So, we’re going to Austria next year. The provisional dates (May 16th for the Grand Final) still need to be confirmed, as does the host city, but the infrastructure suggests we’re going to start planning a trip to Vienna for May 2015.
Excellent!
That, of course, is only the starting point for our journey, the host broadcaster ORF’s journey, and that of the Contest, as the cycle building up to another winner is under way.
This Means Nothing To Me
But first, let’s get Midge Ure out of the way…
A Viennese Waltz For Wurst
While so much of the 2015 Song Contest has yet to be decided (ORF are probably still reading through the EBU’s ‘Dummies Guide To Hosting Eurovision’, Conchita Wurst’s manager said at the winner’s press conference made it clear that option is on the table. Rene Berto is a formidable force, and if he wants Ms. Wurst to host, she’s going to host, and I’d expect her to train, rehearse, and practice for the gig just as intensively as she did to sing ‘Rise Like A Phoenix’.
One little point though…as much as we’re sure that Wurst could handle hosting duties solo, if ORF were to ask Christoph Waltz to be her co-host, the ESC Insight team would be very happy. If they played a round of ‘Der Humpink’….squee!!!
An Opening Soiree in the Vienna Concert Hall
Every EBU member already has a close relationship with Geneva, but the annual New Year’s Day Concert across the Eurovision network is an institution that ORF handle with supreme delicacy every year. I’ve no doubt that the experience of the classical music concert will come in useful as the Song Contest is planned, and if ORF are sneaky, it would not surprise me one bit to hear some Marc-Antoine Charpentier on January 1st 2015.
And can you imagine an Opening Concert taking place in the Great Hall of the Wiener Musikverein?
A #Classy And #Fabulous Hashtag
Conchita Wurst has already brought a high level of elegance and class to the 2014 Contest, and I hope that those key words will guide ORF as they plan the Contest. I’m not quite sure they work as hashtags for the Contest; they are still a touch serious and the playful side of Eurovision should be emphasised. Junior Eurovision has already nabbed #together (which would have been a perfect fit) so can we go with #fabulous?
We need a fabulous party for everybody (picture: Denis McEvoy)
Red Bull Give You Key Changes
Because if there’s one Austrian company that the sponsorship team will be approaching, it’s Dietrich Mateschitz’s energy drinks company. After all, how can we all rise like a phoenix if we don’t have wings?
Judging The Jury
We’re going to spend some time looking through the impact that the Jury had on this year’s results over the next few weeks here on ESC Insight, but let’s sum it up briefly: a five person jury should not be able to annul the public vote in the way that many juries did with ‘My Slowianie‘ in the western countries and ‘Rise Like A Phoenix‘ in the east.
We would expect the jury scoring methods to be altered, and right now reverting back to the 2012 method would be preferable.
A Welcome Back To Old Friends
While 37 sounds a nice number, with semi-finals of 15 and 16 the current format of the Eurovision Song Contest clearly needs to bring back a few more countries to bring the numbers up in the semi-final and provide a popular show on Tuesday and Thursday night. With Slovenia and Montenegro qualifying from the Balkans with strong songs I would hope that Serbia, Croatia, and Bosnia & Herzegovina decide to come back for the 2015 Contest. Middle Europe needs to be represented as well, so let’s ask Slovakia and The Czech Republic if they want to come back to the party.
Jon Ola Sand (Alain Douit, EBU)
Hopefully Jon Ola Sand and the EBU will be able to keep Latvia on board – an appearance on the Saturday night show was felt an absolute requirement to keep them in the Song Contest. Time will tell and I hope a solution can be found. The same is true of Israel. With a new broadcaster next year replacing IBA, their continued appearance is going to need some smart reading of the rule book and a perhaps some creative form-filling-out (or maybe some advice from Greece’s NERIT)…assuming there is the drive in the country to go for it.
A Return To Malmö’s Budget
DR spent quite a bit on the 2015 Song Contest (reports vary, and I’m sure the accountants will be working out exactly which budget and money pool every line item could be shifted to). They certainly outspent SVT’s budget for the 2013 event, which was one of the most fiscally efficient Contests in recent history. Vienna has the facilities, the public transport, the airport connections, and the hotel space to run a successful Contest. I hope they can keep the costs down and prove that a smaller broadcaster can host the event, if only to kill off the consistent rumours of ‘too expensive’ and references to ‘that episode’ of Father Ted.
A Cry Of Mercy Over ‘Merci, Cheri’
I vividly remember attending the Austrian National Final in 2012, and one of the strongest memories was waiting in ORF’s atrium with the rest of the audience. And Udo Jurgens’ winning song from 1966 was on an almost constant loop. It’s going to turn up next May, I would put money on it. All I’m saying is that I don’t want to be sick of the song by Sunday May 17th.
More Record Label Backing And Chart Appearances
Just before boarding the flights away from Copenhagen, the news hit that The Common Linnets made #4 in the iTunes charts back home in the UK, with Basim, Conchita Wurst, and Molly joining the country band in the Top 20. Keeping the Eurovision Song Contest relevant to the music industry includes shifting units and selling music. It’s nice to have the Song Contest compilation CD selling well, but it’s even more important for the individual performers to sell singles and albums.
Assuming the trend continues, and the medium term results look good in the next few months, expect more record label interest in the Contest, and hopefully in the National Finals. For example, if Softengine do well post-Eurovision and become an ‘established’ band, Sony will surely be more than happy to keep supporting UMK in Finland to find and promote new artists, providing the Song Contest with a virtuous circle.
Sony will be watching Softengine’s progress this year, after all they did sign them!
Oh and there might be one or two mentions that this will be the 60th Edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. Not that anyone is counting, or would make a fuss about it…
That’s what we’re looking out for. What about you? Let us know in the comments!
A lot of this is dependent upon Vienna getting next year’s contest. isn’t it?
I suspect that there might be some racing cars, motor bikes and stunt planes getting involved too!
And don’t diss the Ted! It’s because of a Father Ted t-shirt from Tedtees.com (“I’ve got Eurosong Fever, Ted”) that I got on Malta’s selfie wall in the second rehearsal. the SF and twice in the Final in Copenhagen! I can try and dine out on that forever…
True, but it’s hard to see ORF building a stadium, so they have to use what they have… Stadtehalle
The Olympiahalle in Innsbruck is theoretically big enough (barely) for a small contest, as is the Stadthalle Graz. They could also put a roof over an existing stadium like the Danes did back in 2001 to Parken. But I agree with you that it’s almost certainly going to be in Wiener Stadthalle, much like even though DR theoretically considered Herning for this year’s contest, that was never really going to happen.
i think its boring having a semi with only 15 songs as its then impossible for shocks like greece and romania failing to qualify, on the plus side it means you can get shock qualifiers like san marino but i still find it abit boring, i think with all the central european nations qualifying this year it might convince czech republic and slovakia to come back, and with the netherlands coming second it might convince luxembourg to come back (especially since its the 60th anniversary, and as you stated with slovenia and montenegro making the cut it might convince serbia,croatia,bosnia to come back especially when were in austria which is a lot cheeper than scandinavia and is also quite close. how ever with conchita’s victory i feel that russia may leave the contest and there already have been rumour of them leaving and it also sounds like greece are going to jump into the same boat as turkey and start complaining about the rules…. we will wait and see 🙂
another overrated uk entry is what we are expecting, you forgot to include that ewan…
See I disagree there. Molly simply didn’t perform well, even on the jury night (although on a pure Jury vote she would have been 13th and left hand side of the table). What we saw live was poorer than the rehearsals, and that’s surprising. Nerves, not overhype, imo.
Would love to see Kazakhstan and Liechtenstein make their debut next year! And that Luxembourg, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Turkey, Cyprus and the balkan countries will return 🙂 and no withdrawals.. 😛
i’d say russia will withdraw as i just simply can’t see them taking part after conchita winning, i also hear greece are following turkey and are complaining about the rules.
Turkey have confirmed that will never come back to eurovision.
Just for the record, as all of my UK-based friends reach for Ultravox, my Viennese musical touchstone was this: https://youtu.be/wccRif2DaGs
Hi guys
Here is my take on some of the venues.
Vienna 2015 (Wiener Stadthalle and Messe Wien): VIENNA 2015 PLEASE!!!! Like Copenhagen, Vienna has the venues, hotels, rehearsal space and the transport. For me, Wien 2015 it is.
Graz 2015 (Stadthalle): It has the venue and anything else needed to host Eurovision. I can see this ending up like Malmö 2013 if the UPC Arena enters the race.
Innsbruck 2015 (Olympiahalle): If chosen, it would have been like Herning 2014. It has the venue. But that’s about it.
Linz 2015 (Brucknerhaus): Will this host eurovision 2015? ABSOLUTELY NOT!!!!!!!! Not having a big enough venue is bad enough. No suitable hotels or transport links. I would die if Linz hosted ESC 2015!!!!!!!
Feel free to comment. 😀 😀
Deven, it;s not just venue, it’s also transport infrastructure in the host city, the external links to the rest of Europe, the hotel/bed/accomodation situation, and the ‘hunger’ of the local council. I still think its 99% Vienna.
Hi Ewan
I understand. But I think we can safely rule out Linz 2015. To be honest with you, it will be Vienna, Klagenfurt, Graz or Innsbruck 2015.
Several points:
Dates – not sure the provisional dates will hold.
12/5-Semi Finals Champions League, 2nd leg
14/5-Semi Finals Europa League, 2nd leg(and it is also Ascension Day).
The 1st leg of the football competition is a week earlier(see link below for full program).
https://kassiesa.home.xs4all.nl/bert/uefa/calendar2014.html
Conclusion- ESC 2015 will be pushed forward to a week later.
Jury/televote system-I think the current system is quite good.Some of the semi results in 2013/2014(non qualifier/qualifiers alike)wouldn’t happen under the system of 2012. Under the 2012 the results are quite predictable. The current system make things less predictable.What it does need to address is the big discrepancies between televote and jury voting. Poland and Austria(loved by some telvoters in some countries,killed by juries of the same country) are one side of the story.Azerbaijan(loved by juries,killed by televoters) is another side of the story.
A bit off topic:
IBA – There are plans to close IBA but it’s going to take a bit longer than expected. There is going to be some legal fight about this and they still need to work out the compensation they need to pay for workers of IBA who will be laid out.But for the sake of argument, let say it will happen this year. Than it’s a question how much the EBU would like to see Israel in the competition. If the EBU wish to see Israel in the competition-they will bend the rules and give the enough time to sort this out,the same as they did with Greece this year. If the EBU doesn’t wont to see Israel in the competition, they will stick to the rules.
Greece complaining about the current scoring system is funny, because they would have scored even lower under the old rules. I can’t explain Greece’s low scoring this year. It was a fun, contemporary song. I can see why the juries wouldn’t rate it very highly, but it’s a mystery to me why there was no tele vote support for it.
And the UK scoring low wasn’t because Molly was nervous. It was an average song to begin with, with staging that simply didn’t make sense. It was kitchen sink stuff and whatever the message was of the song, it didn’t came across. I think Ireland 2013 & 2014 had the same problem. Decent songs, but not elevated by the staging/act/performance and therefore incoherent.