ESC 2018 General Discussion Thread

[GlamSIMorous]

This I have to admit is the best Eurovision in years, such a competitive year with fantastic personalities, shocks, surprises, and suspense. Never in my life have I experienced such Eurovision where the result is yet soooo unpredictable and a neck-to-neck race between quite a few countries. Even my mum yesterday wrote me: "Damn, this is tough. The strongest ESC ever!" I hear so many songs from ESC in the supermarket I minijob in as well .. Yesterday Bulgaria. On Monday France. Cant wait for today what kind of song I will hear then

 

[EscGeek]

Tonight at 21:00 CET you can tune in to watch Loreen and Maja Keuc live from Ljubljana here..
(Event lasts for one hour, so you can expect some others too)

http://4d.rtvslo.si/zivo/tvs2

 

[Fluke]

Why were there no live interval acts in the first semi? Only the weird pre-recorded medley with 2017 ESC performers, and the cringy self-mocking skits, i guess they wanted to put more focus on the actual entries instead of fuss around it, but there was something cheap and empty about it, it felt more like Melodifestivalen or some other national selection than any modern ESC, i didn't get the whole "really big event" feeling that the presentation usually gives me. It just kinda.... begun and ended.

The hosts weren't terrible, though the jokes were really drawn out and unfunny, but there was something weird about the pacing of the entire thing, even though it wasn't shorter than previous semis, i guess they devoted more time to presenting the competing performers, which should be a step in the right direction, but i just feel that something was really missing!

 

[aef]

In the end the graphics didn't look that bad yesterday... I liked the background thing when they showed the countries names... I'm quite tired of the same blue though.... Really hoping for a new theme colour next year!

 

[A-lister]

The hostesses where better than last year, but still pretty cringe tbh so I'm not sure why people were so excited about them, the jokes were pretty bad As someone pointed out before, the interval stuff wasn't really good, nor funny.

The show itself was good though, and the stage was better than I first feared, so that was nice. The sound though was so-so and camera angles too, they need to fix those flaws till the final.

 

[Vektor]

The hostesses where better than last year, but still pretty cringe tbh so I'm not sure why people were so excited about them, the jokes were pretty bad As someone pointed out before, the interval stuff wasn't really good, nor funny.

Yeah....

For the love of god, please EBU, hire better comedy writers or just don't do comedy skits. Just having a straightforward show with no jokes is not a bad thing, it can still be fun.

 

[ESCKerli]

Current youtube-views for semi-final 1 qualifiers day 1 (estimated):

1. Cyprus 1 300 000 views
2. Israel 1 100 000 views
3. Lithuania 380 000 views
4. Czech Republic 350 000 views
5. Albania 270 000 views
6. Estonia 260 000 views
7. Bulgaria 250 000 views
8. Ireland 240 000 views
9. Finland 230 000 views
10. Austria 130 000 views

Current ESCtracker iTunes for semi-final 1 day 1 qualifiers:

1. Cyprus
2. Ireland
3. Austria
4. Czech Republic
5. Lithuania
6. Israel
7. Bulgaria
8. Finland
9. Estonia
10. Albania

Current youtube-views for semi-final 1 qualifiers day 2 (estimated):

1. Cyprus 2 600 000 views
2. Israel 2 000 000 views
3. Lithuania 710 000 views
4. Czech Republic 700 000 views
5. Estonia 480 000 views
6. Albania 460 000 views
7. Finland 450 000 views
8. Bulgaria 440 000 views
9. Ireland 420 000 views
10. Austria 240 000 views

Current ESCtracker iTunes for semi-final 1 day 2 qualifiers:

1. Cyprus
2. Austria
3. Czech Republic
4. Ireland
5. Israel
6. Finland
7. Lithuania
8. Bulgaria
9. Estonia
10. Albania

 

[Chorizo]

There should have been a proper interval act on stage instead of the videos they showed. The last time it was done that badly was in 2015. An opening act would have been nice too. The host were okay. Their dresses looked nice. The graphics were okay but similar to previous years. The stage looks okay too but it would be nice to have something very different next year including LEDs to allow for more diverse backgrounds and effects. The camerawork needs improvement. The quality of the YouTube videos looks surprisingly bad this year.

 

[ChrisOL]

The quality of the YouTube videos looks surprisingly bad this year.

I really hope they fix this, it's probably because they upload each video just minutes after the performance. But this is supposed to be full HD on YouTube :?

It was the most extreme scene that I saw but this "jittering"-effect is visible in EVERY video of the semi final. Usually I like to watch some performances again, but with this quality it gets really hard to watch...

 

[Ezio]

Eurovision finally is a song contest and not a country contest anymore. Russia and Romania, take note!

 

[Vektor]

Well, this is interesting, Wales debuts at JESC2018. ESC 2019 next? And then Scotland? England? Northern Ireland?

https://twitter.com/S4C/status/994291086439809024

 

[tsegaye]

This final is going to be SO uptempo, of my predicted qualifiers from SF2 atm everybody except 1 could be considered uptempo (and that country is Denmark which isn't that slow either). The second half will be MENTAL

 

[Jonaxh]

So one of my dreams came true yesterday! I went to Alice Arena and watched a live show of the Eurovision Song Contest! It was one of the best nights of my life! Everything was perfect! The songs were amazing (I could see almost all of them making the final in any other year), the atmosphere was great, everyone were having so much fun! I left almost with no voice and my hands were hurting of so much clapping! I will never forget this night! And saturday I'll be there again, but this time for the family show.

 

[Ana Raquel]

 

[ChrisOL]

Anyone?

 

[DanielLuis]

Quite surprised with Denmark and Australia doing so well, and with Moldova doing so badly, in that second poll

 

[Kevan1994]

Hungary has to be in top 8 in the odds by this time tomorrow

 

[joao]

Anyone?

OH! I bet it will be Russia

hahaha

 

[Kevan1994]

OH! I bet it will be Russia

hahaha

@realDonaldTrump: "If USA was in contest, would be a BIG win. We'd gets MILLIONS of votes (but not as many I got over crooked Hillary). Since we aren't in it, must vote for the HUGE mountain girl song."

 

[Kevan1994]

If Russia and Georgia don't qualify tomorrow, could Ukraine be a surprise in final? They'd be the only country left out of Russia, Georgia, Belarus, Armenia, and Azerbaijan and would be sure to pick up some significant points from each.