In the aftermath of Eurovision there’s typically a lot of praise for the winner. And rightly so. Whether they have the best voice, the best song, the best staging or the best overall package, there’s always something about the winner that makes them very worthy of the love.
And then there are the crimes. Those results, incidents and mishaps that are simply unfair and unfortunate. We can think of endless examples from years past. The smoke machine going haywire on Georgia’s Nina Sublatti in 2015. Norma John not making the final in 2017. A stage invader marring Jamala’s interval performance in Kyiv. Another stage invader marring SuRie’s performance in Lisbon. And so on and so forth.
As ever we plan on filming our Top Crimes of Eurovision video. And we need your help. We want to know what crimes you think are the most egregious and worthy of discussion.
Which incident still has you feeling uneasy? Is it the way the EBU handled the Belarusian aggregate vote? Is it the fact that jurors in Sweden and Russia appeared to vote upside down in the semi-finals? Is it that lack of clarity over the Italian televote? Did Madonna’s appearance fee set you on edge? Can you stomach the fact all of Serbia’s jurors ranked Montenegro first in their semi? Or maybe you’re still upset that the jury and televoters killed some of your darlings like Portugal. Or that countries like Poland and Lithuania may have been wrongly eliminated owing to jury errors?
Whatever your thoughts and feelings, we can’t wait to hear what you think needs to be addressed. Sound off below and thanks in advance! Below you can watch our two most recent instalments of the Eurovision crime videos to get a sense of what we discuss.
POLAND WAS ROBBED!!
In no particular order: 1) The Belarusian jury vote miscalculation. That kind of error shouldn’t happen in an event this size. 2) Technical errors throughout. Also not what we expect from Eurovision. 3) Refusing to allow entries to perform again at the jury rehearsal after technical issues. I’m not saying it would have changed anything – maybe it would, maybe it wouldn’t, it doesn’t actually matter – for the appearance of fairness, they should have been allowed to perform again. The decision baffles me as the committee must have known that they would be torn apart by the public for… Read more »
In no particular order 1) Poland not qualifying. 2) Romania not qualifying. 3) Madonna’s performance. It was pretty bad. 4) Hatari during the televote taking out the P4les71ne flags (however, this did bring awareness to the audience about the Israel/PALes71ne situation and some people have gone and learned more about it – still a crime tbh). 5) The hosts – again 4! They were pretty bland (apart from Assi). I’ve noticed that the best hosts are pretty much functioning in the green room – Timur, Filomena and, then Assi! 6) Of course, the mess up of the juries’ scores! They… Read more »
There were so many crimes this year. Here are 10 of them:
10. Australia finishing 9th (seriously? this deserved at least top 5).
9. M-a-d-o-n-n-a.
8. The Czech Republic getting SCREWED by the televote.
7. San Marino not only qualifying but coming 10th with the public in the final.
6. Portugal not qualifying
5. Spain getting 1 POINT from the juries.
4. Greece coming 21ST!
3. Norway getting SCREWED by the juries.
2. All of the voting failures this year (they are so many they would take more than half of my list).
1. MARUV
Top 10 Crimes about this Eurovision? Here we go —
1. Eurovision, a competition I love enormously, being cynically used to distract from all the crimes happening a mere 40 km east of the hosting city.
2. The way Hatari were treated throughout the competition and afterwards, for speaking out about point 1.
3-10. See point 1.
BIGGEST CRIMES OF EUROVISION 2019… 1. Australia not finishing top 3. 2. Malta opening the show. Also the disappointment of Malta’s staging vs. their stunning video. Went from Italian Vogue to Junior Eurovision. Such a wasted opportunity! 3. Arcade winning. Come on, it was just simply the most non offensive song everyone agreed on. 4. And unfortunately, Madonna. Thats going to be the one big train wreck we all remember from 2019 in years to come. 5. If I’m nit picking… Poland’s staging. Again, such a beautiful video. Staging had way too much colour too early and way to referential… Read more »
The juries are there to save entries like portugal and i cant believe they didn’t it was such a crime
Also Norway technical problems in the jury final then not being allowed to go again which I hope didnt impact their jury vote but likely did is an absolute crime
– The presenter with glasses. He was downright rude. When the finnish presenter was appearing to give the results, he just said: “Whatever”.
– No more american perfomances of any kind, or this will feel more like the actual MTV’s EMA, where it feels like a second grade VMA presenting american artists that did quite not make it to the american version. Gracias, pero não.
I didn’t like the hosts they were sort oh rude and strange at times. Like for instance when they were mocking pronunciation of Mahmood’s name was kinda cringe to me. I know they loathe everything that is Arabic/Muslim and would rather bomb it, but as hosts I’d expect little more class.
Bella Santiago + Laura Bretan
San Marino 19th rank… 12 th on televote !!!! That shouldn’t be in the final.
Norway First of televote… that doesn’t deserve to win the contest
Czech republic only 3 points from jury ??
They’ve got 150 from the juries!!!
I don’t know if these are crimes, but what I didn’t like about ESC 19: 1. Fans booing Greece and Cyprus for exchanging 12 pts. That was disgraceful! Other countries that exchanged points, and have been doing that for decades, were not booed. Why those two countries only? Did the fans get together and decided that before the Final? That was so odd. Any booing of performers, countries, fans in Eurovision is bad manners. 2. Mix up of jury voting that creates disappointment to artists and mistrust in Eurovision. 3. Unreasonable and/or political voting by juries. Also, songs in native… Read more »
Crimes of 2019 in no order (it would be impossible to do so)
+ MARUV should’ve been there
+ The Belarussian jury vote scandal
+ Madonna’s flag sho… actually Madonna in general
+ Ester Peony
+ The Estonian camerawork in the grand final
+ The awkward script and interviews
+ Miki getting 1 point from the juries
+ Australia not making top 3 with that amazing staging
+ Norway getting massively screwed over by the juries
+ Azerbaijan complaining about the voting map
I liked Portugal very much, Poland had a beautiful song, but something was not enough
Although my country is friendly with Belarus, but I think that it would be better if Portugal be the Final. unforgettable performance
oops! I forgot to say about Iceland – I saw Hatari and was very amazed, read about them, watched the videos and now I watch their performance very often 🙂
Greece coming that low, 21st, was the biggest crime not including the Belarussian jury incident. I’d also say that Norway coming 16th with the juries is also a big crime. Also can’t forget MARUV.
Poland Tulia is robbed
The camera fail for Estonia in the final
Norway winning the televote, but finishing only 6th was the biggest crime. The way the points were announced no one probably even realized they won the televote. They were the majority’s favorites and they didn’t even get a podium finish and they didn’t even get proper recognition for winning the televote. Plus, EBU refusing their plea to perform again in the SF because of the technical difficulties makes Norway the most robbed country this year and maybe even in the entire history of the contest.
One of the most robbed countries in the history of the contest.
Hard to forget Poland 2016 – 3rd in the televoting, 25th with the juries.
I certainly didn’t realize they won televote.
I hope they go back to the normal way in 2020
That voting error that led to North Macedonia not being recognised as the jury winner on the night was simply unforgivable. The EBU should be looking for a new accounting partner from here on
That’s my opinion as well, PLUS, Poland not qualifying – if there was an error, it should be made public.
1. Maruv and Ukraine: I missed them.
2. The vote’s disaster. It was so difficult to understand how to put the votes properly?
3. M A D O N N A
4. Fans on social media, specially Twitter. Relax, guys: it’s just a contest.
5. Belarus in the final and no Poland or Georgia. I respect Zena with all my heart but I don’t get it, sorry.
6. Conan deserved better.
7 Wtf with France and Spain in the final? Too lovely songs.
8. The camera work.
But Duncan won, so, I’m happy. :’)
Portugal deserved to go to the final. Conan Osiris is a breath of fresh air, thinks outside the box, is truly creative and original. Isn’t that what we’re celebrating in Eurovision? The mix of sounds in his song are intriguing and mysterious yet, identifiably portuguese and the country’s entries always stay true to their native language, for me thats bonus points right there! Also there were complaints that people tried voting for him, and the lines were down….. totally unacceptable and unjust!!!
Blimey, 430 comments including at least two of mine! As a counterpoint, please can Wiwibloggs do a compilation of some of the top “treasures” from 2019. Like the first press room reaction to Kate, Bilal or Chingiz. Conan on the Orange carpet. Malta’s qualifying announcement, Deban slaying at press conferences, Suzanne & Chris on the live stream, Serhat’s visit, anyone saying “Luca Haaani”. There’s loads of moments to choose from. Someone put them all into one clip.
And the whole green room including Hatari dancing Mikis song during his performance. That video is amazing. Maybe the delegations should vote too
Romania not Qualifying!
One name – Maruv.
Bang!
Criteria like these five: Music, Lyrics, Performance, Staging/Styling and Choreography? 🙂
They can use them if they want to. The old tried and tested method.
I don’t know any “fans” who don’t enjoy the ESC. We wouldn’t be fans otherwise. 🙂
You say you want to “enjoy it all” and then hate on Hatari – that is ironic!
You’ve clearly never been to a soccer match.
1. The juries ranking Greece 2nd in the semi and so low in the final. Juries that gave greece 12 points in the semi ranked the song really low in the final. You can’t rank a song 1st is the semi and 25th in the final. Its not the first time nor will it be the last. 2. And also yes maybe greece and cyprus excange 12 points (not all the time remember 2015) but scandanavian countries excange points each and every year and they are 5 countries not 2. 3. The juries’s love for sweden has become kind of… Read more »
“since the juries were introdused east and south Europe get robbed each and every year” – winners 2016, 2017 and 2018: Ukraine (east), Portugal (south) and Israel (very south and very east).
To begin with Ukraine mostly won for political reasons. Israel won beacause of the televoting. Aslo Russia 2016 killed by the jurieS. Italy 2015 killed by the juries. All the balkan countries dont to very good with the juries , Whereas the Netherlands , Sweden, Australia , Belgium most of the times do very well . Aslo the countries you mentioned above would do just as well or even better if it weren’t for the juries, whereas Italy , Greece , Romania , (Turkey in the past always ) are wronged by the juries. Not to mention montenegro 2013 that… Read more »
By the way, the jury vote is more politicized than televoting. Let’s look at Armenia and Azerbaijan. All the 5 jury members ranked Azerbaijan 26th, which is statistically impossible even for a weak entry, while the Armenian televoters ranked Azerbaijan 18th, actually better than the televoters of some other countries. In the semifinal all jurors ranked Azerbaijan 17th, while the televoters ranked it 11th – just imagine, so close to a point. Azeri jurors and televoters ranked Armenia 17th, however, let’s face it, Armenian entry was weaker.
-Ukraine’s withdrawal due to political reasons
– Belarussian Jury thing ?
– Portugal’s not making it through to the final and San Marino’s qualification, though I kind of love Serhat.
– Hatari’s Palestinian flag display, Eurovision should be a non political event
– The incorrect voting of a Russian jury (Azerbaijan-Denmark) and thus Lithuania’s non qualificiation
– Also the unfair attitude towards Hatari during the press conference and the Israeli media’s stigmatising the group as “weird” and “provocative”
– NORWAY and SPAIN were robbed by the jury, this is a HUGE CRIME
I LOVE WIWIBLOGGS ?
– Jurors not being able to vote properly
– Maruv
– Srbuk 16th in SF
– Lake Malawi 7 points from televote
– Production not being able to translate visions from delegations
– Televote mainly focused on diaspora / country frinedship
– Western jurors overhyping Sweden, Easter jurors overhyping Russia (as always)
– Malta out of top 10
– English and Spanish being so butthurt about their placement and blaming others
– Srbuk getting 16th place in her semifinal
– The Belarusian jury vote situation
– MARUV!!!!!!!
– Ireland getting last place
SRBUK´s stage director walked out from this song
Hence the empty seats.
I think the idea of having jurors is essential in a song contest because we need some professionals to see and hear things in music that viewers at home do not necessarily get. But these jurors have to keep that in mind when they vote and not thinking about borders just for one night, because music is universal. It is as simple as that ! They recently decided to be more transparent by revealing the name of all the jurors, so why don’t they keep going in that way, and also share the criteria they’re basing their votes on so… Read more »
Having the jurors justify their votes would be great- having to write reports as to why they ranked each song as they did
Apart from the many unfair results (Poland, Portugal, Spain jury vote etc) I would mention two basic crimes:
1. The voting system is not working. Televote focus too much on diaspora. Jury vote on political and neighbouring issues.
2. The bettings odds make us all focus and hype certain songs even if we haven’t heard them live. In my opinion, betting should be banned for this event, as already happens in some countries.
you want voting banned because you can’t control yourself ?
What absolute nonsense!
Read well Davina. I said so about betting.
Agreed. Get rid of the betting odds they’re ruining everything
The biggest crime was the voting in general. If we only go with the televote we would be thinking about going to Oslo and not Amsterdam… anotehr huge crime: Poland and portugal not qualifying to the final. Portugal might have messed up with the outfits, well deserved Barbara Dex award there, but the music and the power of that song was everything. Professional Jurys? the biggest criminals of them all as they don’t know the rules, how to vote or anything about music for that matter. Sorry about it Michael Szchulte and all former Eurostars but as Jury folk, ya’ll… Read more »
The voting. We still have problems coming out each week, voting recorded in the wrong ranking order or validity of the San Marino televote (which is aggregated from similar voting countries, because they have no independent telephone system) – surely they should have one jury representing the results of San Marino or there is be trust issues with the ‘ebu’ managing votes. etc etc. the EBU paid a scrutinising body PWC to check the results and they still are not right. One day this will lead to the wrong country being declared the winner!
Am with you
Biggest crimes for me are
-Sweden doing too well with the juries again
-Romania and Armenia not making it into the finals
-Denmark making it into the finals
-Belarus coming 3rd last in the Final and Germany’s 0 points from the televote
You on the point
Well, Belarus should be happy that they could been in final ….its was the worst song from FINAL…. but yes she can SING and i cant get out of my head — yes, he gonna like it —or EBU gonna like it, lets break the rules
The biggest crime is easily Ukraine not participating this year because of everything that went down at Vidbir 2019. It is absolutely shambolic what happened there, and really takes disrespecting the phrase “Eurovision isn’t about politics” to a whole new level.
U right it’s a crime
I think the biggest injustice is that countries that should have qualified didn’t because of mistakes in the juries’ voting. We all know what a bummer it is to see your country eliminated in the semis, and we know the joy of hearing your country being called as a qualifier. Lithuania and Poland were robbed of that joy by people who had one job to do, were paid to do that job, and failed at it. They had 24 long hours to do that job (between the jury rehearsal and the live show), and they still failed at it.
Yes yes yes
My biggest crime this year is DNA collection
Biggest crime for 2019’s edition?
All. Everything.
That was for my point of vue the worst edition for years. Nobody talk about Ukraine, or the fact that Netanyahou try to use Eurovision for his hown benefits.
Friends said that it was very well organised un Tel-Aviv, but for those who stay at home that was horrible.
So sad for Israël, so sad for Eurofans…
What the hell are you talking about? Didn’t take your pills today yet or something? There was absolutely 0 influence from Israeli politicians on this contest and therefore KAN were ”punished” by organizing it all from its budget alone. There were only few technical issues during the broadcast and 0 security incidents, invadors etc.
Wrong wat he has whit that?
Are you kidding? you sound like a Hatari fan….
My biggest crime of ESC2019 – is having Bob (and alike) involving politics and propaganda threads where it really should not belong!! It´s Eurovision for god sake !! Music honey! Music !
The biggest crime is the many issues with he voting of the “professional” jurors. The EBU has to do something about that , it has to stop.
My other crime happened before Eurovision and that is the Ukraine matter, the way they treated Maruv and completely ignored the votes of the people who voted. Its outrageous to be honest. Jamala has sunk very deep in my respect for her too.
How can you organise a national selection, and when a winner is crowned , make up all new rules afterwards. Outrageous.
I am with you brother
I agree !
Hatari disrespecting the host country. They should have done It during the performance for more impact OR not at all.
I are right
so it’s okay to disrespect the host country – as long as you do it when FunkyCoffin wants it – otherwise it’s a crime? Have you heard yourself?
Lets be honest, The worsening Jury and televote split every year.
Lets just be honest 2night
Norway is not a worthy winner in any scenario. The jury and televote combination makes a fair result. Maybe not the best, but televoting alone is just a circus
How rude, Norway is not a circus!!
Where on earth you would hear a solng like that if not as a half joke act in Eurovision? Things like that bring the musical level of the competirion down, scaring away serious artists from participating.
Ana, you have a small mind, as proved with your comment further down. I just wish you would stop trolling other people’s opinions.
One of the guys singing for Norway was speaking in Saami. That is why it may have sounded a little weird. It is not a joke, they were trying to bring a little more tradition to the song.
you consider it a joke – but the televoting public of Europe completely disagree with you!
The joke is on You Ana, on You!!
The song was trash if i should be honest, ONLY JOIK save this song ….o my lord
Sadly, we’ll never have another 2017
1. My biggest issue of the year: The messed up jury voting and change in results, of course. 2. The next worst for me has gotta be the fact that this year’s winner won neither the televote NOR the jury vote. The only reason we have our winner is because of the drastic differences between the televote and jury (also, I was very underwhelmed by the winner, but that’s just a side note) 3. I absolutely HATE the new way that they are presenting the televote. 4. Both the televote and jury doing Portugal dirty 5. What the juries did… Read more »
Ah right, we almost forgot that Palest!ne exist. It’s not on the news every freaking minute. Hope that Ukraine will bring Criimea flags next year, also Armenia and Azerbaijan can bring some flags to remind their little conflict. Lets make the whole voting about reminding political issues between the participants. What a fun ESC it will be
Here you go again, Ana, spreading your love.
I am being sarcastic in case you didn’t realise.
Who the F are you? I was talking to a guy with the long comment.
Yes. Everyone’s bad reaction about Greece and Cyprus, but for the fans is totally acceptable when Scandinavia votes each other all the time. Guys. We are fans, not stupid. Don’t act like a mass. It’s hypocrisy.
The difference is that Greece and Cyprus always give each other 12 points every year no matter what and the Scandinavian countries give each other points but it’s not always a dead set of 12 points. When it comes to neighbouring jury votes for e.g. Sweden 12 points mostly comes from the Nordic like Estonia, Iceland or Finland. Norway and Denmark tends to usually “only” give Sweden something in the middle of 5-8 points. If we were to go by only televotes then you’d definitely see Sweden and Norway give each other 12 points and then they’d give Denmark 10… Read more »
The booing by fans was disgraceful! They didn’t boo when other countries did it as well.
Absolutely THIS!
BIGGEST CRIME —- SLAY MARINO in the final 🙁
1. The scandal with the points changing for 14 countries
2. Israel going 45 (?) minutes overtime
3. Madonna (the performance, the interview, ”music makes the people come together YEAH”)
4. Poland and Hungary missing the final
5. Hatari waving the flag
Whining babushkas from Poland were abhorringly distasteful