United Kingdom UNITED KINGDOM 2018 - SuRie - Storm

[RevNet]

THE GOOD:
-The lyrics have a good story to them, and she sings them beautifully.
-This is a better clap-along song than most.

THE BAD:
-It's kind of repetitive in the beginning.
-This entry seems familiar to another UK entry of the past.

THE VERDICT:
Ever since the BBC created the "You Decide" show, with one exception, the entries that come from them seem formulaic to me. This one is no different, but I like the result this time. While it has its faults (what I mentioned above), this entry is one of the better ones from the Brits in my opinion. 8 points

 

[lavieenrose]

Tonight is one of the nights where many Eurovision fans show their true colours. Bitter, nasty comments all round. Pathetic behaviour from some people. It's like a 6 month old baby spitting out their dummy.

Obviously SuRie won over people or she wouldn't have won. The hall went from pro-Asanda to pro-SuRie after her performance. Asanda was vocally AWFUL. If you send that to Eurovision, it totally bombs. There was no good choice tonight. Every song was right-side of the scoreboard, but at least now the UK have a strong performer who can sell a song.

Don't like the song? Fine. Cool. But some of the thing being said both on here and especially on twitter absolutely are taking the piss. Grow up.

12 points for performance. 6 points for the song. So I'll give it 8 and say the UK have made the best of a bad selection.

The Hardkiss - Joint 1st - lost by televote tiebreaker

 

[QwaarJet]

Well personally I think my true colours are always on display. I said when the songs were revealed that this felt very much like a wrong choice to take, and the performance changed nothing. I don't understand your reaction here, as you're often very harsh with your comments on songs chosen. Most of us can be. We're fans and we come here to share our opinions, and a lot of the time we get disappointed. I think SuRie seems an absolutely lovely lady with a nice voice (almost got an Annie Lennox vibe going on) but that song is taking me nowhere so I think we made the wrong choice, and the lack of transparency from the BBC is annoying. I'm glad you like the song. I don't.

I feel I need to emphasise my point about SOME people. I already said it's fine if you dislike the song, and I hope you would know that I always and always will respect your opinions both musically and personally. You are one of my favourite people on this forum, and while I disagree with a lot of your views on tonight, I always know you put them across respectfully and with insight.

My problem is with the toxicity and the nonsensical posts about scrapping the whole thing just because the result didn't go their way, and on twitter I've seen personal attacks on SuRie already. This is the nastier side of the ESC fandom we try and bury. And of course, we are all guilty of these things, myself included. But when you see it en masse, it really hits home how poisonous it can get, and I feel like sometimes we need to take a step back and breathe.

And I absolutely agree about the transparency issue. But a lot of people were happy with Lucie winning last year, and so not many people dwelled on the complete secrecy of the results. Then a fan favourite gets dumped out, and suddenly the secret voting is brought into the limelight and people are screaming "It's a fix". It sucked last year, and it sucks this year. We NEED to know the results. But we never will. I would also assume it's unfair from those assuming that SuRie went through on the jury vote. She seemed to get a huge amount of momentum after the performance. The room exploded, twitter went mad and within minutes she was overwhelming favourite with the bookies.

Anyways, I apologize if I offended you in the last post. That was not my intention. I respect what you said.

 

[dcs34]

Le pot, le kettle

 

[cegs5]

Well, it may not be subjective but to be fair, it's also not a fact. We don't know if SuRie won the televote, the incompetent BBC refuses to reveal the full results. It's easily possible that surie finished third with the televoters...maybe not but we don't know of sure so nothing is fact until the BBC grows some balls and gets their head into the game.

This is on point. I thought this NF was decided fully on televote as its name is YOU DECIDE... I only watched the performances and didn't pay attention on the voting system. I thought the panel was there just for the sake to be there. So, If there were indeed jury votes BBC should post the full results. Thanks for the clarification.

 

[RainyWoods]

I feel I need to emphasise my point about SOME people. I already said it's fine if you dislike the song, and I hope you would know that I always and always will respect your opinions both musically and personally. You are one of my favourite people on this forum, and while I disagree with a lot of your views on tonight, I always know you put them across respectfully and with insight.

My problem is with the toxicity and the nonsensical posts about scrapping the whole thing just because the result didn't go their way, and on twitter I've seen personal attacks on SuRie already. This is the nastier side of the ESC fandom we try and bury. And of course, we are all guilty of these things, myself included. But when you see it en masse, it really hits home how poisonous it can get, and I feel like sometimes we need to take a step back and breathe.

And I absolutely agree about the transparency issue. But a lot of people were happy with Lucie winning last year, and so not many people dwelled on the complete secrecy of the results. Then a fan favourite gets dumped out, and suddenly the secret voting is brought into the limelight and people are screaming "It's a fix". It sucked last year, and it sucks this year. We NEED to know the results. But we never will. I would also assume it's unfair from those assuming that SuRie went through on the jury vote. She seemed to get a huge amount of momentum after the performance. The room exploded, twitter went mad and within minutes she was overwhelming favourite with the bookies.

Anyways, I apologize if I offended you in the last post. That was not my intention. I respect what you said.

Well I understand that side of what you're saying. I would never go onto an artists social media for instance and tell them that I think their song is bad, or start some kind of hate campaign. And even here when I write stuff and i'm being really critical, I often in the back of my head think to myself "oh, I hope the artist never reads this", but Eurovision is a competition. Artists and songwriters put songs forward where the whole point is to have the music judged. Talking about the songs is also what we're here for on this forum as well.

I think SuRie is nice and will take this thing in her stride. I find this evident from the way she handled Rylan's critique. While Jaz meanwhile looked quite hurt after his comment, as if he'd just been trodden on, SuRie was all smiles and joking. She came across very well.

And personally I would like to scrap the whole thing because it's a rut we're stuck in, and nothing has changed since we started holding these NFs. I think our songs are getting duller and more formulaic as each year passes, and the lack of transparency just makes things worse. I'd be cooler knowing if this is actually what the British people wanted, but we're not allowed to know. It's incredibly frustrating.


But no need to apologize though. I wasn't offended. I just felt like what you were saying was in part directed at me as I was being a bit vocal, although hopefully not in a mean way. Here's a rose

 

[QwaarJet]

Well I understand that side of what you're saying. I would never go onto an artists social media for instance and tell them that I think their song is bad, or start some kind of hate campaign. And even here when I write stuff and i'm being really critical, I often in the back of my head think to myself "oh, I hope the artist never reads this", but Eurovision is a competition. Artists and songwriters put songs forward where the whole point is to have the music judged. Talking about the songs is also what we're here for on this forum as well.

I think SuRie is nice and will take this thing in her stride. I find this evident from the way she handled Rylan's critique. While Jaz meanwhile looked quite hurt after his comment, as if he'd just be trodden on, SuRie was all smiles and joking. She came across very well.

And personally I would like to scrap the whole thing because it's a rut we're stuck in, and nothing has changed since we started holding these NFs. I think our songs are getting duller and more formulaic as each year passes, and the lack of transparency just makes things worse. I'd be cooler knowing if this is actually what the British people wanted, but we're not allowed to know. It's incredibly frustrating.


But no need to apologize though. I wasn't offended. I just felt like what you were saying was in part directed at me as I was being a bit vocal, although hopefully not in a mean way. Here's a rose

I accept your rose, kind sir.

Oh, and we need make a meme out of Jaz's reaction after the judges had spoken. You weren't kidding. It's like he had a bloody wasp in his mouth. Ouch!

And I agree about the rut. I believe the UK made the best choice tonight, but I'm not happy with the quality of the songs, and even less happy with the diversity of genre. Maybe the BBC realising there are other places with music other than London would be a good start, but when you put it like that, yes. Something probably has to change. I think there is a new HoD, but she didn't have time to do anything this year, so hopefully we get something better next year.

 

[Hegepege]

The very definition of outdated mediocrity. So far this is the obvious toilet break in the final.

 

[Miguel]

SuRie shined. The audience was on her side. The song obviously needs a revamp. They must add new elements, making it more interesting all around.

 

[cegs5]

The very definition of outdated mediocrity. So far this is the obvious toilet break in the final.

Excuse me, the thread for Spain is this http://escunited.com/forum/threads/16132-SPAIN-2018-Alfred-amp-Amaia-Tu-canci%C3%B3n/page65

 

[RainyWoods]

Excuse me, the thread for Spain is this http://escunited.com/forum/threads/16132-SPAIN-2018-Alfred-amp-Amaia-Tu-canci%C3%B3n/page65

p.s. I went blonde for our telenovela fight scene.

 

[lavieenrose]

What even was the end? How was the blonde one injuring the other one so badly?

 

[RainyWoods]

What even was the end? How was the blonde one injuring the other one so badly?

Well this is what happens when you insult my favourite song of any given ESC edition. My legs are very powerful and passionate.

 

[FoxOfShadows]

Well this is what happens when you insult my favourite song of any given ESC edition. My legs are very powerful and passionate.

"San Marino has only ever sent one halfway decent entry and that was back in 2008"

 

[cegs5]

What even was the end? How was the blonde one injuring the other one so badly?

We ended up voting for SanMarino.

Full scene

 

[RainyWoods]

"San Marino has only ever sent one halfway decent entry and that was back in 2008"

RIP

 

[tsegaye]

Well, you know, usually people vote for what they see and Asanda wasn't the best vocally tonight, so how could you expect people voting for a shaky singer?
I agree she could imporve, but that would have been a good statement if it were an internal selection, but in a NF viewers vote based on the actual performance not for what could be in three months.

I'm just used to people voting for (what they believe is) the best song because I do and many I know here in Sweden do, so I thought brits would do the same. Yes she was a bit shaky, but not so much that I would vote for someone else just because of it. Maybe brits are more focused on the vocal performance because of the many and popular talent shows they have there, here (in Sweden) I feel like it's mostly about the song. MY POINT IS that I'm surprised that people didn't think Asanda's song were so much better than SuRie's that they could set aside the minor vocal weaknesses she had in her performance

 

[FoxOfShadows]

I'm just used to people voting for (what they believe is) the best song because I do and many I know here in Sweden do, so I thought brits would do the same. Yes she was a bit shaky, but not so much that I would vote for someone else just because of it. Maybe brits are more focused on the vocal performance because of the many and popular talent shows they have there, here (in Sweden) I feel like it's mostly about the song. MY POINT IS that I'm surprised that people didn't think Asanda's song were so much better than SuRie's that they could set aside the minor vocal weaknesses she had in her performance

Don't take this the wrong way but I think this is partly because of the heavy use of pre recorded vocals in Melodifestivalen. I know they used them here as well but not to quite the same extent.

 

[cegs5]

I'm just used to people voting for (what they believe is) the best song because I do and many I know here in Sweden do, so I thought brits would do the same. Yes she was a bit shaky, but not so much that I would vote for someone else just because of it. Maybe brits are more focused on the vocal performance because of the many and popular talent shows they have there, here (in Sweden) I feel like it's mostly about the song. MY POINT IS that I'm surprised that people didn't think Asanda's song were so much better than SuRie's that they could set aside the minor vocal weaknesses she had in her performance

As it was clarified above, we don't actually know the televoting result, so in fact Asanda could have got the televoting on her side, but who knows... maybe we will never know.

 

[tsegaye]

As it was clarified above, we don't actually know the televoting result, so in fact Asanda could have got the televoting on her side, but who knows... maybe we will never know.

Don't take this the wrong way but I think this is partly because of the heavy use of pre recorded vocals in Melodifestivalen. I know they used them here as well but not to quite the same extent.

You're both right! However, even with pre recorded vocals we still hear a bummed note or so, but I feel that swedes would probably overlook it more than brits, but maybe it has something to do with the artists as well? The artists here are more known and more well-known artists get away easier with vocal flaws. When you're completely unknown (or kind of) you maybe don't have the same room for mistakes and maybe that's what happened with Asanda... But still