Calm

Mike 00:53

front of the TV or constantly checking news sites and be like, Oh God, what is happening now? So, A lot calmer, but there's still a lot of stuff to talk about, so that, that is a good thing. Eurovision Ratings Omnibus 2024

Ben 01:04

yeah, and I guess, let's start by checking in with, the news from our new beautiful exotic host country. Switzerland. so Eurovision, broke a lot of new records. Uh, hundreds of millions watching, listening, and engaging with the television, with the digital platforms. It's just like, there was like a nice little EBU Press release. I'd be like, look at how many people are watching!

Mike 01:23

finally providing the citation every time they're saying like, oh, this many hundreds of millions of people will be like, please provide actual

Ben 01:30

please just give us a number. Just like, where, where, where are you getting the number from?

Mike 01:34

Yeah, so it is down from 8 billion or whatever number they gave in 1986. So there is that. Yeah. Uh, 163 million viewers across the three live shows, uh, across the participating broadcasters. I don't think those numbers include Peacock or, other streaming platforms, but 163 million for a, what is ostensibly a smaller contest, compared to previous years. not bad. That's a pretty good crowd.

Ben 02:03

Yeah, and then the grand final had a 46. 7 percent audience share. That is the biggest since 2006. Which, that's a lot of people, on the other hand, thinking about, like, the 24 to 36 hours before the contest. Yeah, like, something's happening! We love mess.

Mike 02:17

just thinking of some of the headlines, uh, on that Saturday, be like, Oh, I'm, I'm sure that probably drummed up some, gawking interest.

Ben 02:24

Iceland had the highest audience share of the broadcasters with 96%. That tracks with Iceland, they are a small nation, they love Eurovision. I really want to see, like, how that compares to, like, previous years, though. 96 is high for anybody, but, like, is it high for Iceland?

Mike 02:38

Yeah, that number does feel low, but you have to consider they didn't qualify for the grand final, so Perhaps the Herabjörk household was just like, well, screw this, so Yeah.

Ben 02:50

We also had the biggest audience from Croatia since 2006. no surprise there. the YouTube live stream of the contest maxed out at 1. 6 million viewers. And, this is just very funny to me, Always on the Run was the most shazammed song in the grand final.

Mike 03:05

Yeah, that was my favorite little tidbit that they included with all of their, social media stuff. Because they were talking about a whole bunch of TikTok stuff, and I just don't do TikTok, so like those, I'm sure those numbers are great for TikTok, uh, like I think it was in the hundreds of millions of people reached, but the Shazam, that is an active participation thing, and yeah, I find it interesting that it was, Germany's entry that got that honor.

Host City When? Host City Where? Following from this year's contest, it's now time to start asking the question, Host city when? Host city where? yeah, we have a list of potential host cities, so far. We've got, Basel, Geneva, Zurich, uh, their city council approved making a bid. And then the Biel Bien Bern. region is trying to put together a joint bid. and that's where Nemo, this year's contest winner is from. So, I, I think that makes sense as a potential, bid city. we're still waiting on the final list. The bids aren't due until the end of this month, but, I believe Bazel is the only one that has actually completed all of the paperwork.

Ben 04:08

You had, uh, St. Gallen, another area in Switzerland, proposing a potential joint bid with Liechtenstein. You know, 20 minutes down the road, nice breezy walk. and the, actually we will not be bidding statement is just, was delightful to me, just like, Oh yeah, no, we don't fit, like, most of the criteria here, thank you for considering us, bye.

Mike 04:26

The full statement, like, really did actually reveal a lot of details about, like, the number of hotels that need to be available, the size of venue, and, a lot of the logistics stuff that, we enjoy nerding out about. I don't know if other people enjoy it, but, uh, yeah, like, it, it, it just seemed like, oh, this is a much bigger undertaking. Like, I, I think back to, when we talked about Mill Street, last, season, and just being like, yep, I don't think Mill Street would be able to host this year.

Ben 04:53

There is a very scrappy, let's put it on a show quality, about the Mill Street bid that I appreciate, and I appreciate about seeing the St. Gallen bid details, but yeah, they're just like, yeah, we can't, we don't have enough breakdancers to save the community center.

Mike 05:04

We don't have a big enough community center that would do this, so yeah. Well, I'm guessing Zurich will complete the bid if they've already gone through the city council route, so probably these three or four will end up being the shortlist, but we will see.

Ben 05:20

In terms of other, ducks being placed in a neat row, Switzerland has announced that Redo Peritz of SRF and Moritz Stottler of RTS will be the co managers of Eurovision 2025. Redo Peritz is a former head of delegation. He sat on the reference committee between 2019 and 2021 and has worked at SRF for over 16 years. So, you know, established hand at the broadcaster. Uh, Stottler works at the EBU. That's handy. Uh, has a background in operations in live performance broadcasting, which. A good thing to have in your back pocket.

Mike 05:49

Yeah, this team seems like a good start, to putting on next year's show. wasn't able to pull too much from their LinkedIn when I was, uh, looking at it, but, uh, but from what I could pick up, it's just like, oh yeah, these are like absolutely the sort of people that you would want to have, at the helm.

Ben 06:04

Yes, and like, I absolutely want to know just like, how many people LinkedIn told them were looking at their profile in an email. Is Everyone Still Mad at the EBU?

Mike 06:11

That's all of the 2025 stuff, that, well, I guess the positive stuff, uh, to look at. our next section, labeled in our doc as, is everyone still mad at the EBU? That answer is, maybe? Who knows? the EBU announced that there will be an independent investigation, to look into, what some are calling the unsafe working atmosphere at this year's contest. Following the complaints from at least 13 delegations, uh, which we have talked about extensively in our last five, six episodes, something like that.

Ben 06:46

theme.

Mike 06:47

Averteros, the Dutch broadcaster, indicated that they are now taking future participation under deeper consideration, and they're kind of taking a wait and see approach to make sure that, uh, structural adjustments are made, to avoid the sort of situation that happened this year. they're still, Contesting the disqualification of Yost and, uh, yeah, kind, kind of waiting to see how that part plays out before making any, participation decisions.

Ben 07:19

in terms of working atmosphere, it sounds like S10 from a couple years ago also had some issues behind the scenes. So, yeah, it feels like, particularly with Avotros, there's been some longer standing issues that this year only had to exacerbate more.

Mike 07:37

Hmm. That's a shame. Slovenia, reported that they've been invited to a meeting with an EBU, probably part of this, overall investigation process. still have not received like an itemized list of answers to the, Questions and comments that they provided, last month, to the EBU. But, I have a feeling we're going to get, at least some report or something, a press release maybe, uh, once this investigation is complete about, what sort of potential structural changes or, uh, Goals, mission statements, uh, I don't know, seven point plans, uh, I, I don't know.

I'm going, I'm going into non profit brain right

Ben 08:13

Yeah, no, we're absolutely gonna get like some sort of, some sort of like, careful PR release about all of this before next year, I'm certain.

Mike 08:21

Norway's, head of delegation Stig Carlsen has been commenting on the investigation. And, uh, yeah, he's hoping for a transparent process and he's someone who. has a lot of sway, within delegations and such. So, I would suggest keeping an eye on his socials, he is not afraid to talk about this stuff.

Ben 08:39

Nope, he is, he is, he is a good follow. But yes, in terms of, is everyone still mad at the EBU? just shaking the magic 8 ball, uh, seems unclear.

Patreon 08:47

"I Am: Celine Dion"

Ben 08:47

We're gonna be doing some more Patreon stuff this summer, some fun bonus episodes. Thank you to everybody who continues to support the show, it helps us make the show, we love your support. and we have some fun bonuses for you, coming this summer. our next AV Club topic is going to be the upcoming Celine Dion documentary, I Am Celine Dion. Which will be available on Amazon Prime starting June 25th. We'll be dropping our episode about that on July 9th. Uh, if you'd like to join, if you'd like to check those out, all of that can be found at patreon.

com slash eurowhat.

Mike 09:17

and you'll also have access to all of our previous, bonus episodes, other previous Celine Dion related episodes, the Aline one. Oh, I guess that one has been on the main feed, but yeah, if you enjoyed that episode, that's the sort of tenor that we have over on the Patreon. So, yeah, check us out. And again, thank you so much for your support. 2025 Country Count: 13 Even though there is kind of the sense of like, eh, toward the EBU at the moment, there are 13 countries that have provisionally indicated that they will be participating in the 2025 contest. Uh, since we last checked, the ones that have joined that list are Austria, Croatia, no surprise

Ben 09:54

Yep, not shocked.

Mike 09:56

Finland, uh, and they announced that UMK will be happening in February, so probably a schedule similar to, this past year's, UMK. Germany will, be coming back, but, is going to remain in charge of their entry. there was some discussion earlier this year about possibly another broadcaster taking, on the responsibility of, uh, choosing their entry, but not happening this year, probably because they did well this

Ben 10:21

They were the most shazammed song mic.

Mike 10:23

Exactly. Yes. So, like, do not doubt the power of the Shazam diaspora. I don't know. Uh,

Ben 10:31

We are legion.

Mike 10:33

Israel, Portugal, and Serbia have also indicated they will be coming back next year.

Ben 10:38

One Nation, where it's looking at least has to go through a parliamentary process. Latvia has to weigh in on its future participation. there was a petition requesting diverting the funds to sports instead. That received 11, 000 signatures, which is enough for it to go in front of parliament. The author of the initiative said, I call for Latvia's participation in Eurovision to be terminated. It is doubtful whether this event significantly contributes to the image and reputation of Latvia. People who participate there tend to behave obscenely, and this is also stated as the norm. So, okay, yeah, I'm getting a vibe from that.

Mike 11:12

Maybe they weren't a fan of Latvia's 2022 entry, like maybe, the green message was just not what they were, uh, hoping for.

Ben 11:20

Continuing on, uh, Latvia should better invest its already problematic public funding where we have clear benefits in sports. It is unacceptable for the Biathlon Federation to collect donations for the World Championship, which is definitely more important than Eurovision. Again, getting a vibe.

Mike 11:33

this just warmed my heart, uh, like back in college, uh, I was on the bowling team and it's just reminding me of the finance meetings that we would have to go to. It's like, no, we need gas money to get to these bowling tournaments. And like, that feels the same level of, uh, Biathlon Federation, uh, to me. So like,

Ben 11:52

somebody who is now part of like a very scrappy city based curling club. The, the fight is real. Mhm.

Mike 11:58

yeah. So it's just like, oh, like of all of the sports, I like, I'm just tickled by that choice. Like this one is more important than Eurovision. if that is where your passion is, I totally get it. At the same time, I'm not sure how much soft power the Biathlon Federation is able to generate the way that Eurovision does.

Ben 12:16

Yeah, well, and, I mean, I'm also just thinking, speaking of CD Zani, they just had, like, last year, they had the song that, like, went along with Latvia's basketball participation.

Mike 12:24

No, there we go.

Ben 12:25

also, all of this happened before Latvia qualified this year.

Mike 12:30

Yes, so, I'll be curious to see how that piece of it factors in, because, yeah, going back to the audience piece of it, Latvia had the biggest audience in years, probably because it's been years since they've qualified, but it was like four times the audience size of last year's contest. So, uh, yeah, we'll keep an eye on this one. I'm not expecting there to be problems, but who knows? Budgets are tight.

Ben 12:54

Maybe taking a year off is good for Latvia.

Mike 12:56

Yeah. But please don't, I love you Latvia.

Ben 12:58

but also, we love your process, please don't go away.

Mike 13:00

Other countries kind of raising budget concerns. Moldova, TRM, their broadcaster, they had to have some special meetings to discuss their Eurovision participation this year. Moldova did not qualify for the final, and the delegation spent about 25, 000 U. S. That doesn't include the part that Natalia Barbu financed herself. She covered about one third of the total cost, of Moldova participating this year. That amount may not sound like much, but it was 5 percent of TRM's total annual budget. So, can see them raising the concern, especially because cost of living crisis is real, prices are going up everywhere, and again, Olympics, that's gonna be an expensive endeavor for a lot of people.

Ben 13:51

Mm hmm. Yeah, no, it's another one where, like, I would, like, if they took a year off, I wouldn't be surprised. But again, please don't, we love your general vibe, Moldova.

Mike 13:59

yeah, yeah, that would be really sad if they did not participate, but understandable if they're unable to.

Ben 14:05

We are now in the season that everybody calls up all of the microstates to be like, Hello, Monaco! back. How are you doing? for once, it doesn't feel like the phone call has been, like, they haven't been immediately hung up on So, Kosovo has officially requested an invitation to participate, and they've been working on that since at least 2012. part of the issue with that is just international recognition of Kosovo is a whole deal. the Serbia and Kosovo relationship appears to be improving, but many countries do not recognize Kosovo on procedural grounds. Uh,

Mike 14:36

researching this and like, and a number of them are like Eurovision participating countries, and a lot of them are just like, yeah, once the un recognizes Kosovo, then we can talk. But, uh, until then, we're not gonna get in on this one.

Ben 14:49

but they have broadcast the contest since 2016, and they are going to be holding the second, RTK Festival Ikengis, submissions are underway for that, those are open to Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Albania, and the General Diaspora there, so. That's one to watch, cause like, I feel like they've tried to do Junior Eurovision, so, if they have their ducks in a row, let them do it, let's have a new nation.

Mike 15:12

like, looking at the letter that they submitted to the EBU, they were calling on like, oh, well, we, appreciate what you've done with Australia and inviting them into the contest and like, bringing up some good points being like, yeah, like, even though this is kind of an exception, you've kind of made that exception for other people? Come on, come

Ben 15:29

Yeah, like we see what you've done for others.

Mike 15:31

I'm actually really excited about RTKFIK. If anything, just to have another thing to watch in December. Just be like, oh, okay, let's see how it compares and contrast.

Ben 15:42

I'm down for watching RTKF,

Mike 15:45

And I'm also intrigued about it being open to people from Montenegro and North Macedonia and like these countries that also have not been able to participate at Eurovision for budget reasons. And I don't know, maybe in the next couple of years we will start seeing Joint bid processes or something just to help mitigate some of the costs because that's, that's going to be one of the big things I think for Eurovision to figure out. Aside from their like internal structural problems, uh, the money situation is not great.

Ben 16:14

Massachusetts does not have a state fair. It has a collective state fair with five of the other New England states called the Big E.

Mike 16:22

Oh.

Ben 16:23

everybody has their little pavilion. It's like, I'm not saying bring back Yugoslavia, but just sort of like, what if a spiritual Yugoslavia?

Mike 16:31

Yeah. Oh, we are going to get in so much trouble for that.

Ben 16:35

Yep, yep, yep, I'm gonna get yelled at for that one, and like, you know what? Fair.

Mike 16:39

Yes. Uh, yes. at Eurowhat for all of

Ben 16:41

Yes, at Eurowhat, on Blue Sky, yell at me about Yugoslavia.

Mike 16:45

Yeah. another country that is trying to get into, Eurovision's good graces, is Liechtenstein. they're coming up again. Radio Liechtenstein has applied for EBU membership, and they've stated that one of the aims of getting this membership is to participate in Eurovision. This is another country that's been trying to figure out how to do this since the 2010s, So far, no radio only broadcasters have ever participated in Eurovision, since radio is famously not known for the vision part of things.

Ben 17:18

nothing in the rulebook that says a dog can't play baseball, though.

Mike 17:20

I'm sure Radio Liechtenstein will cross that bridge when they get there. They just need to get the

Ben 17:25

That's what they feel like there are several bridges in the way, so.

Mike 17:28

Yes, yes, but Eurovision's all about building bridges. At least in 2015, that was the story.

Ben 17:35

At least that's what the press release says.

National Selection Updates 17:37

Italy, Belgium, Albania

Ben 17:37

Let's see, so we've talked about a few national selection processes, UMK is happening in February, Germany is keeping things With NDR, Italy, has a new person taking over Sanremo, Carlo Conti is returning as the host and artistic director, taking over for Amadeus. he hosted in Sanremo and will take the reins again for 2025 and 2026. His first show was Disco Ring in the mid 80s, sort of similar to Top of the Pops or an American Bandstand, I just love the name Disco Ring, that feels very Italo. Also, he has an asteroid named after him.

Mike 18:10

That was my favorite tidbit in his Wikipedia. I have no idea what the backstory is there. And like every link that I clicked to was just going to like the International Astronomers Union or something. So it was just very technical language. But yeah, there's, uh, an asteroid out there that's called Carlo Conti. So Belgium, announced that, they are going to be doing Eurosong for their 2025 selection. That's how we got Gustav, in 2023. but this year they're not going to be working with public submissions for the process. broadcaster is going to work, directly with record labels to find established artists, particularly ones that had stage experience, like live performance experience.

From what I can tell, the potential artists have been selected, and they have until September to provide songs for consideration. I think each act is being asked to provide at least two songs to choose from. So it seems like they're kind of adopting a process sort of similar to Portugal's Festival da Cancao, where they find the artists and then commission them to create the songs,

Ben 19:18

And then Albania, speaking of Festivale I Kangas original edition, has announced that Elhaid Adani, who represented them in 2015, will be this year's artistic director of the contest.

Mike 19:29

I really like this choice.

Ben 19:30

Yes. Agreed.

Mike 19:31

Her song from 2015, like, really holds up. And yeah, just looking at, the resume and the article that we'll have linked in the show notes, she's done a lot. She's won a lot of music competitions in Albania. She won the Voice of Italy. Like, she has, a lot of international appeal. Like her song, in the ESC 250, if it makes the countdown this year, it hits our iconic standards, which I think will and should happen. I'll be curious to see what her influence will be in the selections for this year's FIK, if it's going to be going in more of a pop direction.

Ben 20:02

Yeah, it's like, how does that affect the curation of the artists that get selected versus more recent years?

Mike 20:08

Yes. Although the downside being she won't get to participate in the contest. So yeah, hopefully she will compete again soon, but it won't be this year. ABBA, heard of them, they received a prestigious Swedish knighthood, in honor of their pop career, and I guess in honor of the 50th anniversary of doin somethin at Eurovision, so,

Ben 20:30

sort of number that ends in a zero. Pew pew pew. Yeah, cause like, part of me is like, okay, but you couldn't do this when they had the resurgence in the late 90s? Or the, the smash hit Mamma Mia, or the second time Mamma Mia was a smash hit, this time it's a movie with Meryl Streep. But you know what, those years didn't end in a five or a zero, so just like, no.

Mike 20:47

knows, maybe now they finally reached a point where all four of them can be in the same room, as one another, or maybe it was just a very big room, uh, but congratulations to ABBA.

Ben 20:59

Yes. In terms of Eurovision concerts that Americans can go to without international travel, Windows 95 Man has announced an American tour that will be taking place in January 2025. 25.

Mike 21:10

Oh no.

Ben 21:12

The perfect time to wear tiny shorts.

Mike 21:14

Yep. Yeah. Especially looking at the first two stops, New York and Chicago. Yeah. Have, have fun with that outfit in a Chicago winter.

Ben 21:22

I mean, if he can do that in Finland, I feel like that, like, he's, he's trained all of his life for this. he can take it, he can handle it.

Mike 21:29

That's very fair. Yes. he will be appearing in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. And Chicago date is kind of convenient, so I'm, uh, it's on my calendar. I have not made any purchases yet.

Ben 21:43

I saw the announcement and I knew in my heart when he said it was January that the New York date was going to be a a weekend I could not pop down to New York and I'm correct.

Mike 21:51

Mmm, that's a

Ben 21:52

So I need everybody to sell out that tour so that he has to come back and do more cities.

Mike 21:57

We have a link to the announcement. I don't know if there's a link to a ticket page just yet, but they do have all the venues tagged in the Instagram announcement.

Ben 22:06

Yes. And honestly, I have a hunch what the presale code is.

Mike 22:10

the question is, will it have an exclamation point or not? So,

Ben 22:16

That's gonna do it for this episode of the Eurowhat. Thanks for listening. The Eurowhat podcast is hosted by Ben Smith, that's me, and Mike McComb.

Mike 22:23

that's me. If you'd like to help support the show and access a ton of bonus content, head on over to patreon. com slash Eurowhat.

Ben 22:31

Free access to our full archive of more than 200 episodes going all the way back to the 2018 contest can be found on our website, eurowhat. com.

Mike 22:39

Next time on the Eurowhat, we take a look at Portugal's history with the contest and the 50th anniversary of the Carnation Revolution.

Ben 22:47

Pew pew pew.