Country Spotlight - the Poll

[BorisBubbles]

Hey everyone

As some of you may now, I'm slowly chewing my way through our participating countries, analyzing their odds for the upcoming contest. Right now I have already covered Belgium, Czech Republic, Azerbaijan, Spain, Norway and Poland.

However, I do suffer from a somewhat limited time schedule. Because of this, I won't be able to do more than -maybe- 12 editorials total.

So I'm actually curious about is which countries you guys would like to see. I will focus on dark horse countries whenever possible. Everybody already knows the overdogs (Russia / Sweden / Italy / Ukraine), but the real fun/value lies in analyzing countries that show 'Potential' (in one area or another) and either reached successes or may very soon.

This also means the selection is a bit limited whoops :3 Right now the options are the following:

, /, , , , , , , ,

Countries that I'm leaving out & why:

- Non-participants (, , , ) - who cares, bye!
- Countries with a poor track record and no apparent way out. (, , , ) - I may not have many positive things to write, so best not to write anything at all.
- Overdog countries (, , , ) - yawn how fucking boring.
- Countries that offer very little new insights (, , ) - these countries do pretty much the same thing every year without much evolution
- Countries which change their strategy every year (, , ) - pick a lane and then I'll talk.
- San Marino - You have to be fucking kidding me.
- Bulgaria, Australia and the Netherlands - These three will get an editorial for certain, no need to include them in the poll.

Now if I could get this damn' poll to work.... but in the meantime, leave your preferences in the comments below ^__^

 

[Ana Raquel]

I'd go for my top 3 in this contest: Ukraine, Serbia and Moldova.

 

[aardvark]

Russia, Italy and France can't be missed.

 

[BorisBubbles]

Ugh did this seriously post without the poll? Bah!!

I'll fix that.

 

[BorisBubbles]

I'd go for my top 3 in this contest: Ukraine, Serbia and Moldova.

I'll count that as a vote for Moldova! ^_^

Russia, Italy and France can't be missed.

Russia and Italy will absolutely be missed lol. But here's what I would write about them in a nutshell:

Russia - They'll send some cloying, completely insincere pop song fronted by a sov bot who will by most accounts be completely devoid of any quirky characteristics that would make them an interesting person.
Italy - They'll go for a San Remo entrant who will be beloved by the fans and reach top five if he's male or end up table-midfield if she's a woman.

I may do France, but I'd rather wait and see what their entry is actually. It may be too soon to cover them.

 

[Preuss]

Since you're not doing Italy, I'd love to read about Germany because the last decade really was a roller-coaster for them, and the results nothing but remarkable inconsistent

1-10-8-21-18-27-26-25-4-25

 

[Biscuit02]

Do Bulgaria, it will be interesting.

 

[Miloutchi]

Please do Germany.

 

[Biscuit02]

Tbh Greece would be interesting, they repeat the real history, once a superpower, now they crash and burn.

and Bulgaria is the opposite of that.

 

[Daybreak]

What about the countries not mentioned in the first post, like Estonia, Iceland or Austria?

 

[BorisBubbles]

Do Bulgaria, it will be interesting.

certain[/I], no need to include them in the poll.

^__^

What about the countries not mentioned in the first post, like Estonia, Iceland or Austria?

Estonia experienced a recent format change and no longer is the indie haven we've known them to be. Writing about them is definitely too premature at this stage - but I plan on doing Country Spotlights next year as well and Estonia may get one if they establish some sort of discernible pattern.

Likewise, it's too early to talk about Iceland - The fun in the editorials for me lies in picking apart each country's fatal flaws, old habits and streaks. Iceland recently broke their flop streak with Hatari. I'd rather wait until I know what the follow-up entry to "Hatrið mun sigra" will be. (and I won't have time in Feb due to irl commitments, so it'll have to wait until the next off-season.)

Austria is simply not a country that interests me. Same slice of damp squib every year. Hard pass.



Current Tally:

Germany II
Moldova I
Greece/Cyprus I

I'll start an actual poll after the next editorial lol.

 

[Daybreak]

OK, out of this selection I would vote for Albania (one of my favorite countries in recent years) or Slovenia (who clearly have the potential to send memorable entries at least occasionally), neither of which have really had a lot of success yet.

 

[Kaz]

I second this!! ^^ Albania and Slovenia are consistently my two favourite countries in the contest, and I really would like one of them to win soon. I even voted 15 times for Albania and 5 times for Slovenia in the grand final this year.

 

[BorisBubbles]

Albania II
Germany II
Slovenia II
Moldova I
Greece/Cyprus I

Excitement! Hype! Excitement!

 

[Edweis]

So with the current selection, I'd say Romania and Moldova. This past decade they sent some... interesting things.

 

[Ezio]

I want Poland, because they started brilliantly, but soon became an underdog country with still brilliant entries that I adore. Also their politics are interesting.

I also Estonia, because they also started off brilliantly, became overdue for a win, and finally won with a terrible song. In recent years they are a hit or miss. Fan favourites doing poorly and non-favourites doing well.

And I want Portugal, always staying true and wonderful, the perfect underdog that smashed the history recors two years ago.

From the withdrawn countries I would have chosen Hungary, I love 1994 so much.

 

[MooseShoes]

First of all, am enjoying the Country Spotlight articles so congrats to you!

Agree wholeheartedly with [MENTION=13826]Daybreak[/MENTION] and [MENTION=13042]Kaz[/MENTION] about and . Both use NFs and seem to have found more success with native language entries and...

have given us "Hvale ne!" and "Sebi". Am hyped to see what's next.

have qualified two years running from the Semi-Final of Death with very different native language songs. Respect is due.

Having more difficulty deciding on a third country, but for the moment will go with . For me their past two studio cuts have been among the best but they've had trouble translating it onto the stage. (Although I do think Katerine was fantastic!).

(Honourable mention goes to just for their random results over the last decade.)

 

[BorisBubbles]

oh, i was able to add polls anyway.

WHOOPS.

You can go ahead and vote now :3

 

[BorisBubbles]

http://escunited.com/country-spotlight-bulgaria/

This is the schedule for the next Country Spotlights:

- Albania or Slovenia
- Australia
- Whichever country wins the current poll
- The Netherlands

and then I'll probably take a break from writing as I have a busy schedule from January onwards :3

So vote and make it count! Whoever wins the poll will see their CS drop sometime between Christmas and New Year :3