First, happy Eurovision New Year. Honestly, I did not know that this was a thing, but Sept 1 marks the beginning of the new Eurovision season. Basically, any song released after Sept 1 could be a potential entry.
Since we are in the new season of ESC2023, I figure that I could write a post about the things that I want (and don't want) to see this year. Keep in mind that I NOT saying these things would make the contest better. I'm just giving an opinion of what I would like to see . . . Hey, I'm an only child, which means everything should be about me. ;)
Things that Kwame does not want to see:
Prerecorded backing vocals. I'm a little late for this one because the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) has announced that prerecorded backing vocals, which were first introduced in ESC21 because of COVID considerations, will be allowed in ESC23. I feel by allowing prerecorded backing vocals, the contest will move closer to a lipsync contest, but more about this rant in an upcoming post.
Toxicity in the fandom. Perhaps, the toxicity always was there, but ESC22 was my first time actively following the contest outside of Eurovision week. A couple of months ago, I removed myself from a Eurovision Facebook group because some folks were so nasty and so rude (as Nene Leaks would say)about not agreeing with their favorite selections. Fortunately, nothing was directed at me. Well, I don't really do the whole back and forth with strangers on social media because there are too many other things on which to focus. Actually, I probably have one foot out of the door of another group because the moderator is extremely biased towards one performer. He pretends to play it cool, but if you don't agree with his opinions about this performer, he gets caught up in his feelings. For instance, he'll make a post asking for the group's opinion about ESC2022. However, as soon as anyone says something critical (not negative) about his favorite artist, he starts spewing his vitriol and stupid GIFs. One of my pet peeves is folks asking for opinions about something and getting pissed off when it does not align with theirs. It reminds me of growing up back in the day when one had to be either Team Sega Genesis or Super Nintendo. Shoot, I'm talking about music. Ok, back in the day when it was East Coast Rappers vs West Coast Rappers, Team Christina Aguilera vs Team Britney Spears, or Team Monica vs Team Brandy. Note the 1st things that I mentioned were the things that I preferred back in the day.
A bunch of Elenis and Chanels:
Chanel's Slomo (Spain) was pretty much a game changer in terms of combining vocals (albeit with a prerecorded backing track) and intricate choreography in ESC22. Also, Eleni did something similar in ESC18. Because of Chanel’s success in ESC22, I have a feeling that many countries will send similar performances to ESC23.
Folks booing when Greece and Cyprus exchange 12 points: At this point, when it's time for Greece and Cyprus to vote, the crowd knows that they are going to give each other 12 points. Actually, it is kind of funny to hear the audience say the name of the country to which the points will go before the announcer even says it.
I understand that folks get annoyed with this exchange of votes (or block voting), but you do not hear as many negative responses when other countries give points to their "cousins" (eg many Scandinavian countries).
Things that Kwame wants to see:
More official languages: I get that singing in English is an easy way to increase the popularity and or accessibility of a song. However, one of the reasons that I flocked to this contest was the opportunity to hear more diverse music in different languages. Now, I'm not saying that EBU should reinstate the rule that submitted songs must be in an official language of the country. However, I would not mind seeing (or hearing) more songs performed in a non-English language or a combination of English and another language.
Engaging video postcards: Before the performers do their thing on the stage, a brief video postcard is shown featuring the performers in various locations of the hosting country. In particular, I enjoy the ones where they are engaging with the citizens of the hosting country. Here's an example of Albania’s ESC18 video postcard.
Unfortunately, we had virtual postcards due to the pandemic for the last two contests so I hope that ESC can return to using the “normal” postcards.
LOL. In some years, the performers are doing some sort of activity like rollerskating, rock climbing, or scuba diving. I wonder how they select the activities for the performers. I tell you this, I would be so pissed off if I had to do something like weaving a rug and learn that other folks were doing really adventurous things like hang gliding, ziplining, or parasailing.
Consideration for the mental health of the performers: I hope that EBU mandates that each delegation has at least one mental health professional on the team. It's probably a lot for an artist (especially a new one) to handle singing on an international stage as the sole representative of their country in this contest. In last year's contest, we saw the spirit of Ronela (the Albanian contestant) fade over the course of the preseason and the week leading up to ESC22. In this case, several people in the fandom heavily criticized her costume selections, weight, and vocal abilities. Unfortunately, she made it worse because she often responded to the comments on social media, which can be taxing on a performer to constantly defend themself. That said, I think she handled it well considering what she was up against.
What she wore which caused some controversy (left, Image courtesy of Wiwiblogs) and her cheeky response (right, Image courtesy of Politiko)
Continued success for the UK and Spain: ESC22 marked a great year for these two Big Five countries with the UK coming in 2nd place and Spain coming in 3rd place. It has been implied that Spain would have come in 2nd place had it not been for the jury voting scandal involving Azerbaijan, Georgia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, and San Marino. Until ESC22, these countries cracked the top 10 in:
2014 - Spain (Ruth Lorenzo's Dancing in the Rain, 10th place)
2009 - the UK (Jade Ewan's It's My Time, 5th place)
Could this be a new era for these two Big Five countries?
Lorenzo’s Dancing in the Rain probably is one of my favorite ESC songs. See . . . to my earlier point, the song contains both English and Spanish.
A nice contest with a balanced mix of the UK and Ukraine: While Ukraine won last year's contest, the UK will host this year's contest because of the ongoing conflict between Ukraine and Russia. Please let this war come to an end very soon. I hope there will be a nice balance between the two countries in their hosting roles. I have a feeling that everything will be ok regarding the shared hosting responsibilities. Perhaps, this year's contest could have four hosts - two from the UK and two from Ukraine. If there is an even number of countries in this year's contest, there could be a 1:1 ratio between UK-based and Ukraine-based video postcards.
El Fin . . . for now.
