[Discussion & Betting] Eurovision Song Contest 2020 - CANCELLED

[FatFork]

What? Where have you seen that please? Do you have a link about that?
They could easily organize it without public or very few public. Eurovision doesn't need all this public and journalists. It's a TV show.

I'm just saying that there are currently concerns that the ESC might actually be canceled. Information about this can be read on various Dutch media portals.
The reason: An employee of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) tested positive for the corona virus in Geneva last week.

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[Saint-loup]

What? Where have you seen that please? Do you have a link about that?
They could easily organize it without public or very few public. Eurovision doesn't need all this public and journalists. It's a TV show.

I'm just saying that there are currently concerns that the ESC might actually be canceled. Information about this can be read on various Dutch media portals.
The reason: An employee of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) tested positive for the corona virus in Geneva last week.

No matter if it's in dutch language, Google or other automatic translators translate dutch very well. But it's better to provide links for this kind of news. It's important, it would be a huge news, a sad one nevertheless.

[tyKiwanuka]

So here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_dWvTCdDQ4

I would have expected a little bit more tbh. Stage performance will be something to watch out for, but the song itself, hmm. Odds have gone up a bit. Already 150k+ views 38 minutes after the video was uploaded is huge though.

We finally have all songs now

[mu_enrico]

So here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_dWvTCdDQ4

Russian? Are you sure? It tastes like latin american music

I've updated my basket playlist:
- Italy
- Germany
- Albania -> the English version isn't as emotional as the original, but her live performance might be interesting to see.
- Austria
- Lithuania

[tyKiwanuka]

Russian? Are you sure? It tastes like latin american music

It's definitely a very special and unique song and has over 6mln views within 24 hours

Eurovision Youtube Channel has added official videos for all countries except Albania now, which still only has a version with lyrics; guess they are still producing something after changing/modifying the song. Here is a video with a short summary of all songs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkUbBsdwQvU

Here are some stats from Youtube ESC channel with views, up- and downvotes. Those Russia numbers are insane, but is has to be taken into account, that people watch their own entry the most. Lithuania and Georgia have best up-/downvote ratio and Czech Republic the worst.



Here are the odds as of March 13th 2020, taken from Bet365:



If you want to bet on some underdog, you will find way better odds elsewhere (Slovenia @760 f.e.). Quite some discrepancies sometimes between the Youtube numbers and the odds - thats the hard thing to figure out when betting. And Youtube isn't of course the only source you should look at. It just gives an idea, but more research has to be done before placing bets.

[Saint-loup]

So here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_dWvTCdDQ4

I would have expected a little bit more tbh. Stage performance will be something to watch out for, but the song itself, hmm. Odds have gone up a bit. Already 150k+ views 38 minutes after the video was uploaded is huge though.

We finally have all songs now

TYVM. Well it's funny but I won't vote for it, for sure. And I feel I won't be alone.
It's a risky venture from Russia.

[tyKiwanuka]

So, I have gone through the recap of all songs and here is my Top5 so far (subject to change of course):

Bulgaria
Lithuania
Ireland (sounds way worse live though)
Belgium
Sweden

And my bottom 5:

Czech Republic
Cyprus
San Marino
Latvia
Ukraine

-

Iceland I still don't like, but think it's a song that fits ESC-style very well. Same goes for Russia - they are breaking all records view-wise.

I am amazed that Switzerland seems to be very well liked, also it being non-english. If it was in english, it probably would be huge favourite, but I can't stand that song

[efialtis]

Eurovision used to be one of the most anticipated yearly events in Greece for a long time and media as well as the whole country were debating for weeks (before and after the event). Not as popular nowadays, well, I found some time to check out "our" Stefania - I actually like the song, the chorus sounds quite nice. "Supergirl" is of course nothing special but its actually a song that could be played in radios/clubs and ppl wouldnt mind. Oh and Stefania is sweet with her sweet 17 years, bright future I´d say!

Didnt do a cross check regarding odds but bwin is paying ~67 for Greece - Whaaaaaat is wrong with everybody!  

This is Stefania "performing" at the Greek Video Music Awards: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slKVk32bye4 - big time playback but thats the case with all performances there.

Nb. No I am not biased of course, never am...  

[tyKiwanuka]

Eurovision used to be one of the most anticipated yearly events in Greece for a long time and media as well as the whole country were debating for weeks (before and after the event). Not as popular nowadays, well (...)

I think this is the same in every country. You have a hardcore community, that can't wait for May every year and then you have some hype in different countries, which have good songs for that year and where people are anticipating a good result. I remember the Lena-hype in Germany in 2010, when everyone was going crazy and that poor girl was all over the media. Nowadays there is very little hype, because people already expect Germany to finish outside Top20 due to not being able to send/select good entries to ESC (for whatever reasons).

I can imagine there being some hype in for example Lithuania (@LTU_btc may confirm), Bulgaria, Iceland, Russia etc. for this year, but outside of the hardcore fans, people in countries like Czech Republic, Slovenia, Austria couldn't care less I think.

In general the quality is very poor me thinks. 95% of songs will be forgotten the day after and you rarely have some more well known artists participating. These artists know, how hard it is to get a good result at ESC and it's not worth the risk for them. It can kick-start your career, but for an established artist it's not very appealing to participate. Thus the often poor quality.

But for betting purposes, this is still a great event

[tyKiwanuka]

Eurovision Song Contest 2020 has been cancelled.

This is really early tbh, still two months to go. And I think being mainly a TV event, the EBU could have come up with some other format or ideas, where a live performance isn't necessary, but people still can vote for their favourite song. Anyway, what can you do

Lets see, if some countries will send the same entry next year. Monitoring the odds, some countries might think twice about that

[LTU_btc]

Eurovision Song Contest 2020 has been cancelled.

This is really early tbh, still two months to go. And I think being mainly a TV event, the EBU could have come up with some other format or ideas, where a live performance isn't necessary, but people still can vote for their favourite song. Anyway, what can you do

Lets see, if some countries will send the same entry next year. Monitoring the odds, some countries might think twice about that

And the winner of Eurovision 2020 is COVID-19... But I don't understand why they can't make Eurovision later this year, in September for example. It's not football championship with very intensive calendar.
It's interesting what will happen next year - will we see performance of singers who have been already selected this year, or there will be new national selections.

[FatFork]

As could be expected, the ESC 2020 is canceled due to coronavirus pandemic. It is the first time the event has been canceled since it started 64 years ago.
It is expected that all this year’s candidates will be invited to take part again, however, it is unclear whether the same songs will be admissible.

The following is from European Broadcasting Union, EBU:

Why not postpone the event?
– The current situation across Europe is likely to remain uncertain for the coming months and at this stage we cannot guarantee we would be able to stage an event of this size with this many stakeholders later this year. A Contest later in the year would also reduce the amount of time the winning broadcaster would have to prepare for the following year’s competition.

Could you not have held the contest without an audience?
– We are carefully following the advice of the relevant authorities to protect the health and wellbeing of all citizens. Dutch restrictions on gatherings of large numbers of people and international travel restrictions mean that holding the event, even without an audience, is impossible at this time.

Why couldn’t you have held the show remotely?
– It’s in the DNA of the Eurovision Song Contest to bring delegations, artists and fans together in one place and provide an equal platform for all artists to compete together on the same stage and the same opportunity to shine. We felt that under the extreme circumstances we face this year, organizing the Eurovision Song Contest in another way would not be in keeping with our values and the tradition of the event.

The unique format of the Song Contest as an international live event means that it is not possible to identify any realistic alternative. We therefore have no choice other than to cancel the show.

Will the selected artists be able to perform their songs next year?
– This is to be discussed with the Reference Group and the participating broadcasters and a decision will be communicated later.

Do we have a date for next year’s Contest?
– The EBU, NPO, NOS, AVROTROS and the City of Rotterdam are continuing their conversation regarding the potential hosting of the Contest in 2021. It is currently too early to discuss any specifics regarding the event next year.

source: https://eurovisionworld.com/esc/eurovision-2020-is-cancelled

[mu_enrico]

Damn this virus!

I don't understand why they can't make Eurovision later this year, in September for example.

Based on FAQ, they predict this situation would take months to resolve and could make the next year participants have less time to prepare, lame excuses IMO.

It's interesting what will happen next year - will we see performance of singers who have been already selected this year, or there will be new national selections.

Yeah, this year participants' effort will be meaningless if they couldn't compete. Moreover, the FAQ also didn't come to a clear conclusion.

FAQ >> https://eurovision.tv/official-ebu-statement-and-faq-eurovision-song-contest-2020-cancellation

[tyKiwanuka]

Although ESC is cancelled, I still checked the views on Youtube some days later now. Mainly because those numbers from Russia are crazy:



35,000,000+ views for Russia Huge change for Armenia and Italy is partly due to the videos being uploaded only recently. Czech Republic had a new video uploaded just 2 days ago, thus the low change. We can see Iceland and Azerbaijan doing really good.


Though we will have no winner for this years ESC, I will declare the unofficial winner now, by putting the number of views in relation to the population:



And the winner is: San Marino, Congratulations !


I traded a bit on the ESC market already, mainly with Sweden and Russia, and was sitting at a loss there. With the cancellation of ESC, the market was of course voided and I got my money back - lucky me

[Saint-loup]

I traded a bit on the ESC market already, mainly with Sweden and Russia, and was sitting at a loss there. With the cancellation of ESC, the market was of course voided and I got my money back - lucky me

Lucky guy LOL
Well I don't understand why they don't organize a mini Eurovision on internet.
People and jury would just vote for the videos they liked the most.
Cancelling all the event isn't respectful for the artists neither for the public.

[tyKiwanuka]

Well I don't understand why they don't organize a mini Eurovision on internet.

Agreed. It would really be easy to setup, but from those FAQ's you can already see there being no chance at all due to it being against the DNA of it. It is against the DNA, yes, but this is a special situation, where EBU and other involved parties could just adapt to also value the efforts of all the artists. They also need to make some money, so why not give them a reduced platform to present their songs.

If Europe is still in Corona lockdown by May, such an Online-ESC would get huge exposure. Everyone sitting at home, being tired of watching Netflix and having arguments with their wives, the ESC would present a nice change and would get them a lot of first time viewers imo. And just imagine all those desperate betting people. They would finally have something to bet on again. Volumes in the ESC markets would explode

Otoh, if the situation gets really bad with very high fatalities, a fun show like the ESC is probably not the right thing to do. Would be disrespectful. Not easy to make decisions in these times.

[Saint-loup]

Well I don't understand why they don't organize a mini Eurovision on internet.

Agreed. It would really be easy to setup, but from those FAQ's you can already see there being no chance at all due to it being against the DNA of it. It is against the DNA, yes, but this is a special situation, where EBU and other involved parties could just adapt to also value the efforts of all the artists. They also need to make some money, so why not give them a reduced platform to present their songs.

If Europe is still in Corona lockdown by May, such an Online-ESC would get huge exposure. Everyone sitting at home, being tired of watching Netflix and having arguments with their wives, the ESC would present a nice change and would get them a lot of first time viewers imo. And just imagine all those desperate betting people. They would finally have something to bet on again. Volumes in the ESC markets would explode

Otoh, if the situation gets really bad with very high fatalities, a fun show like the ESC is probably not the right thing to do. Would be disrespectful. Not easy to make decisions in these times.

Yes I agree
But does anyone know if candidates from this year will be allowed to participate in 2021? Or all countries will have to chose another song and singer to participate?

[tyKiwanuka]

This was posted above:

Will the selected artists be able to perform their songs next year?
– This is to be discussed with the Reference Group and the participating broadcasters and a decision will be communicated later.

source: https://eurovisionworld.com/esc/eurovision-2020-is-cancelled

I think it would only be fair, to give the participants a "free entry" for next years edition. But then again, as I wrote above, some countries might think twice about that I am sure the domestic people in charge checked the international feedback - and maybe even the betting odds - for their entries and might come to the conclusion, to have a new national selection process.

[LTU_btc]

This year's song will be not eligible in Eurovision 2021:
https://eurovision.tv/story/intention-to-honour-eurovision-2020-songs-artists
That moment when my country first time in the history had chance to win Eurovision, they cancel whole event ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
EBU are planning to make alternative programme, but it won't be a competition.

[tyKiwanuka]

That moment when my country first time in the history had chance to win Eurovision, they cancel whole event ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Yes, pretty bad. Bulgaria must be in tears too. But you always have chances to win ESC, they are just not that the same every year I think Lithuania would have come up short and since second place is already the first loser, the cancellation probably saved you some pains.

This year's song will be not eligible in Eurovision 2021:
https://eurovision.tv/story/intention-to-honour-eurovision-2020-songs-artists

Strange decision/rule. In the article you mentioned it says:

At their discretion, Participating Broadcasters may decide which artist(s) to send in 2021, either this year’s representative or a new one.

Source: https://eurovision.tv/story/intention-to-honour-eurovision-2020-songs-artists

To my knowledge, you can send the same artist multiple years anyway, so this is all a bit pointless and I don't get the idea behind it, to not allow the songs for next year. Guess there is some rule, that a song must be new and not older than X months. 

EBU are planning to make alternative programme, but it won't be a competition.

Lets see, what they come up with. But without some kind of competition, this doesn't look very attractive to me, since most of the songs are pretty garbage. And those that I like a bit, I can just watch/hear on Youtube