Re: FRANCE 2016
The question of the random draw of the running order will continue for years. Personally I was taken aback by the truly awful allegations against Christer Björkman and Sweden in general regarding this issue 2012-13. I guess I was and still am in a defensive position and it kind of overshadows the issue in itself. Basically my opinion is that it is understandable that a producer want full control of the flow of songs. It is the main aspect of the show and in the end will decide the quality and entertainment value of the program. The competition part isn't and has not ever been the most important part imo and I really think the discussion of "fair" rules is a bit silly considering the many influencing factors and the very nature of the contest.
Also, a random draw of the running order isn't necessarily more fair than a producer made list. You never see it sports for example. The only advantage is that a random draw will eliminate possibility of corruption in the perception that certain spots are more favourable/unfavourable than others. You got to ask who on earth would be willing to pay the amount of money needed to make a producer take the risk of being bribed just to alter the running order? And who is interested in bribing anything really in an event like Eurovision? If the producer allow himself/herself to be biased and deliberately sabotage a contribution due to for example favouritism or just personal preferences, he/she is obviously the wrong person in that position and it directly reflects the standard of the broadcasting company.
I think the poor French results in Eurovision 2015 is obvious (not saying the song was bad but as I said before a bit
malplacé in many respects
). In the case of
Amandine and
Twin Twin the results are much more surprising.
Moustache even made it to the charts in many countries after the contest (I even commented it would enter the Swedish charts before it happened). The French contributions tends to be a bit anonymous, a fate shared with the other prequalifiers and there's the reason I think. France needs to be in the semi finals on equal terms along with the others.
I got your point. But in my humble opinion (I don't regard it as a general truth), some rules made for the sake of entertainment are unfortunately used to other less legit purposes as well. Even in Melodifestivalen, I've always found that rule unfair because only Björkman's faves get the good starting positions, but I could stand it since he's in charge of that show. However, applying this rule to Eurovision - that is an international event - sounded more fishy than necessary to me. To be honest, I think they did a pretty good job at mixing everyone so far, the lineups were smooth and pleasant to go through, but I just can't ignore the patterns. Some countries are expendable and some others aren't. It's totally safe to give a bad starting position to San Marino or Latvia in the semis, on the contrary, I highly doubt Russia or Sweden would get the same treatment. Producers seem to avoid messing with countries that are considered "popular" in the contest. Don't get me wrong, I don't hate any country, it's just that my feelings haven't been contradicted so far.
And somehow it kind of kills the "unpredictable-ness" of it all, why start with an uptempo/feel-good song and close a semi with a hot favourite most of the time? Had we had no random draw in 2012, no way we would have had "Euro Neuro" to open the first semi
There shouldn't be money involved necessarily, but from the moment when a bunch of people meet, listen to the entries and decide on a running order, there is a big part of subjectivity involved, that's what I criticize.
As for bribery, there is corruption in every single event that involves several countries, so I'd be surprised if Eurovision wasn't affected by it. For several countries, the contest is a big opportunity to showcase themselves (e.g. Azerbaijan), it's a fantastic advertisement, so I wouldn't consider it as an event with minor impact. Winning or getting a great final placing make people pay attention to you.
As for my country, I'm not biased, I'm aware our recent entries weren't that good, still who would have thought (even among us, fans) "L'Enfer et Moi" would have been the ultimate final opener or "N'oubliez Pas" would have been truly higlighted in 2nd place?
"Moustache" was one of those songs I talked about in my previous post - it was there to separate alleged better contenders (Sanna and the Tolmachevy Sisters in that case). Performing after "Undo" was a death sentence anyway, the contrast was too huge with our silly act.
With Twin Twin, we got our worst result ever, and I'm truly delighted by that. Didn't even deserve 2 points tbh.
I was fearing it would do a "Allez Ola Olé" kind of impact, thankfully not.
As a French person, that was particularly embarrassing.
But of course we need to step up our game, that's all I ask: get rid of our cheap no-hopers and start being bold.
