h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

(Euro-centric, obviously)

Clearly the Eurovision Song Contest voting system is shot, but what system would be fairer?

Could we use statistics and trend analysis to weight points awarded to nations that vote in a more diverse way? Should we just penalise or ban countries from voting? Or is there a more creative solution? What would work?

You have to be gay to vote?

no - it's fine. Germans (like me) who live in this area all run to the bottom of the garden where we're in the Dutch mobile network and vote for ourselves...

Are there fairies at the bottom of your garden?

They should have two programmes.

The first (on a Friday night) is where everyone votes.
The second (on the Saturday night, perhaps some months later) is where all the acts perform and have a party.

They should get Simon Cowell, Amanda wotsername and Tulisa Constavopopoulos in and just have a panel vote. They can then drown the bad acts in the tears Amanda wotsername and Tulisa produce at periodic intervals.
Mid-evening entertainment can be provided through electrode torture of Will I Am.

I'm quite happy with the voting system as it is ...

The UK lost its big advantage a few years ago when the rules about language changed, and lots of other countries started singing in English. The 'Big Five' are all also disadvantaged by not appearing in the semis.

But I don't think the voting is political. Countries with a shared or similar cultural heritage are likely to prefer each other's songs, and the voting reflect that.

Mol

It's a fair point, Mol, but whether it's skewed by political or cultural reasons, skewed it is where there are more countries within a particular cultural/political bloc. The result is a weighting towards the larger blocs' songs rather than to those songs with songwriting/performance merit. I raised this thread to see if there was a statistical or other way to remove such weighting.

>>... the Eurovision Song Contest ... <<

1) Does anyone know what is the purpose of the Eurovision Song Contest?
2) Given this purpose is the Eurovision Song Contest currently fit for purpose?
3) What are the benefits if any to the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest?
4) Is that benefit actually worth it, i.e. actually worth entering the contest for?

Azerbaijan forgets to rig the Eurovision vote in favour of Russia and causes a diplomatic incident:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22600892

Who are the 'Big Five' then?

The Azerbaijani President has to be outraged and order an inquiry. He has to avoid a diplomatic incident somehow.

Voting should be extended to all of the English speaking countries that we own around the world, like Canada, Australia, New Zealand and America. If that doesn't do the job, then to the other countries that we own as well, like India, Pakistan and Bangladesh should be added until Bonnie Tyler damn well does win.

Doesn't Johnny Foreigner know that it is called The Eurovision Song Contest IN ENGLISH for a reason? It isn't called La European Contest de la Song. Or Das Songen Contesten Der Eurovision is it?!

PP.

I must admit it seems a bit strange to me when small countries like Iceland sing in their own language. With less that half a million people understanding you and only expats and those on holiday able to vote, it seems a bit daft - as nice as your song is, if no-one can understand then no-one is gonna vote.

Portugal, Cyprus (it gets the Greek vote but one 'douze points' is not enough), some of the old Russian republics, dare I say even France & Germany have the same issue - those who like & understand the song are IN your country and can't vote.

PP, the BIG Five are United Kingdom, Germany, France, Spain & Italy. They put more money into the sponsorship and running of the contest so get an automatic entry into the final. Somewhat controversial over the years, this year Turkey didn't enter as a protest over the Big Five.

To be fair, the semifinals were only required after all the fissiparous activity in Yugoslavia and the USSR. Why can't they pay for it?

I thought Turkey pulled out because of That Kiss - but that might just have been why they didn't broadcast it.

We always put the subtitles on for songs not in English

Mol

In the old days (yes, I remember the Eurovision back in the 60s) it was fairly normal for Greece to enter some dirge in Greek and only Cyprus would vote for it, and vice versa. That was understandable. If your culture is one that likes dirges in Greek, then you'll like them even if from another country.

But this year we saw a few really bad entries and then a block of about 20 songs that were all very well presented, well sung, and identical in style. There's no question that the Azerbaijani entry was any more Azerbaijani than the Danish entry - anybody could have voted for any song. But did they?

No. Everybody voted for the country next to them.

To get around this, I propose a weighting system where every vote is reduced by a factor based on how close your mother tongue is to the mother tongue of the country you're voting for. Since Ukrainian and Russian are very closely related, if the Ukraine gives 12 points to Russia, that will be reduced to only counting as 6 points. Since Finnish is only related to Estonian, any votes for Finland, other than those from Estonia, will count at full value.

This will provide much-needed employment for linguists, as well as making the voting fairer.

What I like about the Eurovision Song Contest is that it is so filled with fresh new musical talent, with memorable songs. Where would the musical industry be without it

>>Everybody voted for the country next to them.

How about if countries were no longer able to vote for countries that they border? Or, in the case of islands, that they are near to.

So then the nearest country you could vote for is one which is one border removed from your own.

I don't know whether that would work, but it would put an end to neighbour voting.


Geggs

The thing about these systems is, what if your neighbouring country has a song that is really, really good and people really, really want to vote for it? Artificial constraints are as bad as political voting imo.

Is this a UK (and Ireland) centric thing, the intense annoyance at political voting? Any of our Europe based posters want to tell us how this is perceived where they are?

Surely it shouldn't be much of a surprise that musical tastes are regional. So it is only natural that you would vote for neighbours.

PP