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Newsletter: Countdown to Kyiv… Written by on March 20, 2017 | 1 Comment

Now that the dust has settled on National Final season, it’s time for the ESC Insight team to survey the wreckage and mourn for what might have been in the latest Eurovision Newsletter from John Lucas.

Along with the latest news from the Heads of Delegation meeting in Kyiv, the ESC Insight look back over the National Finals in this week’s newsletter. You can read this week’s edition and sign up here, but first some highlights…

Which National Final Result Disappointed You The Most?

Ellie Chalkley
I wasn’t so much disappointed as taken by surprise by the result of the Lithuanian selection ultra-marathon. I couldn’t even remember hearing Rain of Revolution in the early stages? Why can’t we have nice Greta Zazza-type things?

John Egan
Sweden’s Melodifestivalen. I purposely didn’t watch much of the semis so I would approach the final with open ears and eyes. The most striking entry of the year (Loreen’s) didn’t make it through the televote-only gauntlets. Half of the finalists used different sequences of the same shots (changing background colour doesn’t hide it), making it clear who SVT wanted to win. How else could Wiktoria’s lame spinning bed have been vetted? And why didn’t they just leave Jon Henrik in one position and build the performance around him? But it could have been worse: Mariette could have won. I won’t be surprised if I Can’t Go On finished 12th in the GF. It’s so bloody smarmy and unctuous.

Ben Robertson
Melodifestivalen: Not for the actual winner, but for the result process itself. Unaccountable juries had decided a winner that was impossible to overturn with televotes because the app votes again made results converge in the middle. For all of Melfest’s great entertainment, the voting reveal at the end was atrocious TV.

Lisa-Jayne Lewis
Spain’s NF was an absolute shambles. As far as I could tell it was an internal selection thinly disguised as a national selection. TVE really need to take a look at the aftermath of this year, have some serious debrief meetings and not try to pull the same stunt next year.

Ewan Spence
Malta Eurovision Song Contest. The move to 100% televoting in a relatively small community meant that the artist’s name overpowered any other consideration. Even though ‘Kewkba’ was one of the best songs of the NF season, I correctly called the victor of the popularity contest on the strength of the entry list months before the broadcast, and I hate being able to do that.

Sharleen Wright
Lithuania. It ran for weeks and weeks, lost known act Sasha Song along the way, had 2 potential pop qualifiers in its final mix (including one penned by Aminata) and a massive talking point in Lolita Zero, but then produced a winner that is quite likely the most forgettable tune in the contest.

Remember, you can stay up to date with all of the latest Eurovision news and analysis on ESC Insight. You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

About The Author: John Lucas

A writer and content marketing professional with a passion for getting lost in strange cities and a strange fascination with micro states, John has been with ESC Insight since 2015 and has also had his writing featured in publications including The Guardian, Popjustice and So So Gay. Tweetable @JLucas86.

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One response to “Newsletter: Countdown to Kyiv…”

  1. dimitris esc says:

    Spain and Malta were particularly bad.It wasn’t a really strong MF year,either but i wouldn’t agree with Ben Robertson that the juries picked the winner.Last year,Frans was 23 pts ahead of the second in televoting so Nano would have won IF he was a clear televoting favorite but he wasn’t and no one else was for that matter that’s why the jury vote was so decisive.

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