He served bipolar brilliance on stage in Kyiv, taking Croatia to the grand final for a second year and landing the nation its second biggest haul of points in Eurovision history.
But despite the success, it seems Jacques Houdek feels hard done by, especially in regard to votes from the juries of the former Yugoslavia.
In a post on his Facebook page, later reported by Serbian outlet Blic, Houdek elaborated on his theory that the juries from the former Yugoslavia were bitter about Croatia being the only nation to qualify for the Grand Final.
“The success could have been bigger. The lack of support of the ‘expert’ judges of neighbouring countries is really shameful. Unfortunately there was bitterness I suppose because Croatia was the only one from the region in the grand final.”
“All the performers from the region gave us wonderful support and said to us, you are now the representatives of the region, give it your all! So it’s amazing that we didn’t get a point from the neighbouring juries, because they’re meant to judge on the basis of composition and vocal performance, and to them those were redundant. My song really should have been rewarded by the juries.”
If the juries were bitter bishes, televoters were far more willing to throw points Jacques’ way.
Slovenia and Montenegro gave “My Friend” 12 points, F.Y.R Macedonia’s televoters gave it 10 and Serbia awarded it 5. And Jacques was effusive about them.
“The truth comes back into balance and was corrected by all the peoples of the region, who mostly gave us the maximum 12 points in the televoting and for that I want to say endless thanks because they showed how many people were friends and connoisseurs. The only real indicator of success, as always, is our audience!”
He also took aim at Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, criticising her lack of support and the fact she has time to attend fashion shows but not endorse his song.
Do you think Jacques should have received points from the Former Yugoslav juries? Or should regional support not be relied upon by acts? Let us know in the comments below!
Just go back to your homeland and shut up. We all have seen enough of Jacques Houdek. You are a star a Croatia? That’s fine. Nobody wants you outside of your land so stay there.
EARNED, NOT GIVEN! He should be grateful to have finished 13th, when bookies predicted he’d be going home after the Thursday semis.
One of the worst songs in the competition! Juries did what they are supposed to do!
I am not on defense of Jacques but the most of the Juries in Eurovision voted for interest they are just trash!!!
Salty much?
Jacques had one of the most active Facebook pages prior to Eurovision and you almost never shared news about it (while some artists had constant support about every single thing they did). And now you share this? Shame on you! You need to understand two things. One, Blic is a Serbian newspaper which wrote a pretty hateful article, resounding as Croats hate Serbs. To be clear, there are Croatian newspapers who do the reverse thing, as well (that is why I never read them). Anyway, not really an objective article, especially as he didn’t say it was “a failure” and… Read more »
Usually I don’t want to mean but… Really?? Seriously?? Really? What is he complaining about?? He was 13th overall! Juries are supposed to be as objective as possible and award songs based on composition, voice, performance and other factors. People of course supported him and that’s not strange for me. But juries are there to keep the balance. They shouldn’t care where you come from, but if your song is good. What infuriates me the most is that in cases like Croatia juries seem to be objective wheras in cases like Australia they’re not and they take into account that… Read more »
Juries are never objective. Like the general public, they vote for what they like. If you use people like Lisa Ajax as jurors there goes your professional point of view. Just look at the Swedish jurors’ votes this year – they were all completely different! This shows how the jurors are nothing more than general public members who vote following no different criteria from all of us. And that’s why we don’t need them.
So the Croatian “qween”-wannabe is complaining for NOT having got those 12 from people who understand that music needs to be more authentic and credible than a Let It Go-wannabe rip-off blended with Faith Hill’s There You’ll be in a esquizofrenic version of soulful/operatic egocentric duet … BECAUSE that is what it is supposed to HAPPEN, in other words – Slovenia, Serbia, FYR of Macedonia and Montenegro HAD THE OBLIGATION to hand him those 12 because he is representing CROATIA. Wow … the secondary effects a disease called 2000-televoting can impact on someone is beyond one’s understanding. Well, he can… Read more »
He should be extremely thankful he got any points from the juries at all. No self-respecting juror should have awarded his joke entry anything other than a big, fat, zero.
C’mon, it’s a Florence Jenkins case when it comes to his stagiging and his song…he believes he’s perfect, people are laughing, he pretends not to care…poor&pity
This guy encouraging neighboring voting…Isn’t that supposed to be the prime fact we fight against at Eurovision?
Shouldn’t he be living his life as if everything is a miracle?
Apparently, nothing is a miracle
What the hell? I mean his song was a craptastic one. That’s about it. So bad that it went brilliant.
I’m actually proud of the Balkans for not voting all the neighbours. I mean jury-wise. The rest of the jury voting this year was absolutely ridiculous! He should be proud not a nagging bitch.
LOOOL He should be happy he got into the final with that horrible performance, self-entitled d.ckhead.
Horrible performance , say that without crying hahahaha
Drama queen of the year 🙂
Are. You. Serious?!
To be honest he should be happy that he placed 13th! Most of Eurovision fans expected it to flop, he placed a decent place and he’s annoyed by a fact that he didn’t place higher?! That is a joke…
Wish it had stayed in semis and FYR Macedonia went instead…
Agree on that last part certainly!
#JusticeforJana
I’d be mad too if the 182 million viewers awarded me 9th place but 205 so-called professionals sabotaged me.
Never thought that your song was just a piece of sh…? That you have been ridiculously hypocritical? What about your homophobic past?? There were too many good reasons to NOT give him a single point. Man you might be a star in your country but it’s Eurovision. Your stardom stops when the borders of Croatia begin. Outside Croatia nobody knows or wants you.
He should be happy to have been allowed to participate.
What homophobic past ??
He repeatedly called gays and gay couples sick. Not just once and not just 15 years ago. Croatia is the land of homophobia in Europe along with Lithuania and Albania so that should come as no surprise.
His best friend is Marija Serifovic , and guess what , she is LESBIAN, croatian media made that story up , and how you know Croatia is land of homophobia , you don’t even live there!!!!
I am from Croatia and I am not homophobe like many people in my country , how you explain that you moron ??
You are the only one that spread hate , how ironic, and you shouldn’t be allow to be on this page , HOW ABOUT THAT hahaha
How about that? Nothing. What you say is just BS. I’ve been to Croatia multiple times for work. I have lived there for 6 months and I’ve traveled almost the whole country. Your people, in general, are homophobic. It’s cultural. And because of what? Because of religion that you swallow from morning to night. Man what is your government doing for minorities? For gays? Nothing. There’s nothing there. Not even protection. Croatia is a beautiful country. The inhabitants are just bigots.
OK , and conclusion is that Jacques isn’t homophobe , so you end up being stupid , sorry hater
Jacques isn’t a homophobe lol this has been discussed over and over. The story was made up by a Croatian outlet and Jacques’ team has taken legal action against it. In 2011 he made a Facebook post expressing his disappointment.
So he is basically complaining that there was not enough bloc voting? “I’m really disappointed there was not enough nepotism to support my joke entry”…
Seriously, shame on this guy!
He is and always will be, the guy is gay as hell, man open your eyes. The only answer you have in Crotatia when you’re gay is to be homophobic so no one knows the real you. You live in Croatia, you already know that.
Where’s the correlation with what Racal said? You seem to be the homophobe here.
I will start off by saying I am Half Croatian (but British)
First of all Judges from all over Europe didnt support this – and for good reason, the fact he expects the Juries from neighbouring countries to give him points shows what is wrong with the Eurovision! You shouldn’t get points just for being a neighbour! It is frankly disgusting that not only does this happen, but even the artists expect it to happen – The Juries who Judge it fairly should be praised not condemned!
To those in the comments who are publicly and personally hating on Jacques Houdek:
You are a disgrace to the spirit of the Eurovision Song Contest. Go away, and never come back.
The spirit of Eurovision? XD Better tell Jacques about that first! The commentators are just upset about his shameless call for more block voting.
Well, speaking for myself – I am not a fan of this song, though recognize the talent of the performer. I simply took the comments in this article at face value, and to me, they reeked of ego and entitlement. It is not mandatory to be a Jacques fan. Sorry. I wish him well, though.
He should do drag …
Your song was at very best laughable! We actually laughed every time we watched it! Common mean you must know better than that!
…and then he finished 13th and laugh at you hahahaha , he crushed the crying haters like you
What is it with people being bitter this season? You lost, get over it!
he did better than Nina last year, was she bitter about it?
What Jacques failed to see was perhaps that his song was a gimmick, a silly song? Apart form being entertaining it had no musical qualities what so ever. The juries did thier job like they suppose, quality above trash-
Also the president? I Think leaders have more concerning issues than who sings in a Contest.
Apart from Putin no leader really takes notice of who goes to ESC, and for a reason: No politics.!
That’s not true. Nick Harrington a Tory politician in the UK made racist comments towards Ireland over Eurovision voting and so did the Innocent Smoothies Drink Brand. Their contestant Lucie also had an entitled attitude regarding votes from them in a comment she made. There is definitely bitterness in Eurovision and their is definitely politics. Anyone who says otherwise is lying and probably because their country is a main offender of judging it on that too.
It’s weird how the juries didn’t appreciate this. There’s the originality, there’s the best vocals, and there’s an entertaining performance. Do they prefer something boring and basic like Denmark or Austria? Probably. At least the public rewarded him, which is what really matters in the end.
Apart from it being a solo duet, there’s nothing about the song that makes it stand out, it’s cliché in every other way.
How many other solo duets can you name? That alone is enough to make it the most creative song of the year.
It may be the most creative song of the year, but that’s not enough for people to like it. When I first heard that it would be a solo duet, I was really intrigued, but hearing it (despite flawless performance) was a huge disappointment – all the creativity stopped with the idea of it being a solo duet. To me it’s a miracle that he finished 13th overall, and did better than Nina last year. Now that was a song that I had on “repeat”, as well as some true pearls that the Croats were sending in the 90s.
It was the most pathetic performance of the decade. Just pathetic.
Jacques has good vocals. But the entry was one big pretentious cliche with no musical qualities. Hence the low score from the juries.
That’s the definition of Australia and Sweden’s entries, yet the juries awarded them big points. The juries vote randomly and based on their taste rather than on fixed criteria. It’s time to understand this… they’re just a way too small sample of televoters.
The dark ages of “televoting only” gave us a number of circus acts that I won’t name (one or two of them even winning the contest, some others coming second). Thanks, but no thanks.
It was a low-budget version of Bohemian Rhapsody.
First of all, Blic is from Serbia, they were just reporting what he said. Jacques knows that neighbour voting isn’t fair and he didn’t say the national juries should’ve supported him. He was saying they ignored Croatia as a country, which is true. Not rewarding their entry for originality, vocals or the state performance is just sad. Putting it on the middle of the scoreboard would be more credible (although still not enough), but it was repeatedly ranked dead last. All of this is supported by the fact that some od the jurors haven’t ranked the sing objectively. For example,… Read more »
Where’s the like button here 🙁
Thank you for the extra info.
Sometimes we read these news out of context and we make wrong assumptions. Particulary if we are not familiar with the Croatian situation (in this case).
About the song… I am a big fan of popera myself, but this song was not that good. Definitly not “jury material”. I was even happy it didn’t do very well in the Yugoslavian world. All this political votes are very anoying.
And the song did better than it deserved. I have seen better from Croatia in the past.
Cheers
I kinda get his point though.
Basically all the blocks except the Baltic and the Yugoslavian block were dissolved.
Nordics voted Sweden, juries pushed Australia, Romania and Moldova exchanged 12s, Greece and Cyprus exchanged 12s as well.
Basically what he says is if u can’t beat them join them……And He is kinda right.
This year is full of people that can’t handle losing, they should grow up.
So he’s giving us some “huffy diva” realness… he’s such a drama queen…
So, basically he’s saying that he just wanted points no matter what and not because of his merits. Wow….how stupid can he be?
Agree. This is Alex levels of stupidity.
Well, maybe if Houdek’s song wasn’t so cheesy, so gimmicky, so dated and didn’t sound like ‘Let It Go’, probably the juries would have cared a little more about his entry.
What a total prick with this attitude.
*and didn’t sound an awful lot like ‘Let It Go’, which is a far better and more memorable song, by the way, …
Most juries agreed with the ex-yugoslav juries! Moreover, also Croatia didn’t reward the ex-yugoslav countries in their semi (2 to Serbia, 0 to FYRoM). It’s nice to see block voting dissapearing in former Yugoslavia. It means that the juries are grown up and do their job. Not like Greece, Armenia, Azerbeijan, Cyprus…. those juries are jokes….
I think vocally, it was an amazing effort. But it’s not winning material, just too cheezy. Borderline top 10, more than 100 pts from the televote: good job, be happy, don’t complain! Come back next year with a class act!
Considering the political and violent fallout that was the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 90s, I’d say that the countries not voting for each other is political in of itself, although Serbia pulled a lot of its points from the region, suggesting that they’re the hegemon of the region, which they are.
I don’t think Jacques wanted to make all of these comments (as it wasn’t really posted immediately after the Grand Final), rather he got a big ego boost from Croatian musicians and other musicians (Marija Serifovic herself criticised Serbian and Balkan juriee for not giving points to Jacques), so he decided to rant about everything, it seems.
To be fair on the point of the president, executive authority in Croatia rests with the Prime Minister, so the President is a ceremonial figurehead, and so would have more time to support Jacques. When ESC was in Copenhagen, the Danish Crown Prince and Crown Princess attended the Grand Final, although that was when Denmark was hosting. Great as his voice was though, the fact that Jacques was blanked by even other Yugoslav juries is not a travesty, considering the song. You would think that someone who wasn’t expected to qualify would feel less bitter about coming 13th in the… Read more »
“You would think that someone who wasn’t expected to qualify would feel less bitter about coming 13th in the Grand Final.” You have a point there. I mean, Alma also sounded disappointed from being 12th, but to be fair, her song was an early favorite. But, honestly, I think he is more bitter than he was among the rare acts who wasn’t supported by his neighbors. I mean, half of points were a travesty – Cyprus and Greece giving each other 12 points, ect. I bet Jacques feels like the only rich kid whose parents don’t pay for his tuition… Read more »
When Alma expressed her disappointment, she didn’t bitch out foreign juries and was generally classy. Obviously everyone (even those like Lucie who got a relatively good result for their country) who isn’t Salvador is disappointed with their result. Alma’s disappointment came down to finishing mid table when she was hyped to finish 5th-8th. While I think Jacques was wrong to attack foreign juries, his comments regarding the broadcaster’s and public’s lack of support are spot on. Nina’s terrible dress last year came down to the fact that she had to fund everything herself- on such a budget it’s admirable that… Read more »
The UK did not handle it better than Croatia. The UK Tory party member Nick Harrington got into trouble for making racist comments towards Ireland over Eurovision voting which was absolutely bitter and disgusting. And as a matter of fact so did the UK drink brand Innocent Smoothies. And on top of that Lucie Jones received backlash for her sense of entitlement in her tweet regarding the voting…when it’s supposed to be based on the best song, guess nobody else actually votes genuinely anymore. But no, the UK didn’t handle it better at all.
Better than Croatia at least. Lucie seemed more humorous in her attitude to the voting than anything else. Yes she called out Ireland jokingly for not giving her any jury points, but if you read the tone of the tweets on her page during that time, it’s clearly a joke.
Now the Tory party making a xenophobic fuss over the voting I can believe.
When A politician is being seriously racist, it’s probably best not to be ‘jokingly’ racist. Eurovision stars really have to have a self imposed month of silence in the aftermath of the contest imho.
In the wake of Brexit, hard right Tory politicians are going to be racist irregardless of Eurovision.
Blic is a Serbian media outlet as you can see by the domain (.rs).
They’re not bitter, you’re act was just crap.
We got it. You hate him. Now go clean your ears for the first time since you were born and appreciate this great song.
We got it. You love him. No need to insult others because they don’t agree.
Mark sing in 2 different registers without mistake please… you can’t ?? Then shut the fck up
Should Jacques receive points from neighbors, just for being neighbor?
Answer = NO
But maybe he would’ve receive points if he represented France or other country.
Maybe the neighbors ignored him because envy.
Neighbors can be best friends or worst enemies.
The whole act was crap and they were voting for quality.
Off topic – Valentina Monetta is thinking about participating in ESC 2018 for a DIFFERENT country! Exciting 😀
Liechtenstein? Monaco? Because Andorra is already out.
She’s half Italian, so I’d wager Italy if that’s true.
Sanremo won’t accept her as a big name…
Link or it didn’t happen…
http://www.libertas.sm/notizie/2017/05/20/san-marino-valentina-monetta-eurovision-song-contest-unimportante-esperienza-la-serenissima.html
Also on her real facebook account.
Credit goes to the ex-Yug juries then. Made me wonder how patriotic our juries are up here in the Nordic countries. More specifically if they are more patriotic than the public. So I went through the split vote since 2014. Points given by Nordic countries to other Nordic countries in the grand finals 2014-2017: Tele vote: 256 points Jury vote: 247 points Max possible: 528 points (which means every Nordic entry got on average about 6 points from every other Nordic country) Points given by Nordic countries to Sweden in the grand finals 2014-2017: Tele vote: 152 points Jury vote:… Read more »
EDIT: The average is calculated for jury- and tele vote respectively. So each country got on average 6 tele vote points AND 6 jury vote points from every other country. The same goes for the points to Sweden. (That’s 19/24 on average.)
Croatia deserves a higher ranking – top 8
What drugs are you on?
It should have gotten more pts from the juries for the reasons that he said. Jury voting has become a bit weird, favouring bland, unoriginal songs over the more daring. Denmark, Australia and Austria had more going on musically than Croatia? Nah.
Denmark, Australia and Austria had more creditable acts that the Dog’s Breakfast Croatia had.
Croatia shouldn’t have made the final.
It sounds like “Let it go” from frozen. Apparently he copied the idea of singing 2 parts from a former the voice mentor or colleague of his. I read it somewhere but not sure exactly where. I agree with the juries. His voice is good but the song is weird.
In a way, I can even understand his frustration. Other countries (e.g. Northern Europe) were quite unashamedly supporting their friends & neighbours, and it’s not nice to see others profiting from unfair votes, while your own “friends” don’t do the same favor to you. But as a contestant he shouldn’t feel entitled to complain so openly about this, calling it “shameful” etc. He could have criticized other countries for voting too “friendly” for each other. But it looks as though he’s fine with that and believes neighbour-voting is something honorable. Hopefully — with this attitude — Jacques himself will never… Read more »
I didn’t like Jacques song or his performance. Now I don’t like him as a person.
Mmm, is he calling for block/political voting? But then they say there is no political or geographical voting pattern…
The song is crappy and embarrasing, so that’s why juries didn’t vote for it. The televote usually likes this type of freak acts. He sings really good though, but he should have sent a serious song.
I completely agree with you.
It’s Jacques who seems like the bitter one.
Of course it’s absolutely ridiculous to expect your neighbours to give you votes simply due to location – it’s a large part of the criticism that the contest gets, fairly or unfairly. The man is not entitled to votes from anybody. Oaf.
If he was so proud of the Balkan region -why did he sing in English?
Why sing in English and Italian?
The guy is a jackass, enough said.
Rediculous personal hate, for no reason.
He is right to be surprised about the lack of support from the juries, but why aim at Ex-Yu juries only? Baltic/Nordic/Ex-Soviet, ect. juries were just as oblivious to the charm of this song as neighboring ones. As much as I support Jacques in his quest for answers, I truly believe neighbors are not supposed to give support ‘just because’. That is not how it should work. I do see some other national juries picking their favs exactly that way, though.
Ex-Yu put him nearly last which is fishy af
He’s one whale of a diva!
I hate him after his comments.
Right, because Croatian jury was really nice to their neighbors…FYR Macedonia got no points for the Croatian Jury and Serbia got 2…I thought Eurovision was full of divas, but didn’t realize they would be all the guys–Jacques, Robin, Alex.
Get a less cheesy song and maybe juries would’ve been more generous.
Aren’t you forgetting about Slavko, who is also this year’s biggest diva? 😉 I also do agree that if there were less cliche lyrics in the song, there probably would’ve been a lot more support for Jacques. Before the semi-finals had started, as well as the rehearsals, I think most people regarded the song as cheesy at first.
Heh, agreed on Slavko.
“Eurovision 2017: Because Dudes Can Be Divas, Too!”
You forgot Salvador!! Calling nearly all songs in Eurovision except his to be Worthless!! That’s diva material right there!!
Where did he Call nearly all songs in Eurovision except his to be Worthless?
Salvador love “Occidentali’s Karma”. he said so many time in many interviews even sing “Occidentali’s Karma” at opening ceremony red-carpet interview. Salvador also like “City lights ” Blackbird ” sing with his sister. And He said he would like” Occidentali’s Karma”,” city light”,or other song with their own language to win. Thank you
Not since Silvia Night has there been such TMZ worthy drama…
Salvador vs. Robin and Alex
Manel vs. Spanish Eurofans
O’G3NE vs. BLØF (Dutch band)
Jacques vs. the Serbian, Macedonian, Montenegrin and Slovene juries
Yulia vs. the Ukrainian government
EBU vs. UA:PBC
And that’s not even counting the “baying mob” that is the wider ESC fandom.
I can understand he being upset as we see how messy the jury vote is every year.
Juries are supposed to value Originality, Stage presentacion or Vocals. And Croatia ticked all those boxes.
Then, televote rewarded its originality of course.
They also have to vote for quality and Croatia’s song was lacking quality.
They have to vote for quality so they vote for Australia and Sweden instead of Hungary? Stop with this bs. The jury was random af this year. The public was more sensible as always.
Why would serbs vote for Croatia?
IF the song is good than I expect a nation to vote for it. Or what’s the point…
hello wiwibloggs i am jamala. The real jamala, i won eurovision 2016 nice to meet you everybody
But you’re calling yourself Nina Sublatti?
So he wants the contest to be political then? Which is what we are trying to fight at Eurovision??
He knows that they only way he could have made the top ten was if politics came into play, favoring him.