Eurovision news doesn’t quiet down over the winter holidays, far from it. Therefore we enlist Ben Robertson to sum up the latest Eurovision headlines into one easy to reach place, our ESC Insight Newsletter.
With news on the selections from Belarus and Albania as well as the developments happening on the ground in Vienna read it here to keep abreast of the latest developments in the Eurovision bubble.
As always the newsletter features Robertson’s Reflection with our the views of our resident writer on the latest Eurovision news. This week the news comes from the drama unfolding after Belarus’ final.
“The 15-song show was varied and interesting with a mix of well-constructed ballads and up-tempo songs and classic moments of Eurovision comedy. Only Belarus could allow people to pay for adverts to promote their entry during the commercial breaks. Only Belarus would let their failed selection entries assemble as a cobbled together interval act. Only Belarus would create Twitter and Facebook explosions suggesting jury bribes and fixed competitions.
Seemingly though the common belief that Belarus was the hotbed of Eurovision corruption is a misconception based on the outcome this year. One indication of this is firstly in the jury voting patterns. The above photo captures the total votes after the competition with the points from each individual juror taking up one column. There is correlation and agreement between the jurors, but nothing approaching the levels of previous years or the 90% correlation rates Belarussian jury members had in the Eurovision Grand Final 2014 (the only song for any juror to have a difference of opinion of more than ten ranking points was that divisive little Polish number, and yes it was a difference of opinion from the female jury members).”
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