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Eurovision anyone? | ||
 Language Learning Forum : Music, Movies, TV & Radio |  | |
| Ogrim Heptaglot Senior Member France Joined 4641 days ago 991 posts - 1896 votes  Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, French, Romansh, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Catalan, Latin, Greek, Romanian | Message 9 of 20 17 May 2013 at 9:35am | IP Logged |
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I am not a Eurovision geek or a specialist on Eurosong history at all, but I remember that for some years, probably back in the 1980-1990s(?), each country had to use their national language (or one of the national languages if several), so only UK and Ireland would be singing in English. Belgium would switch between French and Dutch every second year, and Switzerland regularly varied between German, French and Italian, and even had a song in Romansh once. Then for some reason this was changed and you could use whatever language you wanted, which of course led most to sing in English, in the belief that this would enhance their chances of winning. I think the only countries that have consistently used their national language is France and Spain.
Sure I will watch the final. Like most people I do not think Eurovision reflects the real quality of pop music in Europe (honestly, it is pretty bad), but i think it is fun because it is camp, it plays on national stereotypes, it is competition in a friendly and amusing way which gives an insight into the relations between European countries (why do Norway always give Sweden a lot of votes, wonder?), and it has this nice element of multilingualism, even if English tends to dominate. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| montmorency Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4830 days ago 2371 posts - 3676 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Danish, Welsh | Message 10 of 20 17 May 2013 at 11:36am | IP Logged |
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I don't think anyone in Britain takes it terribly seriously (after all, who would have
put up poor old Engelbert Humperdinck if they had been taking it seriously), but people watch it for a laugh, and enjoy the costumes and the spectacle, and occasionally there is even a good song. Who can forget Abba's appearance? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6911 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 11 of 20 17 May 2013 at 5:38pm | IP Logged |
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If I remember correctly, the language restriction was lifted in 1973 (for instance, Abba sang "Waterloo" in English in 1974), reinstalled 1977, and then removed again in 1999.
Yeah, people - say, in Swedish media - usually react to supposed voting blocs and other kinds of geographical voting. But nobody here bats en eylid when Sweden gives 12 points to one of our neighbours and vice versa. Why would they vote for another country? ;) Enjoy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voting_at_the_Eurovision_Song_C ontest#Regional_block_voting 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| renaissancemedi Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Greece Joined 4360 days ago 941 posts - 1309 votes Speaks: Greek*, Ancient Greek*, EnglishC2 Studies: French, Russian, Turkish, Modern Hebrew | Message 12 of 20 17 May 2013 at 7:50pm | IP Logged |
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Tell me about it. Geographical voting is deliciously evil, but everybody protests for everyone else doing it, when in fact nobody is blameless.
This year will be very interesting in that aspect. We can't vote for Cyprus, and almost all balcan countries are out of the final so they can't vote for eachother. On the other hand scandinavia, the nordic and baltic states are very present. I wonder where will all the votes go, hehe. Denmark is very promoted, but I don't think that song is that amazing! I can't believe how upset people get over this, I laugh a lot every year with the voting debate! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Medulin Tetraglot Senior Member Croatia Joined 4670 days ago 1199 posts - 2192 votes Speaks: Croatian*, English, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Norwegian, Hindi, Nepali | Message 13 of 20 17 May 2013 at 10:22pm | IP Logged |
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ex-YU countries are going to vote for Denmark.
In all Croatian Internet polls she is the winner. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Gomorritis Tetraglot Groupie Netherlands Joined 4280 days ago 91 posts - 157 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English, Catalan, French Studies: Greek, German, Dutch | Message 14 of 20 17 May 2013 at 10:31pm | IP Logged |
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I will probably watch it, as many of my friends (mostly Greeks) seem very interested in it. As for me, I profoundly
dislike almost every song in it. Last year I had the idea of voting every song from 0 to 10 and the highest grade I gave was a 5. And I still might have been too generous. However I really like the voting. If I'm not mistaken, countries out of the final can also vote in it, so it's actually better to be the only country within a coalition, and this would make Greece very lucky this year since their song seems to be designed to appeal to other Balkan countries. By the way, isn't there also a historical Greece-Spain coalition? It's funny how lately Spain votes Romania cause it's mainly Romanian immigrants in Spain voting. European diaspora is also a key to success in Eurovision. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| embici Triglot Senior Member CanadaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4612 days ago 263 posts - 370 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Greek | Message 15 of 20 18 May 2013 at 3:01am | IP Logged |
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Most people in Canada haven't heard of Eurovision and it's not on TV so, no, I
guess I won't be watching. Edited by embici on 18 May 2013 at 3:02am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| renaissancemedi Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Greece Joined 4360 days ago 941 posts - 1309 votes Speaks: Greek*, Ancient Greek*, EnglishC2 Studies: French, Russian, Turkish, Modern Hebrew | Message 16 of 20 18 May 2013 at 7:50am | IP Logged |
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I have a friend who is Danish, so a eurovision contest next year could be a good excuse to visit her :) Not that I would give money to attend the final or anything. Come to think of it, who knows how we will be next year. Oh, well, alcohol is free...
The greek song is actually about the crisis, not getting drunk.In fact it has some clever lyrics, and to the point. I was impressed by the language of Iceland, listening to their song. Some sounds are similar to ours, which I didn't know was the case. I also like the Malta song. Does Malta have a language of its own? It's English every year, as far as I can remember (I'm no expert though). Oh, well, Κυριακή κοντή γιορτή (we will soon know!). 1 person has voted this message useful |
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