United Kingdom UNITED KINGDOM 2024 - Olly Alexander - Dizzy

[ESC United Mod Team]

 

[Leydan]

Ordinarily I am not a prude at all I don't know why I'm bothered about overly sexual stuff at Eurovision to be honest

Maybe because you think of it as a family show, idk. I had a discussion about Eurovision being a family show with my step dad a few weeks ago that got somewhat heated. The argument revolving around the overtly sexualised performances and the jokes/references made throughout the rest of the show.

 

[HarryUK]

Tbh I always forget Eurovision is advertised as a family show

Put the little shits in bed and LETS SEE SOME MEN

 

[MopManMoss]

Tbh I always forget Eurovision is advertised as a family show

Put the little shits in bed and LETS SEE SOME MEN

To be fair we live in some of the only countries where it is on at a reasonable time and is more accessible for families, most of Europe it's on pretty late

 

[HarryUK]

To be fair we live in some of the only countries where it is on at a reasonable time and is more accessible for families, most of Europe it's on pretty late

You say that as if my friend in Croatia wasn’t doing the Rim Tim Tagi Dim dance with her 4 year old niece during the split screen

 

[Aitonimi]

I don't get why brits got 0 from public. The show was pretty amazing as a live performance, that was a pretty complex choreo, and well done with the camera work! Song was pretty great! Singing not too bad! Deserved more!

 

[MooseShoes]

Tbh I always forget Eurovision is advertised as a family show

Put the little shits in bed and LETS SEE SOME MEN

As someone with kids I was going to complain about this.

Then I remembered that neither of them liked Luktelk so they can sod off.

 

[ArmpitOfEurope]

Im still shocked about the result this got, I -....
I mean, not a single tele point with impressive staging and a memorable, provocative theme? It seemed impactful to me ( I ended up voting for it )
Of course it had its cons ( not competitive enough as a song, weird facial impressions ) but not even 30-40 tele??

 

[toinou03]

Well, there was all the controversy around the staging, which I liked for its originality, although being dubious on "that moment".
At the end of the day, the audience choses... and hated it.
I would have never imagined it getting 0 from the public ! Because it is a good song, but not impactful enough, and the vocals in the final were very very bad.
It's a shame because for once the BBC tried very hard (and not picked some random people in Yorkshire with a random ballad...) and chose a biggish name. And it had a James Newman effect... Probably people expect more from the UK, I'd say...

 

[jatojo]

It's a shame because for once the BBC tried very hard (and not picked some random people in Yorkshire with a random ballad...) and chose a biggish name. And it had a James Newman effect... Probably people expect more from the UK, I'd say...

The problem is that the relation between being a succesful pop artist and getting success at Eurovision has weakened. The average successful pop song is doing badly at Eurovision because the public and the juries are looking for something extraordinary. Midtempo songs are almost per se not extraordinary.

I'm not a fan of this tendency, but that's how it is. If I were an established pop singer, I wouldn't risk participating at Eurovision these days.

 

[SpiritofKeiino]

The problem is that the relation between being a succesful pop artist and getting success at Eurovision has weakened. The average successful pop song is doing badly at Eurovision because the public and the juries are looking for something extraordinary. Midtempo songs are almost per se not extraordinary.

I'm not a fan of this tendency, but that's how it is. If I were an established pop singer, I wouldn't risk participating at Eurovision these days.

It is high risk alright. It has paid off for Slimane (an established French artist), but he came to Malmo with a much stronger package than the UK. I'm sure there are other names who regret participating.

 

[jatojo]

It is high risk alright. It has paid off for Slimane (an established French artist)

He is an example of an artist who can do it relatively risk free: He has a very strong voice. And you can't take that away from him even if people don't vote massively in his favour. Same with Hera Björk. But if you are a, say, Zara Larsson kind of artist, then many will look at what you did wrong if you don't get a top result. And the disappointment may stick to you.

That's one of the reasons why Norway and Sweden are successful at song contests. Many of their best singers are used to participating at shows that involve some kind of voting, and although many of them don't win, they just come back the next year or at some other contest. In many other countries, it's not like that at all.

 

[musicfan]

Or sometimes find a song that is so good, it will win no matter what,

That's an extremely utopian view of Eurovision.

Anyway for what it's worth I never liked it. I don't think most British people did, despite the predictable highlighting of 'whingers' here.

I don't really care about placements anyway, plus he represents the BBC not me. He's also done a Mae Muller, apparently he's rather ambivalent about the UK lol. Why people like this get picked I really don't know. BBC wokeism or just awful research? Let's see if they get a hat trick of them next year.

 

[Sammy]

I still enjoy listening to this. It has pet shop boys- and jimmy summerville-vibes, and it gives me the feeling of those artists who stood in the front line of a proud and empowered gay movement when the general acceptance was way weaker than today. Olly - whether he does it consciously or not - is paying tribute to those important role models and he does it very very well. Thank you UK for sending him and making this one of my absolute favorites this year.

 

[toinou03]

The problem is that the relation between being a succesful pop artist and getting success at Eurovision has weakened. The average successful pop song is doing badly at Eurovision because the public and the juries are looking for something extraordinary. Midtempo songs are almost per se not extraordinary.

I'm not a fan of this tendency, but that's how it is. If I were an established pop singer, I wouldn't risk participating at Eurovision these days.

I think we can even say there is no relationship between relative pop success and success in Eurovision. Knowing that Olly has a hit and is somehow famous, but I believe that most people watching the show had no idea who he is. I don't believe that random French people have any idea of who is Olly Alexander. It's not Adele or Ed Sheeran entering.

But yes, a midtempo is not the best option for sure .

As for established people, well... it depends what you have to offer in the end.
In France it has been profitable to most people who entered, even the ones who failed.
Some stayed unknown like they were before like Alma or Alvan & Ahez but can benefit from the Eurovision label to do gigs. La Zarra said it was the worst thing she did in her career but she became super famous. Amir became a superstar, same for Barbara Pravi.
The only tragic one has been Amaury Vassili.
He had a very successful career before Eurovision and kind of vanished after the contest...

 

[jatojo]

Knowing that Olly has a hit and is somehow famous, but I believe that most people watching the show had no idea who he is.

I agree. But I wasn't thinking so much about getting points by being a well-known artist as about being able to sing and maybe even compose a song that becomes successful at Eurovision. It's seems there is most often a big gap between what is appreciated at Eurovision and what is appreciated in the everyday music business. I'm not even sure that a slightly above average Taylor Swift song would get into the top 20. The most Taylor Swift-ish song this year was Poland's, and it didn't qualify. (The vocals weren't brilliant, but how many famous pop singers can deliver perfectly on stage without autotune?)

La Zarra said it was the worst thing she did in her career but she became super famous. Amir became a superstar, same for Barbara Pravi.
The only tragic one has been Amaury Vassili.
He had a very successful career before Eurovision and kind of vanished after the contest...

Well, La Zarra got some hype already at the release, and her vocals were quite good. A 16th spot is respectable. Amir and Pravi did even better, so it's no wonder that they gained popularity from that. Pravi is also a very strong singer, so even if she had ended worse in the ranking, she wasn't in danger of losing reputation.

I had forgotten about Vassili. It's a genre song, only for certain people in the juries. France tends to do a little better in the voting than most other countries would with similar songs.

 

[HarryUK]

I’ve seen several fan outlets describing the UK as well as Malta as “non televote friendly countries”. I think that needs to be addressed, god knows how though

 

[musicfan]

Probably a non televote friendly national broadcaster but it's not really that applicable with this song anyway because I don't see why it would be that popular. Yes it may be radio friendly but how many people listen to songs on the radio and follow the charts now? Surely way less than even a couple of decades ago. Investing money in doing music videos and not making the music stand out isn't a great policy for the BBC if they want better placings.

The reason France can send generic style French songs is probably the anti-English language sentiment. Italy also likely gets that boost year after year. If you have a different established identity like that it will help. The English language pop scene in Europe may be dominated more by Swedish europop influence.

Quite apart from the BBC's misunderstanding of what is cool in Eurovision terms Olly Alexander showed he was completely out of touch with the staging. Maybe he thinks he's a lot bigger than he is? Even in the UK most won't have heard of him and like Mae Muller he's not exactly intelligent in interviews either. Ultimately he represents himself and the BBC. His fans (of which there were clearly a vocal minority outside of the UK and not just the home minority) probably liked it, but outside of that bubble why would it stand out? At least the German singer had stronger vocals with a song that the vocals had to carry. The BBC is investing money in staging now but doing it for so-so songs.

Those who pay the license fee may be pissed off but I don't have a TV so it's irrelevant to me. I don't think most see it as a vital promotion of British music. We know for other places it has been more important as they haven't had so much international exposure in the past.

 

[Milos-BC]

I didn't expect the song to get 0 on the televoting, but I did find the whole performance to be very offputing and messy. I didn't like it at all.

A similar situation to 2011 when, yet again, a very decent song was ruined by bad staging.

I hope BBC will learn a lesson from this.

 

[Fluke]

Maybe you would have liked it more if it had been Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Shadow and Silver in the shower instead?