130: Quale Città? === [00:00:00] Ben: Hello, and welcome to the EuroWhat? Episode number 130 for the week of September 13th, 2021. I'm Ben Smith, and I'm joined today by Mike McComb. Hey Mike. [00:00:38] Mike: Hello. [00:00:39] Ben: We are a pair of Americans trying to make sense of the Eurovision song contest. And this week we'll be continuing our wait for the announcement of the Eurovision host city. I am still seeing gray smoke from RAI headquarters. So we do not know who the new Pope is. [00:00:51] Mike: I assume we will get an answer sometime before May, but,we know that Italy likes to take its time with, the Eurovision things. [00:00:58] Ben: Yes. and I'm just assuming that [00:01:00] given that our show typically records 15 minutes before news comes out that in our own way, we are helping. Because I have looked at the Twitter comment sections for the Eurovision account and everybody's getting very good mileage out of the gif of Judge Judy banging on the desk and tapping at her wrist. [00:01:15] Mike: Yeah. [00:01:16] Ben: Cause it is just full of that. And like we were not happy about the pizza gif. I loved the pizza gif, personally. As someone who has been in Italy and been given a pizza that had fries on it and gone, am I being razzed? [00:01:28] Mike: Yeah, [00:01:30] Ben: Is this a joke? it's been like a nice lull here at Eurowhat HQ. we've had time to spruce up the place. [00:01:36] First of all, we have our Patreon at patreon.com/eurowhat. The main thing that we've done, thanks to our Patreon supporters, is get a new website. If you head over to eurowhat.Com, you're going to see something that is so much cleaner than the old website [00:01:50] Ben: So much cleaner. It's shiny and new. It's very exciting. [00:01:54] Mike: It's a lot nicer to navigate. We also changed our hosting provider for the podcast. [00:02:00] So if you had some weirdness with your subscription in the last couple of weeks, we apologize, we thought this was going to be a little bit smoother than it ended up being. [00:02:08] Ben: Sorry. That was us. [00:02:10] Mike: It's a little weird saying this, because if you're listening to this now, presumably you've already hit subscribe. [00:02:14] Ben: We've fixed this, but yes, go to your podcast player of choice. You will probably just need to resubscribe and we'll be back in your feed. [00:02:21] Mike: The annoying thing is it broke our Spotify link and Spotify is just like, oh, you don't have a show anymore. It's like a disagree. That has been fixed, but we've lost all of the subscribers to that. So if you were listening to us through Spotify, you'll just need to resubscribe again. I promise we won't be making any more tweaks that are going to break anything. [00:02:38] Thank you for your patience on this, but if you follow us on Twitter @eurowhat, that's where we make all of our announcements and also post when new episodes go up. So hopefully you haven't missed too many episodes. It should only be one or two that are in the backlog. if you haven't noticed it in your podcast player in recent weeks. [00:02:56] Thank you to our Patreon subscribers for making that possible. [00:03:00] If you're interested we have lovely bonuses for our Patreon subscribers, most recently, if you enjoyed the board game episode, and due to podcasts analytics, I can tell that yes, many of you did. you can watch a full video of that, play session So things like that, announcements of what's on our radar and what's coming up for the show, check it out. [00:03:17] News: ABBA, Dunkin Radio, Belgium, Eesti Laul, Melfest --- [00:03:17] I guess we should get caught up on some of the news. The big announcement that came out during the week that we thought we were getting the hosted announcement is, ABBA's doing a thing. [00:03:27] Ben: Yeah. Watch out Melfest. They did announce this after the suggestion period. So you never know. But yeah ABBA is back after like almost 40 years. So that's exciting. There was a big press release and a live online streaming thing where they had not really like a listening party globally, but like they were set up in multiple locations going from Sweden to London, to New York to announce that we have a new album coming this November. [00:03:54] And it's also going to be a live concert event starting in May, 2022, featuring avatars and live [00:04:00] musicians. [00:04:00] Mike: Yeah. What did you think of the avatars? [00:04:04] Ben: I am so glad that we worked on the avatar project now and not during the _Polar Express_ years. [00:04:10] Mike: Yes. oh man. [00:04:12] Ben: 3D technology has gotten better, but overall, I just find musician hologram things, which we keep trying. Despite every time that they come out, everybody going, this is weird. [00:04:23] Mike: One of my favorite TV moments ever was I think like the season five finale for American Idol. And there, was a duet performance with Celine Dion and Elvis Presley with Elvis as a hologram, obviously. And there were all of these like little kids in the audience who were absolutely confused as to what it was they were supposed to be seeing. And yeah, it was just like,why are we moving in this direction? There's still that kind of uncanny valley thing [00:04:53] Ben: Yeah, there, there's definitely like an uncanny valley thing I need to get over. On the other hand, I understand the appeal of wanting to see like peak [00:05:00] ABBA. [00:05:01] Mike: It's cool that they are embracing this sort of technology. Just I don't know. Since it seems like that they weren't game for reuniting, for so long. The fact that they're game to try it this way is intriguing. [00:05:15] Ben: Yeah. And I'm very excited about the album just because it's a new ABBA album and they like the level. Cultural, awareness feels like the wrong word here, but just the way ABBA has been on people's minds consistently, really [00:05:27] in the last 30 to 40 years is great. [00:05:30] And like looking at the track listing of the new album, there are some very ABBA song titles. They debuted of the song during the live stream. And I had it on the background and like halfway through I'm like, wait a minute, this is a new ABBA song. This isn't just like an album cut. [00:05:40] Mike: Yes. [00:05:44] I'm also intrigued by the timing of when the concert event starts. Cause it's supposed to be in late May that the show opens. I have to imagine that there's going to be some sort of Eurovision connection that's going to happen sometime in the next year. [00:05:59] Ben: Oh, I [00:06:00] hadn't even thought about that. There's absolutely going to be some sort of cross promo. [00:06:03] The big news in the United States right now is that, we keep seeing "Arcade" and Måneskin climb the charts. So "Arcade" has reached number 30 on the Billboard Hot 100. "Beggin'" is at number 29. but we've just had some big releases from like Kanye and Drake and others. And those are likely going to keep those in a holding pattern the next few weeks I would imagine, but we'll see. [00:06:24] Mike: Both, Duncan Laurence and Måneskin, reached those peaks, I think it was in last week's chart, and then, Kanye's album came out and, there were so many tracks on there that, we're just at the top of the charts. So that's pushed them down, [00:06:36] but there's a lot of music that's gonna be coming out now. So it's something to keep an eye on. Another one to keep an eye on is the American top 40 charts, which is more based on like radio airplay stats than sales and streams. Checking that chart, Arcade's number seven. So that means that it's getting significant radio airplay. [00:06:55] Ben: Earlier in the summer, when I was in South Carolina, driving [00:07:00] back towards the airport, midway through oh, this is Arcade. [00:07:02] Mike: Yeah. Yeah. And, yeah, my husband, stopped at a Dunkin Donuts, a couple of weeks ago and he was like, Hey, Duncan's on Dunkin Radio. I was like, oh, Good for him. In terms of actual Eurovision organization stuff, we're recording this on Sunday and there are 29 countries that have indicated that they plan on participating in next year's contest. The EBU also announced that, they're going to be capping the number of participants at 44 which that sounds about right. [00:07:31] The most that's ever competed was 43. I don't really see a situation where there would be more than that, just given who hasn't been participating for the last few years. [00:07:41] Ben: Bless the people who are continuing to call Monaco and be like, hello, Eurovision? Yes? Because they did call them again and Monaco has said no. [00:07:50] Mike: Yeah. [00:07:50] Luxembourg also, no. Slovakia and Andorra, no. Belarus, that was a whole thing that we can come back to later. [00:07:58] The EBU said no to that one. Yeah. [00:08:00] not totally sure when the deadline is for indicating interest. It's usually toward the end of September, beginning of October. And then all the participating broadcasters will have a grace period to, make their final decision, put down their security deposit, to, claim their spots. [00:08:17] We have more than enough countries that there are going to be semi-finals so that's a good thing to know. [00:08:22] Ben: Good to know. Speaking of semi-finals. Everybody is ramping up with their semi-final plans. I was a little shocked to see that Eesti Laul is planning on expanding their process for next year. Or for this year, depending on how you're counting it. It's It looks like they're moving towards the Pabandom is Naujo format where they're going to have four quarterfinals of 10 songs each, and then go into semifinals in February based on those performances. But the quarterfinals will be happening in November and December. So soonish. [00:08:59] It seems like [00:09:00] Estonia is just trying to change things up a bit since they've been having kind of a mixed record the last few years at Eurovision, but it just seems so early. [00:09:09] November just feels wrong somehow [00:09:11] Mike: Yeah. Yeah. But II guess since it's just the quarterfinals, that's fine. Cause they usually drop their 24 songs that compete like in December. So [00:09:20] Ben: Yeah. Like they do usually just drop 24 songs on us then anyways, [00:09:23] Mike: Yeah, [00:09:24] might as well give that a televised performance, if you want to. I have a feeling, this is an indication that we are going to have a lot of selection series this year. I think part of it might be just the whole cloning of the previous year's winner was like, oh, that was Sanremo, so we need to have our own very thorough process to pick our entries, which isn't the worst idea. But I think it may also be a byproduct of programming in the age of COVID. [00:09:54] Ben: Yeah. is that it's very easy to sort of spin up and in terms of production costs a [00:10:00] selection [00:10:00] in terms of providing new content. [00:10:03] Mike: Yeah, because there's just not a lot of new content out there and there's not even stuff to buy from other countries because everybody has an absence of content. So it's probably going to be tough for those of us trying to watch every single thing. We may have to start making some difficult choices, as February rolls around, like the February calendar is already filling up and I'm just like, oh, Okay. [00:10:26] I had been quietly wondering, are we going to see a lot of early stuff because there's always gonna be Olympics programming and, from what I can tell, no, we're going to be doing double time. [00:10:35] Mike: Okay. All right, I'll start putting together the charcuterie boards now. So [00:10:41] Ben: Just start laying in supplies. [00:10:43] Mike: The one that doesn't seem to be changing its strategy, all that much is Melfest. They announced their dates. It's the Saturdays in February going into the second Saturday of March, as it usually is. So thank you for that consistency, Sweden. And, the plan is to go back to the tour [00:11:00] formats for 2022. So traveling to different cities for each of the heats and for Andra Chansen, and of course the final. So hopefully that comes to pass. And one more sign that things may be getting back to some form of normal. [00:11:15] Ben: Yeah. Yeah. And then Oscar Zia was tapped to host, which of the various guest hosts we had this year. I thought he did a great job. So that should be interesting to see. [00:11:24] And then speaking of early selection processes, we might know who the artist in Belgium is before we know where they will be performing. On the 15th. We will know who is performing for Belgium. [00:11:35] Mike: Like they also like to get in on it early,Hooverphonic was one of the first ones announced for the 2020 contest. [00:11:41] I had forgotten that they just tend to announce early because they do an internal selection. They trade between VRT who selected Hooverphonic the last couple of years. And then RTBF, which is the French radio broadcaster. So they are in charge this year. They have the reins, and they will be announcing during these [00:11:58] Ben: Uh, oh man, I don't know this. I don't know the [00:12:00] French numbers for eight and nine. [00:12:00] Mike: "Huit" [00:12:02] Ben: and "neuf." [00:12:03] Mike: We. [00:12:03] yeah. [00:12:04] Ben: there'll be announcing it. There'll be announcing it on the radio. [00:12:07] Mike: Yeah. [00:12:08] Ben: And again, the artist's announcement may be before we know, where they're performing. So that'll be fun. [00:12:13] Italian City Thunderdome --- [00:12:13] We should talk about the city selection process because we haven't really had the opportunity to do that since we were expecting them to like, just make the announcement. [00:12:21] Initially 17 cities indicated interest,11 did formally submit bids and five have been shortlisted for selection. What sort of things did the host cities need to have in terms of criteria,for hosting Eurovision? [00:12:36] Ben: The main criteria that they're looking for in a venue to host Eurovision for Italy is they wanted an international airport within 90 minutes of the city, at least 2000 hotel rooms close to the arena, an audience capacity of at least eight to 10,000, and then in terms of space, they wanted it to be air conditioned and have plenty of space for the broadcast production, the press center, delegations, artists and staff facilities, the [00:13:00] dressing rooms, and then audience and hospitality spaces. As far as a timeline, the venue needed to be available exclusively for the six weeks before Eurovision and the two weeks during Eurovision. [00:13:10] Mike: Okay. Yeah. So that sounds pretty standard for what they've been looking for the last several years in the contest. I'm guessing part of the delay is that they seem really spoiled for choice. The five cities that have been proposed, you've got Bologna, which has two venues, Milan has two venues, Pisaro, Rimini, and Turin, they all have viable options. It's not like with Portugal where it's yeah, it's going to be in Lisbon, but we'll do a bidding process anyway. This is the first year in many where we have had many potential venues. We had some discussion with the Netherlands, but even that felt like it was probably going to be Amsterdam or Rotterdam. [00:13:50] And then Amsterdam was like, no, we would really rather it not be us. [00:13:54] Ben: Yeah. [00:13:55] We should talk about each individual city. [00:13:58] Ben: Yeah. Yeah, we are [00:14:00] currently in, in Thunderdome. Five cities have entered one will leave, let's start with Bologna. Bologna, as you had said, there have been two proposed venues. It's also one of the wealthiest cities in Italy. And so my geography is rusty on a good day. So I guess if I'm looking at the boot that is Italy, where is Bologna? [00:14:19] it's like where the hamstring of Italy would be. I don't know the finer points of Italian geography, but Yeah. if you just picture it as a leg, it's like in the hamstring part. So like in the back there, is this making any sense, or [00:14:33] Ben: Yeah, no, I'm following. [00:14:36] Mike: As you mentioned, one of the wealthiest cities, they have a solid mass transit network. It's also a UNESCO City of Music, that, hosts several music and film festivals throughout the year, including the children's songwriting festival Zechinno d'Oro, which we mentioned in our last episode. And in looking up all of these cities, one of the things that I was particularly interested in was what are the sister cities [00:15:00] or twin cities, for these different cities. I think that gives a really good point of comparison for other cities that are of similar size, similar vibe, similar industry. Some of the cities that are twinned with Bologna are Portland, St. Louis, Zagreb, Croatia and Valencia, Spain. So, yeah. [00:15:20] Personal question, which Portland? [00:15:22] Portland, Oregon. [00:15:23] Both of them have hipster vibes. Like it could've easily been either, but yeah. [00:15:26] _Portlandia_ Portland. [00:15:27] Ben: _Portlandia_ Portland. Good to know. [00:15:30] Mike: Fred Armisen has been signed on to host Eurovision now. [00:15:32] Ben: Oh no. Don't joke about that with me. [00:15:38] Mike: Mr. Naef would not know what to do. Milan also has two venues proposed. Milan is the second most populous city in Italy, and it's a hub for the high speed rail network in Italy. So like you can get from Rome to Milan in about three hours on their high-speed rail line. I was reading about it this afternoon. [00:15:57] It was like, Ooh, this seems handy. [00:15:59] Ben: That seems [00:16:00] nice. [00:16:00] Mike: Yeah. It's really a well connected city. [00:16:04] Ben: Nice. Yeah. And then as far as what it has, its pedigree as a host, it hosted the 2015 expo and it's going to be the host of the 2026 Winter Olympics, that takes a level of coordination and planning. And then of course, they are the home of La Scala opera house. [00:16:19] Mike: Its sister cities are Chicago. Hey, Tel Aviv, Melbourne and, Toronto. And they used to be a twin cities with St. Petersburg, Russia. but once Russia was really adopting an anti-gay stance Milan's like, Nope, no, thank you. And canceled that partnership. Milan says gay rights. [00:16:38] so that's definitely a point in their favor. I [00:16:41] Ben: A feather in their cap. Moving on, we have Pisaro, which the venue they're proposing, the Vitrafrigo arena is the fifth biggest arena in Italy. So that, that, that feels like it will definitely have the capacity that will be needed. They are home of the Racini opera festival, a big city for cycling. [00:17:00] Their nearest airport is Bologna Marconi and that's two and a half hours away. So they must've had a very good bid book otherwise. [00:17:07] Yeah, that does seem rather far away. Although maybe is that two and a half hours just by driving or maybe there's maybe the [00:17:14] maybe there's a rail situation. Yeah. that could be like a driving versus train situation that, that sort of mitigates that. [00:17:21] Their sister cities are Ljubljana, Slovenia and then Rafah, Palestine. [00:17:25] If you look from the sky where the boot hits the thigh there's Rimini. So yes. I was very happy when I came up with that. It's on the Adriatic, and it's right near San Marino. There is that connection there in case they want to form some sort of cooperation thing or set up some sort of day trip. [00:17:41] Let Valentina Monetta host the green room, you cowards. [00:17:44] Oh, that would be amazing. and yeah, it's,a seaside resort town, it's about 150,000 people. Tourism is their main industry. Lots of beaches. Their sister cities are Fort Lauderdale and Sochi. [00:17:56] Ben: a beach city vibe. [00:17:58] Mike: Yes. Yes. Bologna [00:18:00] Marconi airport is also their closest airport and that's two hours away. This one seems like the most outlier of the five bids. The capacity thing, not really sure about the venue and then the airport thing. They definitely check the 2000 hotel rooms box just given their tourism vibe. [00:18:20] Ben: Maybe Italy's going for like a fun Millstreet vibe this year. [00:18:23] Mike: Oh, that could be, yeah. [00:18:25] Respectively, this is because Millstreet was also just real tiny. And then our final city is Turin. Which, speaking of the Winter Olympics, they hosted the 2006 Winter Olympics. They are the home of the Italian motor industry. The international book fair is also mid May. I don't know if they typically book the venue, but they might find it's busy. And then as far as sister cities, Detroit, so auto industry, Salt Lake City, former winter Olympics host, and Rotterdam. Oh, Hey. They just hosted a Eurovision. [00:18:52] Mike: And I think that might be something not in Turin's favor, just because it's if we just had a city like Rotterdam, so maybe they [00:19:00] want to go with something a little different. I don't know how much that factors into that part of the planning. Cause like it's not, I feel like that's something that's not really communicated through the television broadcast, but for all of this stuff that's happening behind the scenes and in the day to day of Eurovision, if that is part of the consideration. [00:19:20] I could see that, but one other thing that I had been checking before the showwas to see who's booked and busy. So Milan has two venues, one of them, the Mediolanum Forum is probably the preferred venue, cause it's a large indoor sports arena with seating capacity for 13,000 people. But it is already extensively booked out for April and May. And that would require a lot of rescheduling things like Eric Clapton and Dua Lipa and Francesco Gabbani. [00:19:45] Mike: Ooh. [00:19:46] Ben: Yeah. So big tours that may already have plans. [00:19:49] Mike: Right. [00:19:49] Ben: Which again, you can reschedule things, but that's, it's tricky. [00:19:53] Whereas, Turin, has only a few things scheduled in early April. So like they [00:20:00] definitely have the capacity in terms of, can they be available in April and May. [00:20:03] Mike: Yeah. I think they all have pros and cons. I can understand why there's a delay, because like I said, they are spoiled for choice, but there are so many of these factors to consider. Which one do you think they may be leaning toward? [00:20:17] Ben: For whatever reason, I just have Turin. for me, that one seems like it has like a lot going for it right now. Milan is a great city for a lot of the arts and that could be a great showcase city as well. On the other hand, Bologna. Those are the three, like if I had to cut it down to three from these five, those would be the three, just because, in terms of infrastructure, in terms of venue size, in terms of being close to the airport, [00:20:40] Mike: Yeah. I think. like Pisaro and Rimini, Rimini and your like, I would, be shocked, but delighted if those two, either of those [00:20:49] Ben: yeah, I would be similarly delighted. And again, it could also just depend on what kind of Eurovision vibe are we going for in Italy this year? What is it, what is our vision for that? And if it's something more beachy and chill Rimini [00:21:00] might be the place. [00:21:01] Mike: Yeah. And I think it's also going to depend on, are they going to look to do another scaled back Eurovision the way that this year's Eurovision was. In that case, you need the infrastructure, but you might not need Milan's level of infrastructure. [00:21:19] like you could get away with doing something in a much smaller venue, even though there is the ideal size, that's also for ideal circumstances. But if we're in to like scenario B situation again, which I don't know, all signs point to yes. At that, maybe what's happening. [00:21:35] Ben: Do you want to have to start having strategic decisions about okay, how do we set up camera angles so that we don't see that how empty things are? [00:21:41] Mike: Right,yeah, it's, I'm really excited about this decision, but I really would like a decision so that we can just start the next plan, next stage of planning. But Yeah, like I, I think they have all of the choices are good choices. [00:21:56] Ben: Yeah, we are. We are truly spoiled with wonderful choices [00:22:00] and hopefully we'll know soon. [00:22:01] That's going to 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. [00:22:08] Mike: That's me. You can follow the Eurowhat on Google Podcasts, Castbox, or the podcast app of your choice. If you'd like to support the show, we're also on Patreon at patreon.com/eurowhat. [00:22:20] Ben: Show notes are in the description of this episode and on our website at eurowhat.com. If you'd like to contact us, we're @eurowhat on Twitter, or you can email eurowhatpodcast@gmail.com. [00:22:29] Mike: Next time on the Eurowhat, we'll be taking a closer look at a South American music festival with surprising Eurovision connections.