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!​

 

[Andrin]

To people who think that Croatia got robbed by juries:

Do you realize that Croatia was above Israel by only 14 points ? If Austria had given their 12 points to Israel and not to Croatia, that would have put a huge cross on Baby Lasagna's victory in a televoting-only world.

In 2021 Italy won despite not being in the top 3 of jury votes.

We need both systems for a more balanced result.

 

[jatojo]

In the end, Norway was lucky to qualify for the final. Who would have thought.

Sweden can now look to the two other Scandinavian countries to consider bringing a Eurovision entry sung in the native language: Denmark tried in 2021 and didn’t qualify, Norway did it in 2024 and barely qualified.

 

[LoveHate]

In the end, Norway was lucky to qualify for the final. Who would have thought.

Sweden can now look to the two other Scandinavian countries to consider bringing a Eurovision entry sung in the native language: Denmark tried in 2021 and didn’t qualify, Norway did it in 2024 and barely qualified.

Fyr & Flamme was a qualifier with televoters.

If you include Ireland, 7 out of the top-11 sang in a native language. And that’s with The Netherlands out of the competition. I think there’s room for Swedish/Danish/Norwegian/Icelandic on the left side of the board if a song in Finnish can win the televote.

 

[soulm8]

Just saw a Bulgarian post from Nemo asking Bulgaria to come back. The comments under were hateful to say at least. Of course calling Eurovision gay freak show, I’m pretty sure this is the reaction in Croatia as well. Balkans after all.

 

[MopManMoss]

Germany left side is the real story here, very well done Isaak

 

[empo21]

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.

womp womp

 

[Ausar Vandermark]

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;

I don't think this is about crossing a line. But any entry isn't guaranteed points simply for tackling an LGBT-topic or having artists that belong to the LGBT community. The song and performance still needs to bring a certain quality and substance to the table.

I do enjoy a healthy deal of sex appeal as part of the stage show and I welcome that these days we get it in a colorful rainbow of flavors. But with the UK I had the feeling they tried to score points on being a rather gay display alone. One-trick-ponies often fall short when compared to more rounded out acts.
The artists voice has been lacking all week (and the chosen performance put a lot of extra strain on it), the visual storytelling was on the nose with no nuance or depth and tapping into stereotypes that even among the LGBT community feel tired these days certainly not has helped them.

I doubt that the UK ends up dead last if we actually looks at the placing beyond the 12-1 points, but with our current system, it doesn't surprise me that they had no success in actually scoring points with the televote.

 

[gigi_copp3]

https://x.com/SilvestrasBelte/status/1789453808239530370

This Eurovision Song Contest has been terrible for the mental health of the contestants, no one actually enjoyed what should have been a party

 

[shameless]

Just saw a Bulgarian post from Nemo asking Bulgaria to come back. The comments under were hateful to say at least. Of course calling Eurovision gay freak show, I’m pretty sure this is the reaction in Croatia as well. Balkans after all.

Not all the balkans are the same, Croatia has always been leaning more towards the west. Of course, there is still a lot of homophobia in the country but please don't generalize an entire region that has a lot of different nuanches, alphabeths and historically grown culture due to different religions and political allies in the past.
I imagine Eurovision in Zagreb would've been a lot of fun tbh. Maybe history strikes again and a croat (by that time yugo) act will triumph in Switzerland next year.
I have to say the show was very uncomfortably for me and all this swedish-not-swedish stigma felt very arrogant. Especially the bits about how good Sweden is in Eurovision and the Martin Österdahl segment. Sorta glad that one backfired but it was uncomfortable to see the organizers being booed even when deserved. It makes me sad because it shows not even on a supposedly peaceful contest we are able to get it work these days. All I am hoping for that all the obstacles in the EBU will be solved (if we cannot ask for a better political situation, we can only hope) and that all the bitter tastes from Swedish dominance and double-standard attitudes will decrease a bit next year. It felt not nice how all the situation were handled with such an arrogant attitude but I try to remain optimist. I liked all the top 4 and Nemo, as uncomfortable as this year was, felt like a nice winner. In their press conference they came across as very humble and, in all swiss manner, not trying to stir the pot but being outspoken when it was right to be so.

 

[crashworld]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1789452430389715114

Ireland crying behind the stage. "F--k the EBU. I don't even care anymore. F--k them!"

 

[shameless]

Yeah, unfortunately I get that vibe from them as well. I know so many younger people in the queer scene in Berlin who have a similar attitude. Whenever they feel the smallest injustice towards themselves, the cry out is big and their attitude becomes very aggressive. I don't think this attitude is helping in any way to get what they (or we, as I feel) want. It moreso backfires when you do not even seem to understand that modesty can be a subversive way of making people listen to you more.

 

[crashworld]

Yeah, unfortunately I get that vibe from them as well. I know so many younger people in the queer scene in Berlin who have a similar attitude. Whenever they feel the smallest injustice towards themselves, the cry out is big and their attitude becomes very aggressive. I don't think this attitude is helping in any way to get what they (or we, as I feel) get the respect that they want. It moreso backfires when you do not even seem to understand that modesty can be a subversive way of making people listen to you more.

Shhhh, don't say this out loud. I am going to report this is as hate speech. /s

 

[lacrymea]

Germany left side is the real story here, very well done Isaak

I was so happy for our dear German friends here! Isaak was wonderful, I knew he was gonna do good.

 

[Realest]

Average TV:

#1 Croatia 2,694444444
#2 Ukraine 3,333333333 (+1)
#3 Israel 3,444444444 (-1)
#4 France 4,916666667
#5 Switzerland 4,972222222
#6 Ireland 7,666666667
#7 Italy 8,666666667
#8 Armenia 9,972222222 (+1)
#9 Lithuania 10,88888889 (+1)
#10 Greece 11,38888889 (-2)
#11 Finland 13,08333333 (+3)
#12 Sweden 13,41666667 (-1)
#13 Latvia 14,13888889 (+3)
#14 Spain 14,19444444 (+8)
#15 Estonia 14,44444444 (-2)
#16 Cyprus 14,75 (-2)
#17 Austria 15,25 (+6)
#18 Germany 15,72222222 (+1)
#19 Luxembourg 16,55555556 (+1)
#20 Norway 16,97222222 (+4)
#21 Serbia 18,38888889 (-7)
#22 Georgia 18,5 (-4)
#23 UK 20,41666667 (+2)
#24 Portugal 20,77777778 (-4)
#25 Slovenia 22,11111111 (-4)

 

[jatojo]

Fyr & Flamme was a qualifier with televoters.

If you include Ireland, 7 out of the top-11 sang in a native language. And that’s with The Netherlands out of the competition. I think there’s room for Swedish/Danish/Norwegian/Icelandic on the left side of the board if a song in Finnish can win the televote.

And if you take away the freaky party songs and only look at the Germanic languages, there really isn't much left. Netherlands had a ballad with a quite good result in 2022. I think a midtempo song in Norwegian, Swedish or Danish would have a hard time.

 

[aglm1988]

womp womp

You continue with the bullying..

 

[Pamuk]

Hi everyone. As someone who’s been reading this forum for ages but never decided to actually write, it seems a bit weird to have this as my first post but it is what it is lol

Congrats to Baby Lasagna, you made Croatia so so proud this year. Entering Croatian’s national selection as a replacement (shame on you, HRT, worthless bunch of spineless losers), crushing it as an absolute underdog and finally giving Croatia its best ESC ranking ever. Couldn’t be more proud of this awesome, down to earth guy, who was the only single author of his song. Thank you for this awesome ESC experience you gave us

But still can’t help myself not feeling slightly heartbroken and crushed.
I absolutely do agree that juries are necessary to filter some things out and to make it more balanced.
But winner who ends up 5th in a televote with a single 10/12 point doesn’t seem to me as “a balanced result” tbh. So many jurors agreeing on a single song seems rather strange to me. Just as I find extremely annoying, as someone previously mentioned, jurors consistently putting a single country last (Armenia/Azerbaijan situation). What’s the point of such jurors?

In addition I also feel that countries who are small and - I don’t want to say less significant - but with less political and ESC impact might be the happier wording to it, and especially if they come with not so big diaspora, just have to do everything at least 200% better than ESC giants to have any chances at all. I also agree with someone who said that we all know the rules, how the ranking system works, and with participating in the show, we accept it as it is so this whole rant of mine is probably pointless. So maybe countries like, for example, Bulgaria which decided to withdraw just figured it out right… Why even bother… Hopefully I’ll feel differently in few months after being done with licking my wounds.

That being said, I like Nemo’s song and they were among my favorites. I’m glad we have a country that hasn’t win in a long time hosting again. Congrats Switzerland and wish you host an amazing show next year.

 

[MopManMoss]

Couple of former artists on the juries this year however the juror the stuck out to me the most was Vanessa Cum from Luxembourg

 

[Lugano]

All the booing, humiliation and the toxic that were sent to Eden forced the televote, the people who felt sorry for what she is going through to vote for her. That’s why she got 12 points even from countries like Sweden and Finland who usually gave the maximum points to their Nordic neighbours.

It is insane that you would think that it's about Eden at all from either side. The abnormal votes for Israel are the result of right and far-right Europe seizing the opportunity to make a statement. Why would anyone deny this?

 

[Looren]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1789452430389715114

Ireland crying behind the stage. "F--k the EBU. I don't even care anymore. F--k them!"

They seem like such a lovely person, bless them