Cheating in Eurovision voting

[anto475]

I can tell you 2 names: Bassflow and G:son. As they will totally dominate the contest next year, they currently discuss who will receive the winning contribution and who will be given the fillers. Bassflow is obsessed with volcanos and will do what he can to promote a volcano country such as Island. It doesn't hurt it's a Nordic country as well. G:son is keen on vampires, so he's more leaning towards Romania. Besides it's about time the two wins the contest, don't you agree?

How do you know all of this?! This is pretty alarming stuff, if true!

 

[Leydan]

How do you know all of this?! This is pretty alarming stuff, if true!

Can't wait for when someone who obsessed with Islands gets in there. Top 3 will UK, Ireland and Malta. hahaha

 

[Rodrigo]

'' Torbjörn Wester of Swedish news organization Skånska Dagbladet reported Sunday on an undisclosed source from a national delegation at the 2013 contest who revealed new information about the cheating scandal. The source alleged that they were approached by the delegations of Macedonia, Azerbaijan, and an unnamed Southern European country, all who wished to exchange votes in exchange for a substantial amount of money or press. Ljupcho Mirkovski of the Macedonian delegation denies the allegations and further accuses the source of defamation. ''

Ugh! This year's ESC was totally a mess, and the EBU doesn't even cares! I am also shocked about Macedonia :/

 

[anto475]

Can't wait for when someone who obsessed with Islands gets in there. Top 3 will UK, Ireland and Malta. hahaha

i.e. someone who re-instates the language rule. we'll win 3 times in a row again and then send our best violinist to Norway or something just to give RTÉ a break, worked pretty well 20 years ago

 

[Pawhlen]

How do you know all of this?! This is pretty alarming stuff, if true!

Sounds like a typical conspiration theory to me

 

[cassio]

I think that this Esc freakshow were the audience is called dancingqueens and the performers looks like men in dresses dosnt have enough scandals ....... I hope that there will be many dramaqueens among the press next year so we Can have more excelent stories about cheating bribe and blackmail.

 

[CC92]

Article: Frontman of Yüksek Sedakat and Turkish delegation knew about Azerbaijan buying 2011 victory for 30,000,000 $.

 

[Farahim]

^^ dude where did you get this "exact" information?

 

[anto475]

Article: Frontman of Yüksek Sedakat and Turkish delegation knew about Azerbaijan buying 2011 victory for 30,000,000 $.

12points.tv are picking up on this too, and to be fair the fact that Azerbaijan won with Running Scared of all songs, especially in a year with much much better songs, adds a lot of credence to this claim. I mean Running Scared is basically a polished version of I'm Still Alive, better choreography/lyrics/melody/lights, and not just gunning with sex appeal. And considering it was a year with entries like the Italian return with the amazing jazz piece, Eric Saade's power piece, Jedward's crazy screaming, the Greek masterpiece, even the Ukrainian sand art with the mediocre song! But this pithy ballad won, and now there's a claim like this from someone who was not just involved in the contest in that year, but who is from the country that is Azerbaijan's biggest buddy in this contest. I mean fair enough if it was Emmy saying these things, or even Alexey Vorobyov or Loukas Giorkas, but for a Turk to say that is massive. I can only hope the EBU don't just dismiss this.

 

[DanielLuis]

12points.tv are picking up on this too, and to be fair the fact that Azerbaijan won with Running Scared of all songs, especially in a year with much much better songs, adds a lot of credence to this claim. I mean Running Scared is basically a polished version of I'm Still Alive, better choreography/lyrics/melody/lights, and not just gunning with sex appeal. And considering it was a year with entries like the Italian return with the amazing jazz piece, Eric Saade's power piece, Jedward's crazy screaming, the Greek masterpiece, even the Ukrainian sand art with the mediocre song! But this pithy ballad won, and now there's a claim like this from someone who was not just involved in the contest in that year, but who is from the country that is Azerbaijan's biggest buddy in this contest. I mean fair enough if it was Emmy saying these things, or even Alexey Vorobyov or Loukas Giorkas, but for a Turk to say that is massive. I can only hope the EBU don't just dismiss this.

If anything 2011 is the year where I could see "Running Scared" win. Below average year with many middle of the road songs that aren't bad but not good either. Azerbaijan got a great draw and won, not surprising. I mean, look at the rest of the top 5: Italy, horrible generic mainstream Sweden, underwhelming ballad Ukraine and middle of the road pop song Denmark.

 

[CC92]

2011 was an awfully bad year in terms of song quality but still there were definitely more 'jury'-friendlier numbers other than just Italy (i.e. Denmark, Slovenia, Ireland, Ukraine, ...). The alleged 223 points from the 'plebs' look even more ridiculous if you ask me (on the same level with Sweden, more liked than Greece, England and Bosnia – yeah, sure ). Funny how it every year happens to be Azerbaijan being so overrated.

 

[DanielLuis]

If Azerbaijan spent that much money on rigging the juries in 2011 it was a mistake considering they finished SEVENTY points behind jury's winner Italy

 

[CC92]

^ In the end, however, was the only important thing to finish above Sweden and that's been achieved.

 

[Leydan]

I just hope they leave and join that new Turkvision thing. They would fit in absolutely fantastically with Turkey and other 'Turkish' countries/regions. Certainly create a very interesting 2014 competition points wise - especially with the inevitable Greek withdrawal.

 

[MyHeartIsYours]

Wooo Turkvision sounds great, leave Eurovision to us!!!

 

[anto475]

Interesting counter to esctoday's interview with Sietse Bakker over on esctips!

The case of Sietse Bakker is an odd enough one actually, upon reflection of tweets from @eurovicious two days ago.

In any big commercial company, the executives at the top who run the thing have reached their position through competence, experience and...

...climbing the ladder. How can we trust an organisation when the executive supervisor in charge of a multi-million-euro event...

...and who is also the PR face of the organisation is not an experienced executive, but someone who horizontally transferred to the position

...from running a fansite for it?

I don't know why this only just occurred to me. You don't put someone who runs a football website in charge of FIFA...

Very mysterious I do find, although I don't think his appointment to the EBU has much to do with cheating, it does hint at irregularities and organisational oddities within the EBU.

 

[FilipFromSweden]

I agree that Azerbaijans victory in 2011 was weird. It was a lot of songs competing for the 1st place and I was schocked and surprised to see Azerbaijan take the victory. Does not seem weird at all thinking about Azerbaijan trying to buy the victory for 30.000.000 $ when they pretty much rebuilt the whole Baku just for the show. Sigh.

 

[malta]

agree with above

 

[wyq614]

Survey over for the small community of Chinese ESC Fans, we gathered 17 votes:

I believe and I'm sure that Azerbaijan cheated ---- 5 votes
I don't believe it, since Azerbaijani entries have been good enough and there is no need to cheat ---- 6 votes
I don't believe it, but I don't like Azerbaijani entries ---- 1 vote
5 did not vote

I think voting riggings exist in Eurovision ---- 12 votes
I don't think that voting riggings exist ---- 0 vote
5 did not vote

A fan comments below: To tell you the truth, in 2011 when Azerbaijan won the Eurovision, I'm more interested in the points and rank of Italy.

Any of you think the same?

And I have one more question, Belarus, a country that used to change their entry or even contestant after their national selections (Many allege the influence of Lukashenko regime), why aren't there any rumours about their vote rigging, simply because their results are not that good?

 

[anto475]

A fan comments below: To tell you the truth, in 2011 when Azerbaijan won the Eurovision, I'm more interested in the points and rank of Italy.

Any of you think the same?

I actually think this is kinda weird too. Getting Italy back was such a prestigious thing and ultimately the best parting gift/starting act of Stockselius/Sand (I forget who was in charge when they came back). I mean they expanded the already-controversial Big 4 into the Big 5 just for them. And then they came second with a fairly chilled song in 2011, then remained within the top 10 despite very tough competition. Methinks Italy is being kept sweet just so that they stay in, although then again, while Eurovision has undergone radical changes since 1997, San Remo has kept going and has evolved in a much more different way to Eurovision. Maybe then the quality of music from San Remo is so good as a result.