Imaginary Beef

Trip 00:47

I am utterly taking this personally. I don't know what I've done to him, but clearly, it was something very bad.

Mike 00:53

I have this imaginary beef playing in my head. That, for some reason, you two cannot be even in the same virtual room without going, like, full Real Housewives. So

Trip 01:05

get over it.

Mike 01:06

was this your first foray into selection season? I feel like we kind of dropped you into the deep end a little bit.

Trip 01:11

Well, that was exactly going to be my remark. I've only been into Eurovision now for really like three years. And so I was really surprised when you asked me to be in a selection episode like this. Uh, and yeah, so you started me off easy with San Remo and UMK. Thank you so much. It was really enlightening, I have a lot of questions, but, uh, yeah, it was very fun to do this once.

Mike 01:35

I think this was a good mix this weekend. Like, it's not going to be like next weekend, which is, packed to the gills with, selections from, uh, some of the More eccentric countries, I'll say.

Trip 01:45

How, how do you do this? Like, I've, and more importantly, why do you do this? Now, uh, this is so much, I honestly do not understand, it took me a long time to get all of this done in one week, I do not get how physically you can make the hours to do this.

Mike 02:03

I struggle with that question every time that we do this. And like, you were actually kind of lucky on this one, because we were able to get you set up with video clips throughout the week, because San Remo was dropping them through the week, and Latvia had the semi final, so we could pull from those performances, but It's a lot of project management, I'll put it that way.

Trip 02:24

You must have some serious Excel worksheets. Petra Mede and Malin Ackerman will host Eurovision 2024

Mike 02:27

Oh yeah, Excel, Airtable, Google Sheets, we've got them all. There was some news that came out earlier this week. They've announced who the hosts are going to be for this year's contest. Petra Mead and Malin Ackerman. Petra has hosted Eurovision two times before, a very popular Swedish host, and, uh, Malin Ackerman, I'm familiar with the name, I'm not really familiar with her work.

Trip 02:54

Well, I think I mostly know her from being in the Watchmen movie, but yeah, I mean, I was looking through her Wikipedia entry, and I'm like, okay, I know a lot of these titles, they're just movies I haven't seen.

Mike 03:05

I'm in the exact same boat. Like, I saw she was on one episode of Drunk History, which I did a watch through this summer, so it's like, okay, I know I've seen her once, and, uh, I guess she was the squirrel last season on Masked Singer? So, like,

Trip 03:18

There's a credit.

Mike 03:19

That is the Venn diagram for the show. But, uh, yeah, uh, I mean it is a name. good get for Sweden and Eurovision

Trip 03:27

They have big shoes to follow, certainly. They did such a great job last year, in Liverpool, but, yeah, looking forward to it.

Mike 03:34

also happening. Midweek, Israel, concluded their contestant selection process and Edin Golan will be their representative at Eurovision. Uh, song submissions are open until the end of this week, I believe, and, the song is expected to be released sometime in March. It's been relatively quiet on the selection front, we've only had, three selections this weekend, no new songs really dropping, uh, just kind of waiting for the onslaught of February.

Windows95Man wins UMK with "No Rules" Kicking off on Saturday was Finland, and, their UMK process, Ben was at the show, and, we will be doing a Patreon episode, sometime later this month, where he gets to talk about his, Helsinki adventure. It looked like it was a lot of fun. Finland kind of pulled out all of the stops. Like, it was a lot of guest performances from some of the highlight acts from the last few UMKs.

I kind of got the feeling that this was what Finland would have wanted to do with Eurovision had they won last year.

Trip 04:37

Yeah, unfortunately, the feed I was seeing kept falling out, so I didn't see most of the interval acts.

Mike 04:44

Oh no!

Trip 04:44

know, including the ones I really would have wanted to see, but I'm hoping that I can catch those on YouTube or something at some point.

Mike 04:51

Wiley, their broadcaster, has a really strong YouTube presence, and I believe they, keep it on demand on their website, So, going into Saturday's show, there were, uh, seven contestants. who was your pick from previewing?

Trip 05:04

the one that I enjoyed the most, is the one that came in last place. I liked Cinny Sabotage, I really did. When I first watched the video I was like, oh, she's like the Finnish Kylie Minogue, I can work with this. I liked her voice, I liked her presence, and I thought she did a good job on stage. I was really shocked that she came in last.

Mike 05:23

Yeah, I was shocked that she got such a low televote, but maybe going first, maybe a lot of people missed the performance, or I don't know what happened there, but yeah, I agree, that was one of my favorite songs going into the show as well.

Trip 05:36

the other one that I liked, and the one that I felt really confident would have won was, uh, Vox Populi. I thought they had a lot of stage presence, I thought it was a fun, upbeat number, it seemed like the kind of thing that would have won, but

Mike 05:51

The song that did win, that I think we're trying to avoid talking about, is Windows 95 Man and the song No Rules.

Trip 06:00

Huh yeah.

Mike 06:16

One of the things about Finland's process is it's 25 percent jury vote and 75 percent public vote. Windows 95 man came in dead last in the jury vote, only four juries gave them points out of the seven juries, participating.

Trip 06:31

Oh, I can't believe that I have to support the jury method. Heh.

Mike 06:35

Yeah.

Trip 06:37

Don't make me support juries. I, all I can say is I am not on the Finish Televote Wavelength on this one. Here's the thing with this song, for me. I like a good novelty song, a weird song I can appreciate, I can really enjoy, I can name a lot of Eurovision songs like that, that I liked a lot. Croatia's song last year was weird, it was quirky, it was out there, and I enjoyed it. Here's the thing though, you have to commit to the bit. Right? Like, Croatia, whatever it was they were trying to say, they were just all about that message, weird as it was, right? They weren't being all wink wink, nudge nudge, look at us, aren't we being quirky.

It wasn't pointing at itself. I feel like this No Rules song, it's all about the winking and the nudging and the hey look at us ism of it. And that turns me off. Like, somebody being like, hey, aren't we fun, aren't we weird? I, I, I just don't want to listen to that. And that's what I got. To me, this was like, uh, Eat Your Salad that way.

Mike 07:40

Oh, okay. See, I really like to eat your salad. So that kind of cut to the bone, but yeah. I get what they are going for here. I think what's kind of weird about it is from the interviews that I've been seeing after the show. I don't think they were expecting to win. either. They got a really good position in the running order finishing up the show. I think the giant blue jeans egg or jeg as Ben was calling it. I mean, it is it is a stunning visual.

Trip 08:10

There were certainly some visuals in that performance, I will say that.

Mike 08:13

There's probably going to be some changes between now and Malma.

Trip 08:17

I would think, yes.

Mike 08:18

uh, pantslessness, although they could probably get away with that, um, but, yeah, uh, the name Windows 95 Man and all of the, Microsoft logos and stuff are probably going to have to go so that no rules can comply with the contest rules, so

Trip 08:35

I love irony. You know, they had a very tough thing to do this year. I mean, how do you follow up Karya? And, uh, they aren't. So, maybe that's for the best. Maybe this gives them a year or two to, like, come up with something truly great. Do you think this song will actually qualify? I don't know.

Mike 08:55

Yes, well, hmm. Because the semi finals are all Televote. I think it stands a better chance. Like, if there was a jury component of it, I would be very worried about this entry. They are in the first semi final, and that is shaping up to be a tough semi final, so it's probably going to be a little bit of a fight, but Croatia was in a tough semi final last year, and they got through. So, I think you're right about the Croatia comparison here.

Trip 09:24

Except that I think the Croatia one is a far better song.

Mike 09:28

The semifinal's only 15 songs, so you just have to be better than five, and there's still a lot to be revealed, uh, before we have to start making some cuts.

Trip 09:38

And this song does reveal a lot. "Hollow" by Dons wins Latvia's Supernova

Mike 09:40

also happening Saturday afternoon was Latvia's Supernova. the process started out with 15 songs. That got cut down to 10, after last week's semi final. And the winner coming out of that process was Don's and the song Hollow. What were your thoughts about Latvia's entries? Because I feel like of the three, this one had the most, variety in terms of quality and content.

Trip 10:20

I would agree with that. When I'm watching the performances, I take brief notes on every song just so I can remember which one is which. My notes are very varied on this, um,

Mike 10:33

How many question marks are on the page?

Trip 10:37

Um, like, I can read a f without revealing which song is which, I'll just reveal some of the things I scribbled down. One of them was not actively irritating. one was ugg in so many ways, I don't want to just do the negative ones here, um, One was just fun and retro. but yeah, I liked, I liked Holo. This was one of my favorites, and I thought it was clearly the most Eurovision y of the options available. Like, I am not at all surprised that this won.

Mike 11:07

I'm not either. Yeah, like, my note on this one was, objectively, this should win. and even though Latvia had I felt a lot of choices, particularly on the Eurovision y ness potential.

Trip 11:19

Did this song remind you of Hozier singing Take Me to Church?

Mike 11:22

Ow! Yes, I see where you're going with that one, yes. I couldn't quite put my finger on what it was reminding me of, but that is the type of song.

Trip 11:32

Yeah, I feel like this song, it takes a little while to get to the fireworks factory, but yeah, it's the kind of current power ballad that I expect to hear several times in any given Eurovision. And I think it's got good stage presence. I like the song. I think, you know, I think it's an easy qualify. It'll do fine.

Mike 11:51

Latvia's not qualified for the Grand Final since 2016.

Trip 11:57

Oh

Mike 11:58

yeah, it's been a long time since they've made

Trip 12:01

Well, I, yeah, I think they'll be very happy then, because I don't, I don't see this not qualifying.

Mike 12:05

I feel like this is just, like, throwing it, like, right down the middle, and, uh, Latvia just brings so much personality, and I don't know if this song really matches that personality, but maybe Latvia's just like, no, we really need to just qualify, and we can bring personality later, so.

Trip 12:21

That was, that was what I was thinking as well. This was not what I think of when I think of a Latvian entry, but I can thoroughly see why they decided to, uh, take the other fork in the road this time. So,

Mike 12:33

Yeah, yeah, and Don's, competed in their national selection a number of times, and I think he's been the runner up a number of times, so it's his turn, and yeah, I'm glad that he's going in with a song that will probably do well, unless it just gets lost in the shuffle, depending on how the second semi final shapes up, but it's going to have to shape up in a very, very strong way, I think, because he is delivering a solid vocal on this.

Trip 12:59

oh, absolutely. The same way that my favorite song in Finland came in last place, my favorite song from Lavia. Was when I looked at the odds, the one with the longest odds. I didn't actually check to see where it finished, but I really liked Mind Breaker. Like I said before, it had a really fun retro feel, not retro in just a cheesy way, but, I don't know. I just had a lot of fun watching that one.

Mike 13:23

Yeah, like, it had that kind of, like, mid 2000s indie rock vibe about it a little bit.

Trip 13:31

A little bit. Yeah, that's not usually my genre, but, um Yeah, I don't know. This is one of the few that I watched more than once. The bright side is, the cat song did not win. So Oh, God.

Mike 13:45

surprise me, but is also, like

Trip 13:48

That song is terrible.

Mike 13:52

But, like, that, that is what I expect in a Latvian national final. Like, they have had other songs like that that have also done, like, second, third, fourth place.

Trip 14:04

I mean, aside from the fact that I don't like the song, it's like, she wasn't even committing to it. It's not like she was coming out in some big, giant cat outfit. It was just like a couple little freakin ears on the head.

Mike 14:14

she had to save something if she made it to Malmo, so And the thing that is most wild about that song? Four songwriters.

Trip 14:23

What?

Mike 14:24

Yeah!

Trip 14:25

How?

Mike 14:26

I I I

Trip 14:26

that's like the 7 on Tattoo. "La Noia" will go to Malmo with Angelina Mango

Mike 14:29

But the big event on Saturday was Italy and its San Remo process. Yeah, it's been a very long week in Italy. The contest started on Tuesday, where all 30 songs competing performed. They were then split into two groups of 15 for Wednesday and Thursday's show. all 30 acts, performed medleys or duets or covers on Friday night, and then one more time through the running order on Saturday, before a winner was declared a little bit after 2. 30 a. m. local time? Did you watch any of the actual San Remo process, or did you just stick with videos?

Hmm.

Trip 15:13

I mean, I didn't watch it live, of course, but, uh, yeah, once they put it up for on demand, I watched all 30 of the performances on their website. I thought this was a pretty good year, um, I mean, given that it's my first year, what the hell do I know? But, you know, the very first video I saw was Angelina Mango. I was like, wow, this is a pretty good start. I can't wait to hear all 30 of these. And then I got to the end and I was like, yeah, they started me out with probably the best one. I, I think it's a great winning choice, I like the song, I've listened to it two or three times now, and I suspect it's just gonna keep growing on me as like, I learned, you know, what the lyrics mean, and that sort of thing.

she can sing, she can do the rap part, she's got good stage presence, she has a good outfit. Like, I, I think, you know, she can put on a good three minute show. I'm looking forward to it.

Mike 16:21

The winner was Angelina Mango with the song La Noia. Every single performance that she did throughout the week was just like, oh, fantastic. But really, like, I think the top five that they had were a fantastic top five. it was, Jolier, Angelina, Annalisa, Irama, and Gali. Uh, Mahmoud came in sixth, so, like, really, really top six, really top ten. I, I, actually, no, I, like, I, I was so happy with, how the entire, Rankings kind of played out like a, as they were going through, announcing the results, it's like, no, I, I agree with that placement. Like, I think there was only maybe one swap that I would've done, but, uh, yeah, it, this was a very strong field.

And it's also the first time in a very long time that Italy has had a woman win San Ram.

Trip 17:08

Huh.

Mike 17:09

Yeah. Like the last time a, solo female artist won was back in 2014.

Trip 17:14

Although, I mean, I do associate Italy at Eurovision with, you know, uh, a young man really moating a lot, so, yeah. Well, that was one of my questions for you, because when I was going through these 30 videos, I was like, Wow, there are a lot of earnest young men singing their lungs out. Is this because of Marco last year, or is this something that you can always expect at Italy?

Mike 17:37

Oh, I think you can always expect it at Italy.

Trip 17:39

Okay.

Mike 17:40

Like, if Il Volo's not there, or Diodato's not there, you're going to get somebody who's going to fill the slots that they are occupying, and it's, it's a very earnest contest. And I think that is just kind of part of its legacy, like even going back to the 1950s, like you're going to get those sort of performances.

Trip 18:00

You're definitely not going to get a Windows 95 man at San Remo, I'm suspecting. So I had some questions since this is my first San Remo. So first of all, I thought it was really cool seeing the orchestra, which I gather is how your vision used to work back in the old days. Right? So there was like one orchestra for all the acts, is that right?

Mike 18:20

Yes, it was one orchestra, and then the delegations would bring their own conductor.

Trip 18:25

Okay. But all but for these acts at San Remo, it's all the same orchestra, same conductor, everything. Right?

Mike 18:31

I think they can bring in their own conductor. Like, as I was watching the show, like, there were some conductor introductions. So I don't know if that's, like, maybe announcing a changing of the guard, or if it is for that particular song that somebody is conducting.

Trip 18:46

It does kind of put the performers into a little bit of a box, though, because some numbers are going to work better with a full orchestra than others, right?

Mike 18:54

I can see that, although I think it also brings in some creativity in the performances. Like, I mean, like, Maneskin, they had the orchestra when they were performing, in San Remo, and, like, when the strings come in on Zitti Buoni, like, that, that is, a tingling moment. I think a song that wouldn't normally have orchestration, like, could either be elevated or at least put a spin on, on a track.

Trip 19:19

I guess, but I feel like you want to see the artist's vision for the song, though, right?

Mike 19:24

Yeah, well, hmm. Yeah, this is kind of getting into the area where I'm not entirely sure how the Sanremo process works. Like, if these are songs that are made for Sanremo, or if they're songs that were just out there and just like, Oh, I'll submit this to Sanremo, I really like this one. Kind of the same way with Eurovision, where there are just some songs where it's like, Oh, I just had this single, I'm just gonna submit it, or I'm making a song for Eurovision.

Trip 19:51

Another question I had, I noticed that all 30 of the songs were completely in Italian. And I was wondering, is that a rule at Sanremo?

Mike 20:00

I can't think of any exceptions offhand. It would not surprise me, uh, if that was a rule or just like an expectation. Cause I mean, this is a show for an Italian audience. We just happened to have access to it. I was looking at the ratings this morning and. The final had a 74 percent share, for comparison in the US, last year's Super Bowl had a 77 percent share, so, like, it is, it is comparable to the Super Bowl,

Trip 20:24

Sure, I just found it odd because even countries like France and Germany will occasionally submit a song that's in English. You know, and Italy, I mean I looked at the Wikipedia page, everything they've ever submitted has been in Italian, occasionally Italian and English. So that's why I was wondering if maybe this is an official rule of their contest, that it must be in Italian.

Mike 20:45

Yeah, I can't think of anything explicitly, uh, that says that. Like, I imagine it's not really come up as an issue, or like, if there happen songs that have been submitted that are in English, they're just like, eh, the selection committee may just pass on it. So it could just be like

Trip 21:05

Y'know, I do think it's true that, y'know, if you have a mediocre song and you sing it in Italian, it becomes a much better song. if you're working with maybe the best singing language to begin with, y'know, why rock the boat? One thing that did surprise me a little bit when I was watching all of the performances was how much synthesizer there was. I was not expecting that.

Mike 21:27

This did feel like a kind of synth heavy year, so I don't know if that's just maybe a trend in Italian music right now or, um, what is going on with that. But yeah, like, I mean, even though they have the orchestra, it's not a completely acoustic, unplugged performance venue.

Trip 21:45

that just gave some of the songs a more dated feel than I was expecting. Going through all 30 of these videos one after the other, there was an element of saminess here. When there was something that wasn't an earnest ballad, I was like, ooh, you have my attention. But the quality overall, uh, I mean certainly I would say the average quality, the highest of the three countries we're talking about here.

Mike 22:08

Oh, yeah, absolutely. Like, that is the thing with Sanremo, where it's just like, your likes and dislikes are more about personal taste than, like, objective quality of song.

Trip 22:18

The other song that I really liked, I can go ahead and predict that we are going to greatly disagree on this one, just based on what I know of our disagreements in the past on songs. And I will preface this by saying that this is my first time doing this election process, I've heard most of these songs once, my opinions have no inherent value whatsoever. I really liked Vi by Alpha.

Mike 22:42

I like that one,

Trip 22:43

You did?

Mike 22:44

I liked it for what it was doing. Yeah, exactly. And, like, I think part of what made that one I feel like it kind of underperformed in the rankings a little bit, and I think it was because it was one of the last songs to go on the first night, and that means it was on at like 1. 30 in the morning, uh, for the Italian audience. Yeah, so,

Trip 23:04

I just, I had never heard an Italian song with like a US country influence to it before, and that really, I found that very intriguing.

Mike 23:13

I found him to be very charismatic and, like, really had, like, strong stage presence.

Trip 23:18

Oh, he worked that stage, yeah.

Mike 23:20

Performing at 1. 30 in the morning or like 7. 30 at night. Like it's like, Oh yeah, he is bringing the correct energy to this track. that was one that I would have liked to see a little bit higher in the rankings. Not necessarily like top five or anything like that, but, uh, yeah, good, good showing overall, I think.

Trip 23:36

See, that's the thing, like, with ballads, I kinda need to sit with them for a while. Like, with an upbeat number, I usually know quickly if it's for me or not. even last year, Marco Mignone's song ended up being my second favorite of the competition, but the first time I heard it, I was like, You know, he's pretty, it's, it's, it's a nice song, but I, I, once I sat with it, I was like, Oh, oh, okay, I get it now.

And I think that's how I would be with a lot of these songs. A lot of these songs, I have the note, could grow on me. Like Mahmood's song, I, uh, I wrote that, I didn't like it as much as his two previous Eurovision songs. You know, I thought that it had its moments, but maybe need to up the drama a little bit. Um, but I also have, you know, this could grow on me. And also, give somebody else a damn chance.

Mike 24:22

Yeah. The other thing about Italy's process, aside from being very, very thorough, is the winner of San Remo does not necessarily go to Eurovision. It is a kind of right of first refusal situation. But Angelina did confirm that she will be going to Eurovision, and I think Italy is going to have a good time in Malmo.

Trip 24:44

Honestly, I don't see this song winning Eurovision, but I think it should do pretty well.

Mike 24:49

Yeah, yeah, and like, Italy was very spoiled for choice this year, as they usually are, but, um, yeah, I think really any of the top five really would have stood a strong chance.

Trip 25:01

I remember I messaged you maybe a month or two ago, and when I read a, article saying who was going to be at San Remo this year, and I was like, I may have to watch my first selection process, because Italy, they ain't screwing around this year.

Mike 25:19

Exactly, yeah, and that's why we thought of you for this episode, because it's just like, oh, Tripp might actually be watching San Remo, like, he will have thoughts about this, so, um, but yeah, like, it was a tournament of champions, and, uh, yeah, a new champion was crowned, which is very exciting.

Trip 25:34

But it really was nice to see what, you know, Diodato and Il Volo and all those guys were up to now,

Mike 25:41

They all seem to be doing fine, but I'm sure we will see them either next year or the year after, like, they are San Remo diehards.

Trip 25:49

Well, I have no problem with that. Lithuania's Eurovizijalt Final Field Set

Mike 25:51

along with those big selections, on Saturday, there were the minor selections of, various semi final heats. Lithuania had their final heat of their Eurovisielt process. the two acts that advanced, were The Roop and their song Simple Joy, and, Queens of Roses with their song Walk Through Fire. And Trip, you just did a little happy dance when I mentioned The Roop? Or? Laughter.

Trip 26:16

I, yeah, I'm just so ha I, I, I watched the video for Simple Joy and On first glance, I don't like it as much as their two previous Eurovision songs, but I mean, I loved On Fire. That, if, if 2020 had happened, that would have been who I was pulling for. And I loved Disco the next year too, so, I'm happy for The Roop.

Mike 26:34

I'm not surprised by this result at all. as soon as the group was in the lineup, it's just like, Oh, well, they're winning whatever semifinal they're in. And that was the case. They won both the jury and the televote. They are the only act from the qualifying heats to do that this season. So, they. I may have an easy time in next week's final. It'd be fun to see them again in a quote unquote normal Eurovision scenario to see how they stack up.

Trip 27:01

I, I do wish I liked the song a little more than I do, but, you know, I'll still take it, it's still the R. O. O. P.

Mike 27:06

I think this is another one where it might just take a little time to grow on me. Like, I didn't love the staging of it. Um,

Trip 27:17

that dancing. No, no, no.

Mike 27:18

yeah, not the dancing, not the kind of leprechaun chic that he seemed to be rocking. Um Yeah, I don't think green is the right color, or that shade of green. It was

Trip 27:30

It was not flattering, no.

Mike 27:32

They know how to do staging. I think once, once they see how this played on TV, they'll probably make some edits. Melfest Heat 2 Sweden had their second heat of Melodifestivalen. The two directly to final were Liamu and Melodifestivalen. The two that went directly to final were Liamu and Melodifestivalen. and Dragon, and Maria Sur with When I'm Gone. The two acts that are now in the wildcard pool Dear Sarah and her song The Silence After You, and Froken Snusk with the song Unga and Fria.

Trip 28:02

Uh, I hope they don't win just so that you don't have to try and say that every time.

Mike 28:06

Oh, yeah. What? You think I'm struggling? Uh, no. No. No. Next week's Heat is going to feature Cassiopeia, who is one of the co writers of Tattoo,

Trip 28:18

Who isn't?

Mike 28:19

And also was a co writer on Wonderland, our winner from the American Song Contest, Clara Klingenstrom, who's a Melfest alum, and Gunilla Persson, who is one of the Swedish Real Housewives. And, yeah, I found her Wikipedia entry. Wild, wild Wikipedia entry!

Trip 28:40

I saw this in the show notes, so I went to the Wikipedia entry, and I was reading through this, and I was like, there's nothing that wild, and then I got to the last paragraph, and I'm like, oh, oh, oh.

Mike 28:53

pull that up here, Oh, yes, on 22 May 2018, Persson was arrested by Palm Beach police on a felony grand theft charge for stealing sunglasses. She was released the following morning after posting a 5, 000 bond. End of Wikipedia entry. It's just like, wait, wait, I need closure on this story.

Trip 29:15

But there was more than that, too, though. I mean, she was involved with somebody Somebody Unexpected, I think? I was like, wait, what?

Mike 29:23

Oh, yeah, she had a romance with Prince Albert of Monaco. What?

Trip 29:29

So, she met her guy in acting class in Dallas, had a romance with Prince Albert, and got arrested for sunglass theft. It's like, wait, what? What is, what?

Mike 29:39

And she was on the show Dallas while she was living in Dallas. Like, it's just.

Trip 29:45

So, and I was like the one person who watched the modern version of Dallas, so I probably saw her.

Mike 29:50

Oh, I thought that was referring to. Oh, well, it says the 1980s soap opera. Maybe it was the reboot. Well, let's, like, she would've been really young, but not outside the possibility of like, maybe the reboot was based on her. I think I watched one episode of that. Oh, but yeah, I think I'm rooting for her just because that, like, I think she's going to bring some sort of chaotic energy. And I, I think Sweden kind of needs that this year.

Trip 30:19

Yeah, I would not mind seeing them do a 180 and doing something just totally out of left field, which, you know, I mean, that's what, that's kind of what you expect a host country to do, so.

This week 30:29

Germany, Moldova, Estonia, Denmark, Iceland, San Marino

Mike 30:29

They do not have to qualify, so go nuts, please. Germany, they had their wildcard selection process this past week. It started with four contestants, but then one had to drop out, because she got sick. the winner was Florian and, his song, Scars. So that will be joining the rest of the field in Germany's, Das Deutsche Finale, which will be happening this Friday.

Trip 30:54

, Maybe this will be the year Germany pulls out of the near basement.

Mike 30:57

maybe. Uh,

Trip 31:00

Whoa.

Mike 31:01

I still need to, listen through the entries. I was not really impressed by Scars, but maybe that was why it was in the wildcard process and not the main field. And that is going to be the first of five songs to be selected this coming weekend. Happening on Saturday, it's a super Saturday! It's the superest Saturday of this Eurovision season Moldova's Etapa Nacionala, there are 11 acts competing in that, Estelal, 5 acts from last month's semifinal will join the 5 autoqualifiers, there's it should be a good show, I, I like this year's lineup,

Lithuania, as we mentioned, will be wrapping up on Saturday. It will probably be the group, but who knows? Maybe there'll be a surprise from Ilsenso, who also had a strong televote presence. Denmark will have their Dansk Melodi Grand Prix. There are eight acts competing, including their 2014 representative, Basim. Voting. is actually open all week. there will be a televote and text vote and web vote. It got really complicated very quickly. Uh, they may be keeping their number weighing system that they were using last year for revealing the scores. It was, yeah, uh, Denmark likes to make this unusually complicated.

Uh, they, they will have a 20 person jury.

Trip 32:17

Whoa.

Mike 32:18

Yeah, with 10 Danish jurors and, for the first time ever, 10 international jurors. Like, it's a lot of process for hopefully finding an entry that will get them back into the grand final of some sort.

Trip 32:33

Is, is that common that a national final would bring in international jurors,

Mike 32:38

It's pretty common. I mean, um, And this may also be confusion on my part. Like, my understanding is this is one jury that is, split between, Danish and international jurors. Usually, if there's an international component, it's, like, well, hmm. I guess Spain's process, that was an international jury, and they were all one jury. But, like, Finland's process, they had seven juries from different countries.

Trip 33:03

I mean, I guess that's just so you have a sense of how it might go internationally when, if it, once it's on the stage? it just feels a little weird to me, like, this is something that you were sending out to represent your country, it's like an expression of your national identity, it just feels weird to bring in outsiders to decide which one it's going to be. It's just kind of my gut response.

Mike 33:24

Yeah, and I really think it kind of comes down to the purpose of the show making the selection. Like, I don't think you're going to get an international jury at something like San Remo. they've only done it like once or twice at Albania's Festival de Congas, but like, neither one of those are technically Eurovision selection processes. Eurovision is just kind of part of the prize package. these are their national music festivals. they just happen to also use it to pick their Eurovision entry.

Trip 33:56

Okay, I can see that then.

Mike 33:58

But for something like Dance Melody Grand Prix that exists for the purpose of choosing a Eurovision entry, I think having the international component makes sense. This implementation of the international component is slightly different. And I don't know, it could work. It could not work. It could. Do both simultaneously? I don't know. Denmark can bend space and time? I'm not sure. and then, uh, Iceland's, Songvakeppnin process will also be beginning on Saturday. That one is two semifinals and a final, so, uh, a little bit smaller, a little bit chiller. A nice little break from all of the other selections that'll be happening on Saturday. And then San Marino will begin their Unavoce per San Marino process on Monday.

Uh, they have a hundred and twenty some semifinalists. Yeah, I mean, their process, it's, like, that is actually just, like, an internal process that they happen to televise. Like, there's no public vote, there's no audience input whatsoever, it's just kind of showing the audition process for these 120 some contestants, of which 20 will advance to the final that'll be happening a week from Saturday.

I'm kind of excited about it, but I'm already kind of pre tired. So, Tripp, how was your Experience interacting with national finals.

Trip 35:26

You know, I enjoyed it. Thank you for guiding me through my first time trying this. Even if you did throw me in the deep end, like I said. I was talking to another friend and he said, yeah, if you're Only going to watch two ever. I mean, San Remo and UMK are the two to watch, so I feel like I got as good an intro as I could possibly get.

Mike 35:47

This was a solid set. I'm looking at next week's set. Um, hmm. Estelal, maybe? If you enjoyed Latvia and kind of want to take the weirdness up a notch, uh, Moldova would be a good choice. So

Trip 36:02

Yeah, well, I tend to like Moldova's variety of weirdness at Eurovision,

Mike 36:06

Yeah, and they actually have a pretty good field this year. I'm I'm eager to see what comes out of Moldova's process, but will you be checking out any other national finals this season, or was this a, uh, too heavy a dose?

Trip 36:18

Well, I, like I said, I enjoyed this dose. I think I need to build up to doing more than this. So I suspect from this point on I will just be watching the winners as they come out, and, then once they're all out, just watching all of the videos over and over and over and over and over.

Mike 36:35

That is a healthier way of going about this, so Oh, but yes, thank you for joining me on this journey. Is there anything that you would like to plug?

Trip 36:46

I've removed myself from a particular social media platform that need not be named, and now I'm on BlueSky, uh, so you can find me at Puzzle Trip on Blue Sky, and, I have a bunch of quizzes on sporkle. com, some of which involve Eurovision, and you're welcome to go play those.

Mike 37:06

Awesome. we will have links to both of those, in our show notes. that's going to do it for this episode of the Eurowhat. Thanks for listening. The Eurowhat podcast is hosted by Mike McComb, that's me, and Ben Smith, who's not here. If you'd like to help support the show and access a ton of bonus content, such as Ben's upcoming dispatches from UMK, head on over to Patreon. com slash Eurowhat. Our full coverage of the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest can be found on our website at Eurowhat.

com, Next time on the show, we've got Super Saturday upon us, and at least five more songs selected by this time next week.