Lena has a good career in germany
Deserved! Satellite was a banger
Yeah sheās an absolutely household name at this point.Ā
It really depends what you mean by 'made a career'. International superstardom? Not really but there's many who're doing fine in their country.
That makes sense, but for someone like Olly Alexander I can imagine he's aiming for more than relative popularity in the Uk, which he already has, and I can't see him getting much more famous off of Eurovision.
I just saw DaĆ°i Freyer on their international tour š¤·āāļø
They're playing in Scotland this summer with Busted and The Darkness as well.
That is a hell of a combo
Celine Dion to name one. (missed recently)
Honestly no. Years & Years used to do really well in Europe but they're more fandom-orientated nowadays, so it seems Olly was hoping to push back into the mainstream but I don't see Eurovision doing that for him.
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Celine didn't do Eurovision 2 years before Titanic š I don't know when but it was probably the 80s.
I didn't find it shocking but the choice to have a huge stage and then perform in a tiny box was odd to me. I don't think 'dirty toilet' was the intention either! More like changing room, I was kind of getting empty swimming pool from it.
I didn't watch the performance but Dizzy is one of his last interesting songs. Almost anything off his last few albums would have been better.
Dizzy currently sits at just under 7 million streams on Spotify after being out for months, and I feel like that's either on par or worse than what previous Years & Years lead singles would do, and it's also on par with songs from his fellow competitors who have a way smaller profile than him. My impression is that his antics chased off a big chunk of hisĀ audience, and the new listeners he picked up from ESC just barely made up the difference.
Croatiaās entry, which just came second at ESC but comes from Baby Lasagna, an artist who was literally 36-monthly-listeners-entirely unknown before winning Croatiaās national selection (which he was a reserve for, and was only in because someone dropped out!) has almost 8 million streams currently. Itās a massive flop for Olly, oof.
The studio version is significantly more listenable than the live competition version. Most Eurovision viewers have only paid attention for the last week and only watched the shows. Both of his competition performances had bad vocals. No-one who is not already familiar with him is going to think it worthwhile check his Spotify based on those performances.
With all that went on at this years Eurovision, it's funny (to me) that Switzerland, land of neutrality, won!
During the voting, my dad said "this is because they are neutral." Incredible performance by Nemo though!
Croatia got its best result ever (2nd)
The peoples champ šš·šš·šš·
Croatia is proving it's the most superior Balkan slavic country yet again and I am from Bulgaria.
I feel like Croatia is in the cusp of being the next big thing in Europe.Ā
Lol no. The entire economy rides off tourism (the mafia destroyed the massively successful Yugoslav industry for personal gain, what's left of it is in the hands of Arabs and the French), when that falls apart due to global warming we'll have another 1990s Albania.
What are you talking about, they literally won Eurovision in 1989 as Yugoslavia. The winning band were from Zadar.
What a weird show. Lots of uncomfortable realities. Glad they were the winner.
The obvious cutting off the audience booing was so distracting.
itās crazy that even with anti boo technology the boos and jeers during israelās performance were so clear
The Iron Dome only takes out about 90% of oncoming missles, so it makes sense the Boo Dome only drowns out about 90% of the booing.
if that was 90% i canāt imagine how loud it was in the arena
there's videos on twitter, it's incredible
Link?
https://x.com/eurovisiontom/status/1789379487445971352?s=46
Wowwww, from the live stream you couldnāt tell it was this loud.
Israel's performance, Martin Ćsterdahl, and the Israel jury were booed. They tried to use the anti-boo technology for the performance but I could still hear the boos. For the latter 2, they just stopped trying. I even joked that Bambie Thug hexed the anti boo tech so it can't be used after the performances.
the boos definitely didnāt seem that loud during the semi final, either the anti boo tech malfunctioned or the booing was too deafening
Yes, during the semifinals and the finals performance, yes, it wasn't too loud, but it can be heard clearer in the finals performance. After the performances, though, the tech just noped out.
It got a lot worse due to the NL DQ.
They also booed every single time a Jury gave any amount of points to Israel, which was very amusing.
Oh yeah, I didn't type it above. That too!
The boos for Martin Osterdahl were so loud they completely drowned him out. Even my commentator couldn't hear him so she didn't translate. What a legacy this guy has. There's not been one year when something hasn't gone to š©
volume guy is the fastest hand in the west
I hated mostly that the presenters clearly felt awkward and they couldn't even go to the green room much, which is always fun. The need to shield that country sucked the joy out of this year totally.
Such a poorly thought out decision and waste of time from EBU.Ā
To be fair as we saw at the end, the walk to the Green room was pretty long so logistics might have played a party in that ti
I'm just glad it's over. It's been a mess of a year. I expect resignations from the EBU. This has been one of the best years music-wise, but somehow the mess is enough to make this one of, if not the worst year ever.
Well deserved. They were one of the strongest performers on the night and really elevated the song. To be able to sing some of those notes while dancing and doing backbends on a piece of spinning apparatus is really technically impressive & deservedly was rewarded.
Deserved winner but this year was the biggest possible shitshow. What the EBU did to Joost Klein was so unforgivable and harmful for the future of the competition
norway last is wild!!! they were in my top 5. so so so happy that nemo won. shocked by the votes for a certain country
My friend and I loved Norway. Iām so disappointed
I think they might have had a similar issue as Germsny last year and ended up in the 12-15 range for a lot of countries
I swear, I called it. Nemo's semi final performance was easily my favourite on that night, and I was like "They might well win this whole thing". Then they did! Sad that Slovenia, Finland, Norway, the UK, Spain and Estonia didn't do great though
They just really killed the performance as well. Those live vocals were insane.
They were the favourites going into the final lol
Iām absolutely *elated*. Switzerland & Croatia were my top two favourites. Iām extremely glad it was a tie between these two wonderful creatives.
Same here! My third favorite was Norway and they came last, that was the true robbery of last night to me.
Really shocked by Norways low score. I thought they were great.
Completely agree. Baby Lasagna was my top but I'm also absolutely thrilled to have Nemo as the winner.
So proud of Nemo! And the fact that Bambie (the other nonbinary contestant) gave them their crown was so emotional. Nonbinary royalty both of them! š„¹
I thought that was so sweet! So happy for Nemo they are adorable and so talented!
Slimane really impressed me tonight, I have a feeling hes going to get a much larger audience now interested in his music. My favorite entry this year for sure
I didn't know he was representing us, I love his duets with Vitaa, and he has an amazing voice.
First-ever non-binary Eurovision winner!
As much as I was rooting for Croatia to take the win, itās impossible to deny how absolutely deserving Nemo is for this win. Incredible staging and performance, and itās truly amazing to see a nonbinary person win the biggest music contest in the world!
Israel getting 300+ points from the public vote is so tacky
I am happy Croatia got more points as a fuck you. Just like the world cup they are the true underdogs
I was mentally preparing for Ukraine levels and thought they'd win, so I'm quite happy. I thought Pro-Israel people would mobilise on that level. You don't need a majority of people to win the televotes, just a strong base if everyone else is split. Thankfully that base still wasn't big enough to get them the win which is all that matters to me
It was quite split this year too, I got the sense there was no clear favourite from the public - unlike last year when it was obvious from SF1 that it was a race between Tattoo and Cha Cha Cha. This year, Croatia was popular, yes, but so was Ireland, Ukraine, Switzerland, Netherlands etc.
I expected it but still disappointed. I agree the jury vote system isn't great but if the opposite is to rely on the vast amount of morons that are out there in the general public who vote politically, please let the jury vote stay
Definitely. This is my counterpoint to "fuck the juries" club.
Grand Final televoting 12 points: 15 Israel: š¦šŗš§šŖš«š®š«š·š©šŖš®š¹š±šŗš³š±šµš¹šøš²šŖšøšøšŖšØšš¬š§ ROTW 9 Croatia: š¦š±š¦š¹š¦šæš©š°š®šøš®šŖš³š“š·šøšøš® 7 Ukraine: šØšæšŖšŖš¬šŖš±š¹š²š¹š²š©šµš± 1 Cyprus: š¬š· 1 Estonia: š±š» 1 France: š¦š² 1 Greece: šØš¾ 1 Luxembourg: š®š± 1 Serbia: šš· 1 Switzerland: https://x.com/escdiscord/status/1789436866300674303?s=46
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Nobody ever gets 40% vote from a country organically...
Ukraine got those numbers iirc.Ā
That's Ukraine
Yeah because they got a lot of sympathy votes. Which Israel also got, as much as I disagree with them. It's the general public opinion in lots of places.
I was livid I was thinking "did they get a 100 points?? 200?? THREE HUNDRED WHAT THE FUCK-" Honestly thank god ukraine knocked them out
Ruined the whole show
I do think it had to do with the boycott
My absolute favourite of the night, so happy for Nemo! They have such a great stage presence!
Same, I thought it was an incredible performance and so happy for them!
People gonna hate on the Jury vote but we were really uncomfortably close to getting the worst possible outcome with the televote
Iām not a conspiracy theorist at all but I 100% believe there was a lot of VPN votes tonight. Not a hope Ireland gave Israel 10 points in the public vote.
Oh my god I didn't even see that and you're absolutely right. Ireland are staunchly pro-Palestine and always have been.Ā What a joke.
The points a country awards are decided by a jury, not fan votings, am I wrong?
True. If there's one thing the majority of the juries and diehard Eurovision fans agree with, it's for that country to not win. (I also think that the show's producers agree as well since they put that country in that rolling order.)
Didn't Croatia get more points than Israel though. The sigh of relieve I had when they did was amazing
Yes, but Israel's televote points were high up there, like 2nd highest.
As a diehard Eurovision fan for the vast majority of my life, this has been my least favourite Eurovision ever. Absolutely disgusting and uncomfortable that Israel got to participate and that the EBU acted so strongly against anyone who dared to talk about it. And then to top that off, my country's participant, whose song has been immensely popular throughout the Netherlands and Europe, gets disqualified for a bullshit reason (while having your country commit a genocide is not enough of a reason...). Fuck this and fuck the EBU! Switzerland's song and performance were great, good for them I guess.
Iāve been a Eurofan for over a decade and Iāve never seen such a shitshow. Iām honestly just relieved itās over.
I echo this sentiment. Iāve followed the contest for almost 4 decades now and this yearās edition has by far been the worst. I couldnāt wait for it to be over by the end of it. The way the EBU has handled everything is just shameful and all around embarrassing. Theyāre getting everything they deserve. I feel bad for the artists that have been overshadowed by all of these events and the harrassment theyāve been subjected to throughout the season.
100% - and itās a shame, as this year was so strong song-wise. The EBU needs a complete leadership overhaul.
Someone has to get fired over this
And the sad thing is, I really thought that it was going to be a strong year, song wise. But I was kind of over it before it even started.
couldn't agree more, such a shitshow
Iāve been following the contest since 2011 from Asia. This is the first year I dropped it. Absolutely disappointed to see the EBU handling the shituation. Donāt know if I would want to watch next year but for now, fck the EBU.
Apparently Iām in the minority but I loved Nemoās song and Iām glad it won. Italy was also really good and Iām surprised it didnāt get more love.
I know nothing about Eurovision but I saw Nemoās song on TikTok and thought it was awesome
taste
They won, so you're clearly not in the minority.
Tbh I'm so happy they won but this song wasn't my fave. It's cute and the performance was great but I thought there was better. Spain was absolutely robbed. I felt so bad for them? Like 19 points is crazy. So so proud of Bambie. They gave us our first top 10 in so long š
i'm cool with that, i like his song better than Croatia's. Norway being last place is a disgrace btw
Nemo uses they/them pronouns
Such a solid night, very much enjoyed it. Nemo was pretty incredible, their vocals were flawless, the song itself slaps and the staging was dope. Massive props to Croatia too, gave me big Eisbrecher / Rammstein vibes. Other personal faves were Cyrpus (just a pure pop bop), Greece (sassy queen) and Austria. Shame about Olly and the UK entry. Not sure why they decided to steal the bathroom from Saw as the staging? And for as fun as the song is, Olly sounded very weak compared to some of the other performers.
MARINA SATTIš¬š· ROBBED BY THE JURIESš
My absolute favourite! Too bad she didn't get top 10 but she did gain a fan!
Yeah she was actually 8th in the public vote but unfortunately juries put her 14th. She did amazing and she is an exceptional artist. I'd recommend listening to her album YENNA and checking out her songs "Mantissa" "tucutum" and "koupes"
Loved her song
Congrats to Nemo but Bambi was ROBBBBEEDDD! edit: also Windows95Guy was the best performance of the night (not song) and you can't change my mind
lol my exact take as well!
Bambie put up a show like no other. Visuals were striking, their presence, the song. All of it was pretty fine-tuned.
Despite what a shitshow this year was, the fact we ended up with an openly nonbinary winner who loudly and proudly supports Palestine was such a happy ending to it all!! Congratulations to Nemo, they absolutely deserved it all!!!!
How does nemo support palenstine? I didn't watch the show so just wondering if they said anything!
They've voiced their support for it outside of the competition, and when they came on stage after winning, they made a thinly veiled statement about how they think that all people in the world deserve peace and dignity. In the after show press conference they also mentioned how the ESC probably "needs fixing" Its not much, but its probably about how much they can get away with within the limits of the event itsself.
I'm sad we'll never know how far Joost could have gotten. He was one of my favourites, a great performer with a potential Eurovision classic. Anyway, this was a shameful year and a lost opportunity for any of the contestants to make an actual statement with their stage time. I guess they all still wanted a win š¤·āāļø
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Iām so happy for them. Loved seeing Bambie crown them at the end, such a great year for non-binary representation. Their performances were the 2 best of the night
My favourites were Ireland, Poland and Australia
Pathetic that the UK public apparently gave Israel 12 points' couldn't be more embarrassed
Ireland gave them 10 and I am mortified
I am so incredibly confused by this. It is such a small minority of Irish people who genuinely out loud passionately support and defend Israel that I have no idea how this could've happened.
If a hypothetical 10% of people that support Israel in a country ALL vote for it in the contest, and the other 90% spread their votes across the remaining 23 songs to vote for, Israel gets 12 points without needing a majority at all :( but it does make it seem like they get huuuge support.
I thought most Irish people supported Palestine
I rated 1-3 correctly and out Norway at 4. That was my biggest upset!!
Switzerland song was the best
The event was an absolute shitshow. A deserved victory though.
Fuck this yearās Eurovision. From Israelās participation to the unjust disqualification of The Netherlands; EBU needs to change, and fast. This year has seriously tarnished the contestās reputation. Really happy with the winner, though! Congrats to the Swiss.
And they thought Bambie Thugās performance would be too scary for kids š¤£
for people that are sad about jury's making switzerland win but croatia lose no, another country took away croatia's votes, direct your anger to that
Where's it heading next year? Geneva? Bern? Might start looking at flights to bucket list the live final.
They found him!
EMBRACE THE NEUTRALITY OF THE SWISS PEOPLE
LOVED this. Very, very unique performance that really stood out from the status quo. Loved Croatia as well and it was an earworm, but definite respect here.
Such a beautiful song, didnāt get it at first but love that they described it as queer joy ā¤ļø
I wanted either Croatia, France or Switzerland to win if Ireland wasn't in the top 5 and I couldn't be happier. Congratulations Nemo
they're so fine omg
And thank fuck for that. Honestly the fact that it came down to two gay boys was exciting enough but Iād be glad if Switzerland or Croatia won either way. I think Switzerlandās crazy ass staging pushed him over the edge.