Eurovision 2016 - The Complete Picture

The final results using the previous method.

Australia experienced in the most intimate of ways the true nature of the Eurovision song contest this year. Eurovision is more than just a song contest. It is a competition that transcends the geo political boundaries of Europe. When you allow a group of nations to vote for a song, you also have large communities of people who have migrated into countries across Europe and this affects the distribution of votes. Some countries will always vote for their neighbours, whilst others will never vote due to historical hatred and past atrocities which will never be forgiven. This then affects the integrity of the results as every few years we find the best song doesn’t always win the contest. Throw in a new method for counting votes and you have exposed the entire contest to even greater variables of fluctuation to which Australia was a victim.

The Stage - Amazing lights - Watch out for the camera above

Earlier this year the European song contest changed the rules of the competition such that Jury votes would be counted separately from the public. This meant that effectively each country was giving 1 – 12 points twice, doubling the pool of votes and opening up the results to greater variance. I had concerns on a mathematical and historic level, you can’t really ask trivia questions about vote tally records anymore. Within an hour of the competition someone had crunched the numbers before I could get to them and determined Australia would have won easily under the previous method. This new method creates more fluctuation, more tension, less predictability and is used by Melodifestivalen. Effectively people were sick of a country getting ahead after round#8 with unassailable leads condemning the vote count. Australia became caught in a political war between Ukraine and Russia, with allegations of jury bias, the jury voted down Russia’s song and gave extra points to the Ukraine. The public voted Russia the best song as did POD. The song was controversial prior to the competition beginning with Russia complaining about the material in the song but it was allowed. In the end Australia lost it leads at the last hurrah and many Australians complained it was unfair and we were the big loser in all this, but were we?

Amazing staging and lighting.

I don’t like song contests but I love Eurovision. I never watched young talent time as a kid except to annoy my sisters and make annoying comments. I never watched the X Factor, Idol and all those other singing shows because the artists are all local. Eurovision is more than a contest however. It brings together an entire continent. There is an infectious enthusiasm and energy present throughout the entire competition. The voting reads like a strategy board game, the vote distribution is basic stats, and the results are revealed like a Brownlow medal count. Add extravagant costumes, effects, and the grandiose nature of the occasion and logistics of what they’re trying to achieve and it is better than any of those aforementioned shows. It has it all. As for the music, its European, it can’t go wrong because that’s what I love, but it does go wrong, often, and I love that too.

The streets of Stockholm were alive.

Sweden loves Eurovision and Stockholm being the largest city in these Scandinavian lands makes it the best place to see it. I learned last time I went to Eurovision that the host city as well as venue makes a huge difference as it is dependent on the enthusiasm of the locals. The entire city was geared up for this event, signs in the streets, a Eurovision village with stage, activities, bad acts and tacky souvenirs is a fanatics dream. Indeed the acts were so bad I saw one song start and within 30 seconds they had to stop cos the guitarist missed a chord and the singer cracked it. People came from all over Europe to watch the event in the largest stadium in this part of the world. The Globe Arena, also the world’s largest spherical building. There are records for everything if you look hard enough. Every hotel was full and charging triple price. The streets were overflowing with people, queues for toilets were 20 – 30 minutes meaning my spiritual gift of finding public toilets needed to be at peak performance. I found toilets with 10 minute queues which was a win. Scandinavia is efficient in every possible way, planes board from both front and back within 20 minutes, public transport runs to time, all cafés have counter service and operate the same way but they fail with toilets.  There are toilets everywhere, the problem is that there aren’t enough of them and most of them are unisex meaning where guys could be processed more efficiently they now compete for the same set of toilets, often just a small number. The event also so popular they had to book the venue next door, fill it up with 10000 people and show it on a big screen.

These pretzels are making me thirsty.

People come from all over the world to support their country. Many came from Australia. I saw South Korean flags supporting Dami, a Canadian flag and many more. I thought for a minute the guy sitting next to me might have come from Vietnam after I asked him but it was noisy and he was saying Finland. Strange moment of confusion for me – is Vietnam even in the contest? There is a buzz and a vibe being here. The venue is centrally located meaning its right in the heart of the action. People eat and drink in the surrounding areas before it starts. People from each country are passionate about their acts. Believe it or not people from the UK loved their entry and were singing it everywhere. Same was true for people from every country – Macedonia, Bulgaria, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, etc... And what’s important for people to understand is that the event lasts longer in Europe. The first semi-final is Tuesday night, 2^nd semi-final Thursday night and grand final Saturday night. In between there are jury shows, dress rehearsals, matinees, which allow acts to rehearse the exact same set in front of a packed audience. Songs gather momentum here throughout this time. They are played on the radio, social media comments on each rehearsal and this affects the betting odds. The extra time gives songs momentum and acts time to improve, which many did. And most importantly Australian ears are tuned differently to European ears, a by-product of excessive exposure to American music and forced exposure to Australian music as well as music sung only in English. What might be pleasing to Australian audience’s ears means nothing when it comes to Eurovision. And whilst my ears have European tuning it’s still difficult to predict what might unfold at the end of the event.

Its all about the act.

The rehearsals and semi-finals give times for acts to improve and gather momentum and for me Bulgaria was the big improver each time I saw her act. She sung really well and had the moves. In many ways being an automatic qualifier like France, Spain, UK, Italy, Germany and Sweden can work against you because people don’t see your Act live until the final. I saw the 2^nd semi-final live and was in the nose bled seat, as far back as you could possibly get. The sound was fantastic, maybe not as good as when I went in Oslo a few years back but the lighting, staging and effects were far superior. The entire backdrop is a computer screen as well as the floor. Vast lighting rigs hang from the roof and there are mechanical cameras placed all around the room, which move in vast, fast and swift motion to give you the pictures you see at home. Is the event better live then on TV – without a doubt yes.

Austria - Adorable!

The stage manager gets up about half an hour prior to the event and explains what’s going to happen. Each audience member receives an electronic band which hangs around their necks. This changes colour automatically depending on the act, usually the arena lighting up in the colour of a countries flag. Each device was placed individually on each seat – what a fun job that would’ve been. We were advised this device would keep changing colours in the days to come. Mine kept me awake at night as it lit up my hotel room – red, blue, yellow, white, it was like living across the road from Kenny Rogers chicken, so I had to hide it in the bathroom. He then explains the emergency exits, warns us to keep an eye out for these mechanical cameras as they move quickly and could potentially hit you if you were to suddenly jump up. He then jeers us up and gets us excited in the minutes prior to Eurovision starting so we can all be cheering when the coverage starts.

Each act must be a maximum of 3 minutes with 30 seconds to clear the stage between them. This is a result of a previous Eurovision debacle when Italy’s coverage lasted 4 hours, 45 mins and the 3 min limit/song was imposed soon after. The stage manager is on stage the entire 30 seconds between acts, directing traffic and carrying a blue clipboard. It’s possible I’m the only person in the world who noticed. It’s a bit old, and paper often flapped as he moved. In fact the arena is full of clipboard enabled staff. It’s a paper based system, no iPads, I was impressed. When an act finishes 10 people come on stage with brooms and sweep the stage clean. Digital stage directions appear so the current acts know where to head and people come and grab them and direct them off stage. A separate team of people clean the stage of props and immediately another team of people bring in props for the next act. Finally a separate team of people bring the next act out. This all takes 25 seconds. The last touch is my favourite. In the 5 seconds before the act is live the stage manager goes up to singer, says a few words and then gently hands him/her the microphone just as the countries postcard is finishing. He then walks off making hand gestures to jeer up the crowd. He isn’t worried about being caught on camera because he knows the cameras are positioned in such a way that he won’t.

At least 1 Australian got to hold the trophy!

You really get to experience the audience reactions much better live then on TV. On TV, the coverage jumps to a postcard as soon as an act finishes which introduces the next act. You have this on the screen when watching live but you don’t really pay attention to it. Usually you’re cheering the previous act if they were any good. This is really the best indicator of how popular an act is with the public and really helps me form an opinion of the audience favourite. So from this perspective Russia, Australia, Sweden, Bulgaria, Austria, Belgium, France, Ukraine and Malta got the best reactions with Russia and Australia on another level. I always knew Ukraine was a favourite but I hated her song, her act and completely tuned out when she was on. I knew it was a possible winner I just hoped Europe would know better and it wouldn’t become political. It’s Eurovision, there are always politics.

Watching Eurovision in a Dutch pub.

It was great being there live but it’s not the best place to watch the grand final. You’d have to sit there for 4 hours, leave the auditorium with 50000 other people around 1am, battle it out on the metro, whilst dealing with 5 degree temperatures should you be forced to wait. Not to mention the mandatory 20 minute toilet queues. The rehearsals however are great because they finish earlier and there are less people about. Justin Timberlake added another dimension to it and from my vantage point, I could see him making a point of telling Frans from Sweden he really liked his song. A girl from the Armenian contingent went up and asked for a selfie with him. He agreed, and when he walked away, she nearly fainted for she had just met JT. With the masses of people getting into the venue security was fast and efficient. However with all the logistical problems of being there live for the actual final, not to mention the cost, I found a Dutch Pub to watch the final live. It was named after their Eurovision entrant this year, Douwe Bob and was filled with crazy Dutch people wearing Orange. My friend Camden was able to join me to watch his very first Eurovision. I prepared him as well as I could. 4 hours is a long time for the untrained. One reason why the SBS coverage is so good is they edit the time down.

Love seeing how the audience react to certain songs.

Making our way into a downstairs room, the screen wasn’t super big but it was adequate. The coverage was streamed from Dutch TV because the audience was 90% Dutch, speaking Dutch, drinking beer and singing along. Unfortunately the Netherlands was the 3^rd act of the night so the atmosphere died a bit after that but it was pretty easy to tell the room liked Belgium, France, Austria, the Netherlands (of course) and really got into Russia, Australia, Bulgaria, Lithuania and surprisingly Poland. As the votes continued and Australia stormed into the lead I worried about this new voting procedure. There is a huge discrepancy between the jury and general populous for many countries. Poland received 7 jury points, Austria 30, yet Poland was 4^th most popular with the people, Austria 8^th. This concerns me. As countries were eliminated at the end, I’m doing the math’s in my head as to what the next highest vote could be I realised that Australia were going to lose the #1 to the Ukraine unless Russia got over 400 points which they didn’t. Russia would always be the most popular song with the public. The betting odds suggested this. So when the Ukraine was declared winner the room emptied pretty quickly. I don’t think the song was particularly popular with the Dutch. Nobody wanted to hear it again.

The winning song isn’t everyone’s cup of tea but when you think about it I don’t like Dami’s song much better. Her act was really good and she could sing really well live but in years to come the only song’s from this Eurovision which will be on my playlist will be Sweden, Bulgaria, Austria, Lithuania, Malta, Latvia and Israel. Russia’s strength is in the act which I’m not watching when listening to it. I think Australia have done really well in Eurovision this year finishing 2^nd but we were always going to do well, taking the competition more seriously than some other nations. Eurovision should only ever contain countries from Europe. The integrity of the competition should never be compromised and in many ways I think Eurovision became so popular in Australia because we weren’t in it and this makes us fascinated. I’d be quite happy to kick Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan out of Eurovision. With Asiavision starting up it makes me wonder if countries who aren’t sure if they’re in Europe can jump between Eurovision and Asiavision. And can New Zealand participate in Asia vision – after all they’re in Oceania. It’s going to be interesting.

ABBA Hologram - Sing Live

I’m glad I went. Seeing such events live gives me so much inspiration for running major events myself and it’s good to see how it’s done. There are many tourists there, Europeans using it as an excuse for a getaway as well as to support their countries. Stockholm is a beautiful vibrant city, full of cafes, harbour views and a great metro. The ABBA museum was my favourite part. It’s a compact space but the displays are fantastic. You can perform live with an ABBA hologram, there are booths allowing you to record a song and an excellent history of before and after ABBA. The displays on Swedish music are also outstanding and feature Roxette, Ace of Base, Europe, Kent, Veronica Maggio and many more.

Kent - Summed up Perfectly

As for my predictions, I got 4 of the top 5 right (Australia, Russia, Bulgaria, Sweden) so was only out by 1. The betting odds also got 4 out of the top 5 right (Ukraine, Australia, Russia, and Sweden) and missed Bulgaria. I’d highly recommend seeing it live but only in the right countries.

The best thing that happened though was being randomly selected after the event to complete a feedback survey. I love those Swedes!