1. I agree with you about Norway. The best last place song ever? I love O Jardim too but Ulveham is just 🔥🔥🔥 2. Also, supposed televote juggernaut Finland and supposed DOA Latvia finishing in the same positions in their semi finals is too funny to me. I’m counting it as a Finland flop and I’m not mad about it. #Paskana
Thanks, Rachel, for your coverage this year; it was a very difficult Eurovision season, and you handled it well 👍 For me, as for many, the big shock was Norway coming in last. "Ulveham" is a terrific song, and I'm reassured that it has found an audience and Gåte have found some new fans (like me!)
Great video as always! Re Norway. I also was hugely disappointed with the very low score. Thinking about it now, after the event .. I get the televote. I was watching with people not at all in the “Eurovision bubble” watching all songs for the first time. Every one of them commented that it was too loud and they didn’t appreciate the vocals at all. Like most of the televoters, they aren’t aware of the musicality and technical brilliance required to sing and perform that song and had no idea of the story behind the song and therefore the reasons why it was presented the way it was - they literally took it at face value and found the performance jarring. They just didn’t “get it”. Very much like Blanco Paloma last year. Having said that, I genuinely thought music experts on the juries would appreciate the quality of the composition and performance and Gate would score reasonably well with juries but that just didn’t happen which really surprised me.
Their staging was a mess unfortunately. Lots of things happening on the stage but making no sense. Watch the performance again and just ask yourself…why is she moving like that? Why are the other members just throwing things around and turning like crazy. It was soo busy and “let’s all do lots of things on the stage for the sake of doing things” kind of vibe.
Hey Rachel! I love how calm and measured your videos always are. Completely agree with you on Norway. I am so puzzled! You're right though, it isn't a reflection on the song but still so disappointing that they didn't get a better and more deserved placement. I knew it was a tough, strong year but never ever would've expected last place for Ulveham
It is always a pleasure to listen to you, always so respectful, so thoughtful. I will looking forward to your next video about jury votes, really don’t get what happened to Norway, why they always give too many 12 points to the same artist, I mean I am really happy with Nemo winning, but as last year the jury show too much love to some entries and too little to others that are also very good. And I will be waiting on your thoughts about what happened this year in Eurovision. Is good that you take your time to let it sink, and maybe we will have at the point more accurate information about what exactly happened. Until then, have a nice time and thanks for your work as an Eurovision content creator.
Good video. I can live with the top 4, Switzerland is a good winner. I would've loved Croatia to win, but after the jury votes it was pretty clear that would be difficult. And Norway... this was my absolute favorite this year. I was shocked it came last. Netherlands would've had 58 jurypoints, knocking them out of contention. Crunching the data from the semis and the final, I believe Joost could've got as much as 285 televote points, putting him 2nd just after Croatia. And overall, he would've finished in 5th place. Besides the jurypoints (which you can differ from the official jury results on the official Eurovision website), this always will be a "what could've been" for my country. And as for the numbers: Ireland coming in 6th with the juries, 6th with televote and 6th overall. 666 for "the witch", you just can't script that.
Without looking at my own spreadsheets, I'm not sure how accurate my predictions were in comparison to yours but I think we were fairly similar. I really expected Norway to finish higher and Cyprus also did quite a bit better than I anticipated as well.
Was looking forward to this video, awesome ! Yeah about my country Belgium, it's a real shame how they managed to have a song appealing to so many people to then completely delete everything on stage that was great about it. The Walloon delegation should really try to learn from this. And yes Norway, I don't think I'll every really get over this result, it's beyond my understanding how something epic with great vocal and staging end dead last. In the end I guess I should be happy they qualified, but I just can't settle with that feeling. I'll feel sad for a long time that we won't get anything epic/folk/Norwegian in the near future.
I think this year was hard to predict how the votes would go Rachel so I think your predictions were very good. Norway was in my top five as well along with Switzerland, Netherlands, Serbia and San Marino, so I am just as dumbfounded as you are about that result. I think the juries should be ashamed of themselves for their blatant use of external issues. It is a song contest, and the reason the jury exists is to just vote for the performance, but that did not happen this year, so we might as well just get rid of the jury altogether, but that will not happen. It is not my genre of music so I hate the song, but Bambie Thug's staging and presentation was one of the best I have seen at Eurovision. Once again, a very informative and entertaining video!
I am still so shocked that Belgium didn’t qualify because a lot of people liked the song, but I have to agree with the vocal part you stated. I was so heartbroken over Joost and the disqualification, his song was amazing 😢
Yay thank you, Rachel!! Looking forward to your detailed analysis!! For me, Germany coming so high and Norway coming so low was the most shocking. I know people said Norway might be this year's EaEa, but I hated EaEa and did enjoy Gate, so I thought it wouldnt be as bad. But wow, they really tanked! :)
Could you please explain what you like about Ireland's song? I don't understand why so many people liked it that much. I must be missing something, but I can't imagine listening to that song in any case other than a horror movie? Yes, it has great staging, but the song? What makes the song so good?
For months I had thought that I would have a hard time choosing between Italy and Greece, but I ended up voting for Ireland 😅 Switzerland was amazing too, so more than a worthy winner.
It's true that Malta got less point than San Marino, but Malta's were all earned, while San Marino got 10 out of 16 from Spanish people voting their conational Megara. Also 1 from Italy, probably from people from the region.
Coming from a person who predicted Norway being low, and doesn’t get the song. It just really feels like that it doesn’t have a hook to latch onto, the chorus feels anticlimactic and looses its drive as well. While technically impressive and good to see Norwegian in esc again after so long. There’s just not really anything for casual fans to latch onto other than the aesthetic and technicality, since on its own, it’s not very easy listening at all.
Norway had a messed up staging and the song was not the best. It was all over the place, they were doing lots of things on the stage but there was no point to anything. As well, the vocalist just spinning around singing…WTF was that.. 😂. I think many people were thinking that bringing some folk traditional instruments ensures success - but if nothing makes sense in the stage and the song lacks, nothing will save you. However l think there was another element at play, Croatia likely cannibalised Norway’s votes.
Great analysis, Rachel. I COMPLETELY AGREE with your thoughts about Norway🇧🇻. They were my favourites and I was shocked when they end last in the finals+ next day when results came out and when i saw that they barely Q for the finals. Other disappointments are definitely Malta🇲🇹 last place in semi (again undeserved just like last year), Belgium🇧🇪 NQ and by far Joost's🇳🇱 DQ. We really missed him in the finals. And as Croat I'm a little bit sad that we didn't managed to win. Also congrats to Nemo and Switzerland🇨🇭. But we are proud to Baby Lasagna, the biggest discover on our music scene in decades and one the most nicest guys ever in the ESC. Also, big winners of this ESC are Ireland 🇮🇪, Georgia 🇬🇪, Latvia 🇱🇻, Germany 🇩🇪 and Luxembourg 🇱🇺 and they should be proud. And I hope that next year we gonna have more peaceful contest than this year. My hopes are also that countries which are quite bad last couple of years like Iceland🇮🇸, Malta🇲🇹, Azerbaijan🇦🇿 and especially Denmark🇩🇰 manage to finally Q. Also I would like that my Croatia🇭🇷 Q again and end maybe on the left side of the scoreboard what would be amazing (cause it's not very realistic to expect that we can again send something spectacular like this year). Meow😺🇭🇷
I haven't looked at the scores but I assume Norway got the "11th effect" as in if a song scores 11th on everything it gets 0 points even tough most people like it.
Jury scores: Albania gave 6 points, Finland 2 points, Lithuania 2 points, Czechia 1 point, and Austria 1 point. The next higher places were San Marino (12th place), Estonia (13th place), and Azerbaijan (14th place) etc. From the public vote, Norway received 3 points from Ukraine and 1 point from Finland. There were only three 11th places in the public vote: Estonia, Denmark, and Iceland. There were 6 12th places in the public vote, tho. The average public and jury rank for Norway was 17th for both.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the music again this year. I also think it would be amazing to see you do more song covers if you feel inspired to, like you've done with Brividi and I Wanna Be Adored. Maybe there's a eurovision song from this year you feel would be well-suited to a cover
This year was weird. Lots of people voted for or against something, not music-related, so some good songs were forgotten in the middle of the drama. This is how I think Norway ended up so low. But one never knows with juries. they usually give very few points to the etno stuff, especially crazy etno like Armenia was, and yet Armenia got point. Which I am not at all complaining about, but just observing that this is weird behavior from juries. And then this Norwegian etno, which was also excellently executed and great, juries didn't reward (???). But when it came to the public vote there were nonmusical reasons for voting, and so the results are skewed there.
I absolutely loved all of your maneskin video, so I would love it if you reacted to Damiano's new song Silverlines! I'd be really interested to hear your comments on the song which has been pretty controversial.
I feel like the folky elements of Norway hurt it. Look at what happened with Eaea and Fulenn. Eastern European songs with folky/ethnic elements have historically done really well while Western European ones just don't for whatever reason. Sure, Fulenn was a complete mess on the stage compared with Ulveham and Eaea but I do think people just underappreciate the genre.
I was wondering before the contest if Ulveham would be like Eaea or Shum, well there's our answer. I really didn't like the song all season long (the voice is so grating to me), but kinda warmed up to it in the semi, so by the end I thought it would be more like Shum (had a similar experience here). Switzerland as the winner is good. My heart wanted Croatia so bad, but Nemo's song and staging was really good, so I can't be too mad about it.
Norway's song and performance was quite inward and no casual viewer would have a clue what it was about. Plus the vocal was this year's 'EaEa' in being just too unfamiliar. Basically, not a compétitive song.
My winners were Ukraine & Ireland but I have two big shocks from the jury I wasn’t expecting someone to landslide and the other shock is Israel’s televote score
Thanks Rachel for all your time and videos and keeping things about the music. This ESC has been a weird one. So many great songs but so much unwanted and unneeded drama. As much as I loved Croatia, I was really happy Switzerland won. Sad and confused that Norway got little love. I actually thought the juries would've appreciated it. It's going to take a while for many of us to shake off this year's weirdness and drama. I hope 2025 will be a reset and return the competition to the one we all love.
I thought Norway would at the very least do a lot better with the nordic countries televote wise (there was some weird stuff going on with the televote but still)
Agree with your assessment of my Mustii from Belgium. It’s a second time in recent history that a great studio track wasn’t paired with a similar live performance and stage concept by Belgium: Sennek back in 2018 also didn’t make it out of the semis with “A Matter of Time”. Thanks for your overview!
Yes I agree Norway didn't deserve last but probably it needs a couple of listens to appreciate, so many first listeners would have voted other songs. I think Georgia and Estonia would have deserved better. I still think Croatia deserved to win, but that's how it went. I hope next year we can all concentrate on the actual 'music' and less on the controversies 'behind the scenes' and political aspects as it should be.
Even if Malta sent an absolute banger, we've seen it happen before where smaller Countries and Micro-States can struggle. Take "Adrenalina" from San Marino in 2021. They pulled out literally ALL the stops, and they weren't even top 15 which is an attrocity. They EASILY should have been Top 5 at the very least.
I feel really sad for Malta :( I didn't think they would qualify but LAST?!? You cannot tell me this was better than Albania etc. I'm not sure that it's fair to expect Malta to be able to send a standout every year especially regarding the country's size, but I hope they can qualify again soon.
Serbia was my #1 this year, was disappointed with their 17th place but after seeing how close they were to not even making it to the final I guess I should be grateful (and that's coming from an Australian who would have qualified if Serbia didn't). Thrilled with the overall winner, Nemo was absolutely spectacular in every single one of their performances so I 100% understand the high jury vote and honestly think they deserved a higher televote. Ireland's song wasn't my cup of tea but they had the best staging by far and the performance was top notch so I think they deserved more from both the jury and televote (at least Australia gave them 12). Germany, Luxembourg and Cyprus being as high as they were...hard boot. It's disappointing to see mediocrity rewarded especially when you see just how amazing the bottom 5 of the leaderboard were.
Great prediction! I am looking forward to your analysis of the jury :-) Without analysis it is looking quite strange for some of the performances (a score that was not at all based on the performance)!
Norway was such a shock. It was by far the best song for me this year. I expected top 10 and shows me that there is a complete lack of diversity in the jury once again.
Although I couldn't disagree more with your choice to exclude Israel from your review and reactions this year, I do respect you making the decision you felt you needed to make. And I've nonetheless thoroughly enjoyed following you along your journey in this season! As for predictions, I was disappointed but not shocked Norway finished last. I had a suspicion it may end up going the way of EaEa last year
Using your metrics I had a great SF1 prediction rate with 86.67%, 6 of which were correctly positioned. (My average deviation was 1.73.) For SF2 I was at 75%, but not a single correct position. (Average deviation of 4.00.) In the Final I was at 64%, but again without a single correct position. (Average deviation of 3.92.) Your average deviations were 1.87, 2.38, 4.00. The betting odds average deviations were 0.93, 2.25, 3.76. (Though take that with a grain of salt because it's hard to tease all the rankings out of the betting odds info.) (Worst possible deviations would have been like: 7.47, 8.00, 12.48.)
I am so incredibly disappointed by this year's results. I think the whole voting system has to be rethought, together with jury composition. I will make a single example. I cannot accept that Norway came last and Germany 12th. With all due respect to Isaak's professionalism and great voice (and I am sure he is a nice guy, I have nothing against him), his entry was subpar. Gate's was original, interesting, well composed, well executed, spectacular.
I think it just shows how commercial Isaak's song was. I am SO happy for Germany. I believe 12th was deserved since Isaak had a good voice. I fully expected him to do well with the juries after seeing that Pink reaction to Isaak.
Norway scored a mid-table result with most of other countries' televote. My guess is that Baby Lasagna/Bambie Thug took away some rock/alternative vote, although Nordics could have pulled more for it.
Great review and wise decision. The community got a bit toxic during the contest and although we all have to be introspective I still look at the EBU's "decision making" and their communication as the main culprit for most of the turmoil. Can we also touch on the fact that the overall winner finished 4th (!!!) in their semi.....yes, they had great jury appeal but still. EDIT: Joost performed tonight (including new music). For enjoyers of the melodic happy hardcore genre I really liked "Luchtballon" (= Hot Air Balloon)....I think I recognized a piano sample from Richard Marx's - Right here waiting but that might be me as I always loved that song. Can anyone confirm that for me!?
I was shocked and disappointed by the Norway result as well. The only way I can make sense of it is that maybe it's the sort of song many people would have in their top 5 or top 10, but it's not a song that people would vote for as their top choice.
Ooh, and if we speak of only the semis, I squeeked like a little girl when Latvia was called out. It was the biggest shock. I was so happy!! And I cheered when Georgia qualified becaused I was afraid Nutsa would be Iru-ed, even though Nusta was better than Iru.
How were my predictions? Well, the LAST four songs are among my favourites (not in order). Not that I don't like Switzerland, but I have at least 10 songs higher than they.
I don't want to put so much hype on this but maybe you miss that Angelina Mango released a new album some days ago... And why am I stress you ? MANGO MENGONI DUET 🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯❤️
I don't think the jury system as "improved" (as you say) if acts like Norway finish last with so little rewards - in terms of song structure and musicality Norway was (in my view) well above Croatia. The jury has been too "populist" this year...I believe it should stick to recognizing musical talent and staging...the "fun" vote is for the public.
No they weren't. They downvoted Israel knowing fully well about the politics and put Croatia 3rd because of the MEANING of the song and the visuals and everything considered.
malta did not deserve last the thing is she had the vocals she had the visuals she had the catchy song she was a great show opener and the blindfolded flip and the dancebreak would've been a voting moment i dont know how this placed last or not qualify the song is proper catchy
LOL- Nobody had Latvia qualifying! Good for Dons! Yet another case to prove that no one truly understands how the brains of the televoters work. Also, the total scores seemed really top-heavy this year, leaving few votes for the bottom 10 or 15, who were all packed together - the point difference between 2nd and 3rd place is the same as the difference between 12th and 25th place. So guessing those positions accurately is nearly impossible!
I wrote in one of your videos that the UK's song sucked and that you're losing me, by saying you liked it. And 0 points proved that I guess I was right about this (now also officially) horrible song. Plus, his vocals were the worst of the night. By far. And yes, Norway shouldn't have finished last, it was definitely better than many other songs (not just the one from the UK), it was abundantly clear that the juries were gonna nix it, but it's really shocking to me that it only got 4 points from the public. Although I already was afraid of a low outcome, as soon as I saw low viewing figures on TikTok and of their semi-final performance on RUclips. Well, on the other hand, at least they made it to the final.
this was the first eurovision i watched seriously (in the past i just watched the final without listening to one single song). Nemo is a great winner, i really like the song and the performance and i don’t get why people are insulting them in the eurovision official channel comment section. but i guess that happens every year (i know what happened last year with loreen and kaarija). i really loved this experience, but i have to say that it really needs to be fixed. it was so stupid from ebu to disqualify one of fan’s favourites because he got mad at a camera worker while israel could participate to an event which should unite people by music.
I don’t think your argument about malta not having any neighbors is true, sure they are at a disadvantage, but Cyprus qualified sixth even without needing 🇬🇷!
Eurovision 2024 was a hard one to pick. Quite happy with the top 3. I didn't get the France hype until I saw it staged and then I believed in it. Israel's televote was dubious and it may require investigation. Overwhelmingly happy with Ireland's result; they upped their game from their national final and they benefited. Armenia and Portugal making the top 10 felt right for both songs.Well done to the Germans for not taking the last place triple. Disappointments: Norway clear deserved many many many more points than they received. The UK getting no points from the televoters was surprising - but it was a edgy presentation. I'm disappointed for Slovenia being placed in the draw between the winner and the runner up, deserved better. I'm going to mention Greece as well. The one camera thing didn't work and it looked sloppy at times.
Surprises: - Malta last in semi - Latvia in and even doing ok - Norway last in final - Australia 11th (I thought they’d be last after seeing the live, did not like performance or staging) - Germany doing ok (not that they didn’t deserve it but often it doesn’t happen) Lesser surprises: - Poland out (diaspora failing a good song - but poor live vocals and odd staging) - Israel winning the semi (that was not all song) - France doing so well in the televote (though he was doing too much live as well)
In my humble opinion, Croatia should have won. Whilst Switzerland is a good winner as the song is catchy and they haven't won in a while, I can't help but think a better choice could have been made. Croatia literally had everything a winning song should have. They even surpassed expectations, getting 3rd with the juries after an amazing jury performance from Marco! That being said, we did avoid the COMPLETE and utter fallout an Israeli victory could have done, but this year was still a mess and if the EBU doesn't do anything about the now many delegation's concerns, we could end up with half the countries participating. I'm certain the odds were in fact right and Croatia had it in the bag until the last moment. I've narrowed it down and there are two reasons why Switzerland ended up winning: 1) Slimane's poor jury performance. Hear me out - because Slimane 'croaked' during the jury show, France were not given as many points as they would have had. That being said, they still ended up 2nd and yes Switzerland were always predicted to win with the juries BUT France was the country that could have spread out those 12s and caused more divisions with the jury rather than a clear winner. In the end, Croatia only needed three or four 12s to make it even. It's astonishing that it was this close despite all those 12s but the juries really should have spread their points to other songs after last year. That being said, Baby Lasagna was STILL 3rd with the juries, a sign that we are getting there, but only two 12s for Marco seems ridiculous. 2) The televote result for Israel. Israel came 2nd overall with the televote. I think we can all agree that in a normal year, their result would have been similar to the jury score and the song would have been pushed down around mid table. Listen, it's a decent ballad but it's VERY CLEARLY leeched off of politics and Israel has no right to be in the contest with the political strategy they carried out. Apparently there was clear manipulation and paid advertisements in many countries in a manner that is semi-illegal for Eurovision. Anyway, many of these countries that gave Israel 12s also put Croatia high up or in some cases 2nd favourite. Marco would have definitely been popular in the East and in more 'conservative' countries since his song is fun but not over the top like some acts were which is why you saw Finland and Slovenia get punished. I believe that if Israel were not in the contest or the political situation were not happening, Croatia would have gotten FOUR HUNDRED televote points - because of the running order and how hyped up the song was alongside with the shots of the crowd and the vibes of it overall seeming like a winner! Kaarija got 370 points remember! Regardless, if Croatia's televote score was more like Kaarija's, we'd be going to Zagreb next year!
I don't understand why so many people think Croatia should have won. I like Croatia song and I like Marco as a person, but overall Croatia is far behind Switzerland. I sing myself, so maybe it is easier to value Nemo's singing capabilities...
Thx. The problem this year (Israel) is that the Eurovision countries are deeply divided. That was not the case with Ukraine with almost unanimous support. Luckily the winner was back to ESC root values, LGBT support, like the Wurst win. 😀 It's all dirty politics whether Israel will be sanctioned going forward. Peace.
I personally don’t like Norway … people in Eurovision don’t care about lyrics and the other amazing stuff … if the song is bad, it’s just not gonna do great in the final ….
1. I agree with you about Norway. The best last place song ever? I love O Jardim too but Ulveham is just 🔥🔥🔥
2. Also, supposed televote juggernaut Finland and supposed DOA Latvia finishing in the same positions in their semi finals is too funny to me. I’m counting it as a Finland flop and I’m not mad about it. #Paskana
Thanks, Rachel, for your coverage this year; it was a very difficult Eurovision season, and you handled it well 👍
For me, as for many, the big shock was Norway coming in last. "Ulveham" is a terrific song, and I'm reassured that it has found an audience and Gåte have found some new fans (like me!)
Same!
I personally didn't like their entry at all, and was pretty surprised to hear that a lot of people like it
Great video as always!
Re Norway. I also was hugely disappointed with the very low score. Thinking about it now, after the event .. I get the televote. I was watching with people not at all in the “Eurovision bubble” watching all songs for the first time. Every one of them commented that it was too loud and they didn’t appreciate the vocals at all. Like most of the televoters, they aren’t aware of the musicality and technical brilliance required to sing and perform that song and had no idea of the story behind the song and therefore the reasons why it was presented the way it was - they literally took it at face value and found the performance jarring. They just didn’t “get it”. Very much like Blanco Paloma last year. Having said that, I genuinely thought music experts on the juries would appreciate the quality of the composition and performance and Gate would score reasonably well with juries but that just didn’t happen which really surprised me.
Their staging was a mess unfortunately. Lots of things happening on the stage but making no sense. Watch the performance again and just ask yourself…why is she moving like that? Why are the other members just throwing things around and turning like crazy. It was soo busy and “let’s all do lots of things on the stage for the sake of doing things” kind of vibe.
Hey Rachel! I love how calm and measured your videos always are. Completely agree with you on Norway. I am so puzzled! You're right though, it isn't a reflection on the song but still so disappointing that they didn't get a better and more deserved placement. I knew it was a tough, strong year but never ever would've expected last place for Ulveham
I am very happy to be proven wrong by Latvia qualifying. Dons deserved it SO much! Fantastic artist and fantastic human being
è sempre un piacere guardare i tuoi video🥰🥰🥰🥰
It is always a pleasure to listen to you, always so respectful, so thoughtful. I will looking forward to your next video about jury votes, really don’t get what happened to Norway, why they always give too many 12 points to the same artist, I mean I am really happy with Nemo winning, but as last year the jury show too much love to some entries and too little to others that are also very good. And I will be waiting on your thoughts about what happened this year in Eurovision. Is good that you take your time to let it sink, and maybe we will have at the point more accurate information about what exactly happened. Until then, have a nice time and thanks for your work as an Eurovision content creator.
Per me l Eurovision non e' una manifestazione limpida......
Good video. I can live with the top 4, Switzerland is a good winner. I would've loved Croatia to win, but after the jury votes it was pretty clear that would be difficult.
And Norway... this was my absolute favorite this year. I was shocked it came last.
Netherlands would've had 58 jurypoints, knocking them out of contention. Crunching the data from the semis and the final, I believe Joost could've got as much as 285 televote points, putting him 2nd just after Croatia. And overall, he would've finished in 5th place.
Besides the jurypoints (which you can differ from the official jury results on the official Eurovision website), this always will be a "what could've been" for my country.
And as for the numbers: Ireland coming in 6th with the juries, 6th with televote and 6th overall. 666 for "the witch", you just can't script that.
I'm so happy that SLAYvenia, SERVEia and croATEia all were in the final this year :)
Without looking at my own spreadsheets, I'm not sure how accurate my predictions were in comparison to yours but I think we were fairly similar. I really expected Norway to finish higher and Cyprus also did quite a bit better than I anticipated as well.
Was looking forward to this video, awesome !
Yeah about my country Belgium, it's a real shame how they managed to have a song appealing to so many people to then completely delete everything on stage that was great about it. The Walloon delegation should really try to learn from this.
And yes Norway, I don't think I'll every really get over this result, it's beyond my understanding how something epic with great vocal and staging end dead last. In the end I guess I should be happy they qualified, but I just can't settle with that feeling. I'll feel sad for a long time that we won't get anything epic/folk/Norwegian in the near future.
I think this year was hard to predict how the votes would go Rachel so I think your predictions were very good. Norway was in my top five as well along with Switzerland, Netherlands, Serbia and San Marino, so I am just as dumbfounded as you are about that result. I think the juries should be ashamed of themselves for their blatant use of external issues. It is a song contest, and the reason the jury exists is to just vote for the performance, but that did not happen this year, so we might as well just get rid of the jury altogether, but that will not happen. It is not my genre of music so I hate the song, but Bambie Thug's staging and presentation was one of the best I have seen at Eurovision. Once again, a very informative and entertaining video!
I am still so shocked that Belgium didn’t qualify because a lot of people liked the song, but I have to agree with the vocal part you stated. I was so heartbroken over Joost and the disqualification, his song was amazing 😢
This season has been so rough I’m actually glad it’s over
Norway was epic! I voted for it... It is possible that it the general public doesn't get it if they haven't heard it before.
Yay thank you, Rachel!! Looking forward to your detailed analysis!!
For me, Germany coming so high and Norway coming so low was the most shocking. I know people said Norway might be this year's EaEa, but I hated EaEa and did enjoy Gate, so I thought it wouldnt be as bad. But wow, they really tanked! :)
Switzerland deserved it,even though i wanted Ireland to win.They are both amazing artists
Could you please explain what you like about Ireland's song? I don't understand why so many people liked it that much. I must be missing something, but I can't imagine listening to that song in any case other than a horror movie?
Yes, it has great staging, but the song? What makes the song so good?
For months I had thought that I would have a hard time choosing between Italy and Greece, but I ended up voting for Ireland 😅
Switzerland was amazing too, so more than a worthy winner.
Same thoughts ❤😊
And also, İtaly, Ukraine and Croatia were excellent❤❤❤
@@cedriccappelle2036 for me, it was incredibly creative, I thought their voice on the chorus was lovely - and there were such strong emotions!
It's true that Malta got less point than San Marino, but Malta's were all earned, while San Marino got 10 out of 16 from Spanish people voting their conational Megara. Also 1 from Italy, probably from people from the region.
It's awesome that you've reached over 20k subscribers! Congratulations and thanks for covering everything even though it's been a difficult season
Coming from a person who predicted Norway being low, and doesn’t get the song. It just really feels like that it doesn’t have a hook to latch onto, the chorus feels anticlimactic and looses its drive as well. While technically impressive and good to see Norwegian in esc again after so long. There’s just not really anything for casual fans to latch onto other than the aesthetic and technicality, since on its own, it’s not very easy listening at all.
The chorus is just screaming which alienates the casual listener.
Norway had a messed up staging and the song was not the best. It was all over the place, they were doing lots of things on the stage but there was no point to anything. As well, the vocalist just spinning around singing…WTF was that.. 😂. I think many people were thinking that bringing some folk traditional instruments ensures success - but if nothing makes sense in the stage and the song lacks, nothing will save you. However l think there was another element at play, Croatia likely cannibalised Norway’s votes.
I am so happy to watch your reaction videos. You are so cute❤❤❤
Great analysis, Rachel. I COMPLETELY AGREE with your thoughts about Norway🇧🇻. They were my favourites and I was shocked when they end last in the finals+ next day when results came out and when i saw that they barely Q for the finals. Other disappointments are definitely Malta🇲🇹 last place in semi (again undeserved just like last year), Belgium🇧🇪 NQ and by far Joost's🇳🇱 DQ. We really missed him in the finals. And as Croat I'm a little bit sad that we didn't managed to win. Also congrats to Nemo and Switzerland🇨🇭. But we are proud to Baby Lasagna, the biggest discover on our music scene in decades and one the most nicest guys ever in the ESC. Also, big winners of this ESC are Ireland 🇮🇪, Georgia 🇬🇪, Latvia 🇱🇻, Germany 🇩🇪 and Luxembourg 🇱🇺 and they should be proud.
And I hope that next year we gonna have more peaceful contest than this year. My hopes are also that countries which are quite bad last couple of years like Iceland🇮🇸, Malta🇲🇹, Azerbaijan🇦🇿 and especially Denmark🇩🇰 manage to finally Q. Also I would like that my Croatia🇭🇷 Q again and end maybe on the left side of the scoreboard what would be amazing (cause it's not very realistic to expect that we can again send something spectacular like this year). Meow😺🇭🇷
I would like ses the EVSC live with Orchestra like SanRemo..
I haven't looked at the scores but I assume Norway got the "11th effect" as in if a song scores 11th on everything it gets 0 points even tough most people like it.
Jury scores: Albania gave 6 points, Finland 2 points, Lithuania 2 points, Czechia 1 point, and Austria 1 point. The next higher places were San Marino (12th place), Estonia (13th place), and Azerbaijan (14th place) etc. From the public vote, Norway received 3 points from Ukraine and 1 point from Finland. There were only three 11th places in the public vote: Estonia, Denmark, and Iceland. There were 6 12th places in the public vote, tho. The average public and jury rank for Norway was 17th for both.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the music again this year. I also think it would be amazing to see you do more song covers if you feel inspired to, like you've done with Brividi and I Wanna Be Adored. Maybe there's a eurovision song from this year you feel would be well-suited to a cover
This year was weird. Lots of people voted for or against something, not music-related, so some good songs were forgotten in the middle of the drama. This is how I think Norway ended up so low. But one never knows with juries. they usually give very few points to the etno stuff, especially crazy etno like Armenia was, and yet Armenia got point. Which I am not at all complaining about, but just observing that this is weird behavior from juries. And then this Norwegian etno, which was also excellently executed and great, juries didn't reward (???). But when it came to the public vote there were nonmusical reasons for voting, and so the results are skewed there.
Thank you for being a constant of sanity in what’s been a shitshow of a year
I absolutely loved all of your maneskin video, so I would love it if you reacted to Damiano's new song Silverlines! I'd be really interested to hear your comments on the song which has been pretty controversial.
I feel like the folky elements of Norway hurt it. Look at what happened with Eaea and Fulenn. Eastern European songs with folky/ethnic elements have historically done really well while Western European ones just don't for whatever reason. Sure, Fulenn was a complete mess on the stage compared with Ulveham and Eaea but I do think people just underappreciate the genre.
I was wondering before the contest if Ulveham would be like Eaea or Shum, well there's our answer. I really didn't like the song all season long (the voice is so grating to me), but kinda warmed up to it in the semi, so by the end I thought it would be more like Shum (had a similar experience here).
Switzerland as the winner is good. My heart wanted Croatia so bad, but Nemo's song and staging was really good, so I can't be too mad about it.
Norway's song and performance was quite inward and no casual viewer would have a clue what it was about. Plus the vocal was this year's 'EaEa' in being just too unfamiliar. Basically, not a compétitive song.
Norway was repeat of last years Germany. Propably for same reasons.
My winners were Ukraine & Ireland but I have two big shocks from the jury I wasn’t expecting someone to landslide and the other shock is Israel’s televote score
Thanks Rachel for all your time and videos and keeping things about the music.
This ESC has been a weird one. So many great songs but so much unwanted and unneeded drama. As much as I loved Croatia, I was really happy Switzerland won. Sad and confused that Norway got little love. I actually thought the juries would've appreciated it.
It's going to take a while for many of us to shake off this year's weirdness and drama. I hope 2025 will be a reset and return the competition to the one we all love.
I thought Norway would at the very least do a lot better with the nordic countries televote wise (there was some weird stuff going on with the televote but still)
Agree with your assessment of my Mustii from Belgium. It’s a second time in recent history that a great studio track wasn’t paired with a similar live performance and stage concept by Belgium: Sennek back in 2018 also didn’t make it out of the semis with “A Matter of Time”. Thanks for your overview!
Yes I agree Norway didn't deserve last but probably it needs a couple of listens to appreciate, so many first listeners would have voted other songs. I think Georgia and Estonia would have deserved better. I still think Croatia deserved to win, but that's how it went. I hope next year we can all concentrate on the actual 'music' and less on the controversies 'behind the scenes' and political aspects as it should be.
cool! a whole eurovision science! really smart
Even if Malta sent an absolute banger, we've seen it happen before where smaller Countries and Micro-States can struggle. Take "Adrenalina" from San Marino in 2021. They pulled out literally ALL the stops, and they weren't even top 15 which is an attrocity. They EASILY should have been Top 5 at the very least.
The only shame here is that Mustii, Belgium didn't get through. Great live and great performance!
I feel really sad for Malta :( I didn't think they would qualify but LAST?!? You cannot tell me this was better than Albania etc. I'm not sure that it's fair to expect Malta to be able to send a standout every year especially regarding the country's size, but I hope they can qualify again soon.
Serbia was my #1 this year, was disappointed with their 17th place but after seeing how close they were to not even making it to the final I guess I should be grateful (and that's coming from an Australian who would have qualified if Serbia didn't).
Thrilled with the overall winner, Nemo was absolutely spectacular in every single one of their performances so I 100% understand the high jury vote and honestly think they deserved a higher televote.
Ireland's song wasn't my cup of tea but they had the best staging by far and the performance was top notch so I think they deserved more from both the jury and televote (at least Australia gave them 12).
Germany, Luxembourg and Cyprus being as high as they were...hard boot. It's disappointing to see mediocrity rewarded especially when you see just how amazing the bottom 5 of the leaderboard were.
Great prediction!
I am looking forward to your analysis of the jury :-) Without analysis it is looking quite strange for some of the performances (a score that was not at all based on the performance)!
Norway was such a shock. It was by far the best song for me this year. I expected top 10 and shows me that there is a complete lack of diversity in the jury once again.
They follow the betting odds, that's why predictions aren't that interesting to me.
Although I couldn't disagree more with your choice to exclude Israel from your review and reactions this year, I do respect you making the decision you felt you needed to make. And I've nonetheless thoroughly enjoyed following you along your journey in this season! As for predictions, I was disappointed but not shocked Norway finished last. I had a suspicion it may end up going the way of EaEa last year
missing u❤
Using your metrics I had a great SF1 prediction rate with 86.67%, 6 of which were correctly positioned. (My average deviation was 1.73.)
For SF2 I was at 75%, but not a single correct position. (Average deviation of 4.00.)
In the Final I was at 64%, but again without a single correct position. (Average deviation of 3.92.)
Your average deviations were 1.87, 2.38, 4.00.
The betting odds average deviations were 0.93, 2.25, 3.76. (Though take that with a grain of salt because it's hard to tease all the rankings out of the betting odds info.)
(Worst possible deviations would have been like: 7.47, 8.00, 12.48.)
I am so incredibly disappointed by this year's results. I think the whole voting system has to be rethought, together with jury composition.
I will make a single example.
I cannot accept that Norway came last and Germany 12th.
With all due respect to Isaak's professionalism and great voice (and I am sure he is a nice guy, I have nothing against him), his entry was subpar. Gate's was original, interesting, well composed, well executed, spectacular.
I think it just shows how commercial Isaak's song was. I am SO happy for Germany. I believe 12th was deserved since Isaak had a good voice. I fully expected him to do well with the juries after seeing that Pink reaction to Isaak.
Norway scored a mid-table result with most of other countries' televote. My guess is that Baby Lasagna/Bambie Thug took away some rock/alternative vote, although Nordics could have pulled more for it.
Great review and wise decision. The community got a bit toxic during the contest and although we all have to be introspective I still look at the EBU's "decision making" and their communication as the main culprit for most of the turmoil.
Can we also touch on the fact that the overall winner finished 4th (!!!) in their semi.....yes, they had great jury appeal but still.
EDIT: Joost performed tonight (including new music). For enjoyers of the melodic happy hardcore genre I really liked "Luchtballon" (= Hot Air Balloon)....I think I recognized a piano sample from Richard Marx's - Right here waiting but that might be me as I always loved that song. Can anyone confirm that for me!?
Norway being last is a disgrace for the contest as a "song" contest
I was shocked and disappointed by the Norway result as well. The only way I can make sense of it is that maybe it's the sort of song many people would have in their top 5 or top 10, but it's not a song that people would vote for as their top choice.
Ooh, and if we speak of only the semis, I squeeked like a little girl when Latvia was called out. It was the biggest shock. I was so happy!!
And I cheered when Georgia qualified becaused I was afraid Nutsa would be Iru-ed, even though Nusta was better than Iru.
I somehow turned full-on Dad mode and slapped my thighs when Latvia was announced 😂
How were my predictions?
Well, the LAST four songs are among my favourites (not in order). Not that I don't like Switzerland, but I have at least 10 songs higher than they.
I don't want to put so much hype on this but maybe you miss that Angelina Mango released a new album some days ago...
And why am I stress you ? MANGO MENGONI DUET 🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯❤️
Nemo breaking the trophy immediately after they win sums up Eurovision 2024 in a nutshell
Michela placed 10th in Televoting of her semifinal. and Ira Losco placed 9th in hers. Destiny is really a once in a blue moon situation.
I wish someone could make me understand why Norway came last....
I so so happy that Portugal got 10th.
So am I. I was afraid of iolanda was going to be forgotten during the voting.
7:24 props to your father for expecting the song to qualify 😆
I don't think the jury system as "improved" (as you say) if acts like Norway finish last with so little rewards - in terms of song structure and musicality Norway was (in my view) well above Croatia. The jury has been too "populist" this year...I believe it should stick to recognizing musical talent and staging...the "fun" vote is for the public.
No they weren't. They downvoted Israel knowing fully well about the politics and put Croatia 3rd because of the MEANING of the song and the visuals and everything considered.
Norway visuals were stunning...second only to Ireland.
malta did not deserve last the thing is she had the vocals she had the visuals she had the catchy song she was a great show opener and the blindfolded flip and the dancebreak would've been a voting moment i dont know how this placed last or not qualify the song is proper catchy
LOL- Nobody had Latvia qualifying! Good for Dons! Yet another case to prove that no one truly understands how the brains of the televoters work.
Also, the total scores seemed really top-heavy this year, leaving few votes for the bottom 10 or 15, who were all packed together - the point difference between 2nd and 3rd place is the same as the difference between 12th and 25th place. So guessing those positions accurately is nearly impossible!
I predicted norway in top 5! And Finland and Latvia not Even qualifying! disappointed! Guess I’m not the average esc fan…
I wrote in one of your videos that the UK's song sucked and that you're losing me, by saying you liked it. And 0 points proved that I guess I was right about this (now also officially) horrible song. Plus, his vocals were the worst of the night. By far. And yes, Norway shouldn't have finished last, it was definitely better than many other songs (not just the one from the UK), it was abundantly clear that the juries were gonna nix it, but it's really shocking to me that it only got 4 points from the public. Although I already was afraid of a low outcome, as soon as I saw low viewing figures on TikTok and of their semi-final performance on RUclips. Well, on the other hand, at least they made it to the final.
this was the first eurovision i watched seriously (in the past i just watched the final without listening to one single song). Nemo is a great winner, i really like the song and the performance and i don’t get why people are insulting them in the eurovision official channel comment section. but i guess that happens every year (i know what happened last year with loreen and kaarija). i really loved this experience, but i have to say that it really needs to be fixed. it was so stupid from ebu to disqualify one of fan’s favourites because he got mad at a camera worker while israel could participate to an event which should unite people by music.
Well, i can understand the result
Eurovision 2024 Norway: Gåte - "Ulveham" ... the songtekst 😒
I don’t think your argument about malta not having any neighbors is true, sure they are at a disadvantage, but Cyprus qualified sixth even without needing 🇬🇷!
Eurovision 2024 was a hard one to pick. Quite happy with the top 3. I didn't get the France hype until I saw it staged and then I believed in it. Israel's televote was dubious and it may require investigation. Overwhelmingly happy with Ireland's result; they upped their game from their national final and they benefited. Armenia and Portugal making the top 10 felt right for both songs.Well done to the Germans for not taking the last place triple. Disappointments: Norway clear deserved many many many more points than they received. The UK getting no points from the televoters was surprising - but it was a edgy presentation. I'm disappointed for Slovenia being placed in the draw between the winner and the runner up, deserved better. I'm going to mention Greece as well. The one camera thing didn't work and it looked sloppy at times.
I "re-discovered" Greece after the final, and I appreciate very much one camera thing, I think it is pretty unique...
Malta just needs to send better songs.
I really like your video's , but you look quite sad here. Is it that Eurovision 2024 is over (?) or am I just dead wrong?
Surprises:
- Malta last in semi
- Latvia in and even doing ok
- Norway last in final
- Australia 11th (I thought they’d be last after seeing the live, did not like performance or staging)
- Germany doing ok (not that they didn’t deserve it but often it doesn’t happen)
Lesser surprises:
- Poland out (diaspora failing a good song - but poor live vocals and odd staging)
- Israel winning the semi (that was not all song)
- France doing so well in the televote (though he was doing too much live as well)
why didn´t you listen to the Israeli song? politcal reasons? just curiuous.
I think it's obvious why she didn't listen to Israel's song and I applaud her for it.
In my humble opinion, Croatia should have won. Whilst Switzerland is a good winner as the song is catchy and they haven't won in a while, I can't help but think a better choice could have been made. Croatia literally had everything a winning song should have. They even surpassed expectations, getting 3rd with the juries after an amazing jury performance from Marco! That being said, we did avoid the COMPLETE and utter fallout an Israeli victory could have done, but this year was still a mess and if the EBU doesn't do anything about the now many delegation's concerns, we could end up with half the countries participating. I'm certain the odds were in fact right and Croatia had it in the bag until the last moment. I've narrowed it down and there are two reasons why Switzerland ended up winning:
1) Slimane's poor jury performance. Hear me out - because Slimane 'croaked' during the jury show, France were not given as many points as they would have had. That being said, they still ended up 2nd and yes Switzerland were always predicted to win with the juries BUT France was the country that could have spread out those 12s and caused more divisions with the jury rather than a clear winner. In the end, Croatia only needed three or four 12s to make it even. It's astonishing that it was this close despite all those 12s but the juries really should have spread their points to other songs after last year. That being said, Baby Lasagna was STILL 3rd with the juries, a sign that we are getting there, but only two 12s for Marco seems ridiculous.
2) The televote result for Israel. Israel came 2nd overall with the televote. I think we can all agree that in a normal year, their result would have been similar to the jury score and the song would have been pushed down around mid table. Listen, it's a decent ballad but it's VERY CLEARLY leeched off of politics and Israel has no right to be in the contest with the political strategy they carried out. Apparently there was clear manipulation and paid advertisements in many countries in a manner that is semi-illegal for Eurovision. Anyway, many of these countries that gave Israel 12s also put Croatia high up or in some cases 2nd favourite. Marco would have definitely been popular in the East and in more 'conservative' countries since his song is fun but not over the top like some acts were which is why you saw Finland and Slovenia get punished. I believe that if Israel were not in the contest or the political situation were not happening, Croatia would have gotten FOUR HUNDRED televote points - because of the running order and how hyped up the song was alongside with the shots of the crowd and the vibes of it overall seeming like a winner! Kaarija got 370 points remember! Regardless, if Croatia's televote score was more like Kaarija's, we'd be going to Zagreb next year!
I don't understand why so many people think Croatia should have won. I like Croatia song and I like Marco as a person, but overall Croatia is far behind Switzerland. I sing myself, so maybe it is easier to value Nemo's singing capabilities...
I just have to wonder what would results be if israel wasn't and Netherlands was there
Thx. The problem this year (Israel) is that the Eurovision countries are deeply divided.
That was not the case with Ukraine with almost unanimous support.
Luckily the winner was back to ESC root values, LGBT support, like the Wurst win. 😀
It's all dirty politics whether Israel will be sanctioned going forward. Peace.
I personally don’t like Norway … people in Eurovision don’t care about lyrics and the other amazing stuff … if the song is bad, it’s just not gonna do great in the final ….