#anyways Finland to win this year thanks!

[bubblegumstardust]

Sweden, Israel, and Portugal shouldn't have gone through but Malta should have.

I said what I said

[jackhues]

3 + 1 - sidney crosby

notes: i hope you guys like this, first fic for 'it's the most wonderful time of the year', had lots of fun making this!!

likes are good, reblogs are better <3

part of naqia's end of the year celly!

gif not mine

i. (1994)

you'd known sidney your entire life. one of the first memories you had with him was fighting him for the last hockey stick in the store.

well, it wasn't the last hockey stick. but it was the last one of all the types you used to play. it just so happened to be the only one sidney used.

after a game of rock, paper, scissors (you won), sidney got mad and demanded a best of three. maybe it was the defiant look in his eyes at only seven years old, but you decided he could have the stick.

"are you sure?" he asked, now looking hesitant about taking the stick.

you nodded, "i'm sure. they'll get one of the sticks i use in a few days. you can have this one. i'll just steal my brother's stick until then."

sidney grinned, "thanks, y/n."

you smiled back at him, feeling the start of a friendship. you'd lived near him your entire life, but you'd only begun talking to him because of hockey.

"just don't forget to send me a card when you go to one of your tourneys," you told him.

you and sidney laughed over that, before heading back home with your parents. it was after this day that you began to say hi to each other in the halls of school, that you decided to pair up for projects, that you became friends.

over the two months it took until christmas morning, you forgot about what you'd told him. but sidney didn't forget his promise.

and it was on december twenty fifth, that you received a post card in the mail from some place in quebec. a seven year old sidney had tried his best to make the letters look pretty, writing on the side, 'merry christmas, and thanks for the hockey stick, y/n. it helped me win!'

you peered in the envelope, finding a picture of sidney hoisting his giant hockey trophy. you smiled at that.

even though he was so far away, it felt like you were celebrating christmas together.

--

ii. (2004)

'sidney patrick crosby, you have got to be kidding me! you have a huge hotel, you're in finland, and you've got some of the best people with you. and yet, you're saying you wished you were here playing pond with the rest of us? you're crazy. anyways, make sure you score a goal or something, and have lots of fun! honestly, not scoring is fine if you have fun. good luck at the world juniors! i'll be cheering you on from back home :))'

you signed off the letter, sealing it and placing it to the side to deliver later.

at seventeen years old, sidney had become the only under-18 player at this year's world junior tournament for team canada. it was a thing to celebrate, but sidney was upset he would be missing the town's annual christmas pond hockey game.

you and him had played together on the same team for the last nine years, winning every time. this was the first time he wouldn't be here to help your team defend the title.

but that was okay, you thought as you packed up your christmas gear and made your way to the pond.

because sidney was going to play on your t.v. tomorrow, at the national level. it was his first time playing for canada, and you knew he was excited for that.

he just wasn't a fan of missing the small things.

it was why he'd began sending you letters and post cards as he moved around for tournaments and hockey games. they were cute souvenirs, and you didn't mind sending him a letter back.

you just wished he could've been here to celebrate christmas with the rest of you.

--

iii. (2009 - pretend ft was invented a year earlier)

"merry christmas, love."

you smiled, "merry christmas sid."

sidney adjusted his phone, fixing the facetime so you could see him better. you laughed as he struggled for a minute, finally getting a proper angle.

"don't move!" you said. "there, perfect. now your entire face is on my screen."

he laughed as he shook his head to himself.

the two of you had been friends for thirteen years before he worked up the courage to ask you out. and for the last two years of your relationship had been amazing. there were ups, like seeing him win the stanley cup, and there were downs, like seeing him take some uncalled for hits.

but you were happy. and so was sid.

the two of you had planned to celebrate christmas together in pittsburgh, until a family emergency had you coming back to nova scotia last minute.

everything turned out fine, but it was just too late to get a ticket back to pittsburgh.

even so, you and sid had found a way to work around that.

the two of you spent most of the day on the phone with each other, talking and laughing together. it wasn't what either of you had planned, but you made it enjoyable.

it was a great christmas.

--

iv. (2012)

"sidney, will you get down here already?"

"i'm coming, i'm coming," he called from upstairs.

you sighed, waiting for your husband to get up and get downstairs. christmas morning was the one morning you were happy to get out of bed, but it was also the one morning sid wanted to sleep in.

sam, sidney's dog, came down the stairs, curling around by the christmas tree as he waited for sid with you.

a few minutes passed before sidney made his way downstairs, eyes half closed but a sleepy smile plastered on his face to greet you.

"good morning, love," he pressed a kiss to your forehead. "merry christmas."

"merry christmas," you smiled, pressed a kiss to his jaw. "we eating breakfast first or presents first?"

"mmm, breakfast," sid decided.

"i knew you were going to say that," you laughed, pulling him along to the kitchen.

you'd already prepared breakfast before he came down. some eggs, sausage and bread. it was a good way to pass the time as you waited for sid to get downstairs.

the two of you took your seats, laughing as you ate breakfast and discussed how far you'd gone in life together.

"you almost tripped on the ice," he reminded you.

"no one told me i had to go out on the ice after you guys won," you argued. "i was so excited over you guys winning the stanley cup, i didn't even notice i was being ushered to the ice until i took my first step."

sid laughed as the two of you slowly made your way to the living room.

"here, open my present first," he said, rummaging under the tree to pull out a long, rectangular box.

the two of you had started the tradition of opening all of your sentimental gifts before the other cute ones. and even though you wanted to go first this year, you supposed it was alright if sid got this one.

you unwrapped the box, pulling out a familiar hockey stick. one that you'd given sidney eighteen years ago.

"oh my god," you muttered, tears building up in your eyes.

"i found it in my parent's garage last summer," he shrugged a little. "i remembered how badly you wanted it. and even though it's too small now, i thought you'd like the memory."

"i love it," you grinned, wiping the corners of your eyes. "it's absolutely perfect. i'm putting this up next to that picture of you holding up the trophy."

sid laughed at your response, pressing a kiss to your forehead.

"you can do whatever you like with it."

you put the stick to the side, your hands slightly shaky as you grabbed another, much smaller, box. "here. now open my present."

sid took the box from your hands, unwrapping it and opening it. he stared at the contents of the box, unable to form a sentence as he looked between the box and you.

"you -- this -- seriously?" his eyes shined as he stared at you.

you nodded, feeling the tears build up yourself. "we're having a baby."

sid laughed, pulling you in for a hug. "oh my god, this is amazing. a baby, you and me."

the two of you held each other that day, celebrating christmas together.

[lukehughes43]

nye traditions - luke hughes

word count: 2,469

a/n: happy new year everybody! first post in like, ages. so please, enjoy this wholesome lukey content because I love it and him with all my heart🫶🏼

-

“so you’re telling me if we don’t win today, that i don’t get my new year’s eve kiss?” the shock was evident in luke’s voice, and you couldn’t help but giggle at how worried he had gotten over something as little as the new year’s eve kiss. “that’s just cruel, y/n/n, absolutely cruel,” he then added on as he finished packing up his usa backpack through the phone screen. 

shrugging your shoulders you slumped further into the white sheets of your hotel bed. “figured you could use a little more motivation, lukey, that’s all,” you answered with a sweet smile. “plus, if you wanna kiss me for the fifth year in a row you’ve got to work for it, hughes.” 

his eyes rolled while he barely glanced back at his phone to see your smiling face. “if i don’t get to kiss you at midnight then i guess that means i have to kiss duker,” the captain then smiled, his blue eyes glancing towards something out of frame.

“absolutely not! you will not be kissing anybody but y/n!” dylan then screeched, his face popping into the screen to glare at you. “y/n m/n l/n, i swear to god if you’re not in our hotel room by eleven fifty tonight i’m going to hunt you down and drag you up here to kiss hughesy, because i will not be doing it.” 

humming you just nodded your head softly at the two, “beat finland first and then we’ll talk.” 

luke’s former roommate rolled his eyes before disappearing off screen once more. mumbling something to your boyfriend of five years as he went. “yeah, yeah that works,” he spoke, “i’ll just be a couple more minutes and then i’ll meet you down there.” 

once his attention was fully back on the phone screen your smile grew even larger on your face, “hi moosey.”

“hi baby,” he mused, hand running through the curls that were beginning to fall on his forehead. “‘ve gotta head out soon, so only couple more minutes with you.” 

you let out a blissful sigh while you sat back up against the headboard. “that’s okay, love. i have to start getting ready pretty soon anyway. your mom and i are leaving for lunch in an hour and i haven’t done anything to get ready yet. too busy staring at my boy.” 

the red that painted the apples of the nineteen year old’s cheeks was your favorite color of the shade. “oh stop it, honey. there’s no need for flattery when you already broke my heart by saying if we don’t win i don’t get a new year’s eve kiss.” his bottom lip was jutted out just barely as his eyes met yours once more.

your e/c eyes rolled as you stared at the youngest brother who was almost never over dramatic. “lukey, honey, just worry about the game. you’ll get your kiss, i promise you.” your words instantly caused a smile to blossom on his face. “now, i’ll see you after the game, okay? i love you, good luck.” 

“i love you too, y/n/n, and thank you,” he answered while reaching forward and grabbing his phone. “i’ll see you there.” 

smiling you nodded, “i’ll be the one cheering the loudest in the stands.” 

“bye, darling. i love you,” luke promised one final time silently waiting for you to do the same. 

there wasn’t even a second of hesitation before you answered:

“i love you too, lukey.” and with that he gave you a half wave and his toothy smile before he ended the call. leaving you waiting not so patiently for four o’clock to see him dressed in his blue usa jersey.

—

there was a frantic knocking on ellen’s hotel door at eleven forty-five. a confused look was shared between the two of you before you pushed yourself off the couch and slowly started making your way to investigate. “i don’t think that i know anybody that would be coming to the door this late,” ellen said while giving you a skeptical look. 

“it won’t hurt to look,” you answered while already pressing your upper body against the white wood, eye peeking through the peephole. “it’s dylan?” while you didn’t intend for the statement to come out as a question, your bewilderment was hard to miss. 

smiling and shaking her head, ellen got up from her spot on the couch and joined you over at the door. “somebody is clearly eager to get you with luke,” she teased as you pulled the door open to meet the michigan forward face to face. 

“duker,” you sigh while leaning against the doorframe, “you said i had until eleven fifty! i don’t want to impose on the team more than i’m already going to be.” 

with in seconds dylan was shaking his head to disagree with your words. “i don’t care, none of us care! i just need you to come with me. right now or luke’s going to have a fit, and if luke has a fit that means i’m going to have a fit. and if i have a fit gavin and rutger will have a fit. and then suddenly every single michigan hockey boy will be throwing a fit because mom and dad didn’t kiss at midnight on new years eve.” 

after the rambling mess also known as dylan duke had subsided, you slowly turned your head to share a look with your future mother-in-law. “i, uh,-”

“well, you better get going, ‘mom,’” ellen teased with a knowing smile, “we can’t have any of our boys throwing fits because my son didn’t get his new year’s eve kiss.” a flush covered your own cheeks as you gently nodded your head to agree with her. “i’ll see you after sweetheart, next year even.” 

shaking your head the smile grew on your face once more, “i’ll see you next year, ellen.” you then turned your attention to dylan and pushed yourself off the wall. “alright, duker, let’s go find my boy.” 

the elevator ride up to the sixth floor where all the players were lodging, as well as celebrating the new year, probably last about two minutes, but to you it felt like a century. the first reason being because of how excited you were to see luke for more than five minutes after a game. the second reason being dylan’s head was dropped against your shoulder, eyes closed and drool just barely starting to fall from his mouth and to the ntdp sweatshirt you were wearing. when the elevator dinged you shrugged your shoulder to wake the boy up. 

“am i going to the left or right, duker?” you asked while he began to rub his eyes with his right hand, and his mouth with his left. 

“right, we’re all in some little like conference room thing,” he explained while pushing past you and immediately going to the right. “don’t waste another second, y/n/n, it’s almost eleven fifty-five. i know that luke is having a heart attack right now.” you silently saulted the boy as you followed behind him, thinking about how the entire usa team was about to watch you and luke have your new years eve kiss. “look how i found!” dylan yelled while the two of you broke the threshold of the conference room. 

without fail, every pair of eyes had fallen on to you, but the only person you cared about was luke. your body slowly gravitated towards the six foot two curly haired boy, only to be stopped by rutger jumping up from his chair and hugging you: “mom! gavin look! mom made it!” 

you hugged the boy back, eyes locking with luke’s as he began to tap on his wrist. “of course i made it, rutger, i wasn’t about to leave my boy hanging after you guys won today. we’ll catch up in a little bit, okay? right now i have to go be with my actual boyfriend.” grumbling under his breath the freshman let go of you just barely enough for you slip out of his arms and right into luke’s. 

“hi honey,” he smiled down at you, right hand slipping into your left. “wanna step into the hallway for a couple minutes?” instantly you were nodding your head, already knowing that luke didn’t want to kiss you in front of everybody if he didn’t have to. not that he didn’t want to, because he gladly would, but when he hadn’t been able to spend much time alone with you he wanted to take the chances he could. 

“i thought you’d never ask,” you smiled, slowly backing up towards the door you had just walked through, tugging his hand as you went. “did you guys have a nice team dinner, lu?” you asked once you were through the door and looking back at him. 

he shrugged his shoulders while leaning back against the wall and pulling you in front of him, and his left hand up to his mouth to give it a gentle kiss. “as good as team dinner can be i guess. food was good, just dead from the game,” he answered, lips just barely brushing against the skin of your hand before he kissed the metal of your promise ring. 

“i already kind of assumed that,” you smiled while wrapping your arms around his neck, “dylan fell asleep on my shoulder in the elevator.” luke’s mouth dropped open with a small laugh, his hands finding home on your hip and the small of your back. “he was drooling even.”

“of course he was,” luke mumbled, “i’m sorry, honey. i told him i’d go and get you, or just go down there and be with you but duker had insis-” 

luke was cut off by the sound of the countdown that had began to take storm of the makeshift party room:

“ten!” 

you couldn’t help the way the blush again to paint your cheeks red. even with this being the fifth year of kissing luke.

“nine!” 

luke’s goofy smile was spread across his face ear from ear as he stared down at you. his lips just barely cracked from being chapped. 

“eight!” 

unbeknown to the both of you, dylan, gavin, and rutger were making their way to the door way.

“seven!” 

“i love you.”

“six!”

“i love you too.”

“five!”

your hand just barely started to creep up towards luke’s hair, barely running through it.

“four!” 

luke pulled you in closer. your body pressed completely up against his.

“three!”

“nother year with you, y/n/n.”

“two!” 

“another year with you, lukey.”

“one!” 

you were pulling luke down to meet you halfway, standing on your tip-toes in order to mesh your lips with his. his hand on your hip gave you a gentle squeeze, trying to help steady you, the hand on the small of your back pushing you in closer to him. all while you couldn’t help but start to smile against his lips. the kiss suddenly became clashing teeth as he couldn’t fight the smile on his face either. 

“happy new year, darling,” he whispered into your ear as he pulled you into his chest to keep you wrapped in his arms. 

humming you pressed a kiss against his clothed chest, “happy new year, love.” 

“YES! MOM AND DAD KISSED! MOM AND DAD KISSED!” 

the sound of cheering had both you and looking and turning your attention towards the doorway, dylan, gavin, and rutger’s head just peeking out one on top of the other. both gavin’s and dylan’s cheeks were flushed pink, embarrassed rutger had gotten them caught, but he could care less. he was all smiles as he stared happily at the two of you. 

pulling away from luke you earned what sounded like a whimper before you slipped your hand into his to walk over to the three. “just because of this little stunt, i do believe it’s bedtime for you and gavin, rutger.” 

“but mom,” gavin pouted while fully stepping into the hallway, “how are we supposed to go to sleep when you can’t even tuck us in like you do at school.”

rutger nodded his head to agree, “lukey’s been tucking us in, but he’s not good at it without you. and he doesn’t give us our forehead kisses.” 

“you never asked for them!” luke interjected, trying to make sure he didn’t come off as the bad guy in this situation. 

you shushed him, your attention back fully on the two freshmen you had taken in this year. “if you guys wanted your forehead kisses all you had to do was ask - but straight to bed after, deal?” 

“deal!” gavin and rutger said in perfect unison. 

smiling you leaned forward and pressed a kiss first to gavin’s head, as he had been the more patient of the two. “goodnight gavin, i love you. get some sleep tonight, you deserve it after that game.” he happily smiled back at you as you turned your attention to rutger. “rutger, rutger, rutger, what am i going to do with you?” 

“pack me up in your suitcase when you and luke move out to new jersey?” he suggested with a sweet smile. 

shaking your head you laughed, “i don’t think so buddy.” you then grabbed his cheeks and kissed his forehead. “goodnight rutger, i love you. you had a great game, great goal. i’m so proud of you.” 

“did you hear that gavin? y/n said she’s proud of me!” and just like that him and gavin were making the trek towards their shared room, all while dylan shared at you longingly. 

“come on duker, get over here for your forehead kiss,” you smiled, already knowing that’s why he was suddenly gloomy. dylan planted himself where rutger was previously standing right in front of you, leaning his forehead towards you for more access. laughing you leaned the rest of the way and pressed a kiss to the crown of his head. “goodnight duker, i love you. you played so good today, now go and get some sleep. put some neosporin on your cuts.” 

luke wrapped an arm around your waist, head dropping against your shoulder. “i’ll be in soon, dyl, just gonna walk, y/n/n back to her room first.” nodding his head duker was the last of your children to disappear back down the hallway to his hotel room leaving you and luke alone once more. he pressed a loving kiss against the side of your neck before talking, “you know, when we have kids in the future we’re gonna have the bedtime routine down because of our first three children.” 

“bedtime routine, and three babysitters we won’t have to pay a single dime to after having to put up with them for the past year.”

[snifekinner]

Denmark and Sweden siblings for the sibling meme?

If you've already answered that, then please use this as a chance to talk about the whole family! It seems like Norway is another sibling in the family. What are the siblings' relationships to each other? How many siblings are there in all, who are they, and what is their age order? What is the relationship between them and their parents like?

oh my god SO happily!

here is den and swe, it got really long but im going to post some general family headcanons separately, i will always take a chance to yell about my fave boys. thank you for asking bro! here is some of the dysfunctional world's worst brothers!

who hogs the game consoles?

sweden, bc den doesnt have enough attention span to keep playing too long and he ragequits if swe beats him, which he almost always does bc swe is largely unbeatable at videogames. den usually wins at pool though which is a sore spot for swe. they once spent half an hour on one of those arcade basketball games because neither would admit defeat.

who usually causes the fights?

lmao oh boy. they both cause fights just by being in the same room. classic sibling energy, i hc den as the eldest and swe as the youngest so their relationship is very volatile and very based on beating the shit out of each other. den will wind swe up until he loses it and swe will be quietly sneakily aggravating so den looks completely unreasonable when he gets mad. swe loves getting den into trouble and then skating on by looking innocent.

who steals the others' clothes?

den will steal socks, underwear, tshirts and coats off swe. swe doesnt like wearing other people's clothes and especially not den's because theyre always so wrinkled.

who eats all the good snacks before the other can get any?

to repeat: sweden is the youngest child and he is the snack eater. he always says he's going to replace it but he never does. can you tell im still mad at my younger brother?

which one gets the top bunk or bottom bunk?

on god they will fight each other. when they were kids well i guess bunkbeds werent really a thing but they would always fight for the best sleeping spot and its no different now. as adults in the here and now, theyre both Big Men and the bottom bunk is more roomy so they fight for that. if there was one single and one double bed theyd fight for the double. you understand. they want the same thing and are always always willing to go to war about it.

who speaks up when the other asked for no pickles?

den never needs anyone to do that bc he'll eat literally anything. if he gets something he didnt order he's just like, cool! let me try this! he used to speak up for swe but swe makes a point to do it himself when den is there bc fuck u dont talk for him.

which one likes to go into the other's room, fart, and immediately leave?

both equally guilty. also my older brother used to do this thing where he would wrestle my little brother to the ground, pull his slippers off and beat him in the head and back with them. once he put them in the freezer then got them out cold and hit him with them. anyway thats denmark and sweden.

which one bails the other out of jail?

they get in jail together doing some stupid shit that swe would never do with anyone else. everyone else thinks swe is really straight laced now but when he and den get together they create chaos. norway refuses to bail them out so finland has to step in.

swe and den are both incredibly repentant for around 6 months to 2 years depending on the offence. and then it happens again.

which one won't stop repeating an embarrassing story about their sibling as a child?

denmark - once again swe is let down by not being a good storyteller. denmark has a great memory for everything anyone he knows has ever done. he remembers every embarrassing moment and he will weaponise them.

who do they each think the favourite child is?

i think they both think its the other. but when they have their rare moments of camaraderie they bitch together about it being norway.

[alistairlowes]

ngl i'm done with esc drama and esc in general for this year but i do wanna say i saw that mini interview with bojan where they asked him would they like to go again and he said while he is thankful for everything that they wouldn't because their score was low and it's not something they would like to experience again. he also criticized the way voting was done.

and this is what truly saddens me about this circus. like these people aren't stupid they all know and understand what happened. they all realized they never had any chance. ex yugoslavia countries never expect to win anyway. we know we don't have money to host it. but it's not like we are blind and don't see favouritism. they introduced jury votes because of us and we have to watch them be hypocritical and do the same thing they were so afraid we would do. so many artists already have and will give up on this whole thing. give it few years and there will be nothing but nepo babies with same generic recycled pop songs.

esc has always been and always will be political in one way or another. and everyone who is currently saying "get over it" you do know the worst thing you can possibly do in these situations is to stay passive? that just sends them a message they can do whatever they want and what people say doesn’t matter. you think anyone would be aware of poland fuckery if people didn't do their best to be vocal about it?

call me crazy for not thinking that 5 people shouldn’t have half of voting power as the whole country. i saw who was in our jury and they always put people who couldn't even qualify for esc but now they get to decide on finals? and this isn't even about finland/sweden thing i'm talking about jury points for countries like germany. scream and cry how jury consists out of professionals who rate things like vocals all you want but they have clear bias for certain type of songs and everything that doesn’t fit that gets sunk. doesn't even matter germany got low public votes too when overall jury gave more points to blanka and imma need y'all to be so fucking serious for a minute.

disappointing af and i don't even wanna look at this mess anymore.

[because-its-eurovision]

hey !! i was thinking about whether this year’s esc winner is already set in stone and the likelihood that käärijä could still manage to bag the win with a majority televote score …

i was feeling kind of nervous about it all but then i thought back to 2021 - (i haven’t watched it in a while so correct me if i’m wrong,) but did måneskin get that many high scores from the jury? I don’t think they got many 12 points there at least? (maybe just enough to get a rather average jury score i can’t remember)… they had some 12’s tho i think.

… obviously måneskin absolutely dominated the televote so i was wondering if there could be a similar situation in 2023 as to 2021, as 2021 had some hugely competitive acts and it was a nail biter up to the last minute ✨ (i’m tryna remain positive to manifest this win ahahah 💆🏻‍♀️)

This is one of those asks that lighted me up with need to answer with a thousand-word essay 😄 My take on why these cases are different and why Sweden is the winner Eurovision 2023 under the cut 👇

How to win with televote

Your arguments about Måneskin winning are correct. Italy got a set of 12 points from the Slovenian (neighbour), Croatian and Georgian juries but their average jury score was only 5,42. Both Italy 2021 and Ukraine 2022 won thanks to televote despite being only fourth in the juryvote. Here’s my explanation.

In 2021 the differences between jury favorites weren’t that big. Switzerland had 267 points, France behind them 248 points, Malta 208 points and Italy 206 points. Juries tend to go for artistic ballads but televote rarely shares that sentiment, so Switzerland’s “flop” was predictable. Malta is the biggest jury favorite in Eurovision history so their lower placing in televote wasn’t a surprise either. France did well in both components, deservedly so, and over all placed second behind Italy by only 25 points.

In 2022 Ukraine landslided the televote by getting exactly 200 points more than Moldova who came in second. They got an astounding average of 11,26 points from every country’s televote, and I don’t think we’re going to see a result like that for a while if ever. I believe that Ukraine would have won last year anyway, but understandably the war had a huge effect on televoters.

Sweden vs. Finland

Juries love Sweden. Or rather, Sweden has learnt to send entries that fit to the jury taste. These are the Swedish results from the last ten years: 2012: jury 1st, tele 1st 2013: jury 3rd, tele 18th 2014: jury 2nd, tele 3rd 2015: jury 1st, tele 3rd 2016: jury 9th, tele 6th 2017: jury 3rd, tele 8th 2018: jury 2nd, tele 23rd 2019: jury 2nd, tele 6th 2021: jury 17th, tele 11th           2022: jury 2nd, tele 4th

Eight times of ten, jury has loved Sweden more than televoters. Of those eight, they have placed Sweden in their top-3 seven times. Of those seven, they have won three times.

However, the juries' attitude towards Finland is very different. Since the juries came back in 2010, Finland has failed to make it to the final thanks to juries three times (2010, 2015, 2017) when the televote would have been enough for qualification. In comparison, here are our results from the last ten years.

2012: jury 12th, tele 12th in semi (NQ) 2013: jury 18th, tele 20th 2014 jury 7th, tele 17th 2015 jury 16th (last), tele 10th in semi (NQ) 2016 jury 12th, tele 15th in semi (NQ) 2017 jury 12th, tele 10th in semi (NQ) 2018 jury 24th, tele 21st (in semi jury 15th and tele 7th, thanks to televote 10th combined and qualified) 2019 jury 16th, tele 17th (last) in semi 2021 jury 11th, tele 4th (in semi jury 6th and tele 1st) 2022 jury 22nd, tele 16th

Why Sweden is the frontrunner

Just going into the contest, Sweden is almost guaranteed jury support. By looking at the results from previous years it is safe to say Loreen is going to be the jury winner. There is a slight possibility that we get a surprise jury winner like Austria in 2018 and North Macedonia in 2019. However, that would require there to be a clear jurybait song with great vocals, most likely a powerful ballad with innovative staging, and as far as I see, there are really no contenders for that this year. Who could surprise us? Switzerland, Spain, Estonia? Maybe Ukraine because their entry this year is so much slicker and more modern?

I'd also like to point out that in 2021 the jury winner placed sixth in the televote and in 2022 fifth. That is not going to happen in 2023. Loreen is a former Eurovision winner, fan favourite, charismatic, great singer and performer, the staging shows something never before seen on Eurovision stage (assuming they’ll bring the led screens with them to Liverpool) and Tattoo is already a huge hit so it’s not going to be too artistic or boring for the casual viewers. Sweden isn't even a country anyone would vote against for political reasons. I can’t see Loreen placing outside televote top-3. She can easily get over 300 points from the juries (average of 8,34).

Can we trust the odds?

There are years when neither the betting odds or fans have no clear idea which country is going to win, but those are in the minority. We’ve had some out-of-nowhere winners like Austria 2014 and Portugal 2017, who only begun to shine during the rehearsal week, but the way I see it that 2023 is going to be like 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2018, 2019 and 2022 when the odds got the winner right weeks or months before the contest. As far as I can remember, the odds have always managed to predict a Nordic winner 😄

People have been pointing out to me that the odds might be wrong and Finland still has the chance to win despite being second in the odds. I do worry that the betting odds are failing us this year, but for a different reason. My concern is that thanks to the Käärijä hype that has been going on in Finland since January has made lot of Finns bet for their own country. In 2015 the night before the first semi final Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät was sixth in the odds to win the whole contest, only to end up in last place of their semi.

It is not often that Finland believes in their own chances in Eurovision, but when we do it sometimes makes us blind for what is realistic. Not everyone making Eurovision bets is familiar with how the juries usually vote and how that might effect the overall result. Not to mention that despite Finland being second in the odds behind Sweden, their winning chance is now 40% and ours only 15%.

Personal prediction

Please keep in mind that I’m not an expert of betting odds nor Eurovision, just a fan with a love for statistics 🙃

As for Finland, just qualifying let alone a placement in top-10 is of course an amazing result for us – hell, we’ve never even qualified more than twice in a row! My wish is that we could somehow crack into top-5 for the first time ever (2006 not taken into account). There is a possibility that we could win the televote (depending on running order) but juries are going leave Käärijä outside top-10, which means our placing is around 6th/7th in the overall results. Juries rarely care about silly upbeat songs especially if they are sung in native language and based on that I see Finland going the same route as Moldova 2022 (2nd in tele, 20th in juries, 7th combined) or Norway 2019 (1st in tele, 18th in jury, 6th combined).

Sweden wins. Loreen either wins both the juries and televote or placing in second/third in one or both of them. We might have a different jury winner (Spain? Switzerland?) or televote winner (Finland? Norway? Czechia?) but it doesn’t matter because they both flop in the other component (still placing in top-10 though).

You can quote me May 14th 2023 🙂

[vogelmeister]

actually having a massive dilemma bc of eurovision this year and its both ethical and personal. basically last year i went "ava you need a hobby" and i was like "goud is my hobby" and then i was like "something else ava" and so as my new years resolution was to get back involved in my drama society at uni. i miss performing so much. they had auditions for their first spot but i literally couldnt audition as there was no role for me and also i was in my hometown that weekend of auditions and had a concert the other night.

anyways they announced auditions for the open spot (which realistically funnily enough is where i'd pitch goud if i were to pitch goud but sometimes i feel i'll never be confident enough in myself to do that bc it is a very personal work to me at its core. also i'd need a co-director and i almost dont trust someone else with directing these characters) and i flipped through the thingy and what do you know? i can make auditions and there is a role for me. unfortunately i looked at the show dates and it happens to be a certain week in may.

with talk on the town of boycotting eurovision because of israel (which i do not support israel being there i always found it odd bc they arent europe and thats big words coming from an australian) and the ebu flipping around until the song deadline on whether or not to ban them, i have found myself less enthusiastic about this year compared to others. i was talking to someone about how israel (or the not finnish blue and white flagged place) basically is the elephant in the room hindering this, but even so, i only have a handful of entries i really put on repeat (netherlands, croatia, finland) from this year. so the whole situation is affecting my excitement for the event, and you'd think this would make it easier but its not. bc it still is my favourite event of the year and while i can participate in everything to do with the season, to do this and then not watch the finale is a waste to me. so now im at a dilemma with what to even do bc i'd love to be on stage again but it comes at a cost, and i'd love to watch eurovision but it also comes at the cost of a certain not finnish blue and white place being there.

so like, i made a list but this is somehow worse. bc like, i feel like i dont win either way.

watching it

i won't feel depressed bc eurovision is important to me and boycotting it will probs mean sacrificing a huge part of my mental health

i already have watching plans with someone

people in my life know me as the eurovision girl and will ask me about it / i hate being vocal like this (i think its bc people wont take me seriously and i struggle to articulate thoughts regardless especially in situations like that)

joost klein / i already know half the songs anyways

i will feel shit because of israel being there (i have already boycotted KAN and the entrant and their song regardless of what happens)

boycott

i'll probably still feel depressed bc its my favourite event of the year

if i dont watch it i can audition for the play and performing makes me happy just as much as eurovision/ i havent performed since pre amsterdam

can always watch later, however not the same and may get spoiled

anyways

thanks.

[countessofravenclaw]

The 2022 writing Advent calendar: Day 6

6. Christmas baking

So… have you ever imagined how chaotic Luna would be in the kitchen with Jima and Yam alone, with no Nina keep them in check

So, today also is Finland's independence day so cheers to that and 105 years of freedom from Russia!

“Thank you so much for coming.” Luna opened her and Matteo’s studio apartment door to Jim and Yam. 

“Of course!” Jim said as she put the bag she had brought down and hugged Luna. “I love Christmas baking. Did I ever tell you that my mom and my big sister used to win our neigbouehood’s gingerbread championship three years in a row?”

“It was delicious. I can vouch for that,” Yam said as she hugged Luna as well. “Where’s Nina?”

“Oh, she’s not here,” Luna explained. She had invited Jim and Yam to build a gingerbread house with her as she had finally convinced Matteo that she did not need her mom’s supervision in the kitchen. Matteo still did not let her do it alone. 

“Oh?” Jim looked confused, “I thought she would be. as you invited us here as well.”

“I did ask her as well, but the Peridas had some kind of fancy cocktail event at Gastón’s boss or something,” Luna shook her head laughing, “So she and Gastón are there.”

“Ah, understood,” Yam nodded her head, “I guess that is one of the obligations that come with marriage. Not that we would know.” She took Jim by the shoulder.

“Anyways… the gingerbread,” Jim change the subject. “Where was the kitchen again?”

“Right here, ” Luna pointed to a corner in the living room where the oven and fridge were.

“One good thing about this apartment is that Luna cannot get lost,” Matteo’s voice rang from the couch where he was sitting with a guitar and his notebook. 

“Oh hi, Matteo!” Yam greeted him, “By to way, I got your message about the collaboration. The song was really pretty. Forgot to write you back.”

“So you are on board then? Good. Your people will get a message later about the recording session. And I already spoke with Delfi about the music video.”

“She’ll be producing it?” Yam asked

“Of course, like always.”

“Yam, please, what did we talk about?” Jim took Yam’s arm. “We are on holiday vacation. No work. Sorry, Matteo.”

“No sweat,” Matteo smiled, “You three have fun in the kitchen. I’ll be here… with the fire extinguisher."

“Matteo, please, We will not burn anything,” Luna rolled her eyes. 

“Okay, so we brought all kinds of things, so this will be the best gingerbread house of the century,” Jim and Yam put the bag they had brought on the kitchen table. “Luna, can you show that picture again?”

Luna took out her phone and showed Jim and Yam the picture of the gingerbread house that she had found on Pinterest. 

The house looked like it had three houses stacked on top of each other. Luna absolutely loved how it looked. 

“So the first step is to bake all the cookies,” Luna said reading the recipe on her phone. They had storebought gingerbread dough since Luna have to admit, that she was not daring enough to also try to make it from scratch alone, or even with Jim and Yam’s help.  

“Oh, dangit, I forgot,” Matteo suddenly piped up from the couch. “Luna, I have to run out real quick. I left my capo for the studio, I’ll be back in an hour. DO NOT burn anything while I am gone. My dad will kill me if we get in trouble with the insurance company.”

“Have you burned something before?” Jim asked.

“No, but Matteo does not trust me alone with the kitchen that often,” Luna laughed, “hence why you are here.”

“And you are going to marry that,” Jim questioned jokingly.

“I guess I am,” Luna shrugged her shoulders. “Oh, and thanks for the reminder!” She quickly took her engagement ring off and left it on the living room coffee table. “Matteo would kill me if that ends up in the oven or something. Okay, let's get this show on the road!” 

***

“Jim, hold it a little more up,” Luna said as she bent over backward, literally, to pipe the frosting on the top of their house so they were able to attach the last roof tile to the top. “Okay… we are done?”

Luna jumped off the table and her, Jim and Yam inspected their hand’s work. The kitchen was in complete chaos and they were all covered in frosting

“I did not realize it was gonna be this tall. Are we sure it is not going to fall?” Yam remarked as she picked frosting off her hair.

“Oh,” Luna suddenly started laughing. “We accidentally did this twice the scale. I think I accidentally printed the shapes too big.”

“And you are telling us this now?” Jim joined in the laughter

“You know, I am kind of glad that Nina is not here to see this. This mess is way too iconic, and we’d end up in her next book,” Yam remarked

“If Nina would have been here, this would have not happened,” Jim  noted, “Well, too bad she is too busy being a married woman.”

“WHAT HAPPENED HERE?” The girls turned around and saw stunned Matteo standing in the doorway.

“Oh, hi, Matteo. Do you like our gingerbread house?”

“I thought you were making a gingerbread house,” Matteo said, “Not a real house made of gingerbread.”

“Oh yeah, that,” Luna started speaking, “We just had a tiny small miscalculation… But at least there is enough for everyone.”

“Yeah, you could feed the whole Jam & Roller with this,” Matteo walked over to the gingerbread house eyeing it verily. “You know what, I know better than to question what you are doing. Just clean this all up, and I’ll be at our bedroom.” he pulled out his phone and took a couple of pictures, “I’m gonna send these to Gastón before this whole thing falls over. We’ll see what our environment construction engineer thinks about your building.”

After Mateo had disappeared into their bedroom, Luna, Jim, and Yam finished up their masterpiece and took a couple… a hundred selfies with it. 

“So what now?” Yam asked

“Well, I guess we need to clean up,” Luna answered and licked the frosting off her wrist.

[dragongutsixofficial]

Allow me, as a French™, to elaborate: i dunno if you know this but eurovision is the world's largest song contest and every year each participating country sends an artist with a song to represent them. After the last contestants face off in a big finale (26 countries this year), the final classement is made using a dual voting system: 50% of the points are given by national jurys and 50% are given by the international public.

The thing is, people have suspected for years that these professional jurys are anything but; or at the very least that they aren't impartial. They often give points to countries they have tight diplomatic relationships with (like Cyprus and Greece), and their taste is more often than not in total contradiction with that of the public. So people have been calling for the total abolition of that rule or to reduce the proportion of points given by the jury.

This already came to head two years ago, when the Italian group Måneskin won with an absolute banger of a song I absolutely recommend: Zitti e Buoni. They won thanks to the public, who fell absolutely head over heels for them, given the jurys had all favored France's song, which was a lot more traditional in style (it was okay, but it could never compare imo). In the days following their victory, false rumors saying the band had taken drugs during the contest spread in order to disqualify them, further facilitated by the fact that they were non gender conforming and had a very unique style. They were, of course, absolutely false.

Things went to shit again this year. See 49 years ago ABBA won the Eurovision with their song Waterloo and all the commentators kept mentioning it like... A lot . And about how great it'd be if for the 50th birthday of their victory Eurovision was organized in Sweden (meaning the Swedish songstress would win). So anyways, they picked a former Swedish victor with a song written by the same composers as the first time she participated to represent Sweden this year and the professional jurys decided to vote en masse for her, giving her an ENORMOUS lead. Meanwhile, the public had put Sweden second and had voted for Finland to be in first place with the largest public vote ever in the history of the contest (except for last year with Ukraine). But given the lead Sweden had for the jurys, even the public's +300 points wasn't enough to make Finland win.

Sooo people claim it was rigged and honestly. yeah, there's a pretty good case for it. It's not so much the fact that Sweden won (the song was good, just not the best for a majority of people) but the massive discrepancy between both parts of the points what's with the 50th birthday of ABBA winning which made people go apeshit.

So now everyone is talking about it . Sweden is shitting on Finland. Finland is celebrating its artist and basically telling Sweden to go f*ck itself. The internet is going ballistic over these two artists. People also claim it's unfair to both artists (the Swedish one will get hate and the other has been robbed of a victory).

Meanwhile, the French press is arguing about whether the songstress who represented France made a middle finger when she got her points. Something literally no one cares about but APPARENTLY it's making international news. xD I have yet to see a single thing about it. So this first post was kind of highlighting the ridiculousness of the focus in France compared to this whole feud.

Cha cha cha, everyone. 💚

meanwhile the french press is debating whether or not la zarra made a middle finger

[femininefutbol]

grand slam

prompt: claudia pina surprises you at your wimbledon final after making you think she wouldn’t be able to make it due to playing in the euros 

word count: 2.3k

a/n: i'm no tennis expert by any means so if any details are wrong i'm sorry. also i'm not extremely happy with the way this turned out but i hope you guys enjoy it anyway

-

“Congratulations (Y/N), you are through to the final of Wimbledon in your first ever Grand Slam appearance” the interviewer states and the crowd breaks into applause. 

“I am extremely happy and very shocked. This is just the start of an incredible journey for me. I am honoured to have even been a wildcard in this tournament let alone being able to make it this far, it is a dream come true” you look out at the crowd, basking in the energy and finding your family and coach, the view of them together making you smile even more. 

“So the match went on for a while and you were down for the entire first half of it. When you were down 5 - 2 in the second set did you even think you had a chance coming back at all let alone being able to win?” the interviewer asks. 

“I first want to give appreciation to Ons Jabeur, she played an incredible game today and myself and probably everyone else was likely under the assumption that she would win. Especially when I was down in the second set but being able to come back in that set through a little bit of luck and a lot of determination gave me the mental push that I needed to be able to fight to the end and thankfully it was enough for me today” you answer the question, still a little surprised that you were even able to bring this game back to win and especially against the current world number 3. 

“It is yet to be decided but you will either play Elena Rybakina or Simona Halep in the final, is there a match up that you would prefer?” the interviewer questions. 

“Both are incredible players, ones that I love to watch and I am very aware that either would be tough to beat in the final. I am just excited to even be here, it didn’t even seem like a possibility a few years ago so I am just taking in every moment and I will appreciate whichever match-up is served to me” you joke, rather proud of yourself with the pun you just made. 

“You mentioned that this didn’t even seem like a possibility a few years ago and that is very interesting. So we know you played football professionally up until a few years ago and could have potentially been preparing to play in the Euro’s right now. Spain plays their opening match tomorrow, is there anything you want to say about that?” the mention of football brings a smile to your face, your mind immediately filled with thoughts of your girlfriend Claudia. 

“So I only really started training tennis professionally during lockdown a few years ago, before that I really did think the rest of my career would be spent playing football. I am excited to be here though and this is a dream come true. But I am also so excited for my girlfriend and friends on the national team and I can not wait to be able to attend the rest of the group stage matches to support them” you speak happily, always excited at the mention of Claudia and also football. 

“Congratulations (Y/N) (Y/L/N) again for making it to your first Grand Slam final, good luck to you. Any last words?” 

“Thank you so much, I’d like to say my own good luck to Claudia and the rest of the Spanish football team for their game against Finland tomorrow” you state, making the Spaniards in the crowd go wild, which causes both yourself and the interviewer to laugh at the reaction. 

- 

“You are through to the final” Clàudia screams down the phone, her excitement making you giggle. 

“So you were able to watch?” you ask with a large smile. 

You knew that it would be hard for Claudia to watch your games at this point as Spain’s opening game for the Euro’s is tomorrow. You wanted to be there and you would have been if you hadn’t made it as far at Wimbledon, but you are going to the rest of the games in the group stage and you are more than ready to play the part of the proud girlfriend at Claudia’s first major tournament. 

“I made the rest of the team watch too, some of the girls didn’t think you could come back but I knew you could” Claudia informs you the tone of her voice is one of pride, although that quickly changes through to her next sentence. “I’m so sorry that I won't be able to be there to see you play, I can’t believe I’m missing your first major tournament final” she states sadly. 

“Pina baby” you speak softly, hoping to stop her thoughts as they race through her mind. 

“(Y/L/N) baby” she replies just as softly, the sadness still evident in her voice. 

“This is your first major tournament as well, we are both doing what we love. Even if we can’t be there to support each other in person, I feel your support every time I step out onto the court and i hope you feel mine every time you step onto the pitch” 

“But you are going to come and support me after your match and I won’t have been there to support you at all” Claudia explains, still not being able to get over the fact that she won't be there for you at your first ever Grand Slam final. 

“Okay and? I hope that there will be many more tournaments that I plan in and I know that you will be there when you can. It’s all part of our lives Pina, and I will love you whether you come to all of my games or none of them” you answer again, hoping to get through to her.

“Well I will always try to come to as many games as possible but when I can’t I will always set up a watch party to cheer you on” Claudia states, the sentiment causing a flutter to run through your chest knowing just how much she really does support you. 

“Thank you Pina. I have to go and I assume you probably do as well but I will be cheering you on tomorrow even though I can’t be there” 

“I won’t be playing tomorrow, you know how Jorge is” Claudia sighs. 

“You better be playing or I will be having stern words when I see him” you and Claudia both laugh at your statement.

“I’m sure he will be terrified of a 19 year old girl” Claudia’s comment causes you both to laugh even more. 

“He better be. I love you baby, bye” 

“I love you too” You hold Claudia’s words in your mind long after the phone call ends. 

Even though you have been working so hard to assure Claudia that it is okay that she can’t be at your game, because it is, it does still hurt you that your biggest supporter can’t be there to see you in the biggest moment of your career thus far.

You try to cast your mind away from the disappointment and instead settle in to watch another of the Euro’s games, sizing up your friends and girlfriend’s potential quarter final rivals. You are happy enough to be distracted by some football for the evening. 

-

You scream in shock, falling to the ground as Elena Rybakina misses your shot, crowning you the winner of the 2022 Wimbledon Grand Slam. 

All throughout the award ceremony you beam with joy, still not fully believing that you had actually won your first ever major tennis tournament. 

“This must be a dream come true, how are you feeling?” the interviewer asks almost immediately after you are handed the trophy. 

“More than anything I am so overjoyed, still very shocked but mainly just so happy. Shoutout to Elena for being an incredible opponent, it was a tough game from start to finish but I didn’t expect anything less. I’d also like to thank my coach who has worked tirelessly with me to be able to make this happen, I wouldn’t have been able to do any of this without her. Also my mum and sister who are amazing supporters, showing up to every game and training throughout my entire life, whether it had been for tennis, football or any other sport I played, they were always there to watch and cheer me on and I am so glad I have been able to repay them for everything they have done by means of winning this tournament. Lastly I’d like to thank Claudia, even though she was unable to be here today I know she was supporting me from afar just as I was supporting her the same way yesterday. This is for all of them, and all of you as well, vamos Espana!” you raise your trophy at the end of your miniature speech, the crowd loudly cheering as you do, causing tears to well in your eyes at the amount of support you are receiving. 

“You played well, you came out with something to prove in that first set and it came away from you in the second but what did you say to yourself coming into the third set?” the interviewer asks. 

“I really put my all into that first set, it felt incredible to be up from the beginning and that got to my head a little bit. It distracted me during the second which brought me back to reality and allowed me to find the balance and just play my best in the third set. I’m just lucky that my best happened to be enough today. It all comes down to the team I have around me though, even just being able to look over to them really brought me back to reality and reminded me of the reason that I am doing this, which is nothing to do with ego and everything to do with dreams I’ve had since I was a little girl of being able to conquer anything I set my mind to” you state, the smile not leaving your face as you think of your younger self and how she would feel having been able to achieve something so great. 

“Speaking of your team, there is one member who you speak of often and fondly who isn’t able to be here today” the interviewer states, obviously making a mention of Claudia. 

“Yeah like I said my incredible girlfriend Claudia isn’t able to be here as she is performing in the Euro’s, but I know she wished to be here and I felt her with me out on the court today, as I do with every game I play. I just hope she is as proud of me as I was of her when I was screaming at the TV in the gym when she entered the game and every time she touched the ball” you laugh, causing the crowd to laugh too, most of them probably not understanding that you are in no way at all exaggerating. 

“Well I’d like to congratulate you on the win, but if you check your team box I think there is someone there who would like to offer you an even better congratulations” the interviewer states, pointing behind you to where your team are sitting, clearly having something set up. 

You turn around, looking at your team box, your coach, mother and sister who were there the entire game standing proudly. Although new faces have joined the three of them as Claudia and a few other Spanish national team members stand smiling proudly. 

Once yours and Claudia's eyes meet the tears that had welled in your eyes freely fall as you as courteously as possible run towards the stand, not being able to wait another second to be with your girlfriend.

“You are here?” you ask, holding her face in your hands, not actually believing that she is physically here. “Is this real?” 

“Very real baby. Congratulations on your first Grand Slam win, you didn’t seriously think I would miss it did you?” Claudia asks in return, the smile not leaving either of your faces as you stay staring into her eyes, any sense of anything else completely disappearing as all that matters in this moment is you and her. 

“Thank you” you finally get out, not sure how to express your gratitude that she is here to support you or your relief that she didn’t actually miss this moment. 

“Of course (Y/L/N). I would love to stay like this forever but you did just win Wimbledon so I assume you have some other things that you are supposed to be doing right now” Claudia states, knowing that you have an insane amount of media duty to attend to. 

“Can I kiss you Pina?” the asking is customary as you lean in anyway, capturing her lips in a sweet yet passionate kiss as this is the first time the two of you have been able to physically interact since you left for the beginning of the tournament a few weeks prior. 

“Congratulations again mi amor” Claudia states, pushing you away slightly so you will actually leave to do what is required of you. 

“Do we even get a hello (Y/L/N)” Patri calls out, herself, Aitana and Ona stand behind Claudia waiting for you to notice them. 

“Hello! Thank you for coming, I spent too long kissing Pina, I will make it up to you later” you call as you are walked away by a security personnel, causing the Spanish footballers to just laugh at you as you leave.

[ask-the-eu6]

Do you watch Eurovision together? Who was your fav act this year? (You can’t choose your own act obvs)

Netherlands: Obviously I watched Eurovision this year and they all did too. I organised it. If they didn't watch it I would have held it against them for a whole year. :)

Belgium: He says that but we all already agreed to come watch it after he won in 2019. There was absolutely no need for threats. 🙄

Luxembourg: Especially seeing as it got cancelled in 2020 due to the pandemic. We were all incredibly looking forward to it!

Netherlands: Yeah, my wallet didn't though... :)

Netherlands: Anyway countries that are hosting usually don't do well, but it wasn't bad either. I got fourth last place. My favourite act... I'd rather not say...

Luxembourg: Say it, coward.

Belgium: Say it! :)

Netherlands: Fine... My favourite act was France. I gave him "Douze points" from the televoting and the jury. *embarrassed*

France: I'm incredibly flattered, mon cher~ Anyway...

France: I got second place and my favourite act was Portugal, it was kind of groovy and jazzy, I liked it, 8 points of the jury and the televoting for them. :)

Romano: Second place... *smirks*

France: Well, what do you want, the people with taste were lacking this year. Only my darlings, Spain and Netherlands are alright and deserve to be rewarded.

Netherlands: *bright red*

Germany: I gave you 12 points from the jury and 10 from the televoting...

France: Alright, no need to get jealous, you will get a kiss too, but not as big as them. Alright?

Germany: That's not... I mean... ah... Let's move on!

Germany: Our act was...

Luxembourg: The best thing ever! I didn't know you could play the ukulele like that.

Germany: Thank you! it was fun, yes, despite ending second to last.

Belgium: Hey at least Britain did worse. :)

Germany: Yeah but... Britain...

France: Agreed mon cher, I'd be distraught.

Germany: Anyway, my favourite act was France, as I already said.

France: *winks*

Romano: Unlike you we didn't need to sleep with people to get them to vote for us and we won well deserved!

France: *gasps* "Sale petites pestes va" 😒

Italy: Not that we would mind any offers :D

Romano: Fratello, I swear to god. Anyway, our favourite act was us. Måneskin, is so cool. Hands down top act.

Netherlands & Germany: It says you can't choose your own act.

Italy: Wow, that was a little bit creepy how you said that at the same time. If not our act, then it was Finland!!! It was also really cool!

Belgium: My act was a bit dark, not bad, but not everyone's taste. We got 19th place and I was honestly already surprised I made it to the finale. I thank the jury because we got 3 televotes from Lithuania and Ukraine and 71 jury votes. 😅

Germany: At least you got votes...

Belgium: I know dear, I'm sorry ahahaha. Anyway, my favourite act was Ukraine's, I had no idea what it said but it was honestly such a mood and such a good vibe.

Luxembourg: Not that not knowing the lyrics stops her from singing it in the shower, or something that resembles it, at least... *grins*

Romano: *snorts*

Netherlands: Don't give away our blackmail material so easily!

Belgium: I hate you both.

Luxembourg: Aw, sis, we love you! :D

Luxembourg: Anyway I wasn't allowed to vote as I haven't participated since 1993. I think my favourite would have been Lithuania, It was so funky and nice.

Belgium: Oh... When will Luxembourg come back from the war and participate in Eurovision again?? *clutches her heart*

Luxembourg: Well... uh, highly unlikely as the broadcaster that is supposed to pay the membership doesn't have enough money.

Netherlands: But you are so filthy rich?

Luxembourg: Yes but that's the state not the private company and every time the state wants to fund the broadcaster, the people vote against it because it costs too much, and then they complain because we don't participate. I mean we had the highest amount of wins per participation, and we made many singers famous like France Gall. *sigh...*

France: For which I'm grateful! I love her music!

Italy: *pats Luxembourg on the back* I know what it feels like, having to organise something but not having enough money..

Germany: I can't believe I'm going to have to calculate any failsafe or bailout mechanism because you guys decided to win the Eurovision.

Netherlands: Yeah they're not getting a single penny :)

Romano: I don't need your money, cheap bastard. We'll manage! Anyway thank you for your ask and you're all welcome next year's Eurovision 2022 in Turin!

Italy: Woohoooo!!! :D

Very small Mun note

There’s a really cool site where you can see who voted for who and it’s honestly so entertaining every year! 

https://eurovisionworld.com/eurovision/2021

The team watches Eurovision too, almost religiously! 

[painless-innit-colourful]

OKAY! Here's my full commentary of the night, from two middle aged unmarried women, a young sapphic that wasn't really watching, and me, the only person in the room that has watched Eurovision before. We're all performers (one former professional dancer, one dance teacher at university, one student dance teacher, and one singer in training) and we had some... opinions. Okay, let's go!

Cyprus: Bad Romance, if it was sung by Shakira with added yodelling.

Albania: SHE'S GOT GAS (lmaooo Graham Norton mentioned flatulence during the postcard and it ruined us).

Israel: Quite a bop, though that girl did not have legs, she had sticks. (Also the dancer on the front left had pulled his calf by the end lmao.) Thought it was an ironic choice of song name for the country that's been bombing Palestine.

Belgium: Too angsty for Eurovision.

Russia: Brilliantly wacky - very Eurovision. We in the living room are slightly worried for their safety after tonight. Awesome.

Malta: OH YEAHH, THAT BANGED. That's a Top 40 in the UK for sure. That's the living room favourite for now.

Portugal: "I don't know where I belong-" "I'm from the deep south." "Of Portugal."

Serbia: "This is like when three... Unmarried women in their 40s are drunk on New Year's Eve and go: 'Hey, what if we did Eurovision?'" / "Destiny's Inappropriate Auntie." (thanks Graham.)

UK: Alright (definitely better than our last one), but we spent most of our watch session talking about how my aunt literally taught one of the dancers two years ago.

Greece: WE SPENT MOST OF THE SONG TALKING ABOUT THOSE DANCERS. THE AR DIDN'T QUITE WORK 100% LMAOOO. Also her catsuit? Impeccable. That's a Bond girl right there.

Switzerland: We had so much to say about that one. It sounded like Writing's On The Wall. It looked like performance art. It was shot like a Bond opening. Then he started WIGGLING. AND HIS SHADOW MADE HIM LOOK LIKE HE HAD A MULLET.

Iceland: WE WANT THEM TO WIN. THAT WAS SO GOOD. THAT WAS SATIRE. I WANNA GO TO THE PUB WITH THEM. THAT WAS AWESOME. "How does it keep getting better" HOW ABOUT YOU TELL ME!!!

Spain: Ah. A 6 metre moon. We were hoping for a staging malfunction.

Moldova: Learn some Breath Control lady. Also those backing dancers were the best part. One of them looked like Michael McIntyre.

Germany: Good LORD. That was the cheesy filler song from a musical, with the addition of a hand near constantly giving everyone the finger.

Finland: YOOOOOOO. Okay. That was like, incredibly ironic to say they weren't allowed to put their middle fingers up after what just happened in Germany... Lmao. Anyway! That was awesome. Did you see the audience? They were going crazy. So were we. Hope that wins. Living room favourite.

Bulgaria: Pretty staging. Pretty lady. Pretty voice. Ehhhhh song.

Lithuania: AYYYE. THAT WAS TOO MUCH FUN. The choreography was terrible, in the absolute best way. We loved that, a lot.

Ukraine: Ukrainian folk rave. An unexpected bop. No idea what was happening with the visuals. Why did she murder Orville.

France: Very nice song, always love the sound of the French language. We spent three minutes talking about why we dislike the French.

Azerbaijan: Great song. We spent two minutes trying to remember the name of Little Mix song I always sing "My lemons" to the chorus.

Norway: EXCELLENT SONG. However, we could see why Graham Norton said not to look at the screen. Good GOD what was that choreography. Who's idea was the devils.

Netherlands: Kinda forgot what nation that was: some great African influences. Anyway, tonight the 80s reign supreme. Why they were dressed like airline staff, I don't know.

Italy: Very glam rock. We spent a minute talking about Estonia's entrant from last time.

Sweden: Oh, that was so cool. That was the kinda song I can imagine hearing on the music channel in a hotel room where it's the only channel in English. That guy could go mainstream.

San Marino: WHY IS FLO RIDA HERE (still don't like San Marino after their dentist beat us last time).

[escmemesandstuff]

National selection review: Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu

So many selections, so little time. Now when I’m less saddled with real-life obligations, time to get back on track with my reviews. Starting from my country, Finland!

Overall impression: Seriously, what happened to UMK? I’d gotten used to it being a mediocre selection with maybe one or two great songs, but this time,  I’d gladly send almost any of these songs to the contest! (Maybe not Tommi Läntinen, but it’s not like he’s going to win anyway.) That being said, there isn’t any wow-factor song like Dark Side. Which may be a good thing, as now the fandom will be less desperate for one particular song to win (and also less likely to start drama over the results).

Personal favourites: Usually when the number of songs is this low, I would only pick a top three. However my four favourite songs are so lose to each other in my ranking, that it wouldn't feel right to leave one of them out. So without further ado, here they are (in no particular order):

Olivera - Thank God I’m an Atheist

This gives me very similar vibes than Victoria’s song last year, but Olivera’s voice gives it a unique touch. Easily the best lyrics in the whole selection. I’m eager to see this performed live!

The Rasmus - Jezebel

*sings along* JEZEBEEELL! This has such a classic Rasmus sound, it could easily be right from my childhood! Simple yet very memorable. The instrumental parts are awesome.

BESS - Ram pam pam

Another track that makes me sing along! I didn’t expect to like a Finnish schlager-pop song this much, but here we are. This is the kind of song that hits right at the first listen! A real party track that oozes energy!

Cyan Kicks - Hurricane

I’ve wanted to see Cyan Kicks in UMK for a long time, so I’m happy that they’re finally participating - with a kickass song no less! This has such an international sound and radio hit vibes. Like with The Rasmus, great instrumentals!

Prediction: While The Rasmus seems like the obvious televote winner thanks to their big name, Bess might come close second - her song is very current and fits well into the mainstream Finnish music scene. So if anything, the contest will be a nice boost to her career, similarly to Erika Vikman’s. It’ll be more interesting to see who will end up as the jury favourite. My bet is on either Olivera or Cyan Kicks, but the live performance will play a huge factor.

[balkanballad]

Eurovision 2021 ranking

hello, hello and welcome to my eurovision 2021 ranking. the songs are ranked with numbers but I also put them into categories (from 💐 to 🥀) and added a short comment. so, if you are interested in my personal opinion about the songs, have fun:

💐:

Switzerland: I was rooting for him last year and it’s the one returner in my top that didn’t disappoint me that much. what a start, huh? I love the song, I love the feeling it gives me when I listen to it, the clip is very pretty too. did I like his last entry better? yes, but I will say it already here at the very top of this list: I liked last year’s choices in general a lot more. nevertheless, this is a beautiful entry! and it is my personal winner this year

Australia: I loved her last song. It was there for me when I needed it. Technicolour does not touch me in that way but it is fun!! it’s catchy to me and I really like Montaigne. I adore her style and how she sings. I am excitingly looking forward to this performance :)

France: beautiful song, amazing singer, the national final performance was wonderful. however, I listened to it so much that back in March I already needed a break form it. now as I am finishing this it’s April and I can slowly listen to it again. it’s me though, it’s not her. that’s really a me problem. she’s wonderful and I love the French touch to this

Albania: a ballad from the Balkans <3 hello, of course I like it and I love that they kept it in Albanian this year. I heard similar songs before, but I like the sound of it still.and overall it’s a song that gives me familiar vibes in a cozy way with a bit of drama

Russia: interesting!! I was relived to see that Little Big didn’t return because, as I explained in my ranking for last year, I was not feeling them. absolutely nothing about them, but I love her! I think it’s catchy, it’s something different and I like the message she supports. it took me a few times to fully decide how I feel about the song, but now it’s in my top for sure 

Denmark: fun! a fun song in Danish. I really like the good mood it puts me in. I even see this in the context of the Umbrella Academy or Stranger Things or something like that when they go to Europe to party a bit. I also really enjoy the old school vibe this has to it. I miss that vibe. I’m also a bit old school

Cyprus: I absolutely do not relate to anything said in this song but it’s catchy! it is a bit fuego and a bit replay but I liked those entries as well, so yeah fire. I have not heard a single live performance by her but I am not exactly sure that vocals will be the aspect that she will try to win votes with anyway. I am amused by the fact that apparently people were offended by this song when it clearly makes no sense whatsoever. it’s simply a bop, move on and dance a bit

🌺:

(8.) Greece: fun as well! a ‘dream team’ entry for sure. I say this a bit sarcastically, but they do well a lot of the times and I am lured in by a lot of their entries myself. Kontopoulos is a big name in the esc industry, it’s a fact. the song is a bit more mature than Superg!rl, which I also listened to more often that I thought I would. It still reminds me of a theme song for a superhero show for kids and I am a bit worried that the ‘dReAM TeAm’ is a bit too outdated for Stefania because I think she could have done something cooler than both of those songs

(9.) Sweden: it took me a few times listening to this song, but I like the song now. I don’t think it’s too special and “a million voices” reminds me of Polina immediately because those are her words for me, but this is a good song too. I like how it makes me feel empowered and like everything will be okay. thank you for that, Tusse, I need that 

(10.) Israel: Eden deserved a better song. I like this song less than last year’s entry because I think it’s less interesting and I loved some instrumental parts from last year’s entry, but this is not bad either. I am rooting more for her than for the song, but I guess that’s this year’s motto for me. I also can’t say that I love the revamp because it made it sound even more generic for me  

(11.) Belgium: I saw the promo pics for them and was very confused how different the singer looks this year, but it turns out that it’s not the same woman. I like this entry a lot better. I like her voice and I really like the vibe. It sounds a bit like it could play in the background of a classic American tv show when a character is going a bit through it and pouring a drink while it’s dark outside. I have the same problem that I mentioned already while talking about the French entry, but that’s still a me problem. I just need a break

(12.) Ireland: this entry is a lot less annoying to me than the song that she had last year. I like the lyrics and whole aesthetic of this one a lot more. it’s another one that I can’t listen to too often, but I still think it’s a very good choice imo

(13.) The Netherlands: Jeangu!! I think he for example will give a wonderful vocal performance. Growth felt way more personal to me, but that’s a repeating motive this year and also a me problem because obviously this is his song and he does it well

🌻:

(14.) San Marino: I’m still confused by this feature and I can’t really say that I’m ‘living’ for it, but I already made a post about how I don’t think she needed Flo Rida. minus the feature it’s a catchy party song, but it reminds me of one song that I simply can’t remember anymore. something that I heard from the Greek music industry, maybe even Eleni, if you know which one I mean, pls let me know

(15.) Estonia: just like last year: this song doesn’t make much sense and I don’t want to, but I still catch myself listening to it frequently... I am sorry, I can’t help it, but it puts me in a eurovision mood and yes, I am blaming Kontopoulos again. I am a weak person when it comes to his melodies

(16.) Ukraine: first I had it lower in my ranking, but I like SHUM better now and I like it a lot more now than last years entry. I really like the part when it gets faster, that’s really fun and makes me want to jump! jump! jump!

(17.) Spain: it’s a lot less repetitive than the last entry, but I would be lying if I said that I listen to this very often. it’s alright, not bad at all actually, but I just wasn’t in the mood for this (yet?)

(18.) Romania: this is for me still the same type of style as Bulgaria. European Billie Eilish type. last year I ranked her higher than Bulgaria as well, but they are pretty much the same to me. I can’t comment on whether I like her song less or more this year. it’s not bad either but I simply don’t think about it much

(19.) Bulgaria: I think I like this entry better than her last one. the message is cute, the melody too and yeah, but I don’t care about it too much

🌼:

(20.) Croatia: it’s a faster pop song without a real meaning. ground-breaking. the title makes me think of Ukraine 2014. which I like better, but we’ll see, maybe the performance will have something cool too. I will say though, I would have prefered the whole song to be in Croatian, it doesn’t make it much deeper, but I like that part the most

(21.) Malta: another faster pop song. I think she will give an amazing vocal performance and it will be cool and powerful, but the message and lyrics are a bit confusing to me. I am not the lyrics police, but I am confused by them a bit

(22.) Iceland: I think I like it better than last year’s song, but it’s still not LOVE that I feel for the song. I can listen to it though

(23.) Lithuania: it’s there. I am not a fan of them and it’s not a song I love too much, but I can listen to it

(24.) North Macedonia: sigh. I liked last year’s entry a lot and Vasil seems like someone who cares a lot about the contest, but I don’t feel this ballad. I think I know what they were going for and what it’s trying to be, dramatic and meaningful, but I don’t feel it that much. it’s okay? but it doesn’t do much for me

(25.) Czech Republic: this was a surprise because I think the overall quality of his entry got a lot better, this time though I have the problem that I do not like the lyrics. they don’t make me as uncomfortable as Germany last year but they are in that area of uhm, I don’t love the feeling this gives me

(26.) UK: hm :/ I can’t say that I’m a fan. this sounds like the type of song that the boring straight men in my area put in their tinder bio as their song, but it’s every third guy that says this is his song. those Calvin Harris remix type-ish songs and I am sooo bored. I swipe left because it’s no match, I delete tinder. breath was a lot more my thing and a lot more exciting and interesting

(27.) Poland: as soon as this stops, the exact same second, I forget everything about it. I don’t remember a single word, barely the title and singer and not the melody. what is this about? I can’t tell you. it’s not exactly bad, but it is so forgettable

(28.) Moldova: oh faster pop song? wow.. so.. original. I am starting to sound like those weird people that hate ballads. I don’t feel it and I don’t relate to it, but I also don’t hate it. the video though.. no thanks.

(29.) Italy: as so often: I see a lot of Italy fans on here and I can’t relate. it’s not for me, but it’s there and I can listen to it when I can’t reach the skip button for some reason

(30.) Austria: hm. Austria and Slovenia are going there. this is the better Amen song for me, but I don’t love it. it’s better than what Ana is trying to sell even though it’s super repetitive

🥀:

(31.) Serbia: I can’t tell you if it’s worse than last year but it’s less catchy. the lyrics are still bad. actually, maybe I am the lyrics police

(32.) Finland: this not my genre and I don’t really listen to it

(33.) Slovenia: nop. not for me in any way. I already said last year that I don’t like her voice and it didn’t change but now I also don’t love the message or weird vibe of this entry. I had it even lower, but I can’t push it up more. this is as high as I can rank it

(34.) Norway: I don’t like it. I don’t like the lyrics or melody or performance that was in the nf actually. I have a hard time understanding the concept even with the explanation it makes no sense to me

(35.) Portugal: I don’t like it. a lot of the parts of the melody are really not for me and borderline annoying, but definitely boring

(36.) Georgia: it’s boring. the last entry was at least something interesting, but this one is boring, which makes me a bit sad because his voice sounds and he seems like the guy that could make something cooler. I know I am not the person that can judge rock because I don’t listen to it too much, but I feel like he could have done something cooler and ‘rock’ it more

(37.) Latvia: again: I can’t even say if it’s worse or better than last year. maybe a bit better actually but, just as last time, I can’t listen to this. it annoys me and gives me a bit of a headache. I don’t think her style and voice is for me

(38.) Germany: I wouldn’t necessarily call it hate that I feel when I have to listen to this, even though that’s a funny play with the words of this title, but I definitely feel very annoyed by this song, so I simply don’t listen to it

(39.) Azerbaijan: the song sounds just like the last one, which I had placed on the 14. place in my own 2020 ranking, however, I can’t bring myself to support someone who posts war propaganda on their socials. it’s eurovision and about the songs, I know, but this is my blog and my ranking. so it’s a no for me this time and my last place in this ranking

[sole-cuore-amore-e-droga]

Bulgaria brings a mentally reassuring anthem to Rotterdam 2021

I’ve said so that VICTORIA herself sort of agreed to have done “Tears Getting Sober” if she was allowed to, but for one I have to thank that EBU said that the artists can’t have their 2020 songs back? You’ll see why when I get to the review after two boring paragraphs of text with technical info, for the country that is Bulgaria!

ARTIST & ENTRY INFO

Victoria Georgieva (or VICTORIA, but I can’t be arsed to continuously capitalize her name so I’ll just say Victoria from now on) was born a singer, for she started to sing at the age 11, went to a specific school of angel voices (no really that’s what it was called), and tried to go to the X Factor while a liiiiiittle too young until realizing that she needed to wait for a few years, and wait a few years she did, and went on to the X Factor again.

She didn’t win, but she still got to sign a contract and sing some stuff in Bulgarian before she decided to rebrand, started singing in English, and completely decided that ballads is her style. She cannot really do upbeat most of the time. So you can’t really have a bop from her in the future. (Well except that there’s a couple of songs in her discography that I personally classify as “bops” but they’re more like... idek sad bops?? but they can be danced to, but I get her, she doesn’t do anything that’s more loud and upbeat and clubby and summery kind of - in short, nothing you can go “YAAASSSS QUEEEEEN” over to.)

The entry she ended up singing, “Growing Up Is Getting Old”, is what I can describe to be about overcoming the emotional twists and turns inside of you as you grow older, because as it turns out, it ain’t what you thought it would be - but if you push just a little further, you realize that if you’re growing up, maybe the life isn’t so bad, afterall - you are able to get up. Somehow. It was written as part of Boris-Milanov-led songwriting camp held during summer, and a lot of people seemed to be a part of it because multiple different folk have songwriting credits on the potential Bulgarian entries this year.

REVIEW

Let’s get this out of the way immediately. I prefer “Growing Up Is Getting Old” to “Tears Getting Sober”. The former sounds a lot less irritatingly underwhelming and a lot more positively overwhelming you with warm emotions and sunglow. “Tears Getting Sober” was a song I could never really connect with - maaaaybe the last chorus is much better on there, but it doesn’t do much for me either, I guess.

Their 2021 forray however is a much different kind of thing - once again, going for lyrical non-cliches, Victoria tells a tale about her inner turmoils and continuing in life, in a way that’s personal to her and also kind of relatable to all of us. We all have these moments of fear and anxiety and nervous systems aching. If only there was someone who’d tell us that we’re worth saving... thanks a lot Victoria, you’re the MVP. Filling in the void that Netherlands from last year had brought us but not anymore - another personal song about getting old and having those kind of feelings inside - and doing a great job at taking the baton in the right way (even with featuring the word “grow” in both of the titles, neat coincidence).

Not only the lyrics feel like a hug, the song just emulates ray of sunshine and golden glitter coming down from the sky, Molly Sanden style. The violins in the G major key playing so precisely, building up momentum throughout the entire song, slowly but surely - starting with the ticking clock in the first verse that may have subtle violin in there; and the first chorus is just so simple piano, and then the second chorus has a tinge of electronic something, and the last chorus goes full in with the backing vocals boosting the song, after Victoria performs the quite magnificent bridge... now I don’t have synesthesia but I associate music keys with colors, and to me G major would always come across as something yellow or orange - “Growing Up Is Getting Old” is a perfect example of why’s that for me. And obviously, Victoria’s love for harmony-humming (even if there’s just one instance of it after she sings “star crossed soul”) complements the song to a T.

And it turned out to be a much better choice than last year’s. Maybe finally a female ballad I am getting behind.

Now I wanna know why the bookies don’t appreciate THIS entry as much as last year?

Granted, now it’s 2021 and the environment is so much different, and the songs have changed, and the dynamics have changed, and now there’s suddenly more competition at stake. And for Bulgaria it fares quite much more underwhelmingly - well, at this moment they’re like 6th, which isn’t bad, but there’s a lack of sung praises coming its way, not quite a feat that “Tears Getting Sober” actually achieved, being the bookies fave right before the cancellation of last year. In general the year has been pretty dry for the previous winner picks like Iceland, Lithuania and this, but I can’t say that the previous winner bets from 2020 are all that dead either? Though I gotta say that Bulgaria wasn’t gonna win 2020 anyway, so it’s a lose-lose in this case.

Also I just can’t at that music video being a little dramatic at the beginning, with the cancellation of Eurovision being presented as if it were a worldwide disaster during which we all shall lock ourselves into bunkers and wait until the better days, eventhough the panini is not war and war supplies kit is not just enough to survive it. But it seems like that the world is quite literally falling apart, as evidenced by Victoria going through all kinds of pathways away from her living room, meeting a  (presumably) mini version of her somewhere in between, and literally surrounded by the shaking environment by the last moments of the song

before we realize it was just reality recursing from the TV’s point of view that Victoria was watching all along, and then she leaves the living room again, but in her world, everything is normal and she could just go wherever she wants by car. Even I can’t come up with a storyline ending that’s somewhat intertwined and all plot-twisty and more confusing than that. But props to her team I guess

Approval factor: Let’s say I somewhat approve this message. Follow-up factor: For the sake of argument let me just say that Bulgaria is moving on a great path, eventhough the former entry leaves me cold, at least the current entry keeps me warm at all times, like a cup of cocoa and a good blanket. Please Bulgaria, never run out of sponsors. Qualification factor: I’ve seen one or two people throw around the “surprise NQ” tag for this song and I don’t get why??? There’s no way that the tense atmosphere of semifinal 2 would sure-fire-ly kill Bulgaria, even if they have a lot less chances to win this year than they had the last one. There can be some shock NQs indeed though, and if there are, I am paging... uhhhhh Finland? Idk why but you might see what I mean if I ever get around to reviewing “Dark Side”. Bulgaria? Never. It may not win the semi but it will cradle around the top 7 somehow.

INTERNAL NF CORNER

That’s right, Bulgaria managed to do both.

At the time when one other of Bulgaria’s songs got released, within the *Special* Eurovision September 1st-onwards range, people naturally succumbed to their primal instinct of asking whether that’s her Eurovision song... only for Vic to probably announce this early on that no, it’s just *one* of potential ESC entries she’s harbouring. And the remaining potential ones were all on her debut EP. Who actually got a more well-orchestrated schedule for everyone to follow, and yet, people were much more keen to cling on the first EP song out of the gate, “Imaginary Friend”. Now I get that the fans of that song were super upset at the revelation that IF is not going, but it is a technically strong song for the sake of being a technically strong song, and I don’t want to think that Victoria is only forced to choose the songs that can win for her, so she’s such a sweetheart for gravitating towards a song she could dearly care about. So props to her team saving the initial winner for last to be revealed, lol.

Though wasn’t her personal favourite a Billie-Eilish-lite-upbeat-kinda-track Phantom Pain?

Which was also my personal favourite?

Look, I know that favouring the only non-ballad in the whole lineup (well “Ugly Cry” is also not quite a ballad but its beat is kinda so-so, so I tend to ignore it) is kinda sus, also, y’all are sick to death to Billie Eilish comparisons, but I do believe that Billie would never be able to do an “Imaginary Friend” while Victoria could do a “Lovely”. This makes me remember the cover art of Billie’s debut album where she sits on her bed, dressed in white, and so is Victoria on this very MV, with strange shit going on behind her in the mirror. To the mirror, her reflection acts creepy, back again.

The other 2 I don’t feel like caring about enough, sure they got their cred, sure there’s one entry properly crediting Milanov (who seems to not have an actual entry this year that’s purely attributed to *him*, as opposed to 3 last year, 2 of which were performed by acts that returned this year????), sure there’s the funny thing about having a funeral song where out of this and Finland only Austria managed to send a quote unquote “funeral” song, but I think the funeral song would’ve sounded better if the pre-section of it on the “Phantom Pain” video was THE “funeral” song itself, and not whatever was that other funeral song.

In between there was a public sort of survey where people could submit feedback and positive words to Vic’s choices to help her decide - I didn’t get to vote but I feel fine with the winner eitherway, and that counts for something! And the end result was revealed at the very end of Victoria’s very own rooftop concert.

The colors on the circle thingy of this, they were meant to symbolize all Bulgarian entries up to Victoria’s 2nd one, in pictograms that kind of reminded me of Coldplay attributing every song on ‘Mylo Xyloto’ its own little symbol.

The concert was not only full of music and also adverts for the inaugural sponsor iCard (that also included some element of foreshadow in between the suspense, you’ll see why), but also the Bulgarian folk talking before each song, saying all the positive nice words they can for Vic; that she’s talented, and that they were so excited that Bulgaria was doing well in the odds last year prior to cancellation, bla bla bla... also some people were proud of voting for Bulgaria outside Bulgaia, and they made puns about the forthcoming songs on the concert that they were introducing, and so on, and there was also someone called Dara, whom I really want to be sent by Bulgaria one day to show off that they’re not afraid of doing trashy-esque bops that don’t necessarily win

Also they reminded me that Lucy from No Angels (aka the sole reason Bulgaria 12′d Germany in 2008) still exists.

Also Azis.

There was also an intermission where Eurovision 2021 acts could say all the nice words to Victoria on their own part. And several artists chose to... how shall I put it... use up their several seconds rather interestingly. Like how The Roop would say something real quick only to delve into more of their usual “let’s dance, let’s discoteque! *hand scissors* ;P” self-promo, and Senhit carelessly being allowed to say whatever she wants in Italian without subtitles <3 Sorry sis, they’re only given to people from another white-green-red flag-color country.

About the iCard foreshadow... so there’s their advert about Victoria waiting in the line to get something in the Soft Vocals Store, and people ahead of her giving her money the standard oldfashioned way, and the old lady at the counter is... slow, to say the least. After a good amount of time spent waffling around, Victoria finally pulls out the iCard application and pays for the imaginary items she wants, then narrates some stuff about said application, and a Eurovision entry of hers plays when the old lady is at home, spending time in front of TV enjoying the music. Before the concert, the song that played was “Tears Getting Sober”. The advert played once more before Victoria’s big entry decision and entry MV reveal, and in place of the 2020 entry, “Growing Up Is Getting Old” was the one that sounded out loud... Now you may think that there were attempts at some sort of spoilage here, but after that ad before the concert EP NF result, there was this other advert starring Victoria that played “Imaginary Friend” at the end, a last-ditch effort to trick viewers into going “see? just because that ad played the chosen song doesn’t mean it’s the chosen song!! this song could as well be a chosen song as well!!” yeah no shut up GUIGO IS the chosen song kthxbyebye.

ANY LAST WORDS?

Having said all that praise, I actually have “Growing Up Is Getting Old” fairly low on my ranking. It’s just because the year is so damn good and I have a lot more songs to care about more than this, but I appreciate the gesture that this singer is sending very much. Good luck on your road to conquer Europe, Victory-ia, I’m sure you get the best of the experience and all, because you would deserve it.

[because-its-eurovision]

Leaving for Turin today, packed the essentials 💛🖤