anarchistfish: | Sputnikmusic

anarchistfish 05.12.26	Can't break that intro up unfortunately. Wrote the bulk of this while bored a month ago. Thought about publishing as a separate blog but didn't leave myself enough time to set things up, decide direction and edit etc and I basically wrote it as a shitpost in the first place. I do find this competition fun, cringe and fascinating all at the same time tho. Semi Final 1 is tonight (and stacked imo) SF2 on Thursday evening. Grand Final Saturday night Australia with Delta Goodrem and Italy are also among the popular entries
arthropod 05.12.26	Who tf is ALICJA Man, we're so cooked in this contest. The one time it raised my interest in recent years was when Justyna Steczkowska participated last year, and that was a misfire too. She's an excellent performer and made one hell of a visual show, but the song itself was utterly "whatever".
mystagogus 05.13.26	Enjoyed the fun read, thanks! Never followed but this time around Romania and Croatia are quite good.
Voivod 05.13.26	The Greek song is so catchy and absurd, it can win the contest.
anarchistfish 05.14.26	Well Poland came through with one of the best stagings and vocal performances of the semi and qualified to the final. Song is probably never gonna win but they pulled out all the stops on the night Greece can win (I've played that song to death the last couple of months) but I think it doesn't have enough jury appeal to take it all personally. He's doing a lot on that stage too. I do think slightly overambitious works well in eurovision though. I'm pretty confident at this point that Finland will take it all home barring a disaster, they have that crossover appeal, though it's gonna be very interesting. I think Greece, Romania and Moldova will do very well with the public. France, Australia, possibly even Poland with the juries. Throw Sweden, Israel, Denmark, Italy into the mix and who knows. Montenegro and San Marino are unfortunately out so no grandpa george in the final and someone else will have to provide the balkan witch techno
anarchistfish 05.14.26	I also just found out that the San Marino entry had 7 writers which is fucking hilarious Semi final 2 tonight. Not as stacked as the first imo but will be interesting to see Denmark, Romania, UK, France. Delta Goodrem's song is so boring ngl.
anarchistfish 05.16.26	Showtime Romania blew me away in that semi but seems people are piling on Australia and Bulgaria. Still predict a Finland win
Piglet 05.16.26	i miss the days when eurovision had monster mash metal only heard delta's song for aus. it was like imagine dragons but fae queen edition
Kusangii 05.16.26	omg bruh are we really discussing eurovision on sputnik
Voivod 05.16.26	Serbian song was sonically maimed to fit the bill, no guitar distortion instead.
Shiranui 05.16.26	also no vocals Sweden is just Everytime We Touch
Voivod 05.16.26	also no vocals [2] Same for Romanian song, vocals were good though.
Trebor. 05.16.26	Crazy that they're gonna let this contest die for Israel
anarchistfish 05.17.26	I was fully resigned to Israel winning that. They need to do something or it's gonna happen someday. Completely taken by surprise by the winner Bulgaria. Had written a blurb for them but decided not to include it cos the song had grown off me so fast back in March and I'd pretty much dismissed any chance it had of finishing outside mid table. I think she was around 60/1 before the show, and even longer before the semis. Just goes to show the power of staging and charisma on the actual night. Finland have been the cold favourites for months and finished 6th. Less surprised how well Romania did in the end, but the juries did her dirty
anarchistfish 05.17.26	"omg bruh are we really discussing eurovision on sputnik" I find it fascinating man. The politics, how differently it is approached by all the different countries, how it changes every year. It's such a microcosm and there's really nothing else like it. Plus the quality of songwriting and production has increased a ton in recent years. No guilt in enjoying the spectacle
PanosChris 05.17.26	Discussing Eurovision on Sputnik wasn't on my Bingo card either but sure why not I'll bite Quick notes: Wholeheartedly expected Finland to win the whole thing and was very surprised at their final placement (#6). Bulgaria's song was pure balkan dance-pop and I am not too shocked it won. The online frenzy over Greece's participation always baffled me (even as a Greek) since I wasn't a big fan of that song and #10 was fine by me, but I know others expected a higher placement. On the other hand, I expected Sweden to be much higher. Also, you know it's Eurovision when the songs in the Top 5 are such a wild mix. Specifically: industrial rock/metal (Romania) deservedly ended up at #3, sandwiched between an okay mid-tempo pop cut (Israel at #2) and a vocally impressive yet by-the-numbers ballad (Australia at #4).
PanosChris 05.17.26	"Plus the quality of songwriting and production has increased a ton in recent years. No guilt in enjoying the spectacle" I personally think the songwriting and memorability of the participations has taken a serious nosedive these last few years. But the quality of the production has increased + I think some countries are more willing to compete with more experimental/weird/out-there sounds and genres. In the end, Eurovision has never been a contest that favors quality. But there's indeed a lot of spectacle to be had and amongst the sea of boring and forgettable fluff, there is a song or two that deserves multiple listens. Plus, I can't say no to more music.
DoofDoof 05.17.26	Eurovision was really funny before it became self aware :'(
Shiranui 05.17.26	I think ppl underestimate the culture power of tiktok. Bulgaria basically wins this by putting out the perfect anthem for the average Gen X tiktok user especially with its drop into half-time. Other entries have been more of your typical Eurovision-trash, some being better executed than different ones, while none of which could put the parts together in a way to mobilize the core target audience.
mystagogus 05.17.26	Shiranui your comment makes one feel somewhat uncomfortable, given the level of Bulgaria's output. Interesting observation though.
Shiranui 05.18.26	oopsie it's Gen Z obviously, I don't know why I mix these up. Dara already appears to be a star in Bulgaria according to the german commentator. Engaging young ppl by live action into lifting trophies for their social media influencer phenomen type of thing. Like no one's gonna vote for Australia or Italy in that matter.
anarchistfish 05.18.26	Not fully convinced by that. Haven't had a girl bop winner in a long time and viewership is way down this year because of Israel, so I don't see why a youth vote would have an outsized influence. The song is definitely more in line with mainstream music than anything else we've had in a long time though. First reggaeton beat ever to win eurovision I think?
Shiranui 05.18.26	I mean I'm willing to argue the relative viewership still migrated in favor of a younger generation even with less of a viewership in total. They had the jurys set up at a specific rate of ppl under age 30 or 25 this time I believe. It's just the best shot I can come up with rn haha
anarchistfish 05.18.26	2 jurors under 25 yeah. You aren't the only one making this argument. Maybe, but trends come and go so fast in Eurovision so I'm gonna wait and see. Honestly the production in terms of song quality and live staging has improved so much in recent years, it makes sense that some songs actually start sounding like what's in the charts and that the juries would start diverging. But the last two winners were both kinda opera/electronic infused art pop More insight into how the juries are formed (I believe it varies wildly) would be interesting cos some of their tastes are questionable and led to the editions in the 2010s being largely snoozefest