Live EUROVISION 2025 - REHEARSALS AND FINAL DISCUSSION THREAD

[Sean]

Please post all discussion, content and reaction relating to the rehearsals in Basel in this thread!

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Semi-Final 1 discussion begins on page 38 of this thread.
Semi-Final 2 discussion begins on page 96 of this thread.
Final discussion begins on page 157 of this thread.

 

[jatojo]

Gimmick artists are more willing to take part despite controversy, so I think that's the real reason as to why we had so many novelty songs.

And yet, the ballads with not much going on on stage, were massively succesful. So I think you could just as well criticize Eurovision for being too friendly to the slow boring songs.

The diversity was massive this year. That doesn't mean it was quality all together, but Eurovision has so often been blamed for being dominated by monotonous pop music, and it certainly wasn't like this here in 2025.

 

[gigi_copp3]

Nah, I don't think Israel is winning anytime soon: their televote ceiling is lowering year by year, after that 323 this year got "just" around 300, next year it will be like 250. With juries not giving them more than 50/60 point it will be fine.

This 2nd place is due to a terrible competition with no universal jury and televote magnets apart from , and with a little bit of luck would have got the 2nd place.

I think we are in a situation like the Russian one in the mid 2010s, but with the fandom that is in almost its entirety against Israel.

 

[aef]

I

Ahem *clears throat*

Eurovision Song Contest 2011 - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

really don’t understand all that 2011 hate alle the time

 

[jatojo]

So... what now?

Something about Eurovision being in a crisis, things have to change, something needs to be done about Israel, the countries that didn't qualify have to step up, there are too many entries that are too gimmicky, it was all a big mess, it was all too predictable.

Etc etc.

 

[aef]

Who do you think voiced the Italian mouse

I love you for comments like this one hahaha.

I was afraid you’d disappear from the Forum at one point together with our beloved Ezio but I’m glad you’re still here.

 

[aef]

So... what now?

Real fans are recovering from the mental breakdown now for a a couple of days and then try to cope with PED by randomly posting possible acts in the 2026 threads.

 

[Grinch]

So apparently I fell asleep during jury results and woke up in the morning missing the whole thing (which perfectly summarizes how excited I had been about ESC 2025). I've been catching up now an they need to change some things. It can't go on like this!

Jury voting is rigged, they are just trying to make sure is not winning. On the other side, is getting 12s left and right from public. What is this?

The only constant is getting love from public

Also I like how that boring unoriginal song getting what it deserved at the end.

AGAIN AND AGAIN, ABOLISH THE JURY!​

 

[Ajeje Brazorf]

So apparently I fell asleep during jury results and woke up in the morning missing the whole thing (which perfectly summarizes how excited I had been about ESC 2025). I've been catching up now an they need to change some things. It can't go on like this!

Jury voting is rigged, they are just trying to make sure is not winning. On the other side, is getting 12s left and right from public. What is this?

The only constant is getting love from public

Also I like how that boring unoriginal song getting what it deserved at the end.

AGAIN AND AGAIN, ABOLISH THE JURY!​

Of course Jury vote is rigged: we don't want Tel Aviv to host every year... If there is one thing we absolutely need these days are the juries.

 

[aef]

So apparently I fell asleep during jury results and woke up in the morning missing the whole thing (which perfectly summarizes how excited I had been about ESC 2025). I've been catching up now an they need to change some things. It can't go on like this!

Jury voting is rigged, they are just trying to make sure is not winning. On the other side, is getting 12s left and right from public. What is this?

The only constant is getting love from public

Also I like how that boring unoriginal song getting what it deserved at the end.

AGAIN AND AGAIN, ABOLISH THE JURY!​

Wow what a nonsense posting.

 

[seriouslyscratchy1]

Real fans are recovering from the mental breakdown now for a a couple of days and then try to cope with PED by randomly posting possible acts in the 2026 threads.

I am a real fan

 

[Lona]

Maybe also a limit on televotes. No 20 votes/person, maybe 5 or max 5 for one country, and ID rather than creditcard/phonecard based. People can have multiple creditcards or simcards and send like 100 points to one country that way, which has been proven some israel supporters did, but multiple id's is harder.

The channels make money from televoting though. They want high numbers. I would also like lower votes per person, but I think it won't happen because of it.

And demanding an ID will stop a lot of ordinary average voters, exactly those who are not so obsessed with ESC and a specific country and might vote the fairest on average because of it. People who want to support their country of origin or their heritage country have an extra motivation to go though a more complicated registering process a lot of ordinary viewers are not willing to do. Also a lot of people have privacy concerns and having to give an ID would be disapproved by many, too.

 

[Grinch]

Of course Jury vote is rigged: we don't want Tel Aviv to host every year... If there is one thing we absolutely need these days are the juries.

Jury (supposedly) exists to judge the entries professionally and prevent block voting etc. things happening. They are not doing that.

either needs to be banned or be treated same as others. This can't go on.

 

[jatojo]

The channels make money from televoting though.

Only a few private TV stations do that. In Northern and Middle Europe at least, I don't think any channels earn a lot of money from televoting.

 

[SpiritofKeiino]

It is a matter of time that Israel sends a good song -geopolitical context aside- and wins. I think this will happen in less than 5 years. And 90% of countries will participate anyway. It's so lame

I fear this is gonna happen too, I'm opting out of ESC for a while if that happens. Don't think i could stomach it. Israel is gonna keep topping the televote and if the juries put them on left side (even lower top 10) they'll win it. I miss the innocent days of 2021.

 

[HanVic123]

Very weird results this year. The top 3 is my least favorite top 3 since I started watching, all of them were in my bottom 5 of the final. Happy for Italy, Latvia, Ukraine and Albania (even though I would have loved for them to get an even higher placements)! And also, I think 4th is a fair result for the sauna brothers.

 

[MopManMoss]

I am a real fan

Of confusing restaurant staff

 

[jatojo]

randomly posting possible acts in the 2026 threads

True. Like as if it's a football team and we're discussing which young players should be picked for the next season. I'm afraid that's not how it works in the random world of popular music.

 

[Geborgenheit]

What a pathetic discussion over last pages. Not a single word about the winner which is obviously a weak song, just hate about Israel and Ukraine.

 

[SpiritofKeiino]

I think it's pretty safe to declare the brief post-pandemic golden era (with Måneskin, Rosa-Linn, Duncan, Daði etc all going viral) as over. The reputation of the contest is in the toilet due to both Israel and unfortunately also to some degree Ukraine.

People complaining about the quality of the songs were clearly correct, otherwise the votes wouldn't have been so split. The quality will continue to trend downwards as long as circumstances are like this.

I don't think it's a coincidence that the UK had to import Scandi songwriters the year after Olly Alexander had such a bad experience, or that Olly (the Italian one lol) turned down ESC after his friend Angelina Mango witnessed the shithshow in Malmö. Gimmick artists are more willing to take part despite controversy, so I think that's the real reason as to why we had so many novelty songs.

Agree with this. I feel like the contest is moving to a place I don't like and I don't think there are easy or palatable solutions.

1.Decline in overall song quality over 2024 and 2025. Didn't like last year's winner or this years.
2. Israel topping televote seems an inevitablity for the foreseeable future and a win is likely in next few years. It's not about the song or performance, it's mainly political votes. They could send a farting cat and they'd still get the votes.
3. Disappointed with Ukraine getting great televote points for IMO a very weak package this year. I understand it's diaspora plus others want to show solidarity...but it's boring although maybe unavoidable.
4. Drop-off in participating countries (Eastern Europe particularly) is disappointing and I fear we're gonna lose more.
5. Strange jury decisions like burning Albania.
6. Worried about corruption e.g. the Cyprus SF televote this year looks strange even though they didn't Q, it looks like they were up to something.
7. (Maybe controversial) Staging gone over the top. Too many gimmicks and getting harder to compete for small broadcasters.
8. Crowd muting feels like lying to the public.

 

[SpiritofKeiino]

Theydy Gaga was peak cringe and dreading the voting didn't help sitting through it

It was an embarrassment to Switzerland and shouldn't have gone ahead. A crisis unfolding on stage.