Eurovision: What were your top 3?

[Nemo1024]

It not a secret that Eurovision is a highly political event, where the quality of the song does not play any role. The fact that Germany did not give a single point to Russia, despite a dedicated and large Russian-speaking community, and general Russian-friendly public is telling. 

If not for politics, the songs from which countries would have you selected?

I would have chosen:
1. Russia (wonderful voices, song text and strong performance)
2. Belgium (didn't make the finals, very good words and professional voice)
3. Austria (not for the beard, the voice is good )

[Balthazar]

1. Nobody
2. Nobody
3. Nobody

[bryant.coleman]

1. Tolmachevy Sisters - Shine
2. Mariya Yaremchuk - Tick-Tock
3. Aram MP3 - Not Alone

But seriously, should this be in the Politics section? 

[Nemo1024]

I was making a statement by placing it in Politics.
Interestingly, lack of interest in this topic is an indicator all of its own.

[bryant.coleman]

I was making a statement by placing it in Politics.

I agree with that statement. Nowadays, the Eurovision contest has become a venue to show off your political positions. And the less said about the voting, that much better.

[polunna]

1. Tolmachevy Sisters - Shine
2. Mariya Yaremchuk - Tick-Tock
3. Aram MP3 - Not Alone

But seriously, should this be in the Politics section? 

I was surprised too!  
If we talk about politics, I was surprised that the competitor from Ukraine took part in the Eurovision Song Contest. The state allocated funds for her performance or she paid by herself?

[herzmeister]

The state allocated funds for her performance or she paid by herself?

hmmm, record company, probably

[bitgeek]

Eurovision is so fake that it isnt even funny anymore. They give 50% points to the public and 50% to a puppet jury that does as they are told, so even if you have a good song but aren't supposed to win, you won't. Just look at the spread between people's votes and the jury in some cases.

[bryant.coleman]

Eurovision is so fake that it isnt even funny anymore. They give 50% points to the public and 50% to a puppet jury that does as they are told, so even if you have a good song but aren't supposed to win, you won't. Just look at the spread between people's votes and the jury in some cases.

And who decides on the selection of the jury members? Do the hosting nation has 100% of the powers, or is it split among all the participating nations? For the past 2-3 editions, the jury voting has been nothing short of biased.

[Nemo1024]

Well, Serbia refused to participate this year, and I hope other East-European countries will follow suite.

I agree that the few talented performers who do end up participating are wasting their efforts. And now, with the semi-final model, they often don't make the final, which makes the rigged system even more obvious.

[u9y42]

I think I only ever saw this stuff once in my entire life, some decades ago, and that was enough. How can there still be people that waste time with stuff like this?

[lovegood]

1. Tolmachevy Sisters - Shine
2. Mariya Yaremchuk - Tick-Tock
3. Aram MP3 - Not Alone

But seriously, should this be in the Politics section? 

 I have the same list, but the rewards are distributed differently

1. Aram MP3 - Not Alone
2. Tolmachevy Sisters - Shine
3. Mariya Yaremchuk - Tick-Tock

 

[alani123]

But seriously, should this be in the Politics section?  

Oh you have no idea. Or maybe you do, but if it's not obvious enough to you, eurovision is not just a song contest.

Founded in 1956 by the European Broadcasting Union it was meant to be a fest to bring peoples together and bring unity to the nations.

Many things have changed from then. In many cases countries have used the Song contest to promote diplomatic causes or pass messages to the masses. Other countries have been using it as a good publicity stunt for the eyes of the masses.
But it gets worse than that, rumors have surfaced that this years votes were totally rigged to promote Austria's song. And this is not a personal opinion of mine, I personaly have no problem with homosexuality but it was quite obvius that there was something fishy this year. If you watched the contest yourself you would notice that the announcers were constantly mentioning the phrase "Austria's entry is here to pass a message" you could even hear them say that before they started receiving the rain of votes. It was like they were told to do so, I even thaught the announcers themselves might wanted to sound as it was forced. What is this message? The European Human Rights Court has been putting fines of millions to countries that don't comply to the pro LGBT laws set by the Europian Union that apply for every member regardless of tradition or special conditions to each country.

[Snorek]

My number one on Eurovision was Lordi in 2006
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAh9NRGNhUU
And they won

[sana8410]

Eurovision is so fake that it isnt even funny anymore. They give 50% points to the public and 50% to a puppet jury that does as they are told, so even if you have a good song but aren't supposed to win, you won't. Just look at the spread between people's votes and the jury in some cases.

Eurovision is a joke . First of all the voting is so predictable is ridiculous.. Mother Russia and all the former Yugoslavia countries voting for each other even if they the songs are horrible (almost every year they are). .. the only reason to watch eurovision is to laugh at the songs that sound like someone being stabbed but when the voting starts you are like kill me now..

[ViewSonic]

Lovely bearded woman took for me all the first three places. And my heart of course

[Nemo1024]

@sana8410: Don't forget the Scandinavian countries too. It's really funny listening to the commentators here, speaking about customary points coming in. 

As for the bearded lady. It could have hardly chosen a better name. Just replace "t" with "n" in its name, and you'll get the Russian word for "demise" / "death".

[Modus_operandi]

Is Conchita Wurst a bitcoin enthusiast? ^^

[Chrithu]

I agree it was a political statement. But as was mentioned the voting process is so fucked up and rigged that I believe this will bring more harm than good for the homosexuality movement.

If this was a clean contest solely and provable based on the vote of the callers, then this could at least count as a clear statement of the western European countries towards the handling of homosexuality in some eastern European countries.

But as it is everyone against homosexuality will use it as an example of their weird ignorant theories of how there is some "homosexual conspiracy" in the works.

To answer the opening post: I haven't seen them all but I would have voted for sweden, germany and belgium.

Form a pure music point of view Germany's chance would have been much higher with Elaiza's other song that they proposed in the German predecision. It had a much more friendly rythm that went into the ear right away, better text and overall was a much happier song.

[Balthazar]

1. Turchinov
2. Yatsenjuk
3. Tyahnybok