escgo.com and the #esc chat woke up from the off-season hibernation by gathering to watch the 2018 edition of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest this afternoon!

And of course, it wouldn’t be an #esc viewing of a Eurovision-related event without some voting, would it?

Georgia won the #esc chat’s vote on JESC 2018, with Tamar Edilashvili’s “Your Voice” picking up an average score of 7.67 out of 10 from our chatters, followed by Russia (7.33) and Wales (7.09).

The actual winner of JESC 2018, “Anyone I Want To Be” by Roksana Węgiel from Poland, was met with relative indifference in our chat, finishing 15th in our ranking with an average score of 5.25.

Malta was our least favourite by some distance, scoring just 3.28 out of 10 on average – almost a whole point below the next-worst entry from Portugal.

As the on-season for ESC 2019 begins, with the first internal artist selections imminent and Festivali i Këngës just around the corner, stay tuned to escgo.com as we prepare to unleash our unique editorial view on proceedings.

There are plenty of other places you can watch the Polish winner, so let’s instead end with a reprise of the #esc chat favourite from JESC 2018!

Follow us:

• 265 Followers
• 2.2k Followers
• 64 Followers
• 27 Followers

People are wrong about the Eurovision Song Contest all the time. And that’s okay. After all, if we knew everything that was going to happen, there’d be no point in having a contest in the first place.

But when you write your thoughts on any kind of public forum – even a relatively small website like ours – it’s important to be able to put your hands up and acknowledge not only when you get things wrong, but why you get things wrong.

As the dust settles, then, this is my mea culpa (and not in a Catarina Pereira way) – a look at some of the things I totally failed to see coming at ESC 2018.

Cyprus
Where to start but with this year’s runner-up, Cyprus? I never truly believed in “Fuego”, even once the press centre hype had firmly kicked in. By the time of our final team predictions, I’d given into the inevitable and rated it the most likely winner (although not to the extent that it derailed our overall team prediction of an Israeli victory, thankfully). I still think it’s an absolute nothing of a song, albeit one that fits nicely into the current real-world pop music trend of using instrumental hooks instead of actual choruses. What I failed to grasp was exactly what you can achieve by performing the arse off a nothing of a song. The Cypriot staging was far more than just a tacky rehash of “Düm tek tek” or “Qele qele“; it was inspired by dark and interesting elements of entries like “LoveWave” too, making the whole thing a lot more modern and less inherently cheap.

And obviously the real ace in the pack was Eleni Foureira. What a performer, if you like that kind of thing. Beyond her dance moves, though, what I didn’t realise was just how warm, fun and personable she would be – not to mention meme-friendly, of course. The moment we saw fans in the arena holding up “YEAH YEAH FIRE” signs, I knew it was game over, and the only question was whether Cyprus could still be denied victory.

Of course, despite fan rumours to the contrary, Eleni didn’t actually win the semi-final and hence didn’t really merit her position at the very top of the betting odds. With that being the case, I still think there’s an element of groupthink involved in her result in the grand final. Would the juries have been quite as generous if they hadn’t known Cyprus was the favourite in the betting and if “Fuego” hadn’t been given a prime spot in the running order? I have my doubts – jurors are people too, after all, and just as susceptible to external influences as the rest of us. But the fact remains that Cyprus was the second favourite of the viewers at home, and I’m happy to hold my hands up and celebrate the island nation’s best finish on the scoreboard by some distance.

Russia
I’m not going to apologise for a prediction made from a position of cynicism as long as we have the likes of Azerbaijan and Armenia ranking each other in last place under all circumstances, but still: I assumed Russia could qualify for the final with anything, even a singer who can’t actually sing particularly well and a fairly limp and tired staging concept. After 2018, I’ll have to revise that to “almost anything”.

Denmark
When you’re inside the fan bubble, it can be easy to forget that the Eurovision Song Contest is, first and foremost, a family light entertainment show. That explains why viewers warmed to Michał Szpak‘s cheesy balladry and Jack Sparrow styling in 2016 whereas the juries firmly rejected “Color Of Your Life”, and it also goes some way to explaining the jury/televoting disparity for this year’s Danish entry. Rasmussen and his band of pacifist marauders actually have a lot in common with Szpak – a familiar, almost parodic visual style (your standard Game of Thrones/Vikings motif), a non-threatening and easily accessible song, and an inherent naffness that they were happy to own rather than appearing embarrassed by. Add in some live backing vocals that brought far more life to the entry than it had shown in the Danish final, and it’s no wonder “Higher Ground” outperformed my expectations. Winning the semi-final televote is still a bit baffling though!

Austria
Jurywank. Should have known.

Germany
This is the biggie. So many of my assumptions went astray here: The voters did not respond badly to the obvious similarities between “You Let Me Walk Alone” and a certain Adele number. Literally nobody but me gives a damn whether the lyrics of a Eurovision song are a bit clunky and don’t seem to appreciate that there isn’t a 1:1 equivalence between the German “lassen” and the English “let”.

And then there’s Michael Schulte himself. “Singer who became famous singing cover versions on the internet” is such a tired old trope that I took against him immediately, especially as that background seemed at odds with the claim of “authenticity” being foisted on him by Peter Urban and the Unser Lied für Lissabon process in general. Not only did that sense of irritation cloud my initial judgement, but Michael has come across as a thoroughly decent guy in every interview since, far removed from the self-pitying wet blanket suggested by his lyrics, and that humility undoubtedly helped to make “…Alone” work as a package.

Most importantly of all, though, I totally misread how the song itself would connect with its audience. As Eurovision fans of a certain demographic, we can get so fixated on looking for “high-end” relatable content – with examples in 2018 including Netta’s body-positivity and #MeToo message, Italy’s carefully subtitled peace anthem, France’s hymn to refugee tolerance – that we overlook how a common human experience, a heteronormative family tale delivered simply and honestly, can be ultra-relatable for the people at home.

I still feel like the live staging was too dark and inorganic for an emotional song like Schulte’s, but nobody casting their votes on Saturday night seemed to mind. And how brilliant for Germany to get the much-needed confidence boost of a good result after several years of mediocrity (and worse). Would they mind sharing a few tips with the UK?

The Netherlands
Just kidding. Waylon’s still a douche.

Follow us:

• 265 Followers
• 2.2k Followers
• 64 Followers
• 27 Followers

I’m a liar. There’s no way around it so I might as well just say it.

I said I could take it easy this season. I said that I felt detached enough that I could go through the final free from nerves. And I was actually right for the most part – until the televote results started, and I found myself muting them because I was slightly too nervous (even though I was certain we would win the public vote). And I absolutely did cry as soon as Israel was announced as the winner. I have to give it to the system – even when the hosts mess it up, it’s still designed in such a way that you have absolutely no time to process anything. You’d think that having the same winner that was predicted all season would be somewhat obvious, at least in retrospect, but the last two weeks didn’t feel like the narrative of a story that was writing itself as expected. At least I was stubborn enough to stick to it all the way through, despite a mounting sensation of having absolutely zero clue what would happen.

For a person who had zero clue, having guessed the three most possible winners last night as Israel, Cyprus and Italy – and in that order – isn’t too bad, though. And I actually want to say that I’m absolutely thrilled for my two favorite songs this season, Italy and Austria, to have done so well on at least one side of the vote. In a season in which I actively loved five songs, having three of them reach the top five and the one from my country actually win feels like a pretty nice way for the universe to apologize for everything else it put me through over the last few months. My other two favorites, France and Portugal, didn’t do quite as well, but I could see the French result coming, and while I was hoping Portugal would fare better, seeing it in a very typical Portuguese position wasn’t really that surprising.

I also had a soft spot for SuRie and her song for the entire season, and seeing her performance and the way she handled the intrusion – something that had me shaken, even – was a great demonstration of character and professionalism. I am sorry that she had to be tested in that way, but so very impressed with how she dealt with it nonetheless and relieved to see her safe and sound. Some things are more important than music and competitions.

That last thing is one of the many elements that made watching the Israeli win and the subsequent reactions back home so special, too. Not only had “Toy” been such a popular song in Israel since its revelation – the biggest success of any song I can remember, well before its eventual win – but the country as a whole walked this incredible journey together with Netta down a path I never imagined seeing us walk. Maybe this entire season was about journeys, really. The journey of one fan from not caring to celebrating her country winning; the journey of a team that took the reins of the Israeli selection four years ago and transformed a recent history of repeated failure into four consecutive qualifications and a win; the journey of a new broadcaster that will celebrate its first birthday in two days’ time with the honor of being handed the responsibility of hosting next year; the journey of a country from closeted fans to celebrations in the markets and city squares on Saturday night; and the journey of one girl from social isolation and low self-esteem and confidence to prime-time adulation on European television.

I went through dozens of stories, videos and tweets after Netta’s victory on Saturday night. The Israeli press covered it pretty much like having just won the World Cup, including live broadcasts of the celebrations across different TV channels at 2:30am. There were so many things to write about, but actually, the tweet that caught me the most was one that I saw almost by chance, one which got almost no likes or retweets. An old friend of Netta tweeted, “And to think that 6 years ago I had to get her drunk to have her go on stage in an open mic evening. I’m so proud of you”. Just take a moment to think about that person: the one who eventually went on a reality show just to try and get some exposure, ended up barely winning it – she was second in the audience vote – and then went through the incredible pressure of being a fan and bookmakers’ favorite for two months and the response over the last couple of weeks, only to pull it off when it matters the most. And despite not having won the audience vote initially, she has quickly become a role model in Israel, in addition to the huge success of “Toy” as a song. At Purim (the Jewish Halloween, if you will) girls dressed up like her. People who I never heard say one word about Eurovision posted her videos performing other songs (I almost spat on my computer in shock when I saw my cousin had posted Netta’s acoustic cover of “A-ba-ni-bi”).

The tweets last night expressed that too. Shiri (no, not that one) wrote that “if you told little Shiri 30 years ago that a woman like Netta can do this, I wouldn’t have believed you. Every day the world showed me in a thousand ways that big women can’t be successful and that big women can’t dream. And here, here, here we have this.” Shahar wrote, “wow, the tears just stream down with all this emotion, and all I can think about is that Netta’s win is also the win of all the special, different people, wherever we are.” And Alon got me with a tweet about his young daughter: “The thing that makes me the happiest about this win is what it means for my daughter, Alma. At 9½ years old, Netta is her hero, and this is exactly what that kind of hero should be like.”

The other Israeli Wonder Woman celebrated on Instagram and posted a video of her watching Netta’s winning moments (you can hear her say in the background: “she’s so lovely, she’s so sweet, what a champion!”), although I was slightly disappointed to not get a Deadpool reaction video. Gal Gadot was not alone: every other celebrity in Israel seems to have posted an Instagram story broadcasting a live reaction to the end of the voting or Netta’s reprise performance. Was anyone watching anything else?

Yay!!!!!! I'm so happy for Netta!! Congratulations on winning eurovision 2018..! You represent the real wonder in women. So much Truth, confidence and talent. You stand for diversity and you bring fresh beautiful light to the world.and thank you all for voting!!! X

A post shared by Gal Gadot (@gal_gadot) on May 12, 2018 at 3:52pm PDT

The judges from the Rising Star show watched the result from different places around the globe – Harel Skaat in Israel and the successful music duo, Static and Ben-El, in Los Angeles – but the reactions were the same. The videos from everywhere, from the delegation backstage to the hotel with all the fans and the people back in Israel, just kept coming in.

(The video is in Hebrew but the important things are universal.)

Lucy Aharish, an Israeli-Arab journalist and one of my favorite people in the world, tweeted: “So my conclusion is this: politics can be racist and anti-Semitic, but when it comes to people, they can see beyond that… and we have this larger than life woman who broke so many stigmas and showed there’s no such thing as impossible.”

The day after was full of celebrations as well, with an entire country – as far as I can tell from the social media feeds and texts from family and friends – walking around at work and school like zombies (Sunday is a regular workday in Israel).The TV channels dedicated full shows to the win, in a country where there’s always so much news the headlines change every two hours, and interviewed everyone, starting with her parents who wore T-shirts with a “yes chi-ken” artwork and ending with every person who has ever represented Israel.

טוב, זה פשוט ענק pic.twitter.com/yGJhIU6e3h

— Liat Alon (@Liatonly) May 13, 2018

I was particularly touched listening to an interview with Doron Medalie, co-composer of “Toy”, who is a very successful Israeli composer who often comes across as a bit too pompous and perhaps self-centered. It’s easy to dislike him, but every time I hear a proper interview with him I remember that sometime it’s very easy to judge people by first impressions or the masks they wear. Talking in the next morning, sleepless and disbelieving, he was speaking quietly and on the verge of tears.

Asked about Netta’s words concerning the conversations she has with younger Netta, Medalie was asked how it is like talking to young Doron:

“Everything I did here was to come full circle from when I was a kid. This kid’s first memory is Ofra Haza singing ‘Hi’ at Eurovision when I was five years old. Eurovision is my life, it’s in my DNA. I think I manage to write hits and catchy choruses only thanks to the Eurovision Song Contest and its three-minute rule. It’s my sixth time at Eurovision, my third time as a composer. I’m 40 years old and everything I wanted in life just happened.”

As Lindsay D once sang: No Dream Impossible.

This is what I’ve always loved about Eurovision, and what it was always supposed to be. ESC is meant to be a place where we all come together, where we all get to hear and learn from other cultures, other places, and most importantly other people. And it’s always been important to me that the song and the artist sent by Israel are something I feel represents that crazy, complicated country that I come from. For many of us, when we look at other countries, our view is automatically narrowed to what we know about that place and what we see about it in the news – and while those realities definitely exist, and the importance of discussing and resolving them is always there, it becomes too easy to forget that countries are not just that one thing alone. All those different places are made first and foremost out of people. People who have different opinions and support different ideas and love different things, care about different things. I am not naïve, and I know the next year will inevitably become a lot more political than I would have wanted it to be (and that has nothing to do with where I stand), but the people in Israel – as people – are way more than whatever you see about the country in the news.

I know that many Israeli fans have always felt that people don’t like us. Sure, some don’t. Others have a lot of problems with our government’s politics (God knows I do too, and did I already mention how my friends and I enjoyed seeing Netta pretty much hanging up the phone in Netanyahu’s face on Saturday?), but the problem is that hatred and negativity are always louder than anything else. So Israeli fans have always heard the negative voices, the voices that were hating, while it’s been a long time since they had a way to see that there are a lot more people who don’t live their life by making decisions based on a flag or a country name.

When Portugal won last year, I wrote a very long article (hard to believe, I know) about how much more beautiful that win was just due to the level of connection they had with their entry, and I was happy to experience the same thing this year. Having seen Dana International in 1998, which was also a very important and iconic moment in society back then, there was not the same kind of excitement leading up to the competition. In part, that was because the song itself, while important for ESC and for Israel, was more manufactured for the contest and was never really something that sounded like it came from us. To this day “Diva” still isn’t one of my favorite songs, for all the occasion as a whole was extremely important to me and many others in Israel in terms of what it meant for our society. “Toy”, however – despite being in English – sounds so very much like a song that comes from the depths of our music industry, which makes complete sense since the two people behind it have been involved in so many success stories there over the last years.

It’s not an easy song, and many people – Salvador Sobral included – will find it to be three minutes of noise, which is entirely understandable. It is noisy. It is very ethnic. It is incredibly crazy. It has chicken sounds. It is not as listener-friendly as “Diva”, “Hallelujah” or “A-ba-ni-bi”, and it never tried to be. Much like “Amar pelos dois” last year, it was exactly what it was supposed to be. It was a song that worked for the performer, a song that worked for the occasion, and a song that sounded like where it came from: loud, crazy, and five thousand different things all at once. Take it or leave it. Like last year, like every year, you don’t need everyone to love it; you just need enough people who do. Everyone else will get to have those years where the songs they like do better. But not today.

As we say in Hebrew, to next year in Jerusalem, which might be all politics to some of you, but will always be home to me. Even more specifically, my favorite basketball team – Hapoel Jerusalem – actually plays in the Pais Arena Jerusalem, which is a leading candidate for hosting Eurovision. I have always said that this was the place outside my own home where I felt at home the most, so it doesn’t get closer than this. As it happens, the team has a tradition of tweeting a smiley face whenever they sign a new player, and an image welcoming the player to Jerusalem and to our Pais Arena home. Yesterday they welcomed a new friend.

😎 pic.twitter.com/fnaxrLVlE8

— Hapoel Jerusalem B.C (@JerusalemBasket) May 12, 2018

And as Netta says: Kapara Aleichem, Europe!

title image: eurovision.tv

Follow us:

• 265 Followers
• 2.2k Followers
• 64 Followers
• 27 Followers

I’m crawling out of my bed to type this. So, Eurovision did it again: I’m ill!

Anyway, where were we? We were at that point when the Eurovision experience in the host city makes you lose your sense of time, your knowledge of what day it is (oh, it’s the Saturday!), and what is actually happening around you.

So as I really don’t remember what happened when in the last few days, let me mention just some of the highlights:

1. I met Jessika!
San Marino was the only song I cared about in semi-final 2, and sadly it didn’t qualify. I spent all my 20 votes on “Who We Are”, so you can imagine how I felt after the envelopes. At Euroclub though, I had the pleasure to meet Jessika, and you can probably imagine how she felt! I showed her all my votes, and received a hug from her in return. If I managed to console one of my favourite Eurovision artists of the year over a disappointing result, then my Lisbon visit was already worth it for just that.

They are who they are

2. The first dress rehearsal of the final
It was a very chilly experience in the hall yesterday, surely not helped my cold. Having watched all the songs in the final running order, I get the feeling they actively placed similar songs close to each other (Spain / Lithuania, Hungary / Netherlands, Australia / Finland), but then again there wasn’t a lot of room to play within, considering the allocation draw. As it was so damn cold in the arena, I approved of Hungary and Cyprus a lot, so my prediction might have been influenced by the warmth of the pyros. I didn’t see the interval act yet, as I literally escaped into warmer territory as soon as Italy was over, so that will be new for me as well.

3. Dinner in Bairro Alto
Yesterday I also happily got to do a little socializing with friends, so we went to Bairro Alto and had typical Portuguese food and wine. This part of the city was full of Eurovision fans – at one point we could hardly move any more as the narrow streets were completely packed. I think this was the night when Lisbon realized what Eurovision is. It’s not just a TV show. Whoever says so has not a single clue.

And now? The final awaits us.

I am going to watch it in the Eurovision Village, as long as my cold doesn’t completely knock me out. I literally have no idea if it’s really going to be Cyprus, or if Hungary is the surprise winner, or if it will be Israel after all, but that’s the good thing about this year: it still is quite an open contest. The Eurovision Song Contest is never won before the Eurovision Song Contest happens.

Yeah, yeah, winner?

I pretty much think that’s it for me with this blog from Lisbon. I would have loved to do a lot more, but my cold and the lack of electricity for fan-accredited people killed my plan. But that’s life. What’s next? I literally have no idea. I will drag myself to the public viewing of the show somehow, and take things as they come. And even if “Fuego” wins, a song from my personal bottom five, I will appreciate a new country joining the ranks of the ESC winners and hope we all get to party together on a beach in Cyprus next year. Lisbon hasn’t really brought the fans together, considering the separation with the Fan Café and Euroclub (and some fans had to stay out of both), but it has been a wonderful place to spend these weeks in, and I will surely come back for a non-Eurovision visit!

So in case I don’t get to write again tomorrow: Thank you for following my blogs and photo galleries from Eurovision in Lisbon! I hope I get to do this again, and I hope I can do more next time. We will know more – destination included – in less than ten hours from now. Enjoy the show!

Follow us:

• 265 Followers
• 2.2k Followers
• 64 Followers
• 27 Followers