I want to defend Australia a bit again because I feel like they're being unfairly criticised in this contest like Azerbaijan was a few years ago since they only sent songs produced by Sweden. Though, the critique of Azerbaijan's "strategy" to send songs made by Swedes have faded by the years as their placings have gotten worse since 2013. I wonder why?
Now, what annoys me is the fact that ESC fans genuinely believe that the juries favor Australia and Sweden because they are Australia and Sweden. I've mentioned it before, but no one thinks this way. No one thinks that "we'll give this song more than it deserves because it's representing Sweden or Australia". However if these claims are right, this way of thinking happens every year through five different jurors in over 40 countries...? Highly unlikely that this is the reason why Sweden and Australia use to do well with juries.
The claims that the name of the country is enough to get enough points from juries are ridiculous lol... "If this represented another country, it wouldn't do as well." HAH. I think Aminata's second place in 2015, representing the mighty superpower in ESC - Latvia(!) proves everyone wrong. Juries will reward your entry regardless of which country you're representing! Bulgaria's done well with the juries since 2016 with Poli when they started to put an effort in their entries. Suddenly out of the blue, Bulgaria's doing well? Why Bulgaria? And even better in 2017 with Kristian? Yes, Bulgaria does well because their entries were high quality.
However back to Australia, these conspiracy theories about juries favoring Australia started back in 2016 when Dami Im won the jury vote by a landslide to Ukraine. Sound of Silence was an obvious jury winner. I also got the vibes that Australia winning the jury vote with over 100 points to Ukraine was more of a problem than Australia actually winning the jury vote. So if Ukraine was 10-50 points behind, it would not have been as bad to see Australia win the jury vote? Salvador got more points from the juries in 2017 than Dami in 2016, so if Portugal's 2016 entry got 200+ points from the juries, everyone would've conspired about juries suddenly favourising Portugal after sending stronger entries to the ESC stage... no? Australia deserved every point they got from the juries in 2015 and 2016.
I think what people are more angry and suspicious about is Isaiah's fourth place with the juries in 2017 with "Don't Come Easy". I did not like Portugal 2017 that much, not as much to give it that many jury points as Salvador got. Does it necessarily mean that Salvador didn't deserve his first place with the juries? NO! I can understand why he won the juries despite not liking the entry myself! I just think the juries respected this entry because of Isaiah's voice and that it looked slick and professional. And the song is also very well produced no matter how much you may dislike it. I totally understand that viewers didn't connect with it, but I understand why juries liked the entry.
And people have to remember that 2017 was the weakest ESC year the recent years. Isaiah wouldn't have placed fourth with 171 points for example this year or 2015 or 2016. And it's not like Isaiah got many top points either... zero 12s, however five 10s and three 8s. More than half of the countries that Australia got points from in 2017 were between the points 1-6. An important part is of course to get as many top points as possible, but it's also important to appeal to as many juries as possible. Imagine getting 2-6 points from every country! So can we genuinely say that Australia's overrated after receiving five 10s and three 8s? I don't think so. That's not how I define overrated.
And Australia and Sweden going well "no matter what" is outdated. We saw it this year with Jessica last (somehow) in the televotes and Benjamin like only getting 20 points from the televoters. Juries did not save Australia either with rewarding Jessica 90 points and an equal 11th place in the jury vote. A country does not do well in Eurovision by simply representing the country they do. Absolutely everything speaks against it.
Deal with it, Australia and Sweden send quality entries every year. You might not approve of them or like their entries, but stop raving about the fact that they do better than your personal favorites. Yes they might be sending so called "traditional", "boring" pop songs, but hell yes am I glad that Sweden and Australia are in this competition and playing the game.
peace peace love
For being traditional, conservative and of course the cumbersome hating of Sweden. A little like old good "Inför Eurovision" laughs. Most important: They are going to change the app!
