Howdy all. It’s been a few weeks now since Eurovision 2024 in Malmo, Sweden. I was travelling at the time and consumed a lot more social media commentary on this year’s contest than I normally do before even seeing the contest. As it stands I’ve seen the first semi-final and the final, I haven’t seen the second semi-final at all and to be fair I skipped almost all the voting because unless you’re watching it live or without knowing the result, it’s very hard to watch a gazillion countries declare their votes.

Twenty-One years ago I was going through a super tough year, I would say 2003 was the hardest year I’ve had to get through as I dealt with the after effects of a severe peanut allergic reaction at the of 2022 and the after effects of being on the anti-malarial Larium at the time too. It was then that I discovered Eurovision and watched the contest for the first time. It was silly, but full of so much happiness and joy. It was not nearly as slick or over the top as what we see today, and I think that appealed to me too. What we’ve seen in the last ten years is the contest become massive. In 2004 I went to Istanbul and Taksim Square – the contest was in Istanbul that year – and watched in there in front of a big screen. It was not a packed square, there might have been fifty of us.

What was a curiosity for those out of Europe, has grown immeasurably. Winning has actually become important. In 2003 you just had the final. In 2004 they introduced a semi-final to include more of Europe. Within another year or three there were two semi-finals. Today it all feels out of control (at least they haven’t added any more semi finals).

Honestly I don’t sit down to enjoy the contest each year like I used to. I still have an interest, but whereas I used to wait for each song with anticipation, in 2024 you can check out the songs and video clips well before the contest if you want. I see that people on social media complain and complain that it’s ‘political’. But it always has been. And then again, it seems more political by far than it ever has in 2024. People are so freaking angry. It’s a song contest. It has always been political but people never used to get so angry about it.

There are a few things that are really pushing people and I wanted to touch on them after what was the saddest and angriest Eurovision Song Contest EVER this year. The most obvious one is Israel’s appearance. But I really don’t want to go into that because it’s not something anyone is capable of talking about without getting really angry regardless of whether you are for or against their appearance. As a result there was extreme booing in the auditorium and protests outside the auditorium and in Malmo.

Booing is not a new thing at Eurovision, in fact t.A.T.u who performed in 2003 for Russia were greeted with a lot of boos, however this was mostly because it was reported they behaved appalling back stage and at rehearsals. However, Russia has certainly copped plenty of boos over the years. Other political statements came in terms of voting – the UK copped a severe backlash after the Iraq War where it struggled to register any votes for a number of years.

One ‘controversy’ that has made people mad of late is the voting system. In 2024, as has been the case for quite a few years now, they have the televote and the ‘jury’ vote where a jury of experts from each country gives points to the songs. They combine the votes to get the total vote and the song with the most votes over all is declared the winner.

Today people are angry when the winner of the televote, the ‘people’s champion’ as some are calling it, doesn’t go on to win. That has been the case last year and this year. This year Croatia won the televote with their act ‘Baby Lasagne’, but it was ‘Nemo’ and their song ‘The Code’ that came out on top. Personally, I liked the winning song.

Voting in Eurovision has always caused controversy. There wasn’t always a televote. In fact juries were used up until and into the 1990s. Even once it became a televote some countries couldn’t organise it and decided to just use a jury anyway. This was only one or two I should add. Fans got fed up because the televote (it’s just voting via your telephone) resulted in what they call ‘block voting’. Groups of countries would vote for each other. The Balkan countries would mostly vote for their neighbours, countries with lots of Russians living their would vote for Russia, the Baltics also for each other and that resulted in a couple of surprise wins for Estonia and Latvia back in 2001 and 2002.

So the juries were brought in, or reintroduced if you will, to counter balance this. Oh and Greece and Cyprus always swapped votes and the large Turkish population in Germany ensured that Turkey regularly got 12 votes from Germany. So is a jury/televote the answer? Perhaps not but to be fair what options are out there? Is this fairer than a straight televote? We still have wins that are fuelled by public opinion of a country – Ukraine’s win in 2022 for example. There is still a televote. And people apparently are allowed to vote up to 20 times. Which frankly I was surprised to learn because that does bring into question the integrity of the vote. Perhaps combine the votes together before announcing? Don’t actually show the televote as a separate number? But then that’s less transparent.

The other big controversy this year was the disqualification of the Netherlands, who were one of the favourites to win. I won’t go into the few details I know of because I don’t know how accurate they are, but the artist ‘JOOST’ did something backstage that is being looked into by the police and he could, if he hasn’t already, be charged. There’s been an outcry over this as well, but who really knows what went on? I mean, obviously there are people who do but all I’ve seen is speculation.

This year’s winner, Nemo from Switzerland, identifies as non-binary and as such is the first non-binary winner of the contest. They weren’t the only non-binary participant though, we also had Bambie Thug from Ireland who was one of the most controversial contestants this year. What I did feel, and her song is one example, is that the entries are more ‘performance art’ rather than ‘songs’. There are less and less jingles that stay with you after the show has finished. Then we had the Finish entry this year which featured a man with his ‘junk’ out. Then a pair of tight denim shorts is lowered by wires and he puts them on and fireworks shoot out of them. It’s a bit of a rubbish gimmick I feel, and although the TV version is cleverly shot to avoid the audience seeing it, I presume that it was visible in the auditorium. Actually one huge bugbear that I have is that the acts are now designed for the audience members watching on TV, the crowd in the stadium is there just to provide background noise. The British entry Ollie Alexander – his song was pretty much performed inside a box tightly shot so you can’t see how it was set up on stage. So basically it could have been a video clip. The audience there does I guess get a big screen, so they can see what the television audience does.

Anyways, that’s my rant. I long for simpler days. But like everything in the world, things change and move on and morph into what you see now. And in ten years time, it will be something else again. I do hope though that Eurovision can find a way to reduce the animosity that has been displayed by fans (and indeed people who never even cared for Eurovision but wanted to say something anyway), and the contestants (because there was a lot of animosity between the contestants this year and frankly a lot of it seems totally immature). Because I used to look forward to the next contest and I would like to again.

The one shining light though this year for me was the appearance of Herreys, who won the contest back in 1984 with this super catchy number ‘Diggi Loo Diggi Ley’. This group of three brothers appeared at the end of the second semi-final (this is the only part I’ve watched) and nailed it FORTY YEARS LATER. And they sang more in tune than they did in 1984!

Thanks for reading my rant today. Take care wherever you are in the world, May the Journey Never End!