It’s become something of a tradition for the Lib Dem Press Office to offer a bit of a random and amusing commentary as Eurovision unfolds.
Here are some of the highlights:
One country making Brexiteer level of promise:
If you include a horse in the trailer video, you have to deliver in the live show Ukraine. #Eurovision #GoingForTheTwilightVote
— Lib Dem Press Office (@LibDemPress) May 12, 2018
The thing is that unless you are watching this live, it’s not always clear what they are talking about. Anyone want to hazard any guesses over these:
Sorry, but Theresa May is determined for you not to have your say on this… #eurovision #getourcoat
— Lib Dem Press Office (@LibDemPress) May 12, 2018
This is the point of the evening where chasers become less optional. #eurovision
— Lib Dem Press Office (@LibDemPress) May 12, 2018
A question that could be asked about just about anything on Eurovision:
What on earth was that about?! #Eurovision
— Lib Dem Press Office (@LibDemPress) May 12, 2018
They don’t seem to have had quite as much to drink as in previous years. Meanwhile, there is one very sore head in LDV Towers this morning. The rules of the party the afflicted person attended were that if your country got 12 points, you had to consume a shot of either some very innocent tasting raspberry thing or some rather more medicinal rainbow sourz affair. Thinking that they were safe having been allocated France, they got stuck into the wine. And then France got the first 12 points of the night…..
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25 Comments
I see the EU is still having troubles controlling it’s border
what with intruders making it onto the stage lol
The UK winners of Eurovision remind me a bit of Brexit. First of all it was about “Making your mind up” and then, “Boom bang a bang”, we voted to get out, as some of us felt like “A puppet on a string”. Whatever happens, let’s stay friends and let “Love shine a light” on our future relationships. As we might say to them all “Save your kisses for me”!
matt 13th May ’18 – 2:41pm…………….I see the EU is still having troubles controlling it’s border; what with intruders making it onto the stage lol…………
I note it was a brit who disrupted the proceedings; no change there.
Anyway, trailing in in 24th place is probably an indication of our world standing after Brexit.
Tomorrow is David Milliband day. We should enthusiastically back the all party anti brexit press conference tomorrow, shouldn’t we?
The three tweets:
1. Theresa May determined not to give us a say – the Czech entry “Lie to me”
2. Point of the evening to go large with the chasers – Hungary’s entry, apparently caused a spike in calls to 111 about aural bleeding.
3. What on earth was that all about – would have, of course, been the Moldovan entry which involved three, or perhaps six, people, a lot of cupboards opening and shutting and disembodied legs, heads and arms appearing and disappearing in time with the music. It was a sort of cross between the “Rowan and Martin Laugh-in” and an explosive accident in a tailors’ dummy factory.
And why are Israel and Australia allowed to compete?
John Marriott 13th May ’18 – 8:18pm…………….And why are Israel and Australia allowed to compete?….
I the words of the most famous winners, “Money, money, money!”
John Marriott 13th May ’18 – 8:18pm…………….And why are Israel and Australia allowed to compete?….
I’m not sure it’s about money. More that they’re both at heart forged as white European colonies…one British, one Eastern European!
Australia has been big a supporter of the event since at least the 1970s. ABBA The Movie is an Australian institution. Also both Israel and Australia have very enthusiastic audiences who have embraced the contest as an annual party. I don’t think the reasoning for their inclusion is cynical. I think Eurovision is now much more about the spirit than the physical boundaries of Europe.
Was the winning act gratuitous racism?
@John Marriott – Israel and Australia are “allowed” to compete because they are members of the European Broadcasting Union (the EBU). Morocco participated in 1980. All fully paid up national broadcasters can submit an entry. There is no geographical restriction on membership of the EBU.
@Expats – I never cease to be amazed at the ability of Lib Dems to shoehorn Brexit into every discussion. The UK was getting terrible results long before Brexit. And Germany (who did very well this year with what felt like a rejected Adele song delivered by an Ed Sheeran tribute act) came last, last, second last in 2015, 2016, 2017.
@Bill Le Breton – this is a reference to the “Yellow face” debate? I struggle to understand this since the logical end-point appears to be cultural apartheid. Perhaps I should destroy the otherwise excellent CD of Bruckner 9 that I was listening to yesterday. It’s a recording by Kobayashi and the Japan Philharmonic. Is it cultural appropriation for a Japanese orchestra to perform late 19th century German music?
@expats
I guess you’re probably right about Israel and Australia. As ABBA sang, it is at the end about “Money, money, money”. I suppose “That’s the name of the game” nowadays. We met our usual “Waterloo”. After all, “The Winner takes it all”, doesn’t It? And Israel won again. Will they hold next year’s bash in Tel Aviv, or present they could invite the USA to compete in Jerusalem – always assuming they are still at peace. I guess we’ll be there as the “Super trooper”.
I didn’t watch it myself; but, “Mamma MIA”, what a fuss about nothing! However, being patriotic and competitive “I have a dream” that we might actually finish in the top three again one day. But “Knowing me, knowing you”, I suppose we should say “Thank you for the music”, if not “Congratulations” (which was one of Sir Cliff’s efforts and came second, I think).
PS You and I appear to be the only ones taking this thread a little less than seriously. Come on, you LDVers, lighten up a bit!!
Sorry, I am not Israeli, indeed, I have always wanted Euroviison to show Israel that we love them (as much as I am a Palestinian supporter). But this “winning” song was totally awful, zero respect!
@John Marriott – but Eurovision is the essence of “camp”. And the excellent definition of “camp” from Professor Wayne R. Dynes is “camp consists of taking serious things frivolously and frivolous things seriously”. Play the game, old chap.
Australia and Israel TV take a lot of EBU feeds (they watch a lot of Italian, Spanish and British football down under for example) and are therefore big payers into the EBU coffers. Their publics are both very keen Eurovision fans. They no doubt vote on text, phone etc a lot which also pays money into the coffers of the EBU.
The Israeli entry was very original and different, quite brilliant really and certainly very popular with younger audiences. When she won, their singer, Netta, thanked the public for “supporting diversity”, so I think that is something we can all celebrate.
Expats: “trailing in in 24th place is probably an indication of our world standing after Brexit”
But all these countries did worse than us in the public vote, so I doubt it:
Finland: 23 points
Slovenia: 23 points
Sweden: 21 points
Spain: 18 points
Portugal: 18 points
Australia: 9 points
Remember, there are 42 countries in Eurovision, so 14 are not in the EU at all.
There were some very strong songs in the contest. I think our low rating was more to do with “Storm” being an average song. Up against the others it really was very mediocre and decidedly dated, despite a great performance by Surie. The BBC were offered the Austrian entry but turned it down. The clots. “You” by Jaz Ellington (which came second in our heats) would have been a better entry.
Also, in the arena the UK entry was very popular with people singing along to it all the way through.
The very mention of Serbia and Russia was enough to elicit loud boos.
The UK should perhaps have chosen a song with a more topical title.
“”Go Your Own Way” would be my ideal choice, but that’s already been done by Fleetwood Mac!
“I Will Always Love EU” may be a preferable title for most Lib Dems but there may be some copyright issues to negotiate with the late Whitney Houston’s heirs.
Still, there’s plenty of scope for other songs in similar vein.
@Peter Martin – Of course in 1974 the Italians censored their own song at Eurovision. It was called “Si” (the word is used repeatedly in the song) and the broadcaster felt it might act subliminally on the domestic audience just ahead of a referendum on divorce.
@Paul Murray
Have I missed something? I thought I was trying to be funny. Surely, that’s “The name of the game”, isn’t it?
@John Marriott – no disrespect intended, John. It’s just old Eurovision junkies like me take it all waaaay too seriously… on the other hand I once saw an excellent documentary (while in Sweden for Eurovision) making a convincing case that Eurovision directly led to the collapse of the Berlin Wall because Intervision (the Warsaw Pact version) looked so poor by comparison.
“The UK was getting terrible results long before Brexit. ”
Do people even care? I think I last bothered to watch it some time during the 1980s…
I adore it, watch it even as it is lousy, the reason Israel is there is it has been for years, since when that country was popular and keen to become more of a European kind of state, Italy Ireland, Israel, three Is were the mainstay.
The uk song was better than for decades, yet got a terrible result understandably not justified, expected, due to political geographical partisan bias.
The winner was adorably different, the song to though it was pretty awful, it was so much a typical novelty song in the winning style .
We should celebrate a country who won it once with the only transgender entry singer, paving the path for the cross dressing talent of Conchita Wurst years later, recently, also Jewish, from Austria, and a real talent , and a treasure.
It is a very special and silly and necessarily so, event, much loved by those of us who are either very much not gay but might as well be for the much we have in common with the very gay who love it the most!
“The UK was getting terrible results long before Brexit. ”
It wouldn’t be my first reason for voting Leave, but we did, during EUref come across those who told us they wanted out of the EU because our continental friends just weren’t voting for us anymore! Forget bendy bananas, the year the British entry received no points was the last straw for some. 🙂
On the other hand, we also came across the argument that leaving the EU might adversely affect England’s ability to play in UEFA Euro cup and Champions League. So we didn’t feel too bad about not putting them right.
Isn’t democracy a marvellous thing!
@Paul Walter: “Israeli entry…. singer, Netta, thanked the public for “supporting diversity”, so I think that is something we can all celebrate.”
Ohh Paul, that is SO hysterically camp! You mean Netta, part of the IDF in 2014 when it lay siege in its last Gaza war? Or are Palestinians excluded from diversity?
https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/israel-execute-a-palestinian-woman-after-winning-eurovision-award-for-womens-rights-song/
Things apparently have got a little more heated today, perhaps because those weird palestinian people couldn’t dance properly to the inclusive #metoo chicken song!
Don’t tell me: PinkWash is about having a lovely soak in the bathtub!
Tomas
“Ohh Paul, that is SO hysterically camp”
Thank you very much Tomas! That’s a first for me, but I’ll wear it as a badge of honour.
Thank you for illuminating me. I am working on a related post after yesterday’s horrifying events.