Admittedly, I got five of the Top 10 correct, one of my weakest forecasts to this contestat to date. I was shocked by the weak showing of NORWAY, and that LITHUANIA and GREECE didn;t quite garner enough points to latch onto this level, plus that disqualification of the NETHERLANDS. I had been anticipating AUSTRIA has been falling in buzz that it would fall out of the Top 10, but joining NORWAY at the bottom? Also a shocker.
I should've included PORTUGAL (Iolanda) in my "Bubbling Under" list as I realize that this is very much a jury darling, which turned out to be true as she ranked 7th with them. She officially ranked 20th with the televote, but if the full rankings were applied and averaged, she was actually next-to-last--her standing was mainly buoyed by douze points from LUXEMBOURG. Her 10th place overall showing was mainly due to the points amassed with the juries. If the full average rankings were applied, she would've dropped down to 14th place and GERMANY would've replaced her in 10th place. I also have to note that there was controversy over the apparent delay in the posting of her performance video on Eurovision's YouTube channel--though officially the EBU cited "technical" issues, it seems the delay was caused by flak from the Israeli delegation contesting the subtle statement Iolanda was making with her fingernails, as she painted her nails with the colors of the Palestinian flag, and her closing remark "Peace will prevail" after her performance. For what is supposedly an "apolitical" event, the EBU was obviously taking a political stance, right?
SWEDEN (Marcus & Martinus) were always expected to be a jury darling, and this was reflected with their 8th place ranking with the juries. It did respectably okay with the televote, as they finished 11th, so they ended up ranking 9th overall. As Malin earlier talked about Benjamin Ingrosso's 2018 showing as she introduced his performance in Semifinal 1, this ranking is welcomed in other countries but for this country, it's a "disaster".
ARMENIA (Ladaniva) finished 9th in both jury and televote, and their consistent showing rewarded them with an 8th place overall finish, their best showing since the last time this contest was held in Sweden eight years ago when Iveta Mukuchyan finished 7th with "Lovewave". This pair were just a bundle of pure joy and positive energy that was very refreshing for this crisis-fraught contest.
ITALY (Angelina Mango) is the only one who made a significant change in her staging for the Grand Final, as she and her dancers changed from the lacy brocade outfits they sported in Semifinal to into solid black outfits. I suppose there was feedback on how she and her dancers were drowned by the backdrop with their outfits hence the chnnge in the final. She finished 4th with the jury and 7th with the televote, but because the points amased with the juries is not quite as strong as her standing would suggest, she finished 7th place overall. However, if we applied the full rankings, she would've finished 5th overall, as her entry was not as divisive as two entries that officially ranked above her--she didn't figure at all in the bottom five of any country either in juries or televote.
IRELAND (Bambie Thug) was officially 6th in all measures--6th with the juries, with the televote, and overall, so the 6-6-6 combination made some conservative people observe that it seemed apt as they might view their act as "satanic". Still it's incredible how this act had a rising trajectory that they were initially perceived as continuing in this country's doldrums, to garnering raves for their almost uncompromised*7 artistic vision that was undeniably risky, but in the end yielded rewarding results--this is tis seven-time Eurovision champion's best showing since Eamonn Toal's 6th place finish all the way back to 2000 with the overly sentimental (and ultimately forgettable) ballad "Millennium of Love". I've noticed that if the full rankings were applied, Bambie didn't fare that well with the juries as they seemed, as there were countries that ranked this entry in the bottom five, and the average would've placed them 9th with the juries.
*7 I say "almost uncompromised" because originally Bambie was supposed to have the word "CEASEFIRE" written in Ogham script on their outfit but the EBU told them to remove it because of its "political" content.
ISRAEL (Eden Golan)'s presence in this contest in light of the Gaza war was always going to be controversial and divisive, and this was reflected in the results, as she officially finished 12th with the juries but 2nd place with the televote. The divisiveness would be even more felt as the full rankings were applied, as when the full rankings were applied with the juries she would've ranked 16th (15th if NETHERLANDS was included) and despite garnering 15 douze points in the televote (including "Rest of the World" vote), she would've ranked 3rd instead of 2nd. She would've swapped with ITALY and finish 7th place overall.
Here, I would like to share my thoughts on the EBU's hypocrisy towards politics, and how this year, Israel seemed to be launching a propaganda war for this cause with the European public, and the apparent anomalies in its televote score. For starters, avoiding "politics" is a fruitless affair unless you're a hermit, as any kind of human interaction could be considered political in nature. You don't call any interaction in the workplace "office politics" for nothing. So almost all decisions determining the winners of this long-standing institution always has a political dimension even if efforts are made to minimize such effects. Ultimately in terms of decisions it is up to the individuals involved if they choose to weigh the merits of each entry over their own personal/cultural/political preferences or biases or not.
What caused this event to be accused of being hypocritical is that it ultimately took a stand behind the political stance of a public broadcaster and a key sponsor and immediately suppress or block expressions of the opposing side of that broadcaster's (and sponsor's) viewpoint. Which leads me to the second point about public broadcasting. Sure, institutions like the BBC for the UK and PBS from the US may attest that their views would always be independent from the stance of any of their respective governments, but the fact that they are required to receive funding from their respective governments and this rule also applies to all public broadcasters mean that a government's voice will always be somehow reflected and represented by the broadcasters. So it's ingenious for the EBU to say that Israeli broadcaster KAN is not linked to its respective government, nor the corporate nationality of key sponsor MoroccanOil doesn't share in the viewpoint of said government.
This decision also had the repercussion of giving Israel permission to use this contest as a propaganda ploy for its wartime causes. First, they would immediately ask the EBU that any criticism lobbed at them is tantamount to anti-Semitism, and to extend that logic, anyone bringing any cultural symbol of Palestine should also be suppressed on the same grounds. It's the same logic employed by Kathleen Kennedy-led Lucasfilm as they tout their shows as complying with corporate Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) directives without regards to quality or good storytelling, and that fans criticizing the quality of their content should be dismissed as racists, sexists, and homophobes. Israel also want to present itself as an LGBTQIA+-friendly country, even if reality is the government is increasingly being run by extreme conservatives. And they admitted that they actively had a campaign launched in various countries to vote for their entry, so they can justify a narrative that despite the protests, the general public voted for them. Based on the results, it seemed to work.
However, the conspiracy theorist in me felt there is someting diabolical that might have occurred--which is especially possible with the existence of virtual private networks (VPNs), it's possible that Israel hired a pool of keyboard warriors transmitting votes online by masking their true locations so the online votes would reflect as votes from any of the participating countries in the contest. Slovenia actually raised a fuss questioning their televotes, as they noted that Slovenians never had voted for Israel throughout their history so it's strange why all of a sudden there are 10 points from them for Israel. Let's see what the EBU will do to safeguard the integrity of televoting in light of the existence of such technology? Anyway, I'm sharing YouTuber Stuart MacLean's video discussing all of these controversies for better input.
FRANCE (Slimane) was 2nd with the juries and 4th with the televote, though I discovered if full rankings were applied, this entry would've slipped to 3rd with the juries because there were actually a few countries which ranked this towards the bottom, which of course wasn't counted in the system in place. Still, the overall 4th place finish is a feat worth saluting.
UKRAINE (Alyona Alyona & Jerry Heil) were consistently strong, finishing 5th with the juries and buoyed by the points it amassed in televote for a 3rd place finish that they finished 3rd overall. I started to actually like this song more and more as I listen to it, because of the gospel elements that I hear in this song.
It's obvious CROATIA (Baby Lasagna) would top the televote. But I wonder if the EBU or Swedish producers tried to downplay the expected popular dominance of this entry as in the recap, instead of playing the live response by the audience, they opted to mute the crowd response and play the response as reflected on the playback/studio recording. Is this a ploy to help boost the votes for Israel? I also have to note that if full rankings were applied for the juries, this would actually beat FRANCE by a narrow margin with the juries and be in 2nd place instead of officially 3rd. Of course, the way the eventual winner dominated the juries, it didn't provide enough leeway for this to become the overall winner. It also makes me wonder that if the NETHERLANDS wasn't disqualified and amassed all those televote points, would that provide room for this entry to win?
I didn't expect how SWITZERLAND (Nemo) would dominate the juries--in fact he was even more dominant than Loreen was last year. Even it they ranked 5th in televote, the jury domination helped him amass such a strong lead that they could not be overtaken even if the televotes were factored in. I resepct the results, as the performance and artistry of this person was undeniable.
After performing their encore after their victory, Nemo accidentally broke the crystal trophy. Some pundits felt this is symbolic of the messiness this year's edition emerged to be. Now, wonder how the EBU would address the issues raised by the controversises in this year's contest to ensure those incidents would be minimized or avoided, and help recover the currently low turnout, as there seems to be threat of further attrition because of these events. I hope there is a path for recovery for this contest for next year.
JUST ME!
JOSEPH
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