Barbara Dex Award

[Blu]

Surely Rykka! Going from this:

...to ...

...dressing in a supposedly blue :? plastic bag is a fashion statement in itself.

 

[genreJake09]

 

[Salmon]

Just casted my vote for Lithuania. Absolutely dreadful. Hungary comes as a close second for me.

 

[Sammy]

Horrible news! This is the last year of the Barbara Dex Award!

http://www.eurovisionhouse.nl/news/20160515-websiteends.php

"2016 is the final year for the Website and the Barbara Dex Award

All things come to an end, and so does the Barbara Dex Award. This year - 2016 - marks the 20th anniversary of the award named after the Belgian contestant in 1993, who wore an awful dress that evening. Dutch comedian Paul de Leeuw made a joke: an award should be named after her for the ugliest dress.

Edwin and Rob, two guys from The Netherlands, took up the glove in 1997. The first two years the award was given by the two founders of the website ‘The House of Eurovision’ (www.eurovisionhouse.nl) and subsequently by the visitors of that website.

After twenty years both Rob and Edwin thought it was a good moment to call it quits. It’s a lot of work maintaining a website with just two people and in past years they got busier and busier with their own personal lives. They continue to be avid Eurovision Song Contest fans, but without the added pressure of the website and the award.

We would like to thank our visitors for the last 20 years and wish everyone very good Eurovision years to come! We had some great years!

We would also like to thank Barbara Dex, who has always been very sporty about the award in public outings.

But before that, voting for the award is now open! You can cast your vote until saturday the 21st of may at 12:00 CET. The results will be made public the day after (sunday the 22nd). It will be the 20th and last winner of the award.

Rob and Edwin

www.eurovisionhouse.nl"

 

[Terence]

No they can't cancel this award!!!! (((

The winner this year has to be... Switzerland I guess

 

[ZoboCamel]

I'm sure somebody else will take up the task and continue it. There has to be someone out there in the Eurovision fandom willing to run it, even if it's in a simplified form, right?

 

[musicfan]

Looking at the website there doesn't seem to be much on the Barbara Dex award anyway, nothing that I can see on past winners for instance, or photos.

Of course it doesn't stop others setting up some poll for the same kind of thing in the future.

 

[Salmon]

The problem is that most certainly, tons of imitators will appear after the award has run its course, which would create confusion. It would at least be good to determine an “official” Barbara Dex Award successor.

 

[apasionata]

So wait if I understood well: it takes a lot of hard work and dedication to maintain that fugly web page which looks atrociously outdated and doesn't contain any relevant news or info besides Barbara Dex award itself and results charts by years. Sure.

 

[lavieenrose]

Alright here's my shortlist. My qualifications include watching THREE WHOLE SEASONS of Project Runway, which obviously makes me an expert on all things fashion.

I had this shortlisted originally because it takes a really luxurious fabric and renders it in something that just looks really precious and a little immature. But by that same token, the song kind of takes really luxurious musical elements and renders them in something that just sounds really precious and a little immature, so you know what? It works. Nope.

That #$^*king shoulder thing. Rest of the dress wasn't noteworthy though, so nope.

I just don't like it :? Thought it looked kind of dowdy. While it is tempting to throw my vote her way since it'll be one of very few probably, "it's just not my thing" is a really cruddy criterion to use when I'm not exactly the fashion expert of the world in my t-shirt and sweatpants. Also if I'm to apply "what's wrong with dated?!" to songs, then I should probably force myself to apply it to outfits too. Nope.

"If I wear my super contemporary-looking outfit and sing my super contemporary-sounding song, then I'll deserve to win!" Ultimately decided, however, that either vote would be much too close to punishing the songs rather than the outfits, which isn't exactly what the Barbara Dex Award asks. Nope.

I put these three together because if I want to cast my vote on the assumption that the Barbara Dex Award is an honorable badge of courage for embracing the Eurovision spirit of looking totally nuts, a part of the Eurovision spirit that I embrace and love with all my heart, then any of them could get my vote. The winner is often awarded on this criterion, and any of them would make worthy honorees standing next to past recipients Rona and Verka.

If, instead, I wanted to cast my vote on the outfit that did the greatest disservice to the song, the philosophy that gave Moje 3 and Trijntje wins, is the easy recipient. It was the only outfit where I thought "wow, I'd be enjoying this performance more if they were wearing something else."

Ultimately went with . Like the three I grouped together, it did totally embrace adding more not less, but unlike those three, it did so from a place of cynicism that detracted from the song, meaning that it fulfilled what are, in my mind, both of the roles that have won the Barbara Dex Award in the past.

 

[DanielLuis]

Surely Rykka! Going from this:

...to ...

...dressing in a supposedly blue :? plastic bag is a fashion statement in itself.

In the NF everything was perfect except for the vocals. In the ESC the vocals were the only thing that was good.

 

[blue00eyes]

Croatia for me. Two awful dresses.

 

[musicfan]

Alright here's my shortlist. My qualifications include watching THREE WHOLE SEASONS of Project Runway, which obviously makes me an expert on all things fashion.

I've seen more than you then. Though it's not really what it used to be.

The German outfit is a style though, it's not some made up thing as I understand. I prefer where someone is more creatively bad. And the cute far eastern style and a ballad probably can go together. The staging I thought was actually as bad as anything for her anyway, I liked that moon stage which I saw before with her, if they had recreated that I think it would have done better. The song wasn't the strongest but others were weak too and she did perform it well enough. In sum, I don't think the outfit itself made her last, the staging did.

 

[musicfan]

So wait if I understood well: it takes a lot of hard work and dedication to maintain that fugly web page which looks atrociously outdated and doesn't contain any relevant news or info besides Barbara Dex award itself and results charts by years. Sure.

That's what I said really. The charts are just general Eurovision charts of what won too, not the Barbara Dex award. Wikipedia at least does have a list of previous winners.

And on someone saying that there could be lots of replacements causing confusion....I think if someone does it well (decent website) and gets lots of people involved so it has staying power, then I think that one would prevail against more amateur efforts. Anyone who does it properly should also (once they are properly established as successor) fill in the blanks on earlier years before the late 90s, that would show they mean business as well.

 

[FilipFromSweden]

looked fine. It was cool

it was really unflattering on her and especially with that haircut. Made her look so much older than she is.

if I remember correctly they used some kind of gold foil or something? It was quite ugly

I believe that outfit charmed her

it's her schtick, it's not a bad outfit by far if you take into consideration what kind of fashion she is probably into

I actually like it. The white outfit in her NF was much better but this was kind of chic

 

[ZoboCamel]

Lots of competition this year, but I voted for Finland in the end. Croatia's was the most ridiculous, but it was cool in a sense; Germany's didn't fit the song whatsoever, but it wasn't bad on its own; Switzerland's looked pretty terrible, but then again so did the rest of the song, so the costume didn't really stand out there. Finland took an otherwise-good song that had previously been staged well and gave Sandhja that terribly ugly pale blue jumpsuit, so it fails on all counts - bad costume in and of itself, didn't fit the song in the slightest, and stood out as noticeably being the worst part of the entry. I probably won't complain whoever wins the award, though. So many 'deserving' candidates!

 

[Blu]

Best choreography in the competition!

 

[Sammy]

Best choreography in the competition!

Well you have to understand, that was inspired by a very famous folk song in german speaking countries.

Look here:

 

[Ritararita]

Best choreography in the competition!

...and the hairstyle and outfit seems to be inspired by Saxana, leading character from old Czech film The Girl on a Broomstick.

So much intertextuality in this sophisticated entry... Unbelievable.

 

[tuorem]

To me, wins the award, I truly dislike dresses or skirts that let catch sight of women's underwear (especially panties), I think it's unflattering. I say either wear something less transparent, or don't wear it at all.