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Australia AUSTRALIA 2021 - Montaigne - Technicolour

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  • 12

    25 12.7%
  • 10

    34 17.3%
  • 8

    21 10.7%
  • 7

    25 12.7%
  • 6

    11 5.6%
  • 5

    20 10.2%
  • 4

    16 8.1%
  • 3

    10 5.1%
  • 2

    11 5.6%
  • 1

    10 5.1%
  • 0

    14 7.1%

  • Total voters
    197

escYOUnited

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Joined
September 28, 2009
Posts
1,355
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I wanna be close to my mother
I wanna belong to the world
A mirror that shows technicolor
I'd be a magnificent girl

But everything is frustrating
Everything moves along
Faster than I can relate to

But I got power, yeah
Midnight is the hour, yeah
Time to take off your cloaks

Techni-technicolour
Techni-technicolour
If we stand together
We can do whatever
Techni-technicolour
Techni-technicolour
If we care for one another
We can

I wanna know that there's a future
That I can move myself towards
And yet I promise you
Yes all you nasty dudes
I don't need certainty
To get my pot of gold

Everything is frustrating
Everything moves along
Faster than I can relate to

But we got grace, yeah
We got style and lasers, yeah
Time to take off your cloaks

Techni-technicolour
Techni-technicolour
If we stand together
We can do whatever
Techni-technicolour
Techni-technicolour
If we care for one another
We can

Shine
Shine
Shine
Shine

Techni-technicolour
Techni-technicolour
If we stand together
We can do whatever
Techni-technicolour
Techni-technicolour
If we care for one another
We can

Shine​
 
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Franzilein

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Joined
March 5, 2015
Posts
1,366
I just like the chorus of the song. Very catchy.

Unfortunately, everything else sounds somewhat contrived to me, too many key changes and that bridge at the end should be improved. :cautious:

Not a fan of the song either; but it works in a way, no? The song is called Technicolour after all, so why not show that on a musical level as well? :p
 

revallsay

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Joined
January 7, 2014
Posts
8,132
Montaigne - Technicolour - Australia

It is better than her previous song, but I am not a fan of, it is not my cup of tea. It's a little bit weird and annoying. If Australia is set to nonqualify, then it would be with this song, I think.

4/12
 

Zonne147

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March 6, 2019
Posts
1,601
Montaigne has a weirdly appealing voice and that's not the problem for me since I liked Don't Break Me from the very beginning.

There are some more good things to point out here but after all since what matters for me is how enjoyable a song is to my ears, it's hard for me to like this. There are several parts that kinda of make me cringe and I don't enjoy the rest enough to make me forget about the weird parts.

I'm sorry but I can't give more than :3: to Australia this year :(
 

Matt

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There is still uncertainty over whether Montaigne will be in Rotterdam — or if the Australian delegation will have to compete with their live-on-tape performance.

Sietse Bakker said, “Australia is difficult, for example, because it has fairly strict travel restrictions.” “We hope to hear more soon.”

So we may have a 38 countries in Rotterdam situation though there is still hope.
 

Ianp16

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792
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Manchester
This could give Australia either a huge advantage or disadvantage. Imagine if (unlikely) they win and they're on the other side of the globe. Or in a hotel room. So awkward.
 

Cliona

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February 21, 2021
Posts
38
Not unexpected, I thought that ages ago. I couldn't see her travelling. Sad for her but she still gets to compete. The song isnt great, cant see it qualifying anyway.
 

Kaz

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January 12, 2014
Posts
2,082
Here are my thoughts on the matter, as an Aussie.

I will preface this by saying that our nation has been incredibly lucky throughout the entire pandemic. We have a population of 25 million, and since the very start of the pandemic we have had less than 30,000 cases. The only competing nations with less cases than Australia are Iceland and San Marino, with Australia's population being 70x and 700x the size of each of those nations respectively.

With that being said, we have had some of the tightest border restrictions anywhere in the world. All citizens leaving must apply for an exemption. Montaigne's participation at Eurovision would have placed her in one of two exemption categories - either 'travel for your business/employer' or 'travel in the national interest'. In either of these categories, Montaigne and her delegation's application to travel would 'generally be approved'.

However, Montaigne and her personal crew are not employees of our national broadcaster, SBS. Yes, they have likely engaged in some form of contractual obligation to each other, but she is not employed by this business. This leaves the second category open - 'travel in the national interest'. The document above goes on to state that one example of this might be 'participation in elite sporting teams representing Australia'.

The Australian government has previously upheld this as a valid reason for travel. In September 2020, a national cricket team were granted a private business class flight to the UK. Athletes from dozens of countries were permitted to travel to Melbourne for the Australian Open in February 2021. Formula One racers will even be allowed to bypass hotel quarantine when they arrive in Australia in November 2021. So with all this overwhelming precedent, why should Montaigne be trapped in Australia?

Well, this all ties into our government's larger narrative of promoting sports while devaluing the arts, humanities, and creative industries. For those of you who don't know much about Australian politics, our federal government is currently run by a mob called the Liberal/National Coalition. Don't be fooled by the name - they are actually a socially conservative party. Thanks to the pandemic, this government has used this opportunity to devalue the creative industries and entertainment (one of the hardest hit sectors) even further.

Sports have had some of the loosest restrictions of any industry in Australia throughout the entirety of the pandemic. Even now, some public venues are unable to run at pre-coronavirus capacity, but sporting stadiums which can fit over 10,000 people? Full capacity. During Sydney's most recent cluster in December 2020, all public venues in certain suburbs were required to shut down...except sporting venues, which were allowed to remain open, of course (with a slightly reduced capacity).

Honestly, our government's abysmal response to the creative industries actually all started years ago, in 2014, when the government first introduced 'lockout laws' to Sydney nightlife. This imposed a curfew in certain precincts of the city, and nightlife and live entertainment suffered immensely. Many bars were unable to continue business, and live entertainers and musicians were more limited in their options of venues. When the pandemic hit, this only further affected small businesses and entertainment venues, and even more people employed in this sector were forced out of their jobs. Meanwhile, at the start of 2021, the government doubled the cost of creative arts and humanities degrees. This was under a facade of wanting to push young people into 'more future-focused careers,' which tells you everything you need to know about how they perceive the creative industries to be useless.

What's more, the SBS has had its funding slashed by this government (alongside our other national broadcaster, the ABC). The government is actively encouraging Australians to instead absorb news media that belongs to Rupert Murdoch, as these news streams (Channel 7, Channel 10, news . com . au, The Australian, Sky News) all lean right politically, and all work to support various government agendas including climate denialism, tax cuts to fossil fuel companies, limited coronavirus stimuluses for the creative industries, and justifying our Prime Minister's attempts to cover up s*xual assaults which have occurred inside Parliament House.

I realise I have gone on a bit of a tangent. So why is Montaigne unable to travel to Rotterdam? To put it simply, the Australian government doesn't believe in the value of arts and entertainment. Despite Eurovision having a larger audience than the 2021 Australian Open, the 2019 Australian Grand Prix, and the entirety of the Australia-India 2020 cricket tournament series, this is simply another manifestation of how the Australian government is actively trying to disenfranchise the creative industries and discourage people from pursuing the arts.
 

Euterpa

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March 17, 2016
Posts
297
Here are my thoughts on the matter, as an Aussie.

(...)


Thank you so much for writing this and for writing it that well!

I cannot imagine how upset and/or disappointed Australian eurofans must be at this moment. I'm not Australian, I don't even like Technicolour, it's not one of my semi 1 qualifiers...but I got upset when I read the news, and I was upset by the way it was announced...

It was made like a little funny "gotcha" sketch, except it wasn't "gotcha!", there was actual negative news behind it all. No, the situation is not funny. And no, the situation is not acceptable. Although...I guess that the Australian delegation was not ok with the decision as well and they tried their best to keep being positive about it all because Montaigne, as every other participant this year, deserves to enjoy this opportunity. I guess they didn't want to let anyone or anything ruin it. Or as Ana Soklič would put it, might as well accept it now...

I've seen tweets saying this is understandable, safety first, etc...I'm all for supporting necessary measures for safety. I haven't been out of my little town since the pandemic started in March 2020, except for necessary doctor appointments and for more important shopping of goods that are not available in my town. So I believe that I can say that this "it's for safety, it's how it is, we must accept it" is...hard to believe and accept as a justified move. They're not doing this just because of safety concerns. I didn't buy it and I'm not buying it.

How can athletes travel around the world, play sports that include a lot of close contact with players of own team and those from the opposing team...celebrate their goals, points, whatever - by hugging, breathing into each other's necks...and that's ok. Andthen I should accept that a singer cannot compete in a contest with rigorous safety measures, regular testing, social distancing that is much much MUCH easier to achieve on the stage than on the field...and that's a safety concern for them?

I am both sad and upset for Montaigne and I really think she should have been allowed to go to Rotterdam and have her moment on the big stage. And nothing can change my mind about it.
 
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crashworld

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Posts
3,910
Thanks @Kaz for putting things into perspective for us who are not from Australia.

It saddens me to know that there are "double standards" especially when the government is OK for foreigners to enter the countries (with higher infection rates) for sporting events and they don't allow their own people to travel out for "similar" events considering the number of people of the Australian ESC delegation going out is considerably smaller than those from the sporting events who are coming in/came in.

I agree Montaigne deserves her spotlight to be on the actual ESC stage considering this is her second chance.
It must have been really disappointing for her to have it denied again from her.
 
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Ianp16

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Posts
792
Location
Manchester
Like @Kaz has put it, it's INSANE that sports people are flying in and out just to bat a ball about a court for a silly trophy but a singer can't fly away to represent for Eurovision. What's more painful is that this is two years in a row she had this opportunity to take part in ESC and get her music to a different audience and it's been cancelled AGAIN. It's also unlikely she'll be back for a third year too. I guess taking part and not being geographically close to Europe always had some kind of risk, it's just bizarre and unfortunate that such a risk has happened 5 years into Australia's participation.

I personally disliked Montaigne's entry last year. This year I much prefer and even give my :12: points to in the ranking last week! Of which I thought I would never. I understand that she will still be taking part from afar but I can see this as a massive disadvantage if the other entries are all live. It will just look... Weird. What a shame.
 
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