Curse Of The Eurovision

[Switch 141]

 

 

The article also helpfully mentions that Brian's brother, the singer/songwriter Bap Kennedy, is receiving palliative care for pancreatic cancer . (He's keeping a blog but hasn't updated it since 1st September...)

 

I was hoping that one would sneak under the radar for a unique pick.

 

These days it's not enough to merely find good unique picks, you must anticipate and leak your competitors' unique picks.

[gcreptile 11,123]

I've realized that there are two kinds of uniques, those that are truly unique to yourself, and those that are only known among all the top competitors, but not to the others (Errol Christie was one this year).

 

I guess I have hardly any true uniques, but I have a couple of picks that I know will separate me from places 11-xxx.

 

The name above I put squarely in the second category.

[Death Impends 8,067]

Yeah, I knew about Bap's predicament since I think June but I feel if he remained unmentioned on here he'd be more of a Benmosche-esque "would be on half of the top ten teams despite not being mentioned on-forum" type rather than a potential unique. Especially once Brian Kennedy got cancer, since that meant mentions of Bap's terminal illness became more widespread.

 

Though either way, seeing 2017 is a tall order for someone who entered a hospice with big bad pancreatic in mid-August.

[Spade_Cooley 9,641]

 

 

 

The article also helpfully mentions that Brian's brother, the singer/songwriter Bap Kennedy, is receiving palliative care for pancreatic cancer . (He's keeping a blog but hasn't updated it since 1st September...)

 

I was hoping that one would sneak under the radar for a unique pick.

 

These days it's not enough to merely find good unique picks, you must anticipate and leak your competitors' unique picks.

 

 

DDT playing chess while the rest of us are still playing ludo.

[msc 18,572]

Yeah, I knew about Bap's predicament since I think June but I feel if he remained unmentioned on here he'd be more of a Benmosche-esque "would be on half of the top ten teams despite not being mentioned on-forum" type rather than a potential unique. Especially once Brian Kennedy got cancer, since that meant mentions of Bap's terminal illness became more widespread.

 

Though either way, seeing 2017 is a tall order for someone who entered a hospice with big bad pancreatic in mid-August.

 

I felt posting "mind you, DDT/Spade/DI probably knew about it" would be a bit repetitive, but yeah!

 

Mind you, I'm still convinced uniques are overrated in the general scheme of things.

 

As for pancreatic cancer/hospice/mid-August: In August 2013, my 2014 DDP team included Araucaria, Phil Chevron, Bruno Metsu, Steve Prescott, Ray Price and Bill Foulkes on it!

[YoungWillz 21,284]

Esma Redžepova, who represented FYR Macedonia in the 2013 contest alongside Vlatko Lozanoski, has died aged 73. http://www.eurovision.tv/page/news?id=queen_of_roma_music_esma_redzepova_dies_aged_73

 

Pred Da Se Razdeni: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vi1VYsOUCsY

[drol 12,225]

Esma Redžepova, who represented FYR Macedonia in the 2013 contest alongside Vlatko Lozanoski, has died aged 73. http://www.eurovision.tv/page/news?id=queen_of_roma_music_esma_redzepova_dies_aged_73

 

Pred Da Se Razdeni: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vi1VYsOUCsY

Gypsy....

[ImNotHades 207]

Esma was a Balkan treasure. A superstar in these countries. She was awarded the Queen of Gypsy music by Indira Gandhi in India. A great loss for us down here.

[YoungWillz 21,284]

Päivi Paunu, who represented Finland in the 1972 Contest finishing 12th, has died from cancer aged 70. https://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=fi&u=http://yle.fi/uutiset/3-9354339&prev=search

 

Muistathan: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trHroX_U6jY

[YoungWillz 21,284]

Well, it appears the UK has chosen a dirge which is the musical equivalent of chalk on blackboard for 2017.

[rockhopper penguin 2,265]

Well, it appears the UK has chosen a dirge which is the musical equivalent of chalk on blackboard for 2017.

Does it actually matter.

[Bibliogryphon 9,656]

Seriously this year no-one would vote for us even if Elton John turned up as our entry.

[Predictor 1,032]

The Swedish contest Melodifestivalen will begin next Saturday. We're one of the few countries that take this Eurovision thing way too serious; there are 4 semi-final rounds of 7 entrants each. After that, there's this thing called "second chance", where the highest-placed losers from each semi-final compete for the remaining spots in the final. The whole damn thing takes over a month in total, from start to finish.

For 2017, 3 previous Melodifestivalen winners are returning, of which 2 of them have gone on to win Eurovision as well: Roger Pontare (the guy with the Sami gimmick) represented Sweden in 1994 & 2000, Charlotte Perrelli (previously Nilsson) won ESC in 1999 and represented us in 2008 too & Loreen, who won crushed her ESC opponents as late as 2011 with the brilliant song Euphoria.

However, what I'm most looking forward too is seeing 87-year old Owe Thörnqvist (b. 1929) perform as perhaps the oldest ever Melodifestivalen performer. Hopefully the old geezer won't have a heart attack on stage.

Found this little tidbit about Owe: ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XS-nmLkXwo4

Owe was contacted by the lawyers from Hanna Barbera Hollywood, the makers of the popular TV series The Flinstones, because they think that the name and some of the lyrics was taken from them. They where ready to go to court for copyright issues around this song. Owe answered that the name Wilma was very common in sweden and the "jabadabadooo" was an old viking sound when you find a woman so there was no copyright in that. The lawyer at Hanna barbera thought that this man (Owe) was wierd or something, but hanna & barbera find this man very funny and speaked to Owe directly and after some talking the asked him to come over to USA and record this song in English for the The Flintstones show.
The show is called Fred Flintstone and his Swedish Cousine
Recorded 1962

[Predictor 1,032]

 

The Swedish contest Melodifestivalen will begin next Saturday. We're one of the few countries that take this Eurovision thing way too serious; there are 4 semi-final rounds of 7 entrants each. After that, there's this thing called "second chance", where the highest-placed losers from each semi-final compete for the remaining spots in the final. The whole damn thing takes over a month in total, from start to finish.

 

For 2017, 3 previous Melodifestivalen winners are returning, of which 2 of them have gone on to win Eurovision as well: Roger Pontare (the guy with the Sami gimmick) represented Sweden in 1994 & 2000, Charlotte Perrelli (previously Nilsson) won ESC in 1999 and represented us in 2008 too & Loreen, who won crushed her ESC opponents as late as 2011 with the brilliant song Euphoria.

 

However, what I'm most looking forward too is seeing 87-year old Owe Thörnqvist (b. 1929) perform as perhaps the oldest ever Melodifestivalen performer. Hopefully the old geezer won't have a heart attack on stage.

 

Found this little tidbit about Owe: ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XS-nmLkXwo4

 

Owe was contacted by the lawyers from Hanna Barbera Hollywood, the makers of the popular TV series The Flinstones, because they think that the name and some of the lyrics was taken from them. They where ready to go to court for copyright issues around this song. Owe answered that the name Wilma was very common in sweden and the "jabadabadooo" was an old viking sound when you find a woman so there was no copyright in that. The lawyer at Hanna barbera thought that this man (Owe) was wierd or something, but hanna & barbera find this man very funny and speaked to Owe directly and after some talking the asked him to come over to USA and record this song in English for the The Flintstones show.

The show is called Fred Flintstone and his Swedish Cousine

Recorded 1962

 

Charlotte Perrelli came last place in her semifinal and Roger Pontare fell on the last hurdle in his semifinal. As for Owe, he will perform tonight at around 9 PM UK time. Appearently, he had pneumonia as recently as this Christmas, and is reported to need assistance with making it up to the stage for rehearsal. I fear that he will do one of the following things on stage:

 

1. Lose his balance and break his hips/legs.

2. Have a sudden cardiac arrest.

3. Forget the lyrics of his own song (senility).

4. ^All of the above

[Thatcher 2,520]

Lars Diedricson, frontman of the Swedish band Snowstorm and composer of the winning song 'Take Me to Your Heaven' performed by Charlotte Nilsson for Sweden at the 1999 Eurovision Song Contest, has died aged 55.

[Toast 16,254]

29 minutes ago, Thatcher said:

Lars Diedricson, frontman of the Swedish band Snowstorm and composer of the winning song 'Take Me to Your Heaven' performed by Charlotte Nilsson for Sweden at the 1999 Eurovision Song Contest, has died aged 55.

 

Let's hope his request has been looked upon favourably then.

[Lord Fellatio Nelson 6,226]

Some of the stuff posted here is so utterly obscure you would think it was just made up.

Moreover, how the fuck do people find out all this crud?

What depths do they go to to trawl the net for such Euro shite?

Fair play.

[YoungWillz 21,284]

55 minutes ago, Thatcher said:

Lars Diedricson, frontman of the Swedish band Snowstorm and composer of the winning song 'Take Me to Your Heaven' performed by Charlotte Nilsson for Sweden at the 1999 Eurovision Song Contest, has died aged 55.

Every link except to his death?

[Thatcher 2,520]

1 minute ago, YoungWillz said:

Every link except to his death?

Apologies.

[CastAway 490]

7 hours ago, Lord Fellatio Nelson said:

Some of the stuff posted here is so utterly obscure you would think it was just made up.

Moreover, how the fuck do people find out all this crud?

What depths do they go to to trawl the net for such Euro shite?

Fair play.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deaths_in_2017

Here we go - it's usually from there

[Predictor 1,032]

May God protect Owe from dying on stage in tonight's final.

[YoungWillz 21,284]

Ukraine bar Russian entrant from competition: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-39354775

[YoungWillz 21,284]

Think it's about time I had a look at the entries for this year. I'll report back with my thoughts in a few days.

[gcreptile 11,123]

34 minutes ago, YoungWillz said:

Think it's about time I had a look at the entries for this year. I'll report back with my thoughts in a few days.

I had a listen, and either I was really unlucky with the third of songs I listened to, or... they are a bit crap. It's an ominous sign when the German entry doesn't sound like the worst one.

[YoungWillz 21,284]

Ok, so just been through the first semi-finalists. As with all these things, I just concentrate on the song, and as per usual it might all change with staging and live performance on the night.

 

I have to say, that was a slog. If I wasn't such a Euro hound, I'd not even bother watching it on the night.

 

Anyway, for me, out on top comes Portugal, possibly the only one I wanted to hear again. Other contenders include Czech Republic, Georgia and Finland.

 

Can't say there was an obviously worst song as there's plenty of them!

 

For singular mention:

 

A. The Slovenian entry is like a half finished show tune that was written by a 10 year old.

B. Sweden is hilarious - the song is completely average, but it's presented by a singer who looks like a second hand car salesman that's gone down the gym to exercise with his buddies on the treadmill. The bonus is they are up first on the night, so you can tune in, laugh uproariously, then take the rest of the night off.

 

Off to watch the second semi now....