About Iceland: They definitely did not take it (too) seriously, but their entry was still unironically good. It's all about having a fun evening and their song was great. They got fourth place in the end. Why Flo Rida is in this will remain a mystery forever.
Iceland entry was pure gold the song was good, the staging too. The history of the song was also interesting. And they had a great result in the end! About flo Rida, any artist can be invested by any country to represent them in the competition (the Greek singer was from the Netherlands), what matters is the song! But history says that having a superstar as your singer usually backfires
@@Spike-xv1ts Celine Dion was not known in europe before the Eurovision. It's thanks to that performance that we got to know her. She is actually from Canada and was still only a bit known there, but not in the rest of the world (and she represented Switzerland). Her career took off only after the Eurovision in Europe and the US
@@mir4nd4s the thing about greek entry is that while she indeed was born and raised in the Netherlands (even competed for them in the junior eurovision), she has actual Greek roots en can speak Greek fluently. It kinda makes sense. Flo Rida however ....
Actually some songs had context. For example TIX was singing about people with disorders and in particular his problem Tourette syndrome. Russia was singing about empowering women. France was also in that alley. Can't remember others but there were also some more.
a lot of the singers in here are already established artists but they're usually only known on their own country. idk how flo rida ended up here but celine dion was on eurovision once too
@@ronnopotter But Cascada performed for Germany and they from here soooo ...thats kind of a bad example for artists that are "not" from that country xD
Celine was fairly unknown when she won Eurovision though and same with ABBA, Olivia Newton-John etc. But this is not the first time a big name like that is competing. While it was long after their prime, in recent years the UK has had artists like Bonnie Tyler and Blue, but no matter what they do they always end up at the bottom (or close).
⅓ of my society is pretty much in this twisted ideology of anti-hate and pure self shaming. When a conservative person bring up his arguments and facts, that ⅓ would just close their eyes scream for tolerance, because the conservative just did hate speech... ._.
@@DavidLangeYU91 But of course you couldn't care to make your own comment, could you? You knew you wouldn't get attention if you did and that's all you want. Attention. How pathetic.
@@justsomeone3703 No, I have "great need to have say". I want to spread the rather unpopular opinion with such comments so that more people who don't yet have such a settled political point of view will start to think, because independent nations are losing and the woke ideologies that despise family and nation are gaining the upper hand and throwing us off a cliff to get to Utopia, instead we are slapping the bottom of harsh reality and are in a world where everyone is equally poor and equally desperate. I only want attention for my patriotic ideology and not for my person, because who am I?
For me it's so funny to watch people react to Eurovision, because the songs that were/are "weird," are actually the songs that are just the typical Eurovision songs you can expect at the contest. And for me that's the best part of our beautiful contest
I totally agree with you, Eurovision is a way to socialize and have fun between European countries and enjoy each other's music, most Americans thinks that this is just a competition
For some context ... 1. The Russian entry is especially controversial in Russia because some believe it promoted an 'anti-Male' message. I am in no means the right person to tell you more about this but there are good articles in English out there 2. The singer of the Norwegian entry recently opened up about his mental health issues (again I do not know much more) and the song has a deeper message to him personally 3. Why Flo Rida is there... Well I guess that question will never be answered *but* the singers don't have to be from the country they start for just a person in the production team has to, it's a SONGcontest, (I'm not sure about exact rules of how much involved that person needs to be) and especially smaller countries (but a lot of bigger ones as well) choose singers with varying nationalities to represent them 4. About some country's not taking the competition seriously... Yes and No. Winning the competition means you, as a country have to host the competition next year, which comes at a high price (like how nobody really want's to host the Olympics) so sometimes it's said that countries don't try too hard in order to not win but still reap the ad revenue of a highly tuned in show. No because this never really was a competition you'd sent the country's superstar to but rather a jumping board for lesser known artists or newcomers to make themselves known in the country and maybe even in the whole of Europe. However there are such things as troll (-ish) entry's and they actually sometimes do really well (ex. Guido hat euch lieb 1998 won No.7) sometimes do really poorly (ex. The German entry this year) however these are put forward knowingly and more so for entertainment purposes. 5. The polish entry this year was also highly controversial because he wasn't nationally voted upon and just put forward by the TV station in charge of broadcasting and managing Eurovision and (again I'm not the right person to tell you about it as I also only have limited information) the singer has advocated for some controversial topics. 6. This again shows that the entry is not always selected through a 'the best of the best' type of national competition beforehand but sometimes just a dude the producers liked (this is how Germany's entry for this year happened, the singer wanted to go to Eurovision and made that known through social media, the producers liked his spirit and decided to send him) 7. You saying that with the Italian entry you can really see they tried. So... Italy had this song festival for like ages (since 1951) broadly known by the name Sanremo Music Festival that inspired the Eurovisian Song Contest (at that time still called Grand Prix) that was a really big deal back in the day, even tho the viewing quotes are since long on the decline... it still holds up. (now back to the topic...) Italian entry's are generally (at least again recently) the winners of Sanremo so they have proven themselves already on a stage similar to Eurovision (and where not selected by television channels), this means that for me personally none of the songs Italy puts forward are generally bad. This allso shows in their record... whilst not winning all to often the generally do really well. (I skipped over a lot of stuff because Italy's history with Eurovision * is *complicated* 8. The big 5 + the hosting nation always qualifi for the final Big 5 beeing UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy (if they haven't withdrawn * ) because they are the biggest funders of the broadcast. This has caused some to say these countries don't try all to hard (going back to point 4) because they dont even have to battle to get into the final 9. (My favorite fun fact) Eurovision is the name of the swiss broadcaster that started this whole contest in 1956. The whole thing was a way to bring together post ww2 Europe through culture and a way to mend wounds caused by the war. Nowadays it's hosted by the EBU (European Broadcasting Union) and all members can compete in it (that's the reason why country's like Israel or Azerbaijan compete even though geographically they aren't in Europe) associate members of the EBU (here Australia comes into play) are allowed to compete if invited. 10. And because I wanted to make this 10... Songs need to be under 3 minutes and original (fairly new) and as mentioned in 3 someone in the production needs to hold the country's citizenship. They then get voted on by a jury from each country and via televoting, both times the native country beeing excluded from voting. Then those votes get added up and the first ten receive 12, 10 and after that 8 through 1 points. They make a *huge* deal out of it and the jury votes from each country get present (generally vocally difficult songs do well and some jury's are prone to bias {Greece and Cyprus generally receive each other's 12 points}) and then for the televoting announcement they take the list from the jury votes and start from the bottom country announcing all points the country recieved. This is in order for the final announcement to still be somewhat of a surprise (because televoters are a lot less predictable) I am sure I forgot a lot and if anyone has something important or noticed some mistakes in this feel free to comment and I'll edit
About the first point - some Russian racists really bashed Manizha for this song and her entry in general because she was born in Tajikistan. Some people even said that the song “mocks” Russian women because “Manizha isn’t Russian” (she is). That’s all bullshit. As a Russian woman, I loved this song.
@@lemonyanemone8118 I actually loved the song and her (I'm German), we voted for her among others. Great message too. I hope her good placement annoyed everybody that spread nonsense about this lady online!
@@markuswithak5084 how rude can you be for saying that?! It was his first song and he is such a lovely person. You should better stop with spreading hate :)
@@EmoBearRights possibly or definitely seems something has blossomed. Most people thought it was just PR at first but as they've stayed in touch afterwards as well and he's planning to go to Azerbaijan.
Hey, if you use VPN with USA server, it says that the Eurovision videos aren't made available in the United States by the uploader. I think that shows that it is unavailable in the US even in RUclips or Eurovision site.
It's just kinda insane though that everyone always knows what's going on in the us but Americans have no clue what's going on around the world cause the world is so america focused
Internationally known singers could destroy their careers if they end up failing that's why they don't want to participate. Anyway there are a lot of singers who are extremely famous in their own country. I mean as example Serbia this year send their most famous artist. Also about the british guy, James, he might not be famous as a singer but he's a really successful songwriter. He won multiple awards and has written songs for Ed Sheeran, Little Mix, Zayn, Kesha etc
"Internationally known singers could destroy their careers if they end up failing that's why they don't want to participate." Yeah, especially since the singing is really live. Everyone remember the disastrous Madonna performance...? ugh....
Spain also send one of their famous artist. I may be from Belgium but Blas used to be in a group named Auryn and they were pretty big in own country. My sis went to one of their concerts when she was there visiting a friend.
Russia has send Alla Pugachova, Philipp Kirkorov, Alsou, Tatu, Dima Bilan, Polina Gagarina, Sergei Lazarev. All of them are huge stars in the ex-USSR countries. Pugachova alone has sold more than 200 million records.
Oh yes, me and my girls are still going crazy over this years ESC (the girls are 10 and 11)... and they are allowed to play the songs at their school as well... and now we have bought TIX sweatshirts and Måneskin t-shirts :-)
I love the fact that he is always saying that is not fair for him to judge this songs objectively, because he isn't european because there are some people saying that a song is objectively bad just because is not like the kind of music he/she listens to.
You really don't need much context, most people just watch every performance once on the night of the competition. Everyone is just trying to stand out in a field of 26 songs. Obviously there's many things you can do to achieve that (the music itself, the costumes, the backdrop, props, dancing...) and not all of them are succesful. I'd recommend watching the top 5, they are very diverse and show different ways of being succesful in this show.
Yes, technically every contestant and entry has a backstory of how they got there why the song is how it ended up, and if you want to get into it you can, but most people only watch the finale and call it a day...
Us Europeans are used to songs having either a background story or inspirational message and usually wouldn't even need all those unnecessary backing dances and effects. If you notice, the songs sung by talented artists are always the ones with minimal backing gimmicks. Also here in Italy we're given some context by commentators
Funnily enough, the most "American friendly" songs (Sweden, Israel, Malta, Bulgaria) received low televotes and the unique ones (Italy, Finland, Ukraine, Russia) charted well and I think it is time to be like this since Eurovision songs are saturated with "manufactured" pop in the last 5 years.
You said yourself. It is important to get the context for the songs. Songs like the Russian, Norwegian and Germany open up on a whole new level when hear the backstories.
Especially since it's in South America I just looked it up. I really liked that song - Germany was awful, Spain was very forgettable, we were a bit of both - I think Holland just got lost in the shuffle and blown off stage by Italy.
The last 7 years Eurovision has gotten better and better music-wise. Fewer countries sending in 'joke' songs. A lot of the songs that ended up in the bottom of this year's final... could've done well or won in previous years (in my opinion) Very pleased about the increase in quality
So proud to be from Norway this year. 🇳🇴🥺 TIX/Andreas (he wanted to take ownership of the name people used to bully him for in middle school since he has Tourette’s syndrome) came there to share his message, and he truly did what he came for. He changed life’s the points doesn’t matter.👏 I still screamed with joy when he got through since getting to the final meant he’d reach out to more people, and more interviews with him which ALWAYS makes my day. ❤️
He is a really nice guy and I loved how hard he partied in the green room. Clearly went there to get the full experience, also loved his comment about the outfit 'I thought it can't be too over the top for Eurovision'. He just loved the chance to go all out in terms of his crazy outfits. Great guy.
I mean I... wouldn't say he changed lives. Most people watching didn't understand the point of the song and even those who did, well, one performance isn't going to magically cure your depression.
@Katie S - it's all about visibility though. If you suffer from Tourette's and you see a guy out there like you performing it helps you feel less alone in the world.
Why is flo Rida in Eurovision? That's what all of Europe was wondering, although a huge amount of people don't have a clue who he is. Either a personal contact of Senhit's, or it is just an attempt to cash in on his popularity to get ahead as there is no outright rule banning foreign participants; it is completely up to the relevant broadcaster. But they'll typically not get a very positive response if they bring in foreign talent, which is also what happened here with Senhit. Hopefully it is a very strong signal that pandering to American stars is not what Europe desires, and will prevent it from happening again. Among fans, most people gave San Marino a pass because it is one of those really tiny city states that is just too tiny to have a true scene of its own and just blends in with Italian scenes instead on most levels. After all, with
San Marino is a tiny enclave in Italy and they want visibility. Their goal is not to win to contest, but to be noticed. When you take an established name to perform, at least they will be talking about you. Why does Flo Rida do this? Because they pay a lot (suggested by e.g. Belgian media) or because he wants to relaunch his career. Also remember San Marino has sent a Turkish artist after Turkey has chosen not to participate anymore.
It was a gimmick, but it got everyone talking so it did its job. It was also a good song and performance, but this year the songs are very good so it was hard to stand out
@@intrepidtomato yeah it was pretty clear Senhit knew him, or they are both really good actors. We've all seen what clocked out, getting a pay check rap verse looks and sounds like, and that wasn't Flo Rida. It might not have been the greatest ever, but it was cohesive and generally good performance. Btw. TIX also has written songs for Flo Rida.
About Iceland: Dadi wrote this song for his wife, they have been together for 10 years now, she was there performing while being pregnant, and the characters they are wearing on their sweaters are them, from a video game Dadi made. Iceland usually goes for the quirky, dorky vibe, I mean if you've ever heard anything from Bjork you'd understand where they are coming from lol. All in all, their song is hugely influenced by 80's music so everything they brought to the stage was fitting in my opinion :D
I love how you are trying to learn about something new! Eurovision is a special thing here in Europe so it's great that more people get to experience it with us!🥰
Can you watch Portugal’s performance? The song is about a woman who the band spoke to when they last were in the Netherlands. The woman was on her 60’s and when she was young she fled an eastern country communist regime in order to find a better life. She ended up not having the life she wanted and was involved in prostitution and drugs. But even then she told them she was at peace because she new she had love on her side and things are still going to get better because of it ❤️
the top5 btw were: 1. italy 2. france 3. switzerland 4. iceland 5. ukraine edit: i recommend that you react to their full performances (from the grand finale) to give you an idea of what europe liked this year
I liked it! Transforming a serious matter into something lighter is a difficult proof of concept. I think he was downplayed by his own giant hand dancing (nice but weird), but didn't deserve zero points. It's the first German act I've really appreciated since Italy came back into ESC.
I‘d recommend you to watch a recap of all the winners. I think it’s a good way to get more into it. The contest exists since 1956 and by looking into the history of the winning acts I think you get a better understanding of the long way it has come. I like your commitment to it, not many Americans I’ve seen are as respectful about Eurovision as you are
thanks for trying to be respectful. I think the problem usually is that people tend to say "this is bad" instead of saying "I don't like this" or "I didn't connect to this". You are totally entitled to your opinion and your tastes, but rating something as good or bad is a little tuff, in the sense of what are you evaluating to define what is good or bad. And usually that's the beef europeans have with Americans. let's say that good or bad should be used more in cases that something went wrong (ie. a singer didn't reach a note or there was a choreo problem) and like or dislike when expressing your opinion. Maybe this will help you feel more comfortable expressing your opinion, anyway I think as someone who follows Eurovision since a kid that makes me happy you enjoyed and actually had an interest about learning more of this. ESC has a long history and it actually helped Europe in a cultural integration many ways, such as when it was created, after Wwii, and after the fall of the iron curtain.
What do you mean that’s the beef Europeans have with Americans? I’m in a few Eurovision groups on Facebook and the Europeans are downright mean and rude about the songs, the artists, other people’s opinions... Meanwhile all the Americans try to tiptoe around saying anything remotely negative...lol
@@sadnomad87 oh, i dont mean only in eurovision, is more as a general behaviour.. is the approach to different things and giving chances to things outside the comfort zone.. you see, for example, in this reaction, several times he said he didnt want to be rude by saying is bad.. and the point is just being able to say that he doesnt like it, without stating if something is good or bad necessarily
theres a lot of established artists on eurovision, but mostly they’re established in their own country or region, the acts from italy, serbia, russia and many more this year were big established artists
@@moow950 not really, they are still new and have a small discography, they even had a long hiatus before this song was released, anyways all Italy entrys are famous because to go to the Eurovision you have to win Sanremo which is not only the biggest show in Italy (even bigger than Eurovision) but it's also very well known outside of the country.
I can clear up a few things and give some context: 1. With Cyprus' song El Diablo, there was quite a lot of hate from Cyprus itself. They said that she was kinda worshipping Satan with this song. Some orthodoxic people in Cyprus actually signed a petition to cancel the song. The singer herself says it's about the battle between good and evil and choosing the right thing. And there was also a lot of controversial issues with this song, because it looked very much like bad romance from lady Gaga, so you were right about that haha 2. The Russian song also got a lot of hate from Russia. They say it doesn't represent the country. The singer herself wanted to show how strong Russian women are. In the beginning of her song she had a big dress. She asked if Russian women can send pieces of there clothes, so she could create the dress. 3. The song from Malta was actually about self love for women. Women should be proud of who they are and how they look. Destiny ( the singer ) is only 18 years old and she won the junior eurovision too 4. About the UK one. The UK often sends songs as a joke, they don't take it that seriously. Most of the time they end up at the bottom. Tho I believe that this song was actually a serious song. People in Europe found it quite 'boring' and that's why they ended with 0 points. The British media says that they have become last is due to the fact of the Brexit. 5. About the Greece one. The dancers were indeed wearing green clothes/masks. So it could be vanished in the act itself 6. Switzerland did end up 1st with the juries, but didn't score as high in the televoting. Although they did end up in 3rd place. 7. I don't know if the Icelandic song was a joke or not haha. But they got right before the semi finals covid, so they needed to stay in their hotel room. Clips of the previous rehearsals were shown. 8. The German song was about hate. The singer himself actually says f*ck you to hate. The costume represents that with the middle finger. Finland's song had as a lyric: put your middle fingers up... The Eurovision broadcast said they couldn't do that on stage, so the Germans decided to change the middle finger and make it a peace sign. 9. The Ukrainian song was a song that represents and embraces the Slavic culture. In fact ukraine often don't send any songs if they are not representive for their country. And they became 2nd in the televoting. 10. the Norway song was sung by Tix. And Tix is a famous singer in Norway. He has the mentally disorder gillet de la Tourette, which means he has ticks (that's why he named himself Tix). The song is about his ticks and how he hated it when he was younger. He got bullied for it, but now he sees it as a strength and a gift. I believe the handcuffs represents the struggles and bullies he needed to face. 11. The song from the Netherlands actually got mocked a lot. It says in the language of Suriname: you can't break me. Suriname was a colony of the Netherlands, so there are quite a few people from Suriname that live in the Netherlands. But people mocked it and called it the broccoli song. It is about the adventure and struggles he had to face when he came from Suriname to the Netherlands. But know nobody can break him, cause he is strong. 12. Fun fact: the singer of Sweden is also 18 years old and he is still in school 13. Why Flo Rida can participate is because every year countries need to send in their song. In some countries, like San Marino, there aren't many citizens. To solve this problem there has been decided that every country can also send singers from other countries. In fact the lady from San Marino had performed for about 3/4 times already. Overall the song contest is to connect people from all countries and just make fun and enjoy music. Some countries take it serious, others don't. It has become more serious over time. Countries nowadays really are showing messages, instead of doing something really odd to win. If you look at the past winners, they are all very good songs. Still fun to know, my favourites were: 1. Italy 2. Switzerland 3. Finland 4. France 5. Ukraine (I am from The Netherlands) and they did a great performance to organise the show. I am really proud of them. Unlucky that Duncan ( the winner of 2019) couldn't be in the final, because he got covid) Anywayyy see you next year in Italyyyy ❤️❤️❤️
Love how people were more pressed about Cyprus being "heretical" when they should have been upset with her stealing her entire music video from Zara Larsson
from the uk, sadly all the recent years entries have been "serious"....oh god please just one fun performance, not to win, just to have a song i have any memory of xD. its cos a record label made a deal with the bbc(main tv peeps) to send people signed to the label, so they are already peeps in the industry or we send old past it popstars to try to get points off nostalgia. we deserved the zero
I saw a clip of the German crew on stage before the song started (off-camera in the broadcasts), where the costumed guy ran around holding down the index finger so just the middle one remained standing upwards. I thought he was just having fun, but I suppose it was a sort of protest then. Funnily enough though, because he bent that index finger, the costume looked like a middle finger during some shots of the performance
Also, I don't know if anyone has mentioned this already but every year there are six countries that are authomatically in the grand final. The country that won the last contest is authomatically in the finals, this year this was The Netherlands. The other five countries are countries that basically 'sponsor' Eurovision and therefore skip the semi-finals as well. These are: France, The UK, Spain, Italy and Germany
Yes and because he has tourettes, wich gives him tics (wich i also hqve, but not from tourettes) and he was bullied for them, when he lifts up his glasses you can see him having some tics in his eyes, currently mine are also mostly there, its also how his name came to exist. He was being called tics by his bullies
@@luxdavid2.027 Yeah. He used to be bullied in school by people calling him tics so he took ownership of the name and turned it into a strength. His stage persona TIX who is everything he himself isn't. Loud, confident, outgoing. All that goos stuff. He wrote lots of songs for high school graduations that frankly are pretty crass. Good fun, but way rude to appeal to kids of that age. His persona started to take over though and he was left one 17th off May (our national holiday) all alone on the floor crying and contemplating suicide. His cat came over and lay on his chest, and that saved his life. So this song is basically all that angst and repressed emotion. That's why he says "remember, you are not alone" at the end of his performance. So yeah that's the context.
Yes you’re right with Switzerland, they were really far in the lead but when it came to the public vote Italy just jumped ahead but Switzerland were in the top 3
I don't really see how people think countries try to lose on purpose? Those fun, "joke" performances take the competition seriously, and a lot of those campy performance do very well, if you look at this years final standings you'll see that those that were different from the crowd ranked really high and those that had more of a pop sound stayed in the back end. I recommend checking out top ten performances, you'll get a good taste of what eurovision has to offer from rock, to beautiful ballads to just fun songs. I think this year was overall very strong even if there weren't as many crazy over the top performance we expect from eurovision. Don't take it too seriously and enjoy the show !
Hatari (Iceland 2019, 10th place), Buranovskiye Babushki (Russia 2012, runner up) Verka Serduchka (Ukraine 2007, runner up) , Dschingkis Khan (Germany 1979, 4th place), LT United (Lithuania 2006, 6th place) are living proofs of top performing "joke" entries. There are a lot of songs that are really soooo bad they are good. 🤣🤣🤣
@@PowerSpirit50 ok, so I’m from Lithuania, it would be pretty difficult for us to host ngl, and I am not sure how other countries select their entries, but here we have a competition where the public votes, there’s no way to force the audience to select purposefully bad performances, and above mentioned LT United, so often quoted as a joke performance or deliberately bad, is our highest ranked entry yet 🤷♀️
@@PowerSpirit50 No one is forced to host it though, they can just refuse to and someone else will do it. I think this is a very poor excuse and not really true for anyone anymore. And although it can cost a lot it usually also brings great revenue
"I kind of need context here" "I don't understand their outfits, maybe it's cultural?" Trust me, there's no context, it isn't cultural, it is just plain weird on purpose (but fun)! Mostly because the acts want to stand out.
Not only Iceland was into their song, Europe was. They came fourth. They would have participated last year too, if it wasn’t canceled. The song is called: „think about things“. It has the same style. It’s just their style of music. Tix (norway) wrote about his feelings, experiencing mobbing because of his tics and not feeling worthy enough. Germanys song has a deep message too, Jendrik experienced hate too in his life. The song is about not living as „an eye for an eye“ and giving haters more fuel. His song is a serious entry with just with a funny staging. The hand was supposed to be a middle finger as in the video, but the broadcaster didn’t allow it. So they did the peace sign, which just switched into a middle finger every time the dancer put her arm down 🤣
That was a different song. "Engel, ikke dra" is about his fan. Fallen Angel is about Andreas (TIX) himself. Also to answer the question in the video about this, him being chained to the 'demons' is to represent how he is held down by his own demons and struggles. Please watch this entire performance and music video to this song :)
Tix the Norwegian act actually has Tics. Although his is mainly in his eyes which is why he wears glasses. Although and not sure how true it his but him and the Azerbaijani act really hit it off together and he even took his glasses off for her. Considering the meaning of his song etc it's even more epic
"No established artist would be doing this" there's a mix of new artists and established artists every year. But I guess you mean that an artist is established when americans have heard of them.
The Portugal Song "Love is on my side" starts in black and white giving it even more Sinatra feel and I think It was an amazingly good song but it wasn't distinct enough to get higher places(got 12).
The fact that Tusse ( Sweden ) had been in surgery of the throat just weeks before the finale just makes his performance even better. Btw I love this video ❤️
Flo Rida was at Eurovision because San Marino's delegation thought it's a good investment :) Turned out it wasn't, they failed spectacularly in the televoting.
Plenty of established artists have been on the Eurovision throughout the years. And it doesn't matter where they're from, they can enter for every country. That's why Flo Rida was competing for San Marino.
14:10 it actually is, Jeangu Macrooy is from Suriname and performed this partially in one of the many Surinamese languages and it was meant to be that Surinamese vibe
Also no context explains the middle finger costume that the German guy brought on stage. The song was about ignoring hate / troll comments on social media, but it was trippy and legitimately terrible. That's why we love ESC...
Don’t worry, we find 50% of it weird too but that’s what makes the escs so amazing. It doesn’t feel like a competition, it feels like a giant family meet where everyone supports everyone and they make friends backstage lmaoo
I'm from Germany. Nothing can explain the German performance 😂🤣😬 I was embarrassed and rooted for Switzerland, Portugal, Italy, Spain and France the most.
"I feel like there must be some kind of context leading up to these performances that I'm missing-" Nope. They're just as confusing to everyone. That's part of the fun. :) (And very few of the entries have anything to do with what's popular in that country - Eurovision is sort of its own genre.)
Curiously, there have been some artists well established in Europe or in their home countries, like Bonnie Tyler, Engelbert Humperdinck, sir Cliff Richard, Arash, Kate Ryan, Darude, Olivia Newton-John, Guy Sebastian, Sergey Lazarev, Ben Cristovao is hugely established in Czech Republic and Slovakia, Sergio Dalma, or bands like Blue, t.A.T.u., Zdob si Zdub, Cascada, Katrina and the Waves, and almost all of the artists representing my country Slovakia were established in Slovakia (the most famous Slovak band Elán, Tublatanka, Marcel Palonder, Katarína Hasprová, TWiiNS...). But the less known artists are in majority.
In my country Albania the artists are generally very established, with the exception of a new artist here and there who ends up getting established when they participate in Eurovision.
TO ME IT FEELS LIKE A CONCERT AND WE HAVE CONCERTS LIKE THIS PERFORATION IN THE STATES AND THEY ARE FUN AND I FORGET IT CONTEST BUT PERFORATION SO MUCH FUNNY GREAT MUSIC.
I wish Turkey would join back in Eurovision... I wish that they would join every year but they're doing nothing. It's really enjoying to see different country's music and seeing them interact with each other.
I watched this video because is about Eurovision and I love Eurovision. You seem so kind and nice. I saw the vinyl in the background (I love 5 Seconds of Summer). You have all my respect. (And my follow too)
If you want to know the placements of each country then here you go: 1# Italy 2# France 3# Switzerland 4# Iceland 5# Ukraine 6# Finland 7# Malta 8# Lithuania 9# Russia 10# Greece 11# Bulgaria 12# Portugal 13# Moldova 14# Sweden 15# Serbia 16# Cyprus 17# Israel 18# Norway 19# Belgium 20# Azerbaijan 21# Albania 22# San Marino and yes that is Flo rida or how ever you say his name 23# Netherlands 24# Spain 25# Germany 26# uk Edit: there are 5 countries that get straight to the finals: Germany, uk, France, Italy and Spain+ the country that won last year.
I'm watching Eurovision song contest for over more then 45 years Never Have I seen a year where quality was this good. There is not even one year that comes close.
Icelander here. The Iceland song is the Singer and his wife celebrating the 10th anniversary of their wedding together, by getting to 4th place in Eurovision.
For the Dutch entry, where you said it has Caribbean vibes, that's the point. The singer comes from Suriname and lives in the netherlands. The netherlands has had Suriname as a colony for a pretty long time. Suriname culture can be seen back into our culture, such as the food, and dutch culture can be seen in Suriname. Dont forget, the dutch, english and so on brought black people to the Americas for slavery. He, as a singer, wanted to bring the Suriname culture and representation in Eurovision. He did that by singing the lyrics 'mi na afu sensi, no wan man e broko mi' which means something like, even if I am just worth a half cent(penny), you cannot break me. He said that he wanted to show his roots, give a representation to his country. He was inspired by the Black lives matter movement and he is also a member of the lgbt community. There are also many elements that reference slavery and the colonialism in many countrys by many western countries, including the netherlands.
Hey hey i just wanna point out that the ones performing from Iceland daði og gagnamagnið their goal wasn’t to win but to make it into the finals of Eurovision and just be able to go on stage and have fun which is sad cause some of them got corona and then they couldn’t so all the performances by Iceland where just from rehearsals, love from Iceland to everyone else!
i'm still obsessed with the fact that the singer from norway just fell like, head over heels in love with the singer from azerbaijan during this evening and it was like the cutest thing ever??? i think they're dating now??
They all spent a couple of weeks there before the show, so they got to know each other "well". Yes, they are online dating. Because of convid 19, they are using facetime as often as possible. Before they left Rotterdam, he gave her a gold bracelet which as far i can see, she is wearing every day.
the only context you need about eurovision is that the songs are intentionally camp and over the top lmao. it’s not about who’s objectively the “best” but about who had the most memorable performance as a whole and who embraced the ~spirit of eurovision.
Icelands lead singer is married with the curly haired girl with the keyboard, the song is about how they’ve been together for 10 years and how much he loves her, shes actually 6 months pregnant in the preformance
the difficult thing about this competition is that you should bring a song that can be popular to people but also be different from that everything else to stand out, yeah i dont take everything seriously because there are too much factors going on
Famous winners in history were for example ABBA and CELINE DION who started her European career after winning in 1988. Singers from other countries can be invited. Her winning song was composed by a Swiss composer.
Actually Sweden often sends established artists to Eurovision, as you can see we still think we are top 3 eurovisioncountry after Abba, Måns, Loreen, Carola etc... Rest of europe seems to be realy tired of us though and thats good. Cause I rather see a rockband win than a "typical" eurovisionsong.
I really liked this reaction video. You were really respectful towards everything, unlike most Eurovision videos by American youtubers, who just act like they get everything that's happening, and sometimes even disrespect the countries just by being ignorant about the contest and the countries themselves.
I love that you mentioned the "established artists" part during the last performance and not immediately after watching Hooverphonic representing Belgium! 😝 I'm shocked it went almost unnoticed that Hooverphonic participated in the ESC. I don't remember a star of such calibre since Patricia Kaas.
![Twenty One Pilots - “The Line” (from Arcane Season 2) [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/E2Rj2gQAyPA/mqdefault.jpg)
- what is Flo Rida doing on a Eurovision song contest ?
Literally whole Europe was asking themselves the same question..
Actually he has not made any hits more than 6 years. Just want him to remember.
He was so out of place! Me and my mom were laughing our lungs out
I mean.... Senhit is Italian so they's both from abroad.
Probably because of San Marino's tiny population.
I always thought it was pronounced Florida like the place...
About Iceland: They definitely did not take it (too) seriously, but their entry was still unironically good. It's all about having a fun evening and their song was great. They got fourth place in the end.
Why Flo Rida is in this will remain a mystery forever.
He wanted to pull the "Celine Dion" on us ... well she actually won so good luck next year Rida xD
Iceland entry was pure gold the song was good, the staging too. The history of the song was also interesting. And they had a great result in the end!
About flo Rida, any artist can be invested by any country to represent them in the competition (the Greek singer was from the Netherlands), what matters is the song! But history says that having a superstar as your singer usually backfires
@@Spike-xv1ts Celine Dion was not known in europe before the Eurovision. It's thanks to that performance that we got to know her. She is actually from Canada and was still only a bit known there, but not in the rest of the world (and she represented Switzerland). Her career took off only after the Eurovision in Europe and the US
@@mir4nd4s couldn't have said it better. Also, if you know the group of Iceland, it's their style.
@@mir4nd4s the thing about greek entry is that while she indeed was born and raised in the Netherlands (even competed for them in the junior eurovision), she has actual Greek roots en can speak Greek fluently. It kinda makes sense. Flo Rida however ....
I love how he said he‘s missing context cause there literally isn‘t any, we‘re Europe, it‘s just chaos, that‘s what we do
@@wolfheleen we do be mocking our neighbours a lot...
However, in most cases it's just a bit of tough love :)
lmao yeah it is and I love us for it
poetic
Actually some songs had context. For example TIX was singing about people with disorders and in particular his problem Tourette syndrome. Russia was singing about empowering women. France was also in that alley. Can't remember others but there were also some more.
@@DuneDemon8 yeah, i‘m talking more about lithuania (although you could argue that there is a certain moral) and Moldova and that kinda stuff
a lot of the singers in here are already established artists but they're usually only known on their own country. idk how flo rida ended up here but celine dion was on eurovision once too
Countries can choose whoever to represent them, there no rule that the artist has to be citizen of the country
Yes I can remember Bonnie Tyler and Cascada back in 2013 just to name a couple of examples.
@@ronnopotter But Cascada performed for Germany and they from here soooo ...thats kind of a bad example for artists that are "not" from that country xD
Celine was fairly unknown when she won Eurovision though and same with ABBA, Olivia Newton-John etc. But this is not the first time a big name like that is competing. While it was long after their prime, in recent years the UK has had artists like Bonnie Tyler and Blue, but no matter what they do they always end up at the bottom (or close).
@@Spike-xv1ts I was giving examples of established artists, because he mentioned they have to be newers.
"I feel I'm missing some context"
*Europeans:* I don't understand the giant hand giving me the middle finger half of the time but it seems reasonable
⅓ of my society is pretty much in this twisted ideology of anti-hate and pure self shaming.
When a conservative person bring up his arguments and facts, that ⅓ would just close their eyes scream for tolerance, because the conservative just did hate speech...
._.
@@DavidLangeYU91 you are also obsessed by it apparently
@@francescofilippi2824
Yes because I'm patriotic and care for a conservative and non-decadent future of my people and nation.
@@DavidLangeYU91 But of course you couldn't care to make your own comment, could you? You knew you wouldn't get attention if you did and that's all you want. Attention. How pathetic.
@@justsomeone3703
No, I have "great need to have say".
I want to spread the rather unpopular opinion with such comments so that more people who don't yet have such a settled political point of view will start to think, because independent nations are losing and the woke ideologies that despise family and nation are gaining the upper hand and throwing us off a cliff to get to Utopia, instead we are slapping the bottom of harsh reality and are in a world where everyone is equally poor and equally desperate.
I only want attention for my patriotic ideology and not for my person, because who am I?
Iceland’s song is about how much the lead vocalist love’s his wife.
Im from icland
@@RKAB_ORN Then we just need one more Icelander and then we have the entire population 😂😉
Greets to Iceland from Germany 🇩🇪
PS: Just a joke
and last year's was about his baby daughter :]
I thought that his wife was his mom..
Its also for love to his sister who is the shatrni hair singer... His wife is the curly with the musical instruments (I don't know it's name)
For me it's so funny to watch people react to Eurovision, because the songs that were/are "weird," are actually the songs that are just the typical Eurovision songs you can expect at the contest. And for me that's the best part of our beautiful contest
Yeah, I think the “weird” songs is what makes things interesting and really worth watching.
I totally agree with you, Eurovision is a way to socialize and have fun between European countries and enjoy each other's music, most Americans thinks that this is just a competition
Him: (See's Flo Rida)
Him: Wha- Why? How?? Whaaaaaah?
Me: Honey. You are having a natural reaction. We were as surprised as you were
My respect for you when you said you don’t want to shit on a performance because you might not understand the culture 📈📈
we stan that so much
For some context ...
1. The Russian entry is especially controversial in Russia because some believe it promoted an 'anti-Male' message. I am in no means the right person to tell you more about this but there are good articles in English out there
2. The singer of the Norwegian entry recently opened up about his mental health issues (again I do not know much more) and the song has a deeper message to him personally
3. Why Flo Rida is there...
Well I guess that question will never be answered *but* the singers don't have to be from the country they start for just a person in the production team has to, it's a SONGcontest, (I'm not sure about exact rules of how much involved that person needs to be) and especially smaller countries (but a lot of bigger ones as well) choose singers with varying nationalities to represent them
4. About some country's not taking the competition seriously... Yes and No. Winning the competition means you, as a country have to host the competition next year, which comes at a high price (like how nobody really want's to host the Olympics) so sometimes it's said that countries don't try too hard in order to not win but still reap the ad revenue of a highly tuned in show. No because this never really was a competition you'd sent the country's superstar to but rather a jumping board for lesser known artists or newcomers to make themselves known in the country and maybe even in the whole of Europe.
However there are such things as troll (-ish) entry's and they actually sometimes do really well (ex. Guido hat euch lieb 1998 won No.7) sometimes do really poorly (ex. The German entry this year) however these are put forward knowingly and more so for entertainment purposes.
5. The polish entry this year was also highly controversial because he wasn't nationally voted upon and just put forward by the TV station in charge of broadcasting and managing Eurovision and (again I'm not the right person to tell you about it as I also only have limited information) the singer has advocated for some controversial topics.
6. This again shows that the entry is not always selected through a 'the best of the best' type of national competition beforehand but sometimes just a dude the producers liked (this is how Germany's entry for this year happened, the singer wanted to go to Eurovision and made that known through social media, the producers liked his spirit and decided to send him)
7. You saying that with the Italian entry you can really see they tried. So... Italy had this song festival for like ages (since 1951) broadly known by the name Sanremo Music Festival that inspired the Eurovisian Song Contest (at that time still called Grand Prix) that was a really big deal back in the day, even tho the viewing quotes are since long on the decline... it still holds up. (now back to the topic...)
Italian entry's are generally (at least again recently) the winners of Sanremo so they have proven themselves already on a stage similar to Eurovision (and where not selected by television channels), this means that for me personally none of the songs Italy puts forward are generally bad. This allso shows in their record... whilst not winning all to often the generally do really well. (I skipped over a lot of stuff because Italy's history with Eurovision * is *complicated*
8. The big 5 + the hosting nation always qualifi for the final
Big 5 beeing UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy (if they haven't withdrawn * ) because they are the biggest funders of the broadcast. This has caused some to say these countries don't try all to hard (going back to point 4) because they dont even have to battle to get into the final
9. (My favorite fun fact) Eurovision is the name of the swiss broadcaster that started this whole contest in 1956. The whole thing was a way to bring together post ww2 Europe through culture and a way to mend wounds caused by the war. Nowadays it's hosted by the EBU (European Broadcasting Union) and all members can compete in it (that's the reason why country's like Israel or Azerbaijan compete even though geographically they aren't in Europe) associate members of the EBU (here Australia comes into play) are allowed to compete if invited.
10. And because I wanted to make this 10...
Songs need to be under 3 minutes and original (fairly new) and as mentioned in 3 someone in the production needs to hold the country's citizenship. They then get voted on by a jury from each country and via televoting, both times the native country beeing excluded from voting. Then those votes get added up and the first ten receive 12, 10 and after that 8 through 1 points. They make a *huge* deal out of it and the jury votes from each country get present (generally vocally difficult songs do well and some jury's are prone to bias {Greece and Cyprus generally receive each other's 12 points}) and then for the televoting announcement they take the list from the jury votes and start from the bottom country announcing all points the country recieved. This is in order for the final announcement to still be somewhat of a surprise (because televoters are a lot less predictable)
I am sure I forgot a lot and if anyone has something important or noticed some mistakes in this feel free to comment and I'll edit
Underrated comment
About the first point - some Russian racists really bashed Manizha for this song and her entry in general because she was born in Tajikistan. Some people even said that the song “mocks” Russian women because “Manizha isn’t Russian” (she is). That’s all bullshit. As a Russian woman, I loved this song.
Yes and about number 4, correct me if I’m wrong but I think the country that is hostning also always goes directly to the finale
@@elsaringbjer640 yes I believe so too.
@@lemonyanemone8118 I actually loved the song and her (I'm German), we voted for her among others. Great message too. I hope her good placement annoyed everybody that spread nonsense about this lady online!
Germany: "i don't feel hate"
Finland: "lets change that"
oh,Germany definitely felt hate for themselves on Twitter. deserved
@@markuswithak5084 how rude can you be for saying that?! It was his first song and he is such a lovely person. You should better stop with spreading hate :)
@@amelie5270 I don't feel hate for him. I just felt sorry for Germany
@@markuswithak5084 and I ooop 🤣🤣
@@amelie5270 im german and i feel hate very much
I love the fact that TIX is put right after Efendi in this :))))
I'm laughing way too much at this comment because i know, you know
And this is killing me from laughter
I know right this just makes it even better
Yessss same
Are they dating? There's a few vids of him flirting with her on YT.
@@EmoBearRights possibly or definitely seems something has blossomed. Most people thought it was just PR at first but as they've stayed in touch afterwards as well and he's planning to go to Azerbaijan.
it's understandable that you weren't aware of eurovision, it literally mostly just airs in europe and has european countries competing haha
(Except Australia)
@@manupm9161 common at this point we adopted them ^^
Hey, if you use VPN with USA server, it says that the Eurovision videos aren't made available in the United States by the uploader. I think that shows that it is unavailable in the US even in RUclips or Eurovision site.
It's just kinda insane though that everyone always knows what's going on in the us but Americans have no clue what's going on around the world cause the world is so america focused
@@emmalengel9146 That's what egocentric ignorance does for you ngl
Italy, Finland, Ukraine, Russia - that's my favourite this year. Check their performances. They all are unique
Finland isn't really unique it's just regular metal, same for Italy it's just random Rock n roll. Agreed on Ukraine and Russia though.
@@hiendral9533 while they might be ‘regular’ in their genre, they were unique during the songcontest
@@hiendral9533 Finland has nothing to do with metal, it’s violent pop.
What about France??!
@@mantailuaa I think Nu-metal is the genre you're looking for ...
Internationally known singers could destroy their careers if they end up failing that's why they don't want to participate. Anyway there are a lot of singers who are extremely famous in their own country. I mean as example Serbia this year send their most famous artist.
Also about the british guy, James, he might not be famous as a singer but he's a really successful songwriter. He won multiple awards and has written songs for Ed Sheeran, Little Mix, Zayn, Kesha etc
"Internationally known singers could destroy their careers if they end up failing that's why they don't want to participate."
Yeah, especially since the singing is really live.
Everyone remember the disastrous Madonna performance...? ugh....
James is also the brother of John Newman!
Spain also send one of their famous artist. I may be from Belgium but Blas used to be in a group named Auryn and they were pretty big in own country. My sis went to one of their concerts when she was there visiting a friend.
Norway as well. Tix was the most streamed artist in Norway (including international artists) before entering Eurovision.
Russia has send Alla Pugachova, Philipp Kirkorov, Alsou, Tatu, Dima Bilan, Polina Gagarina, Sergei Lazarev. All of them are huge stars in the ex-USSR countries. Pugachova alone has sold more than 200 million records.
This was one of the strongest years ever
There's very very few songs that I didn't like. A lot made it to my playlist
Oh yes, me and my girls are still going crazy over this years ESC (the girls are 10 and 11)... and they are allowed to play the songs at their school as well... and now we have bought TIX sweatshirts and Måneskin t-shirts :-)
@@Solsortemor wow, go you raising them right!
Indeed! I watch it every year, but this year two if my friends watched it for the first time. It was a good introduction hahav
I love the fact that he is always saying that is not fair for him to judge this songs objectively, because he isn't european because there are some people saying that a song is objectively bad just because is not like the kind of music he/she listens to.
Although a lot of people love watching Eurovision partly because they love to hate on the songs
You really don't need much context, most people just watch every performance once on the night of the competition. Everyone is just trying to stand out in a field of 26 songs. Obviously there's many things you can do to achieve that (the music itself, the costumes, the backdrop, props, dancing...) and not all of them are succesful. I'd recommend watching the top 5, they are very diverse and show different ways of being succesful in this show.
Yes, technically every contestant and entry has a backstory of how they got there why the song is how it ended up, and if you want to get into it you can, but most people only watch the finale and call it a day...
In the Netherlands gives contest before the song starts I don’t know about other countries tho
@@Lars-ej6mb yeah the commentator normally talks a bit about the message and things like that
Us Europeans are used to songs having either a background story or inspirational message and usually wouldn't even need all those unnecessary backing dances and effects. If you notice, the songs sung by talented artists are always the ones with minimal backing gimmicks.
Also here in Italy we're given some context by commentators
@@GoodMusicManiac999 in Australia too.
"They don't take it very serious"
Ireland : sends Dustin the Turkey in 2008
Very serious entry that we sent so we actually get through to the final. But that backfired. How did the public not like the turkey
Spain with Rodolfo Chiquilicuatre in 2008 too
One word: iconic
UK Flying the Flag in 2007 and Electro Velvet in 2015.
France with a song about not having a mustache in 2014
Funnily enough, the most "American friendly" songs (Sweden, Israel, Malta, Bulgaria) received low televotes and the unique ones (Italy, Finland, Ukraine, Russia) charted well and I think it is time to be like this since Eurovision songs are saturated with "manufactured" pop in the last 5 years.
Might be a misunderstanding, but UK didn't chart. The poor guy didn't receive points from jury nor from televoting, and ended up with 0 points overall
@@tamarag.8222 Oh! I know. Why is UK there? I was wondering why I put UK there. Edited it.
Ironically of course the act that is breaking America isn't the one who tried to an American pop act but the Italian rockers.
Ignorance is only a bad thing if one isn't willing to learn about the things one is ignorant about. So your curiosity is a very good sign.
You said yourself. It is important to get the context for the songs. Songs like the Russian, Norwegian and Germany open up on a whole new level when hear the backstories.
Or Spain
The singer from the Netherlands is actually from Surinam, which used to be a Dutch colony. So you're not far off with the island/Caribbean music!
Especially since it's in South America I just looked it up. I really liked that song - Germany was awful, Spain was very forgettable, we were a bit of both - I think Holland just got lost in the shuffle and blown off stage by Italy.
@@EmoBearRights IMO Holland didn't stand a chance, their whole vibe was too African for Eurovision
So the Belgium problem - in the wrong place.
@@serendipityconsulting570 it wasn't African its from surinam
@@Aryannn_ that is definitely not what the indigenous population of Suriname looks like :D
The last 7 years Eurovision has gotten better and better music-wise. Fewer countries sending in 'joke' songs. A lot of the songs that ended up in the bottom of this year's final... could've done well or won in previous years (in my opinion) Very pleased about the increase in quality
So proud to be from Norway this year. 🇳🇴🥺 TIX/Andreas (he wanted to take ownership of the name people used to bully him for in middle school since he has Tourette’s syndrome) came there to share his message, and he truly did what he came for. He changed life’s the points doesn’t matter.👏
I still screamed with joy when he got through since getting to the final meant he’d reach out to more people, and more interviews with him which ALWAYS makes my day. ❤️
Also didn't he hit it off with efeni the Azerbaijani act and took his glasses off for her.
He is a really nice guy and I loved how hard he partied in the green room. Clearly went there to get the full experience, also loved his comment about the outfit 'I thought it can't be too over the top for Eurovision'. He just loved the chance to go all out in terms of his crazy outfits. Great guy.
I mean I... wouldn't say he changed lives. Most people watching didn't understand the point of the song and even those who did, well, one performance isn't going to magically cure your depression.
@Katie S - it's all about visibility though. If you suffer from Tourette's and you see a guy out there like you performing it helps you feel less alone in the world.
I never in the world would have figured out he suffers from Tourette's. I liked his song and his voice, too bad haven't been able to vote for him
Why is flo Rida in Eurovision? That's what all of Europe was wondering, although a huge amount of people don't have a clue who he is. Either a personal contact of Senhit's, or it is just an attempt to cash in on his popularity to get ahead as there is no outright rule banning foreign participants; it is completely up to the relevant broadcaster. But they'll typically not get a very positive response if they bring in foreign talent, which is also what happened here with Senhit. Hopefully it is a very strong signal that pandering to American stars is not what Europe desires, and will prevent it from happening again. Among fans, most people gave San Marino a pass because it is one of those really tiny city states that is just too tiny to have a true scene of its own and just blends in with Italian scenes instead on most levels. After all, with
San Marino is a tiny enclave in Italy and they want visibility. Their goal is not to win to contest, but to be noticed. When you take an established name to perform, at least they will be talking about you. Why does Flo Rida do this? Because they pay a lot (suggested by e.g. Belgian media) or because he wants to relaunch his career. Also remember San Marino has sent a Turkish artist after Turkey has chosen not to participate anymore.
Senhit knows him apparently. I also thought it was a pointless gimmick.
It was a gimmick, but it got everyone talking so it did its job. It was also a good song and performance, but this year the songs are very good so it was hard to stand out
He probably got paid quite a lot to be there as well
@@intrepidtomato yeah it was pretty clear Senhit knew him, or they are both really good actors. We've all seen what clocked out, getting a pay check rap verse looks and sounds like, and that wasn't Flo Rida. It might not have been the greatest ever, but it was cohesive and generally good performance.
Btw. TIX also has written songs for Flo Rida.
About Iceland: Dadi wrote this song for his wife, they have been together for 10 years now, she was there performing while being pregnant, and the characters they are wearing on their sweaters are them, from a video game Dadi made.
Iceland usually goes for the quirky, dorky vibe, I mean if you've ever heard anything from Bjork you'd understand where they are coming from lol.
All in all, their song is hugely influenced by 80's music so everything they brought to the stage was fitting in my opinion :D
I love how you are trying to learn about something new! Eurovision is a special thing here in Europe so it's great that more people get to experience it with us!🥰
Welcome to Eurovision, where we love our quirky (Iceland), unique (Ukraine) and rock (Italy and Finland) songs.
Can you watch Portugal’s performance? The song is about a woman who the band spoke to when they last were in the Netherlands. The woman was on her 60’s and when she was young she fled an eastern country communist regime in order to find a better life. She ended up not having the life she wanted and was involved in prostitution and drugs. But even then she told them she was at peace because she new she had love on her side and things are still going to get better because of it ❤️
the top5 btw were:
1. italy
2. france
3. switzerland
4. iceland
5. ukraine
edit: i recommend that you react to their full performances (from the grand finale) to give you an idea of what europe liked this year
but now, by people most mentioned ones on social media i see are italy,ukraine and finland and the big 3 lol
Curiously enough... the exact order they came in
@@mr.shardz7936 they have been the 3 most voted by the public
and lithuania was televoted a lot, you can check that out as well
my top-5
1. France
2. Albania
3. Cyprus
4. Greece
5. Azerbaijan
For us Germans the German performance is also weird 😂
It's kinds catchy tho
Like a good mood song
I thought it was sweet:)
It’s a nice song tho! And having Finland perform right after in the final... that’s contrast😂👌
But the whiplash you get from the transition between Germany and Finland could have broken someones neck 😂
I liked it! Transforming a serious matter into something lighter is a difficult proof of concept. I think he was downplayed by his own giant hand dancing (nice but weird), but didn't deserve zero points. It's the first German act I've really appreciated since Italy came back into ESC.
I‘d recommend you to watch a recap of all the winners. I think it’s a good way to get more into it. The contest exists since 1956 and by looking into the history of the winning acts I think you get a better understanding of the long way it has come. I like your commitment to it, not many Americans I’ve seen are as respectful about Eurovision as you are
He did it lol
the guy from UK: sings generic song
Epoch: I'm not used to this type of music
thanks for trying to be respectful. I think the problem usually is that people tend to say "this is bad" instead of saying "I don't like this" or "I didn't connect to this". You are totally entitled to your opinion and your tastes, but rating something as good or bad is a little tuff, in the sense of what are you evaluating to define what is good or bad. And usually that's the beef europeans have with Americans. let's say that good or bad should be used more in cases that something went wrong (ie. a singer didn't reach a note or there was a choreo problem) and like or dislike when expressing your opinion. Maybe this will help you feel more comfortable expressing your opinion, anyway I think as someone who follows Eurovision since a kid that makes me happy you enjoyed and actually had an interest about learning more of this. ESC has a long history and it actually helped Europe in a cultural integration many ways, such as when it was created, after Wwii, and after the fall of the iron curtain.
What do you mean that’s the beef Europeans have with Americans? I’m in a few Eurovision groups on Facebook and the Europeans are downright mean and rude about the songs, the artists, other people’s opinions... Meanwhile all the Americans try to tiptoe around saying anything remotely negative...lol
@@sadnomad87 oh, i dont mean only in eurovision, is more as a general behaviour.. is the approach to different things and giving chances to things outside the comfort zone.. you see, for example, in this reaction, several times he said he didnt want to be rude by saying is bad.. and the point is just being able to say that he doesnt like it, without stating if something is good or bad necessarily
theres a lot of established artists on eurovision, but mostly they’re established in their own country or region, the acts from italy, serbia, russia and many more this year were big established artists
Italy’s band is HUUGE there!
@@moow950 not really, they are still new and have a small discography, they even had a long hiatus before this song was released, anyways all Italy entrys are famous because to go to the Eurovision you have to win Sanremo which is not only the biggest show in Italy (even bigger than Eurovision) but it's also very well known outside of the country.
Blas cantó (Spain) is very well-known here
I can clear up a few things and give some context:
1. With Cyprus' song El Diablo, there was quite a lot of hate from Cyprus itself. They said that she was kinda worshipping Satan with this song. Some orthodoxic people in Cyprus actually signed a petition to cancel the song. The singer herself says it's about the battle between good and evil and choosing the right thing.
And there was also a lot of controversial issues with this song, because it looked very much like bad romance from lady Gaga, so you were right about that haha
2. The Russian song also got a lot of hate from Russia. They say it doesn't represent the country. The singer herself wanted to show how strong Russian women are. In the beginning of her song she had a big dress. She asked if Russian women can send pieces of there clothes, so she could create the dress.
3. The song from Malta was actually about self love for women. Women should be proud of who they are and how they look. Destiny ( the singer ) is only 18 years old and she won the junior eurovision too
4. About the UK one. The UK often sends songs as a joke, they don't take it that seriously. Most of the time they end up at the bottom. Tho I believe that this song was actually a serious song. People in Europe found it quite 'boring' and that's why they ended with 0 points. The British media says that they have become last is due to the fact of the Brexit.
5. About the Greece one. The dancers were indeed wearing green clothes/masks. So it could be vanished in the act itself
6. Switzerland did end up 1st with the juries, but didn't score as high in the televoting. Although they did end up in 3rd place.
7. I don't know if the Icelandic song was a joke or not haha. But they got right before the semi finals covid, so they needed to stay in their hotel room. Clips of the previous rehearsals were shown.
8. The German song was about hate. The singer himself actually says f*ck you to hate. The costume represents that with the middle finger. Finland's song had as a lyric: put your middle fingers up... The Eurovision broadcast said they couldn't do that on stage, so the Germans decided to change the middle finger and make it a peace sign.
9. The Ukrainian song was a song that represents and embraces the Slavic culture. In fact ukraine often don't send any songs if they are not representive for their country. And they became 2nd in the televoting.
10. the Norway song was sung by Tix. And Tix is a famous singer in Norway. He has the mentally disorder gillet de la Tourette, which means he has ticks (that's why he named himself Tix). The song is about his ticks and how he hated it when he was younger. He got bullied for it, but now he sees it as a strength and a gift. I believe the handcuffs represents the struggles and bullies he needed to face.
11. The song from the Netherlands actually got mocked a lot. It says in the language of Suriname: you can't break me. Suriname was a colony of the Netherlands, so there are quite a few people from Suriname that live in the Netherlands. But people mocked it and called it the broccoli song. It is about the adventure and struggles he had to face when he came from Suriname to the Netherlands. But know nobody can break him, cause he is strong.
12. Fun fact: the singer of Sweden is also 18 years old and he is still in school
13. Why Flo Rida can participate is because every year countries need to send in their song. In some countries, like San Marino, there aren't many citizens. To solve this problem there has been decided that every country can also send singers from other countries. In fact the lady from San Marino had performed for about 3/4 times already.
Overall the song contest is to connect people from all countries and just make fun and enjoy music. Some countries take it serious, others don't. It has become more serious over time. Countries nowadays really are showing messages, instead of doing something really odd to win. If you look at the past winners, they are all very good songs.
Still fun to know, my favourites were:
1. Italy
2. Switzerland
3. Finland
4. France
5. Ukraine
(I am from The Netherlands) and they did a great performance to organise the show. I am really proud of them. Unlucky that Duncan ( the winner of 2019) couldn't be in the final, because he got covid)
Anywayyy see you next year in Italyyyy ❤️❤️❤️
You also forgot to mention how Tix had a really happy ending this year him and the Azerbaijani act really hit it off it was so sweet
Love how people were more pressed about Cyprus being "heretical" when they should have been upset with her stealing her entire music video from Zara Larsson
@@jameswg13 ohh yeahh of course!!! They are so lovely together ❤️
from the uk, sadly all the recent years entries have been "serious"....oh god please just one fun performance, not to win, just to have a song i have any memory of xD. its cos a record label made a deal with the bbc(main tv peeps) to send people signed to the label, so they are already peeps in the industry or we send old past it popstars to try to get points off nostalgia. we deserved the zero
I saw a clip of the German crew on stage before the song started (off-camera in the broadcasts), where the costumed guy ran around holding down the index finger so just the middle one remained standing upwards. I thought he was just having fun, but I suppose it was a sort of protest then.
Funnily enough though, because he bent that index finger, the costume looked like a middle finger during some shots of the performance
Also, I don't know if anyone has mentioned this already but every year there are six countries that are authomatically in the grand final. The country that won the last contest is authomatically in the finals, this year this was The Netherlands. The other five countries are countries that basically 'sponsor' Eurovision and therefore skip the semi-finals as well. These are: France, The UK, Spain, Italy and Germany
not really, at least for Italy who didn't even partecipated for 14 years, they have a 'freebee' for inventing the format
@@babee-ft8wo didn't Italy participate in any of the two semifinals? 😳
Italy, Finland, Cyprus, Ukraine, Iceland, Azerbaijan and Switzerland were my favourites. I enjoyed this years eurovision a lot
Azerbaijan and Cyprus deserved better (
I also loved Malta. What a performance
The handcuffs in Norway’s performance is about being tied down by depression I think
Yes and because he has tourettes, wich gives him tics (wich i also hqve, but not from tourettes) and he was bullied for them, when he lifts up his glasses you can see him having some tics in his eyes, currently mine are also mostly there, its also how his name came to exist. He was being called tics by his bullies
@@merlijnmaassen8265 ohhh tics... Is he named TIX for that reason?
@@luxdavid2.027 yes!
@@luxdavid2.027 Yeah. He used to be bullied in school by people calling him tics so he took ownership of the name and turned it into a strength. His stage persona TIX who is everything he himself isn't. Loud, confident, outgoing. All that goos stuff. He wrote lots of songs for high school graduations that frankly are pretty crass. Good fun, but way rude to appeal to kids of that age. His persona started to take over though and he was left one 17th off May (our national holiday) all alone on the floor crying and contemplating suicide. His cat came over and lay on his chest, and that saved his life. So this song is basically all that angst and repressed emotion. That's why he says "remember, you are not alone" at the end of his performance. So yeah that's the context.
@@MissCaraMint oh so deep and emotional the story
Yes you’re right with Switzerland, they were really far in the lead but when it came to the public vote Italy just jumped ahead but Switzerland were in the top 3
I don't really see how people think countries try to lose on purpose? Those fun, "joke" performances take the competition seriously, and a lot of those campy performance do very well, if you look at this years final standings you'll see that those that were different from the crowd ranked really high and those that had more of a pop sound stayed in the back end.
I recommend checking out top ten performances, you'll get a good taste of what eurovision has to offer from rock, to beautiful ballads to just fun songs. I think this year was overall very strong even if there weren't as many crazy over the top performance we expect from eurovision. Don't take it too seriously and enjoy the show !
Hatari (Iceland 2019, 10th place), Buranovskiye Babushki (Russia 2012, runner up) Verka Serduchka (Ukraine 2007, runner up) , Dschingkis Khan (Germany 1979, 4th place), LT United (Lithuania 2006, 6th place) are living proofs of top performing "joke" entries. There are a lot of songs that are really soooo bad they are good. 🤣🤣🤣
The winner has to host next years contest and hosting Eurovision takes a lot of money. It makes sense why some countries sabotage themselves.
@@PowerSpirit50 ok, so I’m from Lithuania, it would be pretty difficult for us to host ngl, and I am not sure how other countries select their entries, but here we have a competition where the public votes, there’s no way to force the audience to select purposefully bad performances, and above mentioned LT United, so often quoted as a joke performance or deliberately bad, is our highest ranked entry yet 🤷♀️
@@LadySioma My country Sweden has Melodifestivalen but we still send generic songs.
@@PowerSpirit50 No one is forced to host it though, they can just refuse to and someone else will do it. I think this is a very poor excuse and not really true for anyone anymore. And although it can cost a lot it usually also brings great revenue
"I kind of need context here" "I don't understand their outfits, maybe it's cultural?" Trust me, there's no context, it isn't cultural, it is just plain weird on purpose (but fun)! Mostly because the acts want to stand out.
it depends though Russia's was kind of cultural and it makes more sense if you know the meaning
@@fedem14 that is very true
I mean, Ukraine and Russia is literally cultural thing, also, a lot of songs have a backstory that give them more depth and meaning to outfits.
The guy from the netherlands to. He's from Suriname. A Dutch colony. But yes. It's his culture
Not only Iceland was into their song, Europe was. They came fourth. They would have participated last year too, if it wasn’t canceled. The song is called: „think about things“. It has the same style. It’s just their style of music.
Tix (norway) wrote about his feelings, experiencing mobbing because of his tics and not feeling worthy enough.
Germanys song has a deep message too, Jendrik experienced hate too in his life. The song is about not living as „an eye for an eye“ and giving haters more fuel. His song is a serious entry with just with a funny staging. The hand was supposed to be a middle finger as in the video, but the broadcaster didn’t allow it. So they did the peace sign, which just switched into a middle finger every time the dancer put her arm down 🤣
This is actually the best part of the contest: there is no rules or context 😂 Every country does whatever it wants and still can win🙌
i love the fact that he is so respectful and me as a european here like "NO NO NO TRASH!!"
you gotta see the full 10 Years and Think About Things from Iceland, its so weird and fantastic.
I agree! They brought an element of humor to everything, but absolutely made such a great song both years and put on spectacular shows.
TIX/Norway actually made the song for his biggest fan who died of cancer, the first time he sang the song was on her funeral🙁👼🏼
That was a different song. "Engel, ikke dra" is about his fan. Fallen Angel is about Andreas (TIX) himself.
Also to answer the question in the video about this, him being chained to the 'demons' is to represent how he is held down by his own demons and struggles. Please watch this entire performance and music video to this song :)
Tix the Norwegian act actually has Tics. Although his is mainly in his eyes which is why he wears glasses.
Although and not sure how true it his but him and the Azerbaijani act really hit it off together and he even took his glasses off for her.
Considering the meaning of his song etc it's even more epic
"No established artist would be doing this" there's a mix of new artists and established artists every year. But I guess you mean that an artist is established when americans have heard of them.
The Portugal Song "Love is on my side" starts in black and white giving it even more Sinatra feel and I think It was an amazingly good song but it wasn't distinct enough to get higher places(got 12).
The fact that Tusse ( Sweden ) had been in surgery of the throat just weeks before the finale just makes his performance even better. Btw I love this video ❤️
Him: "It feels like Dance Music but they have trumpets which seems odd to me"
Timmy Trumpet: "Am I a joke to you?"
Iceland went there to have fun and ended up being A BOP!! LOOOOVE THEM😍 It would be awesome if you could watch their whole act
Iceland took it seriously that is just the style of this band, but why Flo Rida was there remains unknwon
Flo Rida was at Eurovision because San Marino's delegation thought it's a good investment :) Turned out it wasn't, they failed spectacularly in the televoting.
It was because they never make it to the final, for a country of 50 thousand people, that’s some huge promotion.
@@User12345fan They actually did make it to final a few times before (with Serhat and I think also with one of Valentina's songs).
I hate to think what percentage of San Marino's GDP went to paying Flo Rida
The result was quite good for San Marino. They haven't been high ever.
@@pt3085 Serhat got more points than Senhit.
I also want to say that you are being respectful towards the cultures of these countries and I love that.
Plenty of established artists have been on the Eurovision throughout the years. And it doesn't matter where they're from, they can enter for every country. That's why Flo Rida was competing for San Marino.
14:10 it actually is, Jeangu Macrooy is from Suriname and performed this partially in one of the many Surinamese languages and it was meant to be that Surinamese vibe
That was a lovely reaction video. Eurovision is always a mad spectacle. I think this year we had better songs than usual.
Also no context explains the middle finger costume that the German guy brought on stage. The song was about ignoring hate / troll comments on social media, but it was trippy and legitimately terrible. That's why we love ESC...
The story behind TIX's song is so sad but it also give me hope. It was one of my favorite
Don’t worry, we find 50% of it weird too but that’s what makes the escs so amazing. It doesn’t feel like a competition, it feels like a giant family meet where everyone supports everyone and they make friends backstage lmaoo
The performance by Iceland stood out to me and became my favorite because the awkward dancing just makes it 1000x better 😂
You should react to all Eurovision winners 1956-2021
100%
Or maybe just the last 10 Eurovision winners if you want a shorter video 😅
I'm from Germany. Nothing can explain the German performance 😂🤣😬 I was embarrassed and rooted for Switzerland, Portugal, Italy, Spain and France the most.
Tbh, i kinda liked the vibe... I didn't hate it. It was good fun
Both ABBA and Celine Dión have won Eurovision and became world known celebrities
"I feel like there must be some kind of context leading up to these performances that I'm missing-" Nope. They're just as confusing to everyone. That's part of the fun. :) (And very few of the entries have anything to do with what's popular in that country - Eurovision is sort of its own genre.)
Curiously, there have been some artists well established in Europe or in their home countries, like Bonnie Tyler, Engelbert Humperdinck, sir Cliff Richard, Arash, Kate Ryan, Darude, Olivia Newton-John, Guy Sebastian, Sergey Lazarev, Ben Cristovao is hugely established in Czech Republic and Slovakia, Sergio Dalma, or bands like Blue, t.A.T.u., Zdob si Zdub, Cascada, Katrina and the Waves, and almost all of the artists representing my country Slovakia were established in Slovakia (the most famous Slovak band Elán, Tublatanka, Marcel Palonder, Katarína Hasprová, TWiiNS...). But the less known artists are in majority.
I think every country has send a famous singer (in their own country) at one point
In my country Albania the artists are generally very established, with the exception of a new artist here and there who ends up getting established when they participate in Eurovision.
Andrew Lloyd Weber….
I have never been so proud of beeing italian🇮🇹🖤✨
TO ME IT FEELS LIKE A CONCERT AND WE HAVE CONCERTS LIKE THIS PERFORATION IN THE STATES AND THEY ARE FUN AND I FORGET IT CONTEST BUT PERFORATION SO MUCH FUNNY GREAT MUSIC.
Q: How did Flo-Rida end up here?
A: The Hangover Part 4.
Underrated comment.
take a shot every time he says LIKE
Me being Spanish and so proud of what we did despite the results😌
Literally no one knows why Flo Rida was there, especially repping San Marino of all places.
I wish Turkey would join back in Eurovision... I wish that they would join every year but they're doing nothing. It's really enjoying to see different country's music and seeing them interact with each other.
I watched this video because is about Eurovision and I love Eurovision. You seem so kind and nice. I saw the vinyl in the background (I love 5 Seconds of Summer). You have all my respect. (And my follow too)
u should react to the performances of italy cyprus ukraine switzerland and finland. Those were the best imo
not all of them perform in the grand final, only 26
@@martalosada8705 oh ok thanks for telling me for some reason i thought they all perform😂
Agreed
@@razanabouelezz6502 All the ones you mentioned did perform in the final.
Best for you lol
This year the standards where so high every song was amazing best year ever in my book
If you want to see a staging that definitely sets itself apart from any other, you should watch Australia’s entry in 2019.
If you want to know the placements of each country then here you go:
1# Italy
2# France
3# Switzerland
4# Iceland
5# Ukraine
6# Finland
7# Malta
8# Lithuania
9# Russia
10# Greece
11# Bulgaria
12# Portugal
13# Moldova
14# Sweden
15# Serbia
16# Cyprus
17# Israel
18# Norway
19# Belgium
20# Azerbaijan
21# Albania
22# San Marino and yes that is Flo rida or how ever you say his name
23# Netherlands
24# Spain
25# Germany
26# uk
Edit: there are 5 countries that get straight to the finals: Germany, uk, France, Italy and Spain+ the country that won last year.
The juries damaged Italy and Finland really bad. I dont understand why juries hate rock.
If there was no jury the podium would have been 1 Italy, 2 Ukraine, 3 France and Finland in 4th place
Don't ever call yourself stupid! We love your videos & you offer great commentary. You have a future career in broadcasting! 😃
The song goes "I don't feel hate, I just feel sorry" and there is a middlefinger dancing.. You don't need more context to that. 😂 That's it.
I'm watching Eurovision song contest for over more then 45 years
Never Have I seen a year where quality was this good.
There is not even one year that comes close.
iceland brought immaculate vibes in both 2020 and 2021, you should react to it jeff :)
Icelander here.
The Iceland song is the Singer and his wife celebrating the 10th anniversary of their wedding together, by getting to 4th place in Eurovision.
U should react to Finland, France, Portugal, Italy and Iceland!! They were my favs!
For the Dutch entry, where you said it has Caribbean vibes, that's the point. The singer comes from Suriname and lives in the netherlands. The netherlands has had Suriname as a colony for a pretty long time. Suriname culture can be seen back into our culture, such as the food, and dutch culture can be seen in Suriname. Dont forget, the dutch, english and so on brought black people to the Americas for slavery. He, as a singer, wanted to bring the Suriname culture and representation in Eurovision. He did that by singing the lyrics 'mi na afu sensi, no wan man e broko mi' which means something like, even if I am just worth a half cent(penny), you cannot break me. He said that he wanted to show his roots, give a representation to his country. He was inspired by the Black lives matter movement and he is also a member of the lgbt community. There are also many elements that reference slavery and the colonialism in many countrys by many western countries, including the netherlands.
Hey hey i just wanna point out that the ones performing from Iceland daði og gagnamagnið their goal wasn’t to win but to make it into the finals of Eurovision and just be able to go on stage and have fun which is sad cause some of them got corona and then they couldn’t so all the performances by Iceland where just from rehearsals, love from Iceland to everyone else!
i'm still obsessed with the fact that the singer from norway just fell like, head over heels in love with the singer from azerbaijan during this evening and it was like the cutest thing ever??? i think they're dating now??
They all spent a couple of weeks there before the show, so they got to know each other "well".
Yes, they are online dating. Because of convid 19, they are using facetime as often as possible. Before they left Rotterdam, he gave her a gold bracelet which as far i can see, she is wearing every day.
@@sandefj bruh that is the cutest thing i've ever heard good for them
the only context you need about eurovision is that the songs are intentionally camp and over the top lmao. it’s not about who’s objectively the “best” but about who had the most memorable performance as a whole and who embraced the ~spirit of eurovision.
Icelands lead singer is married with the curly haired girl with the keyboard, the song is about how they’ve been together for 10 years and how much he loves her, shes actually 6 months pregnant in the preformance
Iceland is fourth because they're funny and not because they're sooo serious
Iceland was seriously having fun. And we loved it.
the difficult thing about this competition is that you should bring a song that can be popular to people but also be different from that everything else to stand out, yeah i dont take everything seriously because there are too much factors going on
Famous winners in history were for example ABBA and CELINE DION who started her European career after winning in 1988. Singers from other countries can be invited. Her winning song was composed by a Swiss composer.
Actually Sweden often sends established artists to Eurovision, as you can see we still think we are top 3 eurovisioncountry after Abba, Måns, Loreen, Carola etc...
Rest of europe seems to be realy tired of us though and thats good. Cause I rather see a rockband win than a "typical" eurovisionsong.
I really liked this reaction video. You were really respectful towards everything, unlike most Eurovision videos by American youtubers, who just act like they get everything that's happening, and sometimes even disrespect the countries just by being ignorant about the contest and the countries themselves.
Please react to Switzerland and Italy. Those were the best for me.
For me too
I love that you mentioned the "established artists" part during the last performance and not immediately after watching Hooverphonic representing Belgium! 😝
I'm shocked it went almost unnoticed that Hooverphonic participated in the ESC. I don't remember a star of such calibre since Patricia Kaas.