Video

Crazy how much you are surprised about Germany „not even being bottom 5 with the televote“ 😂 I always thought that our song & singer were not THAT bad … and for sure not the only radiofriendly song in the contest. I was quite angry about all the contempt shown in the bubble but then I found it more important that Isaak is such a real person and not pretending to be anybody else. I really love that…. in every context. To me SHOW rather means: Show who you are instead of show a construction. 🤷‍♀️

I get zionist vibes from you, you said 'solidarity votes for israel' - what the fuck does it mean. This shit country does mass genocide now

Thanks for the HRT comments, all well deserved. Total corruption. We are proud of Baby Lasagna in all possible ways. From making the song, performing and for his personality during the whole journey. He represented Croatia in the best light possible. It is a shame that his Cinderella story didn’t have the fairy tail ending it deserved. Also if he had 9 points more with the jury he would be 2nd in the jury, 1st in the televote, best feedback from the crowd in the arena and still loose to someone that was only 5th in the televote. Also he was deprived from any national or gender politics, he was truly “neutral” in those fields, meaning it was pure vibes and focus on the song. His journey started with difficulties due corrupt judges and ended with, can’t say corrupt judges, but i would use judges with too much power considering the winner was only 5th in the televote. Nemo was great, seemed really nice in a lot of videos, deserves all the praise, but in my opinion, because of the whole shit show and controversy this year, the ESC missed the opportunity of a lifetime to have a winner that would be a real life fairytale and serve as an inspiration to all future artists. No matter what backwater village your are from, no matter how bad your country does in the ESC, no matter how corrupt the judges are, with hard work, even if you write your own song alone in your basement, with a nonexistent budget, don’t cater to popular subjects, you can still win if your song reaches the people. P.S. i am from Zadar, Croatia, hometown of the group “Riva” that won eurovision in 1989 back when we were part of Yugoslavia.

"anti-booing technology"...... does the EBU still deny using this? We all know it exists, and it's bizarre that people just nod and move on.

I appreciate your stand on Israel Tom. You are a man of integrity and fairness. However I have to say for a balanced view that Eden should be commended for an amazing performance under extreme toxic conditions. A 20 year old woman could easily have buckled under such intense pressure. I feel so sorry for her as it must have been an awful Eurovision experience. I hate what's going on in Gaza but I don't hold Eden responsible and wouldn't have booed or jeered. I'm sorry but that was disgusting and bullying. I cannot understand how someone cannot separate an innocent artist from their government.

Who won? A biological man with a skirt who insisted to be called “They” you must be kidding

Baby Lasagna

I really liked the Norwegian song, but I can understand why people might not like it. I think one of the problems was that there were a lot of good songs this year + some countries always vote for each other which pumps them up a bit. Think that's why Germany got last place in 2023 as well.

Thank You Tom for all the good, balanced and clever analyze of this years very caotic ESC!! And SO happy Ireland is back on track! Also support your take on the "Israeli situation". Love from Norway

Great analysis once again! By the way, I heard rumors that Bambie had collaborated with Blind Channel, and something’s coming out soon. Excited about that. Regarding this year’s Eurovision, I’m just happy it’s over.

It was reported that the Deal was made Final in the End of January, so I hope the good results won't undo the deal and MDR really takes over from NDR. As MDR is more in the world of Music than NDR.

You are for a peaceful and diplomatic solution with a death cult that took hostages, raped and murdered people at a peaceful music festival (not so different from the ESC) and that throws LGBTQ people (not so unimportant for the ESC) from rooftops?..better not to get into politics at all if you understand so little of it..

Did you see the signed performance of Rim Tim on the bbc - the woman deserves recognition - she is amazing

20:36 just don’t let Isabella Kearney in

For a girly bop to come top 3, it really needs to be elevated by lots of epic, professional dancing from the lead singer (not just good dancing, like Austria and Georgia this year, I'm talking professional level, where the lead is basically outdancing the back up dancers). Lots of sparkles/glitter also helps. And finally, the camera work needs to really emphasise the dancing with fun, creative cuts and angles, like in K-pop, for example. Because they tend to be inherently generic, girly bops have a bit of an uphill battle to stand out. Just some fun lighting and a beautiful singer just isn't enough to elevate the song the same way as, if the genre and song were more niche (eg. Armenia this year).

You’re very handsome. Do you like Puerto Rican women or men?

Ireland / Bambie Thug was an absolute standout performance not just in 2024 but in Eurovision history. Artistically, theatrically, technically (the candelabra moving up and down creating different optics from above), vocally, and the little details - when the camera focused on Bambie’s eyes through the candles - incredible and a well deserved result.

Production-wise Semifinal 2 was my high point - I really enjoyed the "We love Eurovision too much" with the interlude with Käärijä und the Moomins. I'm still a bit surprised that they thought that an ABBA projection was going to top that. Loreen was good, but for entertaining value I wished they incorporated more into the show instead of just let her sing one song.

As a German in the US for the first time i skipped watching this years show. I really loved Isaaks song and didn't want to get disappointed seeing it in last place. I am so so happy for his 12th place and very pleased with the whole outcome. Nemo was just perfect, the variations in they're voice, the song and the staging . Well done

Norwegian thoughts: If MGP is in trouble this year it’s probably more due to politics than results. Stig Karlsen has already admitted it’s harder to get artists to join his songwriting camps after all the controversy. There was also a relatively big boycott here, Norway had its lowest ESC viewership since 1993. It doesn’t help that Alessandra, Ulrikke, Tix AND Subwoolfer (all our previous winners this decade) all spoke out against Israel’s participation. If the quality of MGP is noticeably lower next year, it’ll be due to that air of disrepute. Many Norwegians are very angry that Norway was even still participating with Israel there. I don't think that will change, but I think it'll be very hard to get bigger names attached. Speaking more objectively about just results: Norwegian ESC superfans are definitely going to push for us to send something like Keiino next year, but at the end of the day, MGP is MGP and it’s unpredictable. Superfans don’t decide it. Norwegians like our variety and NRK does too, they’re going to throw a bunch of different genres out there like usual and whatever has the broadest appeal will take it. Probably not a rock entry, but I don’t think it’s out of the question for us to send something different again someday, lots of people are super proud of this. Personally I thought the staging was a bit weaker at Esc, they made it a bit too bright and the laser no longer created that beautiful enclosed space. The whole water/waves LED just wasn’t the right vibe. But I appreciate is trying new things. We have a super dedicated new stage director for MGP, new this year and got basically only positive feedback, so she’s probably staying.

I hope the Netherlands skip next year the Eurovision FREEJOOST czcams.com/video/h9I1hJbI_kE/video.htmlsi=fbF0n4wctZTgTuV5 00:20

Your commentary is always one of the most impressive. I'm appreciate your hard work and I hope more folks will support you on Patreon to be a full-time creator and eventually being part of the Irish delegation and ultimately head of the EBU!😂 Seriously, your work is fantastic. Keep it up. ❤

Just wanted to mention Tom before I head, if Healy who I don't know deserves any praise, he also deserves the same scorn I've afforded the Irish team since Ryan Dolan. Hundreds of millions of euro down the drain sending very mediocre, to totally rubbish entries and I have it on very good authority that certain people just went all through those years especially with our sluggish economy where us Irish looney fans just had to put up with this nonsense and rte corruption (assuming people in the team did little work just to go abroad for ESC, drink champagne and clearly not qualify) also you can see the issues in the confusing confidence certain acts had especially ESC 2021. Friends of mine went to school with Lesley and all the while that year I was left aghast at how confident the Irish team were for a chaotic and messy entry which eventually came last in the semi final. I am optimistic, but perhaps more realistic than some here at home, Bambie is the one as well as obviously those who did staging I'd praise... rte is a corrupt and obsolete broadcaster that gaslights the Irish people. ps Greece got 8th in 2022, not 10th. I was so happy it was saved by the juries, an excellent song

As soon as you mentioned the friend of a friend situation in the Croatian selection it just reminded me of how Ireland is still ran politically today. Makes me absolutely sick, anyway Im sure you probably work abroad.

Gutted for Norway and Slovenia (won clearly won the mini-battle with Belgium). Georgia came with an Azerbaijan kind of song, while Azerbaijan came with a Georgia kind of song for the second year in a row. I am quite happy that interchangeable bops didn't really perform well, however if the contest is flooded with special songs some will lose out like Norway and Slovenia whilst others stand out such as Ireland and Croatia and Switzerland. I had this idea that Joost's televote would mostly be based on support from the North and West, while Croatia's support would mostly come from South and East. Unfortunately we couldn't quite test it in the final. Overall I am glad to see that most people are happy with their own entry in the final and are at peace with the results (except the Dutch)

Nemo scored joint 4th in the televote. First winner since Duncan laurence not to get top 3 in the televote, I believe Im not certain Keep up the videos though! 😍 I love how you feel so passionately for Switzerland 2020 whereas when he returned during the covid, I actually preferred Tout l'univers and its staging too. But France was my 2021 winner,

Clearly the 'female employee' as has now come across behind the scenes did not act professionally or appropriately in attempting to annoy and irritate Joost klein by way of her refusal to stop filming him and so the EBU mentioned female in order to make it more shocking as a narrative. Shameful

I do think the Ukrainian performance was great but based on how everything went with Netherlands being dq'd a lot of votes overall got funneled to specific artists for different reasons, it kinda dirtied the whole televote process, I feel like Joost would've shared quite a bit of the load when it comes to televote with Croatia and if Ukraine and Israel didn't get that insane amount of votes that felt quite off as they were good songs but not deserving of their televotes the overall competition could've been closer and more interesting with 3 horses, 2 televote monsters and 1 jury favourite. (my favourite being Switzerland)

Please Tom, give us link, where we can see all televoting results of the first and second Semi-Finals, please!!!🙏🙏🙏

The video has so many references to things, a lot to his childhood, but also things like the scooter dude with the red helmet white star; this is the flag from Maastricht, which where the modern EU is created His suit in in the color ‘International Klein Blue’ which is very fitting

I think Alyona does fit very well as support in the Jerry sections, and the rap section is also great The CZcams Alyona Alyona has an music video with the lyrics addes in English text

The current theory is that Joost got the DQ so easily because they wanted to distract from all the issues within the delegation bubble. For reasons they might not have been able/willing to deal with those directly. It is also known now that multiple countries filed an official complaint about it, including NL, before the DQ. Oh and the team from NL tried to reach out, but they refused everything and gave the DQ anyway Thanks to the investigation ongoing at the time of the jury show, and him not performing live, the jury might have gone lower with their ratings towards NL

Music wise, i really love this year. I think an reason why some good songs performed so badly is because there are so many good options to vote on this time

I don’t know if anyone else thinks this, but with the limited information we still have, a part of me thinks that the employee who made the complaint about Joost was either told to do it by ebu higher ups, or they did this on their own, but either way they may have done it with full knowledge that a police report would knock him out of the competition based on the rules.

I'm all over your Badger RTÉ campaign Tom......keep us posted!!!!!

do you remember how montaigne didn’t perform on stage but rather in some sort of a warehouse and got like 4 points? i think same happened to olly: even though the staging was stunning, it just didn’t resonate with viewers, it looked quite chamber-ish, that was what might’ve pushed the viewers away. with gåte, well, it looks like the fulenn/eaea curse continues (something i didn’t want to believe myself, and you didn’t believe it too when i pointed it out in particular when your reaction video came out) and each year they get less and less points… i think part of the reason why it didn’t do as well was the sound and absence of graphics from MGP. really, on MGP the vocals were sharp (in a good way), on eurovision it all was too smooth, no ‘wow’ effect, if you ask me (norway is my no.1, at least was throughout the whole season) gunnhild just didn’t give out all of her power vocally

I am pleased with the result despite I rooted Croatia to win. I think the organization did their best. At the grand final I enjoyed the most all those national performances 🥰The show it self had too much consistence of omnipotence winning a lot. I mean flat, too much irony towards others and history to my taste, even I like the host Petra Mede. Overall united by music or any other theme should be considered better before 2025 ( By EBU ?)

Thank you ESC Tom for rational and at the same time passionate analysis of what was going on.

Thanks!

Tom, would you consider doing an overall video: how you found Euro Village (did you see Käärijä gig? Over the Water choir), Euro Club (did many artists show up? is it worth buying a ticket for it in the future), Euro Street, Malmö in general, Joosts absence potential affects on Croatia vote, your general sense of the week, thoughts on the year ahead and changes that could/should be made. “Just” a broad view. Great videos. Was looking forward to this one dropping. I really enjoyed the couple of days up there.

Doesn’t Ukraine misusing the contest as a soft power tool? If we are not covering Israeli entry because of the way they treat the contest, we shouldn’t cover Ukrainian one neither

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Slimane, tu nous a émus retournés ,éblouis ,on t’aime ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

If there would be a contest with channels having youtube reaction video's @escTom would definitely get my 12 points. Love the analysis parts, must be a lot of behind the screen energy into compiling data and analyzing them before being able to present it in a video. 🙌👏

Being Swedish, I want us to get another win soon to beat Ireland's record. But if Ireland want to actually put up a fight (unlike what they've been doing recently), I'm all for it. Bambie was my favourite this year, and I hope Ireland will continue sending great songs. Maybe it will inspire us to actually send something interesting as well! I also have to say something regarding Norway, who was my second favourite this year. It's so funny to me that people are always saying to send something "ethnic" and to showcase your national identity, but when you actually do they complain that it's too "weird" or "out there". The singing is an old Scandinavian style that was traditionally sung by women when herding the cows. It's meant to pierce through the ambience and echo through the mountains and forests (if you search "Kulning" on here you'll find some cool examples). So I get that it's a little grating, but I think that makes it a perfect fit to combine with metal (which of course is also very popular in Scandinavia). Being Scandinavian and having been involved a little bit with folk music, I guess I've just gotten used to it? Because I thought it sounded absolutely beautiful and combined with the more modern sounds created an amazing entry for Eurovision. Alright, that's my rant done. Go back to enjoying your day!

Some Australians acted a bit like the British this year saying we shouldn’t bother anymore which was disappointing to me. We’ve sent some really good entries and despite not making it to the grand final, ratings were really good. (context: Australian tv ratings methodology changed compared to last year so hard to compare apples with apples)

Just an update. In the UK charts Nemo has hit number 18. Croatia is 37 and Netherlands 38. Olly is a disappointing 48. I think Bambie Thug is 60 something and Ukraine 100. Just incase you are interested.

I'm a massive fan of Israel's song and artist but I think the EBU were aware of his intense dislike to the Israeli delegates. He even interrupted an interview with Eden and the press when she was asked about something particularly sensitive. The advisor next to her said you shouldn't answer that question to which Joost chipped in...why not. My point is that the EBU were looking for anything to get rid of him. It's very possible that the producers were deliberately targeting him. He's naturally outspoken anyway so it didn't take much to push him into making some kind of misjudged action. By the way Tom. You are absolutely spot on with your analysis of the final. It was so underwhelming. The interval acts were flat and boring and the ABBA section just embarrassing. Are you telling me they couldn't find the time to do a five minute piece to camera. Really disappointed with that effort. I think Liverpool put on a better final which is surprising considering the powerhouse that is Sweden.

Thank you for your stance regarding Israel, I thought I was going insane when Eurovision channels condemned anyone criticising Israel. Song was decent, but the message was offensive towards peace loving humans. It shouldn't even be here.

I hope for Portugal we get a song with the Brazilian Portuguese! That's my one wish for them 🇵🇹🇧🇷 I adored iolanda this year! I think she was the best female vocalist