ESC United - Rehearsal and Live Show discussion megathread

[Sean]

It's time for the rehearsals to finally get underway for Eurovision 2024 at Malmö Arena! 37 countries will begin their preparations for this year's contest today, with over two weeks of coverage to come from the ESC United team on the ground!

The schedule for rehearsals is below (thank you Eurovisionworld! All times in CEST);

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You can check out Matt's pre-rehearsal live stream below in case you missed it;

DAY ONE

Eurovision 2024 Rehearsals - Day 1 Round-Up Live Stream

Join Matt and his team as they discuss the rehearsals of the day and answer your questions. The first dress rehearsal is closed to the press so we'll be here...

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The team will be on hand to cover everything going on in Malmö over the coming weeks, so make sure to follow ESC United on Facebook, Twitter (X), Instagram, and YouTube and Twitch to not miss a minute!

Please also use this thread for any rehearsal coverage and discussion, including for jury shows, dress rehearsals and the live shows!​

 

[Rasmus0714]

It's not their fault, but they don't have to be Sweden of televoting.

Their competitors are quite weak, dated latin music with medicore dance or some movie soundtrack.

 

[LoveHate]

We need juries, and we need televotes. But I’m not sure we need them to be announced separately. The system is causing controversy after controversy, and I’d like my country’s douze points to include the voice of the viewers.

Not sure which years the system was in use, but my preferred point system had jury members only submit their top-10 (no tanking of entries), and then that result was combined with the televote.

 

[Geborgenheit]

Congratulations to Switzerland. Nemo can sing and deserves it.

Personally, the song is nothing for me.

 

[cegs5]

So Azerbaijani jury ranked Armenia last again. How this is right for EBU, conistently ranking a country dead last and all jury members agreeing on that.
For less than that some countries saw their jury voting removed.

 

[ag89]

A few takeaways from the last night:
1. for the first time, we had radical right wing parties and generally speaking right wing politics supporters, organizing campaign for an entry; this can be a long term problem for ESC, since these groups realized the potential ESC has for mobilization of such political forces;
2. yes, ESC is LGBT friendly, but it seems there are the limits: UK got 0 woth televote for a performance that, it seems, crossed the line;
3. Jury is so much needed to neutralize or at least to keep under control organized voting campaigns and lobbying;

 

[soulm8]

Still extremely proud with Slimane. People overreacting! First, France was 4th( 2nd with the jury) with the public and finished 4 overall. To show you that in the end the public vote matters big time! Croatia failed to get this enormous score(still really massive), cause it’s a small country without so big of diaspora around, not like Ukraine. The fact that Netherlands were missing and they were the one supposed to stop Israel from winning and yet failed to gain enormous amount of points(400+), shows they were not so much front runners as I thought. Netherlands would beat their public score in the Final if he was there. So let’s not cry, sad for Croatia, but unfortunately it matters where you come from, me crying in Kristian’s shoes.

 

[Veronika]

Overall, the Grand Final left a good aftertaste.
Even despite the fact, that my main favorite came last (this is the first time for me, by the way)

But yes, congratulations Switzerland!
A worthy and well-deserved winner. I like the song (it's in my personal top-10), it was performed amazingly, the staging is original, and the artist is charismatic. I am pleased!
And most importantly, the bookmakers were finally wrong, because in recent years it was even a bit boring to watch as everything was clear beforehand (regarding the winner, that is). I love such pleasant surprises. Yes, I like the Croatian song more, but I'm not upset.
And, in my opinion, Switzerland deserved the victory more than Israel... the Israeli song itself is a little weak for a win (though quite pleasant).

I am very pleased with France’s high result. A beautiful song, sung from the heart.
I wasn't expecting the juries to support Ireland so well. In general, I’m also happy for them. And for Armenia too.
Sweden also has a decent result, well done.
Respect to Italy for changing the costumes and getting rid of the vulgarity that was in the semis. In the final it was a different matter. And the result is good.
I expected to see Estonia and Finland a little higher.
Basically, all the dancing girls (Cyprus, Austria, Georgia) “ate” each other's votes, as I expected.
UK ruined all its chances for a more or less decent result with tasteless staging and unconvincing vocals. Eh, I like the song so much...

Serbia got an expected result. At least not bottom, and that's good.
But yes, back to Norway... I had a feeling that this style might turn out to be too specific for the ESC. But the last place......I definitely need to process this somehow.

By the way, absolutely everyone were vocally better than in the semis. Well, or at least the absolute majority.
I really liked the show itself. It was large-scale and grandiose. Some parts even touched me to some extent... even all the scandals were forgotten.

In short, the overall impressions were positive.
It will be very interesting to see Eurovision in Switzerland.

 

[LoveHate]

Dizzy was not too gay, the song was too weak for the televote.

 

[ekzuu]

I guess under the old system we would have actually gotten 12 points from Israel (3rd in the Televoting/2nd with the Jury).

How history takes turns huh

 

[gigi_copp3]

I think 2015-2016 thing was the same story as 2023-2024.
2015 and 2023: is the runaway jury winner, but someone else get the best televote ever in "normal" circumstances ( and )
2016 and 2024: It seems to be a two-horse race between the good ( and ) and the evil ( and ), an outsider takes it all ( and )

 

[empo21]

Ugh it's over finally

I'm glad we got a good winner overall with Switzerland. Nemo was probably my 3rd pick to win but the performance was impressive as hell vocally and staging-wise. Also glad that nothing serious happened and Martin was rightfully booed and it was heard on TV.

If I exclude the drama and only judge the show for what it was, this was the most boring eurovision from the last few years. I can't think of a simple highlight from the interval acts and skits.

The voting was pretty boring. The only surprise for me was Ukraine's +300 televote score. Well deserved.

Last night's televote also proves that running order is important, which is why production shouldn't have too much power to manipulate it. EBU needs a revamp as this year was a grand example of how you mismanage the biggest show in the world just to appeal to one country. Some of the delegations seem really upset by what happened and I hope that leads to some changes - starting with Martin Osterdahl's resignation, but I believe he's too attention-hungry and shameless to do that.

As Bambie said "Fuck the EBU" this has been the worst eurovision in modern times and maybe even overall.

 

[randajad]

hopefully there will be resignations at both ebu and svt, and eventually them doing the only thing that could have prevented all of this

 

[HarryUK]

BRING ON THE SACKINGS!!!!

 

[Realest]

I guess under the old system we would have actually gotten 12 points from Israel (3rd in the Televoting/2nd with the Jury).

No, only 8.

Israel gave
24 to Luxembourg
18 to Ukraine
18 to Germany.

 

[SpiritofKeiino]

I think EBU will find a way to remove Israel before next year. Swiss won't want the shit they'll get over it.

 

[Realest]

Hopefully we will get Eurovisionario-Graphics soon.

 

[gigi_copp3]

I think EBU will find a way to remove Israel before next year. Swiss won't want the shit they'll get over it.

Loads of broadcasters should threaten to retire if Israel's still in. Maybe could.
They can't choose one country over more than 5, they have still to organize two semis for the revenues.

 

[ESC Athens]

Everything seems crazy for now, but if we don't give Cyprus 12 points for second year in a row then this is without doubt the absolute chaos.

WELL...

We don't need Cyprus anymore, we have new besties . 12 points both this year and in 2022.

 

[aglm1988]

I do not wish for anyone the experience of what the Israeli delegation has gone through. I don't speak about the boozes from the audience, but the treatment from some of the other delegations as the Israelis are sick with a very contagious disease. The bullying was terrible, and not only by the members of the delegations, but directly from the other artists themselves. Some ganged up in threesomes/foursomes/fivesomes and searched Eden and other members of the delegation for every small thing and sent their fans to attack them, sometimes even shouting and bullying them themselves.

As an Israeli, I think that Israel should have not participated this year. I believe that we should've ended the war first and then returned to compete, but once it was decided that we are participating, we should not get boycotted by other delegations as we were in high school, especially for our history in the competition and our love for it.

This year some Queers artists, who are supposed to stand for inclusivity and acceptance, decided to bully a young Jewish girl just because of who she is. They refused to interact with her or even sit on a table next to her. And some of them joined to boozes. Grown up men and women booing and humiliating a 20 years old girl.

In addition, the comment section in Wiwibloggs, ESCUNITED and other youtube channels felt like Europe in 1941, and I didn't see those blogs owners condemning those comments or treating the Israeli entry with respect and objectivity. On the contrary, they highlighted the most little things against the Israeli delegation as a main article or post.

I don't want to speak about the juries that are scared to be cancelled by a loud minority. But – I want to thank the silent majority of Europe supporting Eden and not joining the bullying of the other delegations. Thank you so much for your votes – Israel has received 15 times the 12 points, so thank you, thank you, thank you.

As for Sweden - thank you for producing a great show, and thank you for the maximum you have done to manage the kindergarten this year. You did the best you could, I just think it could have been better for everyone if you had chosen another city to host the competition.

As for Malmo - the Israelis already left your city, but the violent and sharia-law supporteres has stayed in your city. I hope you will be able to integrate them, otherwise I;m scared for the future of the beautiful city with such history.

 

[aef]

btw, can I just say I hated how the 1-10 just automatically showed on the scoreboard instead of being listed first like in previous years.

THIS - 90% of changes at their Eurovision editions are always so annoying. Why do they have to changes all those things?