On the Eurovision Song Contest 2018: It is not the juries' toy
"I knew this would happen. I put you on the jury and you vote for the stupidest film."
Marge Simpson to her husband Homer, "The Simpsons (A Star is Burns)".
The Eurovision song contest of 2018 was the most interesting I have known in my lifetime, and the first one in which I cast a vote. It was also decided almost entirely by phone in voting from the general public, which overrided the votes of all 43 national juries.
This most of all applies to Sweden's derivative and medicore song, "Dance You Off": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lGDRmrQLTA
-it received 271 points from the juries of the participating countries (finishing second before the phone-in votes were announced), yet it received the joint-lowest vote of the public (along with the Portuguese entry), scoring just 9 points among that section but still giving it a respectable total of 280 points in the end. The "expert jury vote" is more substantially affected by national and political biases than the public vote, who overall are more interested in genuine song quality and originality; the majority of Eurovision juries rarely ever give good scores to the British entry. This year, it still only received 25 points from the phone in vote, placing it fourth from bottom of all the finalists with 48 points.
Admittedly, it was partly beyond Surie's control-a stage invader disrupted her performance during the final and thus distracted the audience enough during a crucial section of her song. But overall, her song was only passable compared to other Eurovision entries, and it did not have the passion or surprise factor of either the Israeli or Cypriot songs.
And Israel's pro-feminist song, "Toy" had both in spades, and irrespective of its national origin, deserved to win on its artistic merit; the phone-in vote was decisive and overcame the jury vote, which was divided due to the political situation in Israel and the Israeli government's human rights abuses in Palestine. The Moldovan entry "My Lucky Day" with its original mix of traditional folk music and 1970s styles, deserves an honourable mention as well.
The mix of jury and televoting has worked very well for this contest, and it should be readopted for future Eurovision Song Contests, especially with the way the televotes contributed to the final scores.
Marge Simpson to her husband Homer, "The Simpsons (A Star is Burns)".
The Eurovision song contest of 2018 was the most interesting I have known in my lifetime, and the first one in which I cast a vote. It was also decided almost entirely by phone in voting from the general public, which overrided the votes of all 43 national juries.
This most of all applies to Sweden's derivative and medicore song, "Dance You Off": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lGDRmrQLTA
-it received 271 points from the juries of the participating countries (finishing second before the phone-in votes were announced), yet it received the joint-lowest vote of the public (along with the Portuguese entry), scoring just 9 points among that section but still giving it a respectable total of 280 points in the end. The "expert jury vote" is more substantially affected by national and political biases than the public vote, who overall are more interested in genuine song quality and originality; the majority of Eurovision juries rarely ever give good scores to the British entry. This year, it still only received 25 points from the phone in vote, placing it fourth from bottom of all the finalists with 48 points.
Admittedly, it was partly beyond Surie's control-a stage invader disrupted her performance during the final and thus distracted the audience enough during a crucial section of her song. But overall, her song was only passable compared to other Eurovision entries, and it did not have the passion or surprise factor of either the Israeli or Cypriot songs.
And Israel's pro-feminist song, "Toy" had both in spades, and irrespective of its national origin, deserved to win on its artistic merit; the phone-in vote was decisive and overcame the jury vote, which was divided due to the political situation in Israel and the Israeli government's human rights abuses in Palestine. The Moldovan entry "My Lucky Day" with its original mix of traditional folk music and 1970s styles, deserves an honourable mention as well.
The mix of jury and televoting has worked very well for this contest, and it should be readopted for future Eurovision Song Contests, especially with the way the televotes contributed to the final scores.
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