#But San Marino doesn't

[someone-you-do-not-know]

I kind of really don't like how the Risorgimento in Hetalia is framed as a thing done solely by Veneziano and how it supposedly came as a surprise to Romano. First of all, it was kind of a long process, so it's been boiled down way too much, but I can forgive that because it's meant to be funny.

What I can't really forgive is that Romano is made obsolete in the comic, despite how influential the South actually was in making the Risorgimento happen. Just based on the Wikipedia page (I don't have the energy to go through an actual history book rn), there was the Carboneria formed in Southern Italy, not to mention that the unification happened under the House of Savoy, which admittedly was northern, but they first gained the title of king when they took over Sicily, and later exchanged it for Sardinia. Previously, Savoy ruled over duchies, but it was first when they gained the title King of Piedmont-Sardinia they started to consider uniting Italy. Those two are just the most obvious examples, but there's plenty more if you look into it.

It's not so much that South Italy did not want the Risorgimento or had no hand in it, it's rather that the results of it ended up being a betrayal, not just to the South, but anyone who was not Piedmontese – however, that betrayal was felt especially by the South. At least that's how I'm reading it. I'm sure I still ended up simplifying it a lot, and if anyone wants to expand on this, please do so.

[anitalianfrie]

Question of the day: why does enea live in san Marino?

[sycamoreesc]

Why are you allowed to vote for your own country? That just disadvantages smaller countries

[dwarfanonymice]

Wtf? Italy is a founding member. We had this idea. Where the fuck would we go?

[idealandreal]

Marc Marquez's Greatest Hits (pre-2024)

When I first got into MotoGP and became a Marc Marquez fan, I had so wished it was easier to find races. There are so many to choose from and it was a bit daunting on where to start. I know not everyone is as neurotic as me and doesn't have the time/money to spend hours upon hours on Video Pass.

So, as more and more of us get into MotoGP/Marc Marquez I wanted to consolidate some of his greatest races (imo), and where you can watch them.

Most of his best races are actually available on YouTube for free via the MotoGP channel. I've included direct links below, but just FYI there are actually a ton of great races on MotoGPs youtube page, 10 out of 10 would recommend checking it out.

Year: 2012 Location: Valencia Why It's Good: My personal favorite race, I watch it way too often. The greatest comeback of all time, starts last and makes it through the field by the last few laps. Absolute crazy guy, but this was just the start of it all. Available On: YouTube

Year: 2013 Location: CoTA Why It's Good: First MotoGP Win Available On: YouTube

Year: 2013 Location: Silverstone Why It's Good: Rides with a broken collar bone and still is a menace to Lorenzo at the front Available On: YouTube

Year: 2014 Location: Le Mans Why It's Good: comes back after falling to 11th in pretty spectacular fashion Available On: VideoPass

Year: 2014 Location: Assen Why It's Good: A flag to flag race that also shows off Marc and Cos strategy skills and just overall balls to wall mentality. Good battle with Dovi as well, but does pretty much decimate the competition. Available On: YouTube

Year: 2015 Location: Philip Island Why It's Good: this race is insane with how many passes there are. Also the supposed start of the Rossi/Marquez beef. Available On: VideoPass

Year: 2016 Location: Mugello Why It's Good: Last lap battle with Lorenzo goes crazy. Available On: YouTube

Year: 2016 Location: Sachsenring Why It's Good: I mean, it's the Sachsenring, but this race is in the wet and really shows off Marc and Cos flag to flag skills. And other rider's lack there of…. Available On: YouTube

Year: 2016 Location: Motegi Why It's Good: If you really want to just see Marc happy and his team freaking out, this is a great race because something unexpected happens. Available On: YouTube

Year: 2017 Location: Austria Why It's Good: the infamous Dovi/Marc last corner crazy pass, also when Dovi throws up his hand and is kind of like “I can’t believe you just did that”. Available On: YouTube

Year: 2017 Location: San Marino Why It's Good: wet race and Marc has a craaaazzzy last lap. Available On: YouTube

Year: 2018 Location: Thailand Why It's Good: Marc pushes the entire race and some can’t keep the pace (queue evil laugh) Available On: YouTube

Year: 2019 Location: Austria Why It's Good: a repeat of the 2017 battle but even better in my opinion Available On: YouTube

Year: 2019 Location: Silverstone Why It's Good: Crazy last lap battle with Rins and I think this is still one of the closest finishes in MotoGP history. Available On: YouTube

Year: 2019 Location: Thailand Why It's Good: I will say that this one is not great if your a Fabio fan first and foremost, but if you are a Marc fan and know what a absolute menace he is.. I think this race is a great example of Marc's mentality about winning. Also, when he claims the 2019 MotoGP World Championship title. Available On: YouTube

Year: 2020 Location: Jerez Why It's Good: If you want to hurt your soul, this is the race where Marc's arm is nearly torn off. However, before that happens, he is incredible and this race also has the greatest double take done by Valentino when Marc comes past. Available On: Youtube

Feel free to add any that I missed in comments or reblogs.

[nedlittle]

hello besties and worsties i require your assistance

i'm trying to read at least one book from all 197-ish countries over the course of a few years and need RECOMMENDATIONS! any type of book is accepted, though i lean mainly towards historical fiction, literary fiction, and classics.

the book doesn't have to take place in that country but would be preferred! my only requirement is that the author be from said country, either living there/spending most of their life there or through diaspora (i.e. it felt wrong to exclude clarice lispector for brazil but i'm also reading a book by an afro-brazilian author)

starting with europe, here's my map thus far!

countries i've already read from are orange and countries on my tbr for are green. i'm still looking for books from the following countries: andorra, bulgaria, cyprus, czechia, kosovo, latvia, lithuania, liechtenstein, luxembourg, malta, portugal, san marino, slovakia, slovenia, and switzerland.

if you have a book for a country i've already filled in, feel free to rec it anyway! the only countries i'm not actively seeking recs for (bc i've read several books/have several on my tbr) are the uk, norway, denmark, russia, and ukraine

[unibrowzz]

Early ESC 2025 predictions

Anyways, here's what kind of bullshittery I'm expecting next year.

🇧🇬 Bulgaria: Teases a return on social media. They announce their non-participation a day later.

🇲🇨 Monaco: Someone famous from there who is not a singer announces they'll compete if Monaco enters. They are swiftly shot down by TV Monaco.

🇽🇰 Kosovo's request for an invite is ignored.

🇱🇮 Lichtenstein: Someone at 1FLTV breathes the word "Eurovision", setting the news sites alight. They do not compete.

🇺🇦 Ukraine: Jury favourite wins Vidbir. They're soon disqualified after breaking some immigration law the Ukrainian government pulled out of its ass and the televote favourite gets sent instead.

🇸🇪 Sweden: Same old, same old, clean polished pop song nobody aside from Swedish people, the ESC jury and normie televoters like. 6th place.

🇧🇪 Belgium: Goes back to an NF. Fan favourite entry (see: something with nothing noteworthy about it other than being in French) doesn't get sent. Cue butthurt.

🇫🇷 France: Does what they did last year and pulls a random bestselling artist out of a hat. Top 10 finish.

🇮🇹 Italy: Usual schtick, sends something which does gangbusters on Spotify and Apple but is ultimately held back by crappy staging and weak live vocals. Comes top 10 regardless.

🇲🇩 Moldova: It's their turn to be the next Käärijä or Baby Lasagna. Top 3 finish.

🇵🇹 Portugal: Sends a breathy-voiced Billie Eilish wannabe with a murky blue stage. Does surprisingly well.

🇮�� Ireland: Cruachan finally get into the Late Late NF Special. They lose out to some Voice UK reject and a song written by a music student from London with an Irish surname. The fandom is not pleased.

🇸🇲 San Marino: Holds another dismally long NF full of the usual rejects from other, more popular, NFs. Doesn't qualify.

🇬🇷 Greece: Hires a stable full of Melfest regulars to write a song for some bi-national diaspora born and raised anywhere in the world but Greece to perform.

🇨🇾 Cyprus: See above, just replace the bi-national with "some Australian with Greek heritage".

🇬🇧 United Kingdom: All the good artists got scared off again so we're back to one hit wonders from 20 years ago and/or absolute nobodies destined for the right side of the scoreboard. British tabloids have a field day.

[theyhavetakenovermylife]

Hiii! If you remember I'm your croatian follower, we talked about crazy balkan media and eurovision. I just switched accounts and deleted my old one. But that's besides the point because this USA vs European fans one shot made me laugh.

But I personally think the person who would give European reader the most shit about the differences would be Vern. I think he would just group all slavic accents as Russians or Europeans from bigger countries as fancy french folk etc. Or he would be kinda offended because we tend to be alot more blunt even if not with ill intentions

I also think master splinter would probably be most eager to learn and try the traditional foods and drinks.

Anyway I just wanted to share my thoughts and possibly talk to you. Unfortunately when I deleted my account I lost all the posts I liked from your blog but I'm sure I'll have more to like now on my new account. Hope you are doing well😊

Hello my favorite Croat!💚

I have a feeling that Splinter would just know a bunch of stuff about all sorts of countries, European or not. He will know a lot about traditions, and even if he has no idea what one is talking about, he will happily listen and ask questions, and even ask you to show him, how you cook certain foods.

Fucking, Vern is the time of guy that say "Europe, EU. What's the difference?", say that Slovenia and Slovakia is the same country, believe that Denmark and the Netherlands is the same country, yet somehow group Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Liechtenstein and the Netherlands as Germany. I have so many.

"Of course I know about Europe, (Y/N)! There's the UK, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Scandinavia and Russia!"

Andorra? He has never head of it. Luxembourg? Nope. Monaco? Hell no. San Marino? Doesn't ring a bell. The Vatican? - "That's just Rome".

"Isn't Ireland in the UK?"

"You know, Scandinavia. Just like Finland".

"What do you mean Yugoslavia isn't a country anymore?"

"Did that Brit really just say fag to me???"

"Greece, Italy, Spain, all the same. They are old".

"Georgia is not in Europe! It's a state, (Y/N)!"

"Speak slowly (Y/N). I don't speak European".

"Estonia? Latvia? Lithuania? What is that?"

"Moldova? What's that?"

"Romania isn't in Russia???"

"WAIT PRUSSIA ISN'T JUST OLD RUSSIA?!"

Or some inspired by things actual Americans have asked me or told me and my mom (my mom lived a year in the US in a Bible Belt state):

"Do you have phones in your home country, (Y/N)?"

"How was your first experience on a high way? No, I've never heard of the Autobahn".

"Hey, Europe. In America we speak English".

"Walkable cities are a scam".

"Wait. If you're European, (Y/N), then are you a communist?"

"Don't lie to me, (Y/N). There's no black people in European. You are all too racist for that".

And the one that almost made me throw hands:

"Denmark doesn't exist. You live in the Netherlands".

BITCH VERN, WE MIGHT BOTH BE FLAT AS FUCK, BUT OUR WINDMILLS ARE NOTHING ALIKE!!! THEY HAVE GABBER! WE HAVE DAKKE! THEY HAVE STROOPWAFEL! WE HAVE BUTTER COOKIES!! WE'RE NOT THE SAME!!!

Yeah, I feel like Vern would get more than a few slaps from a European reader😂

[hasdrubal-gisco]

Eurovision '25 Semifinal 1 Early Review

Content and spoiler warning for Estonia, Iceland, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Sweden, Ukraine, Albania, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, The Netherlands, Norway, San Marino, Italy, Spain, Switzerland

Estonia - One of the few ones I've heard in advance of this review, have also been a fan of Tommy Cash for years. I heard he had to change the song because it was racist against Italians (it is). At time of writing, I think this will be in my Top 3. Based/10

Iceland - This is not good. This is nostalgia-bait for millenials and I will not fall for it. You are not Lindsey Stirling, you will never be Lindsey Stirling. For some reason they are flying the flag of the American State of Greenland. I thought this was for Europeans. This should not advance to the final/10

Poland - [Guy who just watched The Substance] Hooooly fuck okay guys listen I've got it. If the background dancers were not fat, it'd be a better performance but that still wouldn't fix the song. Jeszcze Polska nie zginęła/10

Portugal - Need to know why the Lusitanians are so sad about everything all the time. This is nice and I hope you guys don't use this as a pee break. It's not a winner but it belongs in the competition, I want it here. Saudade/10

Slovenia - Wow this is like Portugal if it was dogshit. "I don't want to be here" yeah we don't want you here either. I like the visuals of the performance, and I like that they pulled Slovenian David Duchovny out for this, maybe they should have given him a better song and made it in Slovenian. Slovenians in the chat, did this win like a local competition, or is this just someone's uncle ? Disappointing/10

Sweden - I kind of like this, I hope they make it a little more Hitleric for Eurovision, and that they make that guy look less like Johnny Depp. Also you should not cover with a towel in the sauna. Your balls should be out. This will advance into the final because it is Sweden and not because it's good. After glancing at the Wiki, this also appears to be an irredentist entry as the evil Swedes try to sate their thirst for their settler-colonialism on native Finnish clay (permafrost) <- joke, obviously. Tree emoji in display name/10

Ukraine - Nth year running of Ukraine sending a banger. Once again, I hope they keep the costuming and the set. Lead singer is a great option for any lesbians thinking about giving men a try. $100b worth of weapons/10

Albania - I say this every year but I love love love that Albanians just love to look evil. They should keep doing it. This is good and ethnic and I love her weird bald evil sidekick. Good, same as every year/10

Azerbaijan - Get Lucky by Daft Punk feat. Pharell Williams if it was bad. Strumming a Turkic banjo doesn't make it a different song dude. Didn't even have any zoroastrian subliminal messaging. I hope Armenia bombs you/10

Belgium -

Negative one trillion points for looking like an annoying He/They woman. Might as well wear a septum piercing at this point dude. ?????/10

Croatia - TikTok music, you just know he does the half-turn cut between his Good and Evil versions. Croatia is on a multiyear run of sending the worst songs in the batch. Reverse Oluja/10

Cyprus - This is also awful, I hope the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus becomes the Turkish Republic of Whole-Ass Cyprus/10

The Netherlands - This would be a normal entry if it was for a real country like France or Belgium (<- real, not fake, country) or Luxembourg (<- real, not fake, country) or Switzerland (<- real, not fake, country). They sent this guy because last time they sent a 6'3" blond white guy and got disqualified. This is obvious to everyone with eyes. DEI/10

Norway - Engineered in a lab to appeal to women on hormonal birth-control, which is not what I am. This could sweep the illegitimate judges, and if it does, I want that twink obliterated. Nothing/10

San Marino - This is also racist against Italians somehow. This is good and this year I will make an exception and not suggest that San Marino should bring Pitbull (American singer). Woah mamma mia/10

Italy - Italian Michael Jackson ending explained. Jokes aside, this is what Eurovision is about. Watched San Remo for like 15 minutes, glad this won instead of one of the not so good performances I caught. Top quartile/10

Spain - The song is passable, but don't let that distract you from the more sinister thing going on here. They are trying to normalize being attracted to women with fetal alcohol syndrome, but we simply aren't. Stop trying, it's never going to happen. This would have maybe just barely scraped its way into the final if it did not get there by default and should place in the lower half in the final. Learn from your depressed younger sibling/10

Switzerland - This is good and belongs in the final. Nice to see a serious entry, we love a #normalgirl. #normalgirl/10

Final conclusion - Wide spread of quality, the ones that are bad are really bad, and the ones that are good are really good. Sparsely populated middle. Crazy how Italy themed songs are three for three. I think there are 10 songs here that actually deserve to advance, pleasantly surprised.

[someone-you-do-not-know]

I have a historical hetalia au that I hope to write someday, in which there will be at minimum 8 Italys, and it will be about the Risorgimento.

In it, I have decided Veneziano is, as OP and Moon has said, Republic of Venice. Romano is a slightly odder case, because he's Kingdom of Two Sicilys – meaning he was previously split in two (that's a thing in my historical hetalia au), and only recently got stitched back together. This is due to the fact that there was TWO kingdoms of Sicily for several hundred years, and both even belonged to Spain for most of that time, but were not united.

Other Italys in the au are the nyos – Nyo Romano is Kingdom of Sardinia, Nyo Veneziano is Grand Duchy of Tuscany. There's going to be an OC for Papal States, who becomes the Vatican, and another for San Marino (who's not very involved in the whole thing). Seborga is most likely going to be Republic of Genoa (annexed in 1815). Chibitalia is a distinct character from adult Veneziano too, but I haven't decided which area Chibitalia becomes after the dissolution of Holy Roman Empire and its constituent Kingdom of Italy.

It's still a work in progress.

Italy, for the longest time, was divided into a variety of kingdoms/city states/etc. Which, if you're interested in Historical Hetalia, can make it difficult to characterize Romano and Veneziano pre-unification.

I'm wondering what you guys characterize them as? Atm, I usually go with Veneziano = Republic of Venice, and Romano = Kingdom of Naples (though the latter one has some nuance I'm working out bc of some history).

I don't wanna start an argument or anything, I'm just curious about other people's interpretations :o There really aren't any right or wrong answers to this!

[local-hellhound-steals-spaghetti]

5 minutes of Chimelong orca family wave machine enrichment!

This is definitely by far my favourite form of enrichment for cetaceans, along with the live fish enrichment that SeaWorld San Diego is doing at the moment.

Lots of natural behaviour on display here - surging, surfing, synchronised group swimming.

And a lot of innovation and adaptation of behaviour is very obvious too: several orcas have figured out if they they slide out and wait for the wave, it'll sweep them off the slide out, which adds a whole new dynamic to slide out play.

While we can all acknowledge that taking these orcas from the wild was unethical, it is good to see signs of positive welfare in this dynamic enrichment use.

Natural behaviours, behaviour diversity, active participation, learning and innovation, social and affiliative behaviours, physical and mental exercise - these are all incompatible with a poor welfare scenario.

When animals are in poor welfare, chronic stress has a significant effect on their brains and bodies. Stress impairs their ability to learn, to innovate and navigate social interactions. A heavily criticised paper by Marino et. al claimed that cetaceans in human care have impaired brain function due to chronic stress. However, it was poorly cited and had zero welfare data to support their hypothesis. It also just doesn't match up with what we currently observe in accredited modern facilities.

If these animals were truly suffering and stressed, we would not be seeing them learning new behaviours, we would be seeing regular refusal to participate, we would see frustration related behaviour occurring regularly and a lot more aggression and social issues.

I make a conscious effort to research and track down as much footage as I can. I have seen accusations that I cherry pick this footage but you are more than welcome to go and look at all the videos on Youtube.

[jadagul]

I'm sorry if this is a stupid question. Why is it harder for larger countries to have citizens with a high median level of wealth? What makes it harder for a country with the US population vs, say, Japan? I can imagine obvious challenges, but also reasons why larger countries can make their median citizen wealthier more easily. Economies of scale, more chances for innovation that can later be widely adopted, strong institutions having outsized effects. Can you help me understand the logic more?

It's not a stupid question! It's a common but incredibly counterintuitive thing that comes up in statistical comparisons. The short version is: you get more variance with small samples than with large samples.

To start off, let's point out this isn't just theoretical. According to the IMF, the twelve highest GDPs per capita are in this chart:

(If you use a different source the numbers change somewhat but not dramatically so.)

If you rank countries by population, those are rank 122, 163, 118, 134, 162.5, 95, 99, 115, 3, 191, 169, and 103.5. The US is in position 3 and the next-highest is at 95 (out of about 200).

Conversely let's look at the ten most populous nations:

When ranked by GDP per capita, those come out at ranks 73, 127, 8, 98, 138, 144, 87, 128, 56, and 71.

And notice already this looks different: these numbers are mostly in like the middle half, whereas the others were almost all in the bottom half. And that makes sense based on the theoretical argument I'm about to make.

A big country has a lot of people in it. And more than that, it has a lot of places in it. And while those places all have a bunch of stuff in common (like being part of the same country), they also have a bunch of things different from each other. So you can think of the per capita GDP of a big country as, like, averaging together the per capita GPDs of all the regions in it. (And then the per capita GDP of a region is a weighted average of the incomes of all the people in it.)

If you look at a city-state like Singapore or Hong Kong, you're "averaging" together one city. And for a small country like Ireland or Luxembourg, you're averaging one city with a small amount of hinterlands. That means that if that one city is unusually lucky, the whole country is rich.

(And if that one city is unusually unlucky, the whole country is poor. The ten least populated countries on the list that have IMF data have GDP per capita ranks of 146, 119, 95, 9, 152, 60, 106, 16, 134, 52, which are all over the map. None of them are at the very bottom, and I assume that's because cities are richer than non-cities, in general. And also maybe a city-state that's also dirt poor gets swallowed up.)

And if you look at our list of richest countries, you can really see this effect. Ireland is a tax haven for the EU, and traditionally so is San Marino. Singapore is a weirdly-managed outlier city state, as is San Marino (and Hong Kong used to be). Qatar and the UAE are all drafting off of oil revenue, and for that matter so is Norway.

And to drive the point home, let's look at the list of US metro areas by per capita GDP.

San Jose beats every country in the world hollow. San Francisco is tied with the top entries on the list. And our tenth-richest metro area would place fifth on the list of countries by per capita gdp. (Contrast Paris at €60 and Berlin at like €42k, if my quick googling is right.)

And then to drive the point home, look at the top of the list. The richest metro area in the US isn't San Francisco or New York or Los Angeles (which at 18th and $86k doesn't even show up on that list up there, but would still put it at 8th in the world); the richest metro area in the US is some place called Midland TX. It's a small town that sits in the middle of a giant oil field, and as I understand it it's basically a base camp for all the oil work out there. So it has one thing going on, and that thing is super lucrative, and distributed across relatively few people; so it gets the top spot.

And that's why the richest countries are likely to be small.

[ask-but-beware-the-consequences]

I am in a crushed and rebellious mood again so here you go, a national treasure from my country, that our dictator minister didn't let us have:

Context below the cut by the top commenter @bipbapboop1140:

Since this song seems to have reached foreign audiences, here's an explanation from a Hungarian: - the style of the clip comes from traditional Hungarian folk patterns - the song also mixes in the motifs of Hungarian folk music (the repetition and strong vibrato for example) - the "daddy" in the lyrics refers to Viktor Orbán, the prime minister of Hungary - it is speculated that Hungary doesn't take part in Eurovision (= "the party") because it is "too gay". - "wraps in plastic all my books" refers to the Hungarian book censorship law that requires all media depicting LGBTQ+ characters, identities, events, etc. in public places (eg. bookstores) to be wrapped in plastic foil - "funny how I slipped in through the backdoor" - Carson Coma entered the contest representing San Marino, a small country that lets foreigners enter through them (also could be a gay joke, not sure if that's intentional) - the funny T-shirt line refers to the lead singer, Fekete Giorgio wearing a shirt that said "homophobes are f*gs" - "try not to confuse having the keys with owning the place" refers to how despite being an elected official, Orbán Viktor acts like the dictator of Hungary (let me give you a hint, democracy is merely a suggestion in this country) - "This is a warning" - I just really like this line, because it signals that the band is committed to going as far as it needs to to criticize the government - the last two lines are in Italian and Hungarian respectively, the two mother tongues of the lead singer. They can be translated as "I know you'll be angry, I've seen it already" and "You will bleep out again, that...". These are references to their song "Feldobom a követ", which was their first really heavy critique of the government, featuring the line "Will you bleep out ((Orbán Viktor))" - his name isn't actually said, but it rhymes with the previous line, the audience usually yells it at their concerts. ("supposedly" warning:) Fidesz, Orbán's party /supposedly/ pulled some strings to get one of their concerts cancelled after this song came out, hence "I've seen it before" (and there is also a similar Hungarian line in Feldobom a követ). -- btw Feldobom a követ means "I throw the rock up" (literally, not as in vomiting) - a reference to a poem by Hungarian poet Ady Endre, the poem itself being about his internal conflict due to his love for his country but also the underdeveloped state of Hungary.

[shonpota]

These countries? They don't care about humanity in Palestine and that's enough as a reason not eagerly help their government

Don't support their govt. Just shadow banned their govt from any industry.

THOSE WHO ARE AGAINST:

UNITED STATES (very shameless)

AUSTRIA

HUNGARY

CROATIA

CZECH Republic

ISRAEL (this terrorist country, I swear)

Fiji

Guatemala

Marshall Islands

Micronesia

Nauriu

Papua New Guinea

Paraguay

Tonga

Those who are neutral (also useless) :

Albania

Australia (fuck you Aussie, I don't even wanna go there anymore)

Bulgaria (is your brain made of yoghurt??)

Cabo Verde

Cameroon

Canada (begone Canada)

Cyprus (you are a rich country and can't afford humanity?? Even a poor people can afford having humanity.)

Denmark (shame on you)

Estonia (may your internet perish)

Ethiopia

Finland (shame on you 2)

Georgia

Germany (shame on you, you have control in Europe but you are too stupid to use it)

Greece (shame on you)

Haiti

Iceland (are Nordics all war criminals supporter or doesn't have heart???)

India

Italy (I hope their blood is clotted like tomato sauce)

Japan (shame on you, Japan)

Kiribati

Latvia (Baltic countries are stupid)

Lithuania (see? They are stupid)

Monaco (shame on you. May those gamblings facilities in your place never make you prosperous)

Netherland (may your country drown)

North Macedonia

Palau

Panama

Republic of Korea (shame on you)

Republic of Molossia

Romania (may blood epidemic hits you)

San Marino

Serbia

Slovakia (shame on you)

South Sudan

Sweden (all Nordic countries are awful!)

Tunisia (I guess your dates aren't worth buying. Let's just ban dates from Tunisia)

Ukraine (you are actually under similar but better situation with being supported by the West)

Uruguay

Zambia

[eurovision-revisited]

Eurovision 2008 - Number 48 - Andy Abraham - "Even If"

Back again to the UK and Andy Abraham has snuck into my top sixty-four owing to a highly favourable draw and some luck. Which is how he ended up at Eurovision in the first place.

Andy is a former bus driver and binman from North London who rose to fame on the second ever series of the X Factor in the UK. His 'journey' from a humble background to runner up that year made him a darling of the tabloids and he achieved some much deserved success with a huge selling album in 2006, which hit number two in the UK charts. He followed that up with another top twenty album the year afterwards.

It's not as if Andy was unknown coming into Your Decision 2008. He also had a career, and he was possibly the only act that year who had something to lose should it all go wrong. His established career also got him some big names in his team. Even If was written by Andy Watkins and Paul Wilson, better known as the production team Absolute. They were the main producers and song-writing team behind the Spice Girls' debut album, Spice, and as well as working UK pop royalty in Atomic Kitten, Girls Aloud and S Club 7, had brought their R&B and soul sensibilities to work for everyone from Lisa Stansfield to Al Green.

Andy had scored some big names, and the song they brought was funky enough for the Eurovision stage, even if that 1990s UK soul-pop sound wasn't truly the norm there. The thing was Andy very nearly didn't make it there. He needed the help of another big name to do it.

In the duels he lost. He would have been out of the UK's selection process, but there was a wildcard that would save one of the three eliminated acts and put them into the final four. For some reason, that wildcard was the decision of one man: Terry Wogan. Terry picked Andy to go forward. Andy repaid that faith by progressing to the final two, and facing the person who beat him 3-0 in the duels - Michelle Gayle, soap actress and part-time pop artist from the 1990s.

Unlike the duels, the final was 100% televote, and the public loved Andy. He won, beating Michelle and heading to Belgrade. At Eurovision he was most definitely a fish out of water. He claims he doesn't remember much of the occasion - possibly because he drew the death slot in the final, got on stage second and then retired to the green room.

As UK entries go, there was nothing at all wrong with his performance. He gave it his all, yet there was something delightfully wrong about everything, from his jacket to the stained glass LED background in every colour, but none of them matching. The staging of everything felt like an afterthought by a broadcaster who was just glad they'd found someone to represent the country.

Andy finished last. He only got points from Ireland and the San Marino jury. There were some rumblings about the European public's unconscious prejudice, and as ever for the UK, the complaints about block-voting, potential rigging and the now annual whining about 'Europe not liking the UK'. In this case it had nothing to do with Andy though, it was an unfortunate draw and a broadcaster not really trying.

The one person at the BBC who was completely invested in this was of course Terry Wogan. He was the person who had single-handedly given Andy this opportunity, and when he came in last place, it was too much for him. The bitterness that had been building for years overflowed in one of the most memorable commentaries for Eurovision there's been - for all the wrong reasons. Terry thought Andy should obviously have done better (notably better than both Spain and Bosnia - we'll see how I feel later). His rancour and misgivings were enough for Terry to choose to step down as the UKs commentator having had the gig for nearly thirty years.

2008 had claimed its first casualty. It wouldn't be the last. Andy released a compilation album later that year, but that was his last recorded musical output barring the occasional collaboration and Christmas single. He was still available for birthdays and wedding bookings and was rumoured to have got involved in property investment. He did get a part in the 2015 UK production of Godspell in the West End, but that had a short run.

2008 is another nadir in the UKs Eurovision journey, but this time for non-musical reasons, as in 2008 there may have actually been some substance to the finger-pointing and block-voting allegations in a way that could force the EBU to act. Maybe Terry Wogan picking Andy to progress into the second round on Your Decision 2008 was the domino that led to some major changes for Eurovision down the road. More to come...

[kityana]

eurovision 2024 semi final 2 thoughts

i literally guessed 10/10. yeaaaaah 😎

if you don't get why latvia went thru you either have no ears or no taste. his voice is incredible and it was a beautiful moment of quiet among all the bombast.

sadly, i knew norway would cannibalize san marino's votes. but the san marino performance was so much fun. the best of the evening. i wouldn't be surprised if they just missed qualifying.

for all the secrecy the netherlands performance was underwhelming.

belgium didn't sound good and the performance was nothing special. i completely get why he's not in the final. i'm just wondering why anyone else thought it would be.

i'm sorry but france's song is so mid. like his voice is good but the song itself is so mid. no other country could get away with whining 'i love you' on stage for 3 minutes. you just think it sounds better in french.

switzerland and greece have nice songs and staging but terrible costumes. what is this garbage. find something that doesn't look like it costs $10 on shein please.

austria finally managed to send a dance song that sounds good live lol. good for them.

if you genuinely thought israel wouldn't go thru you live in a bubble. that's all i'm going to say.