221 Maximal === [00:00:00] Mike: Preemptive apologies to guest TBD. [00:00:09] Ben: Hello, and welcome to the Eurowhat, episode 221, dropping on March 5th, 2024. We are a pair of Americans trying to make sense of the Eurovision Song Contest. I'm Ben Smith, and I'm here with my co host, Mike McComb. Hey, Mike. [00:00:21] Mike: Hello! [00:00:22] Ben: In this episode, we'll be talking about this week's internal selections. Serbia, and Iceland. There were so many internal selections, Mike. I just feel like I was slightly underprepared for like how much of a steamroller that was going to be this week. [00:00:34] Mike: Yes, although I do appreciate that it's, , not all happening in a single week where there were 16 or so, uh, the way there were a few years ago. [00:00:43] Ben: I still remember compiling the bracket. Shall we dive in? [00:00:47] Nemo breaks "The Code" for Switzerland --- [00:00:47] Ben: All right. Switzerland kicked us off this week, and they announced that they had selected Nemo, who will be performing The Code. What's your take on this one, Mike? [00:01:13] Mike: Okay, so, I think this dropped on Thursday? It was Wednesday or Thursday, and it was the first thing that I heard on whatever morning it was? So, uh, a challenging wake up call. Listening to it, fully awake and, uh, like, all of the different layers to it, I'm really intrigued by this one. I want to hear a live version. I think that's going to make or break this track. There's a lot of interesting ideas happening here that, I'm eager to explore. [00:01:47] Ben: feel like I'm in a similar place where I need to sit with this one for a minute or two, there's a decent chunk of, Eurofandom online that, like, heard this and just immediately got it in a way that I feel like I'm not getting yet. there's a lot of elements happening, and they're interesting, but I also really need to hear, how are they planning to execute this one live? [00:02:09] Mike: I mean, it's definitely hitting the, uh, maximalism. To the max. [00:02:14] Ben: Yes! [00:02:15] Mike: It does feel like there is kind of a blank canvas in terms of how this could be staged. The note that I have is, this could kind of be like Fuego, where it's kind of under everybody's radar, and then the first rehearsal clip comes out, and it just rockets to the top of everybody's list. Yes. [00:02:32] Ben: Yeah, I could see that, one thing that we have not mentioned, so, Switzerland, in like, the lead up that we got to their selection, were like, we're not sending a male ballad this year, and they are definitely not doing that, but also Nemo is non binary, which is, I think, a huge part of this song. [00:02:47] Mike: Yes. I think it works even without that extra element. I think that does add. Yet another layer to this track that I'm just like, Ooh, okay, tell me more. [00:03:00] Ben: I appreciate its maximalism a lot. But there's also something that I feel, if they're not staging it correctly, or if it doesn't sound as good live, or if if they're pushing a bunch of what's happening vocally to the background vocals or to a pre recorded track, it feels a little skating routine? Like, a lot of technical elements are happening, there's some artistry connecting them, but like, they're really focusing on getting that quadruple axel in. [00:03:24] Mike: Yeah, I don't want to dig too much deeper into this at this moment. I kind of want to wait until the review series and we have a lot of time to kind of sit with this track. But I think what you're saying has a lot of weight to it. And I think as we see, hopefully see live performances of this, or how else this is going to be presented between now and May. I think it's gonna have a big impact on, how this works overall. [00:03:51] Ben: Agreed. [00:03:51] Joost Kline is the Netherlands' "Europapa" --- [00:03:51] Mike: So I guess continuing with that maximalism, huh, aspect would be, uh, Netherlands entry. they finally revealed Joost Klein's song Europapa. Ben, you have a bunch of Dutch co workers. Have any of them expressed opinions on this track? [00:04:26] Ben: I have not heard anything from my colleagues on this one. Part of what's really affecting my ability to evaluate this one, at this point is just the fact that Dutch is kind of a deeply unserious Muppet language. This is another one where I'm responding to the maximalism a lot, the pieces of like hardcore and gabber music that are in this, particularly towards the end. Are super cool, and I think what he's trying to do lyrically, in terms of telling the story of what's going on lyrically, is super cool. But the Dutchness, and the vocal performance, is really hindering some of what I think is some really cool, really heartfelt stuff. [00:05:07] Mike: Okay. Yeah, I think, I'm just gonna say it right out. I don't get it. I just do not get what is going on here. I'm wondering if part of it is just like, oh, no, this is just so deeply European that you really have to be there in the day to day. And it's just a perspective that I'm not going to get from my apartment in Chicago. [00:05:31] Ben: Oh yeah, no, like, I think that there is something deeply Dutch about this entry, which, props to them for this, it's broken Duncan streaming record, and it's doing very well in the Netherlands and Belgium, and I look at that, I go, yeah, they both speak Dutch. There's some lyrical stuff happening here particularly like the spoken word bit at the end that is really heartfelt and really kind of touching but then you stick the deeply unserious nature of the Dutch language on top of it and my brain immediately tilts over to Ik ben verliefd, which is not good. Because like, I'm just, like, my brain just is like, while he's mentioning a lot of cities in Dutch and like food and stuff, like, uh oh. I'm pleased that this is in the second semi final. Because I think if it was in the first semifinal, we have enough maximalist stuff over there that has more focus and a little bit more universality. [00:06:18] Mike: Oh, you think so? I need to look at the first semifinal list again, because I've only been looking at the second semifinal list, and, uh, yeah, there's very little breathing room in the second semifinal, but I've not seen how that compares to the [00:06:32] Ben: Yeah, it's like, I feel like this has , a little bit more space. I really applaud the Dutch for like, going in on this, after last year, I could see them wanting to go super general and super broad, and they have gone super narrow. [00:06:44] Mike: Mhm. [00:06:45] Ben: And I'm, I'm very curious to see what the stage show looks like with this one. I think the outfits Juost is wearing in the Europapa video are a little too cha cha cha. I think it needs a slightly separate visual identity, and again, Lean into the hardcore culture, lean into, like, all of the electronic stuff that they're doing in this. I'm not sure I like this one yet. Some listens, I'm like, okay, I see what they're doing, I like this. Some listens, like, I don't like this at all. But, like, good on the Dutch. [00:07:15] Mike: Honestly, my first impression, like, just listening to the track, I didn't get through it the first time. Uh, watching the video, it was just hitting all of the South Park, Family Guy, LMFAO. Buttons in my brain. It's like, oh, no, no, thank you. the outro part is interesting, because if you go onto Spotify, that is a separate track from the main track. And I'm Curious to see how that plays out, because if the two are combined together, it's close to four minutes, so something's going to be cut. Possibly the electronic break at the end, just because, it could be an extended dance break, but like, there's just no Endpoint? Like, it's just going to stop abruptly. this one's a weird one. I think, uh, I was gonna say, I think Duncan, no. Uh, I think Netherlands is going for as weird as possible. It's also kind of reminding me of Little Big's entry from 2020. Which, uh, yeah, not for me, apparently for everybody else, so, um, yeah, I won't be surprised if and when this gets to the final. [00:08:20] Ben: I thought the version in the official video, which I also can't watch, something about the song combined with the video just, like, my brain's just like, absolutely not, no. Which I don't think bears well for the stage show if they're gonna really lean on some of the visuals there. But, like, I think it needs a little bit of that spoken word outro to really Make sure that it's not just goofy, that there's also some heart behind the goofiness. [00:08:43] Mike: I think we got what we were expecting from the Netherlands. [00:08:45] Ben: This is what they need to be failing with, if this is what, like, like, if you're going to fail, fail spectacularly. [00:08:51] Mike: Yeah, I don't think this is going to fail, though, for good and for ill, so, um, yeah. I look forward to revisiting this [00:08:59] Ben: Yes, same. I look forward to having to sit with somebody else also listen to this with us. [00:09:05] Mike: Preemptive apologies to, uh, to guest TBD. [00:09:08] Silia Kapsis calls out a "Liar" for Cyprus --- [00:09:08] Ben: the combo of Europapa and then to get Celia Capsis Lyre the same day. [00:09:14] Mike: I love Whiplash. [00:09:33] Ben: Yeah, just total whiplash, and just, I don't know, I heard this one and I was like, aww, it's fine. [00:09:40] Mike: This one is making me uncomfortable for separate reasons. So, I'm glad discomfort contains multitudes, but yeah, like this has very, uh, TRL energy behind it. Again, for good and for ill, and the video for this just makes me very uncomfortable just knowing that she's 16, and I'm just getting kind of like a Britney Spears vibe, and it's, yeah, like I, uh, and the song, again, it's fine, it's of a piece of what Cyprus has been doing the last five or six years, don't get in a relationship in Cyprus, that's kind of my takeaway from, uh, you know what I mean? [00:10:19] Ben: strongly emotional, very dramatic people. [00:10:21] Mike: it results in bops, so do with that what you will. [00:10:24] Ben: This doesn't feel particularly 2024, it feels like they could have sent this anytime in like the last five years, and Like, Cyprus might be another one, like France, where like, in their heart of hearts, they want to send the same song every year, and apparently it's just Fuego? [00:10:37] Mike: I mean, it worked, but yeah, this one Just looking at my notes here, and it's really just a grab bag of things. [00:10:45] Ben: The only thing I wrote down is like a filler. [00:10:47] Mike: Hmm. [00:10:48] Ben: I called last week for some structural elements to be returned to the first semi final, and great news, it's structural. I'm not sure it's essential structure, but it is helping prop up, like, we have to put something between the very large stagings. [00:11:02] Mike: if she can pull off the performance, because this could be a very grueling performance, especially if it's as heavy on the dancing as the music video is. It's not the most vocally challenging, but dancing is a multiplier to making something vocally challenging. yeah, if she can pull it off, that will be impressive. And I think that will win people over. [00:11:21] Ben: Just like a weird trend this week. I need to sit with this one. But for like, very different reasons than the last two. Eurovision, much like life, is a rich tapestry. [00:11:30] Mike: Watch, we come out as total stans for all of these songs, uh, like, five weeks from now. [00:11:37] The United Kingdom's Olly Alexander is "Dizzy" for Eurovision --- [00:11:37] Mike: the one that I was expecting to be super maximalist, uh, was the one coming out of the UK, which was Ali Alexander's Dizzy. Ben, you have a note in here about the Taylor Swift level speculation about the details of this song? Um, [00:12:06] Ben: Okay, so, when we got the artist announcement, there was a video with Oli, and in the background, somebody had noted that there's like, the Dizzy emoji, and various numbers that were like, 26, 9, 4, so just spelling out Dizzy, So someone's like, this all proves that his song is going to be called Dizzy, and then they're like, the song is called Dizzy. I'm like, what? [00:12:28] Mike: Oh, okay, oh, [00:12:30] Ben: Yeah, just, yeah, with the Taylor Swift level stuff, I'm talking about, the deranged fandom. I went to the source code of the website, and if you look here, it tells us that the fourth track of her new album is called this. [00:12:41] Mike: I was aware of the numbers thing and figured it was just like something along the lines of lost, and there was going to be some sort of polar bear involved at some point, but yeah, I did not realize it was as simple as an alphanumeric thing. I thought it had to do with dates and stuff. But yeah, so that's kind of interesting. How about the song? Do you think it's interesting? [00:13:01] Ben: This is what I wanted an Olly Alexander Danielle Harrell collaboration to sound like. [00:13:06] Mike: Oh, really? [00:13:06] Ben: I was really hoping that the Graham Norton thing was going to be, like, an actual live performance, and not just A 10 minute sit down. I think that's just what the UK's gonna do now is when they announce their artists is they're gonna have like a nice sit down with Graham. Um, they're gonna do, like, the nice softball questions. I was going back through, once Olly got announced, and when they mentioned Daniel Harl was in the mix, of like, okay, what has Danny done production wise, and specifically, did he do anything with Years Years? And he did a remix for them years ago from their first album that I like a lot. They have the same sort of touchpoints, uh, like, he mentioned, like, Erasure, he mentioned Pet Shop Boys, he mentioned Stock Akin Waterman. This feels like a 20, 24 version of what goes on in those songs synth wise for me is it feels like, it feels like an update of those. [00:13:51] Mike: I get that. my note on this is it's perfectly cromulent. I don't get the sense that the UK is necessarily trying to win. It feels more like an entry of a country that recently won, recently did well, and she's like, Hey, we just did this. It's somebody else's turn, but we still want to send something of quality. Like, I think it's a, it's a good song. Does not feel like a Eurovision winner to me, but I don't get the sense that that is necessarily the goal here. Social media seems to disagree. They're just like, ah, they're, they're, they're back in, uh, former UK mode, which is like, [00:14:25] Ben: it. [00:14:26] Mike: the honeymoon is over. So, [00:14:28] Ben: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We, have passed, the, we are so back junction. We are kind of approaching. It's so over, so just, we'll be back, it's, we're so back by May, it's fine. I like that this doesn't feel like a song that was written for Eurovision, which I think is to applaud the UK that we're not just like, we're not doing the processes that we have done in the past decade that have not shaken out, because it has been a full decade since, uh, Electro Velvet, and oh boy. We have been on a journey in that decade. Yeah, I get the vibe that they want to put on a good show, they talked about wanting to have like a memorable performance, something that was strong and had drama and impact, and I think, like, I would love for them to pull the sort of, like, rotating stage pieces thing that the video has live somehow, like, I think that could be cool. I think it's a good song, I like it as a song, I'm not sure it's the mood this year. Mhm. [00:15:26] Mike: Yes, yeah, and that may be why it's coming across as like perfectly cromulent rather than transcendent or like, oh, this could win. Like, yeah, like it is certainly an outlier from like, even what has been presented this week, but in the overall field, it's like, oh, yeah, it's just kind of radio friendly, but not particularly challenging. [00:15:48] Ben: Yeah, I would agree with that. if the UK does want to win, I think they should absolutely employ this sort of strategy again, of like announce them on strictly get the nation hype, but then also pick an artist that has like two or three songs in their back pocket, where like if it's feeling like an uptempo year, we, we release the uptempo one. If it's a ballad ear deploy the ballad. If it's something in the middle, you know, it's like play some strategy right now. It's just like, oh man, we have. We have so many boys. [00:16:19] Mike: Mm hmm. [00:16:20] Ben: like, is this the year to deploy? I [00:16:24] Mike: I mean, the word twink came up quite a bit this week. [00:16:30] Ben: have seen the tweets, yes. [00:16:32] Austria declares "We Will Rave" with Kaleen --- Alongside, Oli, we also had Colleen's We Will Rave finally making its appearance. This is one where I shouldn't have read the interview with the artist immediately after listening to the song because it completely recolored my thoughts of it. this is another one in terms of repeated phrases this week, where deeply unserious language is ruining my perception of the song for whatever reason, the ram di dam da of it all is making it immediately feel a little bit more junior, a little bit more Radio Disney. [00:17:19] Ben: It's a perfectly fine pop song, but it also feels like you asked one of the Jimmys and a bunch of the best Swedish songwriters in the world, to write a techno pop song. It's just like a flattening of anything interesting from those genres into just sort of generic pop. [00:17:35] Mike: feel like this is more successful than Halo was. Like, I don't think anybody's going to accuse Colleen of being a hologram or anything like that. But, um, yeah. Coming off of Who the Hell is Edgar, it's like, oh, okay. I mean, sure, I guess. Like, it's, again, like, perfectly accessible, radio friendly, but not particularly challenging. [00:18:01] Ben: I'm so glad that you mentioned Halo, because that was the thing I've been trying to put my finger on, Halo didn't do well for you guys. So why is this the, well, you're going back to [00:18:10] Mike: I think this one's kind of fun, and it's just like, okay, this will probably be In my normal rotation, like, it may survive to my main playlist after this Eurovision season. This is another one that has a pretty blank canvas to work with when it comes to the staging, and knowing Colleen's background in Eurovision staging, I think this could really pop. Or it could just be completely flat, or get lost in the noise of the second semi final, cause, uh, yeah, cause, like, she's going to be up against Europapa, she's going to be up against The Code, she's going to be up against a number of the songs that we are talking about in this episode. [00:18:49] Ben: another part for me is just like, why is it we will rave? Because she talks about in like in an interview, like it, it's not just, we will rave, it's we will dance, we will party. It's just like, why did we settle on this word other than to really tie in the techno aspect of it. [00:19:03] Mike: Yeah, I don't know if it's just like a new slang that is coming up, not that like rave is this brand new term or anything, but it does kind of have the, is it John Mulaney who has to think about like, Oh, we're just going to throw all of our bags and like dance around it in a circle or something. It's just like, it is kind of, of that vibe. [00:19:21] Ben: Yeah, like, I'm looking forward to revisiting this one post these initial impressions. [00:19:26] Mike: I think that is the other thing, where it's just like, this is the fifth song to drop this week, yeah, if this were the first one, I have a feeling it would be a little bit better received, or be a good appetizer for what would be to follow, and yeah, just kind of interesting. Rough timing, uh, I think is maybe hurting this in our initial impressions. So, those were all of the internal selections that happened this week. [00:19:47] Teya Dora wins Serbia's Pesma za Euroviziju with "Ramonda" --- [00:19:47] Mike: we did have some national finals that wrapped up. Serbia had their Pesma Zavir Eurovision process this week. I think this was probably my favorite national final of this year. [00:19:59] Ben: One of the things about Serbia's, uh, presentation is, if you told me that it was filmed on a spaceship, billions of miles away, I would believe you. Yes. [00:20:10] Mike: I mean, the performances are live, or at least most of them are. There were a couple that I noted. I'm not convinced that this is a fully live vocal, but, uh, yeah, like, there's no audience. any applause that you hear is canned applause. I don't know if they're really performing to anybody, like, it's a very weird setup, but somehow it still works. Watching the actual semi finals, I only kind of breezed through them, because they were on in my, I have to be in the office days, which is like, oh, come on, but But I did, get home in time to watch the, Allocations after the show, so the way that the process works in Serbia, they have the semi finals, they announce their qualifiers in random order, and then the after show is them drawing bingo balls out of a cube to pick their place in the final running order. Zayna instantly became my favorite person from this year's selection season, because it was her turn to pick the ball. She just stomps up to the cube, doesn't bother with any of the, Oh, so what does it feel like to qualify? sort of questions. She just reaches in, grabs the ball, and hands it over to the host. But there's still this, like, it comes across as a little aggressive, but there's this glint in her eyes that she knows how Hilarious this is. I thought her song was a total jam and I was kind of hoping that she would sneak in with a win at the end. Uh, did not happen. But, um, [00:21:35] Ben: Just, I wish I had seen that, There's a general whiff of contractual obligation to various elements of the Serbian process that I enjoy deeply. Yes, we will perform an ABBA song. [00:21:47] Mike: yeah. Well, before we get to that part, uh, each of the semifinals did, have, um, they do kind of frame, like, tributes, or they have like a general theme that they try to follow. So in the first semifinal, they had a Laureen medley. So they acknowledge the existence of Tattoo, which seems to be absent for most of the selection season. And then in the second semifinal, Sanya from our favorite group of World Famous Spies Hurricane, she did a cover of Cha Cha Cha, which did seem a little perfunctory, but, uh, yeah, it was, it was still an okay enough performance. [00:22:25] Ben: Like, I watched the video, it is not her song, but like, she sold the hell out of it. [00:22:28] Mike: Absolutely, yeah, that, that's what she does, because she is a professional, and, [00:22:32] Ben: and like, if you're looking at her, you're not looking at the other members of Hurricane in the main offices stealing the plants. [00:22:38] Mike: exactly, yes, the blueprints have been acquired. For the grand final, they were kind of covering, like, the history of, like, particularly the 1974 contest, and they did the mandatory ABBA tribute, but everybody was kind of phoning it in, and whoever was asked to do the styling, uh, somehow misread ABBA as Rhoda Morgenstern, which is fine. I love Rhoda. This is fine. But that is not ABBA's aesthetic, so a lot of scarves. [00:23:11] Ben: The level of not dead behind the eyes, but just sort of, just, everybody just making direct eye contact with you, the viewer, going, We're doing the thing. Please appreciate that we're doing the thing. [00:23:22] Mike: Not quite as, off kilter as the, Beatles medley they did last year with everybody wearing the wigs, but [00:23:31] Ben: I loved that medley so much, just because, again, just like, you are never unaware that this is contractually obligated. [00:23:37] Mike: There's also the kind of New Year's rocking Eve Aspect of it were, this could have been filmed in October. We don't know. [00:23:45] Ben: uh, [00:23:49] Mike: But yeah, and then, also part of the final was age, uh, What ended up being kind of a tribute to, Dzeko Jokzimovic, who was Serbia and Montenegro's first representative at Eurovision in 2004, which was 20 years ago, year that ends in zero! So, [00:24:06] Ben: pew [00:24:07] Mike: so yeah, it was just kind of a tribute of his contributions to the contest, which, have Been plentiful, and all iconic, [00:24:15] Ben: Yeah, no, just like bangers. [00:24:17] Mike: yeah, yeah, so, uh, he was there for a couple of performances, again, possibly filmed in October, like, there is nothing about this that conveys that, yes, this is live, like, nobody is holding up, today's newspaper, or anything like that, so, a couple of really lovely performances, and, Wouldn't mind seeing him back in the competition at some point because yeah, he knows his way around a Balkan ballad. The actual contest, like it again, it was just such a great lineup. A lot of songs that I thought were bangers that didn't end up qualifying. Like this, this really was a Solid field of 28 songs, that were in the full competition. That got cut down to 16 for Saturday's show. And the overall winner was Teodora and her song, Ramonda. So, what do you think of this track? [00:25:23] Ben: Jayco tribute was particularly apt just because again, this, this season I have been particularly starved of the sort of classic Balkan ballad that has, that did very well at Eurovision and then like this, it was just like, hello, we have selected a ballad. And I was like, but not this one. It's good. Like I'm fine with it. Winning it is. It does. It does. The thing [00:25:47] Mike: Mm hmm. [00:25:48] Ben: I was kind of rooting for Consta, 'cause We were getting like a full dissertation in, in like three minutes from Constracta also I just need a gif of her cradling the loaf of bread from her intro video Just like, just like, just, I just immediately saw that was like I need to post this to social media with Me walking home from the store on spaghetti night. Um, but, well, and just like the whole that's so Raven of all of the, of all of the postcards. Like, the Serbian process is always just sort of delightfully messy in terms of like the jury versus the public. [00:26:22] Mike: Mm hmm. [00:26:23] Ben: I'm glad that like, in this case, the jury, like the way that they, like, normally I would, I have been on a tear this season of being like, I made a spreadsheet. Uh, and like I did make a spreadsheet, but then I realized that uh, because of how they did things, the jury did prevent another ballady thing in the mix, and it turns out the lyrics are a little bit nationalistic. [00:26:42] Mike: Oh, fun. [00:26:42] Ben: Yeah, and like, thanks to the jury, like, that definitely the nationalistic one definitely won the tell about, uh, so Yeah, yeah, the the whole Eagles Nest one is not great if you think about metaphors. [00:26:55] Mike: alright, awesome. [00:26:57] Ben: just just some fun this Eurovision season, but yeah, like, I I think it's good, I think they have some they have a good bass to to play with, and I trust them to stage this. Mm [00:27:05] Mike: Like, this one was not my first pick, but I think there were, like, 14 songs that I would have been okay with, and this is among those 14, so. Teodora, she is a Berklee alum. I kind of got a Morrow vibe from her. Uh, I don't know if they necessarily overlapped, but, uh, I would not be surprised if they had a similar course of study. And, yeah, it's kind of, the overall tone of the song's really reminding me a lot of, Sodao de Sodao de. [00:27:34] Ben: hmm. [00:27:34] Mike: I thought the staging that they had at the final, was really effective. It might be nice to see a reinterpretation of it or maybe moving some things around. I, like, I think it might play a little bit differently on whatever the stage configuration ends up being in Malmo. But, uh, yeah, they have a lot to work with here and, it's also a breath of fresh air compared to a lot of what else has been selected. [00:28:00] Ben: yeah, and like, it feels like, it feels like a nice breath of fresh air from what Serbia has been sending as well, because like, they've shown incredible range over like the last five years, so I don't mind continuing to see all that they can do. [00:28:12] Mike: and I think having this, like, 20 year retrospective, like, really did kind of highlight, it's like, oh, wow, Serbia does Eurovision very, very well [00:28:23] Hera Bjork's "Scared of Heights" wins in Iceland --- [00:28:23] Ben: So happening at the same time over in Iceland was the final of Songvakeppnin, they opened the show with Sige performing All Out of Love, which, uh, that was their entry in 1999, that was 25 years ago, number that ends in a five. [00:28:37] Mike: pew, pew, pew. [00:28:39] Ben: I felt like they had five very good things in the mix, I thought I was gonna be happy with however it shook out, and then it shook out. [00:28:46] Mike: Are you happy? [00:28:47] Ben: I, well, we'll, we'll get there. [00:28:50] Mike: Okay. [00:28:51] Ben: Um, like, I did like that, during, the chatting in the audience portions of things, that, uh, Siga, Actually, I forget if it was during the intro or during her postcard, just, like, referencing all of our collective GoTiffanys from last week. I felt seen and I did not like it. I'm part of the problem! Because Superfinal always feels weird and icing, because it's like, we're going from ten things to five things to two things. It's like, just pick one. But the Superfinal got down to Hera Bjork and Bashar Murad. Uh, and then the vote shook out, and they've selected Hera Bjork and her song, Scared of Heights. Alright, so what do you make of this one, Mike? [00:29:47] Mike: Okay, so when we first talked about it, in its Icelandic version, I had mentioned that this was sort of a checklist of, like, if you want to do a Scandi pop song, particularly if you are a female singer of a certain age, like, this is checking every single one of those boxes. I kind of wish they kept it in Icelandic. I saw I saw your post about that. So yeah, yeah, like the English lyrics are just kind of, it's tricky because like, I really like Hjörbjörg. I love her personality. She just has this glow about her. I thought she was kind of underscored when she competed in 2010. I think the song is fine. I feel like we've been missing the songs that are the theme songs to TV shows that somebody must be watching. For this one, I'm particularly thinking of that one Katherine Hahn show that was on Hulu that apparently isn't a TV show. Bit from the Hulu ad department. But yeah, it's I don't think I am the target audience for this song, which is fine. again, radio friendly, not particularly challenging. In the context of everything. Like, just with how Iceland is approaching Eurovision this year. Uh, yeah, it's complicated. Your thoughts? [00:31:02] Ben: Yes, yeah, no, like, my thoughts are very similar to yours, uh, in that the Icelandic version is better. it feels like a sitcom theme, and like, I am ready to get in the writer's room for where we just sort of re skin Reba to Hera. She's a single mom, she has to get the kids to hockey, and she's a singer by night. How did, how can she have it all? And she's starting to date again? [00:31:22] Mike: It's the hockey detail that I'm really tickled by. [00:31:25] Ben: Uh, like, I can't take credit for that. That's fully Dudepois. That's fully Dudepois. Dudepois has, like, a beautiful headcanon for all of this, and again, I am in the writer's room. I am ready to crack season two. to be slightly punny about all of this, like, it is a fine song, but it lacks a certain je ne sais quoi. Like, it is a safe and predictable choice in a year, and particularly in a semi final That's not enough. [00:31:51] Mike: I'm just looking at the lineup. Yeah. [00:31:55] Ben: Yeah. Yeah. Those are the noises I made as well. [00:31:58] Mike: Yeah, this is like, oh, I hope this and, Doomsday Blue are next to each other in the lineup. [00:32:03] Ben: yeah, is and like I feel like Iceland had a lot of hype with the bookmakers, who we don't listen to. We don't listen to the bookmakers on this stuff, but I think that that fully relied on the making. A choice that was interesting, and this is not to say that, that Spirit of Heights is a boring song, but it's not a particularly interesting choice in this, in 2024 for Eurovision. [00:32:28] Mike: I agree with that assessment. Yeah, I just looked at the bookmakers, even though we're not listening to them. And yeah, Iceland dropped like a stone. [00:32:36] Ben: I really want to get the numbers on this one, because like, I'm wondering if in Iceland Semi Final 2, Harrow was like, the winner. [00:32:44] Mike: as we're recording this, we haven't, gotten the full results yet. there was some sort of glitch with the SMS, voting, during the Superfinal, so I think that's kind of coming up, getting those results out. I'm not accusing anybody of foul play or anything like that, I think it's just, like, the data's not ready [00:32:58] Ben: Yeah, I think, I think we just want to like, dot every I, cross every T. [00:33:02] Mike: Mm hmm. [00:33:02] Ben: But yeah, so like, as of recording, this is Sunday, March 3rd, uh, we're still waiting for confirmation that Aislinn is participating, uh, but again, Harib York. [00:33:11] Mike: Yay? [00:33:11] Ben: Yay! Yeah, like, it's just like, I like her as a person, I think she deserves a more interesting song. Haha! [00:33:19] Melfest Heat 5 --- [00:33:19] Mike: kick over to Sweden because, oh my god, Fifth Heat, Marcus and Martinus and Medina, were direct to final. It was fine, like, there's just nothing remarkable about, really, any of these performances. Uh, the last two wildcard entries were Annika Vickiehalder and Jay Smith, Since this was the last competitive heat, this was when they were doing their wildcard selection after show, so all of the entries that finished in third and fourth place from the previous weeks were put up for another vote, from those ten songs, two will advance to this week's final, and the two that advanced were Annika Vickeholder and Jay Smith, the people who had performed an hour before this vote was taken. [00:34:06] Ben: Yep! Yeah, we got rid of the Andra Johnson round and we replaced it with Recency Bias! [00:34:12] Mike: I am so mad about this, because it's just like, somebody at SVT, was watching Malta, and was like, yes, that could be us! And that is Again, this was overlapping with a number of other shows that were happening on Saturday, and I flipped back, be like, oh, okay, the results should be coming in, and I saw that there was, like, one set of scores already given, and then another set of scores coming in, it's like, what on Earth is happening here. They were doing some sort of like vote normalization thing based on the scores from the previous weeks, which makes no sense because that is apples and not even oranges. It's like apples and Hondas. I don't know. Like, it, so, like, they're trying to, like, normalize the vote, and that ranking really did not make any sort of logical sense. And then they had, this pure televote thing added on, which, whatever. And, really, my whole takeaway from this is, get rid of the second chance round. Just get Get rid of it. It serves no useful purpose. And this is where my spreadsheet comes in, [00:35:18] Ben: Yes, I deeply appreciate, like, people talk a lot about love languages. I just deeply appreciate that both of our hate language or rage language is spreadsheet. [00:35:27] Mike: well, you can highlight, you can do all the formatting, it's, yeah, okay. So, let me open the thing, uh, that was labeled International Juries, which was another, uh, bugaboo that I had, but didn't end up panning out. This one pans out. so, they've been doing a second chance round since 2002. And it's gone through several Permutations, like there's been, like, a jury selection and an audience selection, they had the duels, uh, up until last year it was, four acts that were advancing instead of two, and, this, that, and the other, and there have only been two instances where the second chance round really kind of made any sort of difference, so 2013, Robin, advanced out of the second chance round and ended up winning the whole thing. that's like the exception that proves the rule, I guess you could [00:36:11] Ben: I guess. I guess. [00:36:13] Mike: 2009, one of the acts, finished in second place and was only 11 points behind It's like, okay, that one is at least close. That's fine. Overall, though, acts that come out of the second chance round usually finish in 4th or 5th place. and they are, on average, about 105 points behind whatever song ends up winning. the second chance round really isn't providing a second chance for everybody, it's just Adding to the lineup so it's a longer show. It's okay to have a 10 song final. Like, there's no reason that two acts from this year's set Particularly because, like, I don't really think anybody from the second chance round really needed a second chance. Like, and I'm including, Gunilla in that. And she finished fifth in the vote, which was much higher than I was expecting. But, yeah, I mean, it's just, like, I don't know. This whole thing is just so unnecessarily messy and unsatisfying. [00:37:14] Ben: Melfest is broken. Melfest is broken, and I think last year was an anomaly. They could have just internally selected Loreen. I'm looking over the lineup of who is in Sweden's final, and like, I'm not enthused. okay, cool, we have Marcus and Martinus doing all of the staging. It's wild that Sweden is potentially going to do, we brought our staging from home to their own Eurovision. [00:37:40] Mike: I also plugged in the running order position of the last 20 songs to win Melfest. So things are looking good for Maria Cyr, Lia Bou, Jacqueline, and Danny Saucedo. I'll put it that way. Jacqueline, I'm hoping that she's the winner from this, just because that was the one song that I liked in this field. [00:37:58] Ben: I'm weirdly just like, I don't want her to win because then she has to go to Eurovision and like, she deserves better. [00:38:03] Mike: Yeah, well, I mean, like, at least she wouldn't have to travel, it would just be, like, a road trip. [00:38:07] Ben: Oh yeah, true, oh yeah, she could take like, the bus, just public transit queen, we love it. Just like, you don't have to have twelve things, ten is fine, so many nations have ten things in their final, and we love it. There's a sense of curation, there's a sense of taste. [00:38:20] Mike: Yeah, just a sense of variety. [00:38:23] Ben: yeah, yes, Thank you, thank you for calling that out, they're trying genre things. Like, they'll take something that's like Afrobeat, but then they will push it through the Play Doh fun factory of the Melfest writers. And it's a circle now, it's spaghetti, and then it places 5th, and it's like, I wonder why! [00:38:42] Mike: Yeah, I haven't even, like, done the matrix of who the songwriters are on this, and I have a feeling that's just gonna make me mad. [00:38:48] Ben: Oh yeah, don't do it, that's my project for this summer. [00:38:51] Mike: Oh right, yeah. Get excited everybody. [00:38:56] Portugal's Festival da Cancao Semi 2 --- [00:38:56] Ben: Portugal finished up its semi final process for Festival da Cancao at the end of the day. That was a much more chill way to end the day, and I kinda needed that. I think that Festival da Cancao and I are just kinda on slightly different wavelengths. I enjoyed it, even though like most of the songs, I'm like, I'm not sure that this is clicking with me, but that's fine. every song doesn't have to be for me. The jury and televote qualifiers this week were Buba Espinho, Cristina Clara, Leo Medea, Nomaka featuring Ana Maria, and Silk Nobre. And then the Televote wildcard is Rita Onofre and Criatura. the Silk Nobre song was like, like, the first one I heard when I wasn't also trying to pay attention to Serbia. And like, nails on a chalkboard. Hated it. Preachy. Awful. Shouldn't have gone through. [00:39:41] Mike: Are you sure Portugal's not your vibe, Ben? But no, no. When the song was dropped, I think I had the playlist on Shuffle, I believe that was the first one that I heard. It was like, oh no, what is Portugal up to? The rest of the playlist was fine, but yeah that one, also not my favorite. [00:39:58] Ben: Just, Portugal, just do beautiful songs in Portuguese. That's what I want from you. Don't do English. Because it sounds like that. Sounds like that and I hate it. [00:40:05] Mike: this one I did feel was a lot chiller than the first semi final. Not that the first semi final was like super aggressive or like metal or like Portuguese version of metal. But, uh, yeah, like it was, uh, yeah, a calmer vibe. And I, I don't think anything stood out as much as the songs from the first week. I think it's going to be A really chill final, because that is what Portugal does, and a good way to end the season. [00:40:33] Ben: Mm hmm. [00:40:34] Mike: It was an okay show, I thought. Yeah. [00:40:36] This week: Australia, Greece, the End of Selection Season 2024 --- [00:40:36] Ben: yeah, just like on the horizon, we have the Festival da Cancao final next week. We have the Melfest final next week. [00:40:43] Mike: God. Uh. [00:40:44] Ben: yeah, just like honestly, just like put it out of its misery. And then in terms of internal selections this week. appears to be, a quiet week, that can change, there's a bunch of stuff that's, that hasn't nailed down a date, so just like, gird your loins, it could happen at any time, it could be happening right now. We will be getting Australia's Artist in Song on March 6th, and we will be hearing, Marina Sati's song for Grease, Zari, on March 7th. [00:41:07] Mike: I think there's only like four or five countries left, like we are definitely in single digits of, final songs and the deadline is March 11th. there'll probably be a couple of revamps. I know that, uh, Albania is releasing a new version. minor lyrics rewrites here and there. But, uh, yeah, we almost have a full set. [00:41:26] Ben: The finish line is in sight. Let's, slightly, slightly more positive version of the end is near. Um, yeah, no, I can, I can see the goalposts, I can see the finish line. We are almost done with this marathon. That's gonna do it for this episode of the Eurowhat. Thanks for listening. The Eurowhat podcast is hosted by Ben Smith, that's me, and Mike McComb. [00:41:44] Mike: That's me. If you'd like to help support the show and access a ton of bonus content, head on over to patreon. com slash eurowhat. [00:41:52] Ben: Our full coverage of the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest can be found on our website at Eurowhat. com. You can also follow us on social media at Eurowhat. [00:42:00] Mike: Next time on the Eurowhat, we finish selection season, hopefully with all of the remaining entries available for a first impression. [00:42:11] Ben: Deeply unserious Muppet language.