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Eurovision Asia Song Contest 2018 - General Discussion

GRE

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ESC 2020 was cancelled, so EBU should try to bring on this year Eurovision Asia Song Contest.​
 

Mainshow

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Any news? - The ABU TV Song Festival took place but no one did care about it, right?
 

hawadharma

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Any news? - The ABU TV Song Festival took place but no one did care about it, right?

Oh just looked at ABU TVSF 2020 lineup. Malaysian rep is so-so. :LOL:
 

tomos2019

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I am actually really big on the ABU TV Song Festival even if of course I do want an actual contest! In terms of music it is probably more my taste than modern Eurovision given there are a lot of languages and at that time of year it is going to be bigger for me than Junior Eurovision considering I do at least want to see more different parts of the world covered, plus I still found it impressive in 2012 that at least they did make something and we do all make our own rankings anyway at the end of the day so you can to a degree ''suspend your disbelief'' for the end bit! I know it's an unpopular opinion and I'm not exactly the target audience but, I just genuinely would rather watch it some of the time! :lol:
 

Ianp16

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Well, this concept is dead in the water, isn't it? I wonder what on earth happened? Especially after such a grand announcement. Feels like a decade ago that this was going to happen.
 

tuorem

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Well, this concept is dead in the water, isn't it? I wonder what on earth happened? Especially after such a grand announcement. Feels like a decade ago that this was going to happen.

They probably just pulled an announcement out of thin air, hoping it would solve the impediment they faced. But most Asian nations weren't bothered by the concept I assume. Not to mention the issue with time zones, some governments prohibiting certain music scenes, etc. Only Australia was interested :lol: and they're not Asian to begin with.

In my opinion, it just goes to show Eurovision is more than a mere TV show: if it didn't have geopolitical and historical roots, it probably wouldn't have ever existed or been around for so long.

The same applies to the spin-offs (JESC, dancer, choir, you name it) that don't get quite as much attention and success because they didn't stem from such a special place.
 

tomos2019

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I think at least South Korea and possibly Japan are interested too, I just think if a song contest on another continent is going to work surely Asia or Africa should be easy enough? They don't even have to do all of Asia to begin with, I mean Eurovision was mostly just Western Europe for quite a long time! I've always wondered why they've never attempted a world contest too besides the 'World Popular Song Festival' which was quite Asian-focused anyway.
 

tuorem

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Yes, but the difference is that Eurovision was created out of a common desire from several countries to unite in a very specific context. Here it was mainly SBS and Björkman asking countries to adhere to an existing televised concept they weren't familiar with.

I think we've all witnessed how the Eurovision Asia project gradually went downhill the minute they said they would eventually just ask artists to take part without the intermediary of national broadcasters (a sign that negotiations had failed), and then it would be organized every four years in Australia, like... They'd be wiser to let go than persist imo.

If an international Asian contest similar to what we have should come to life, it must come from the countries of that continent first.
Africa is a question mark, that would be awesome, but again I doubt it would work if it didn't come from Africans.
 

Lance Esgard

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Well, this concept is dead in the water, isn't it? I wonder what on earth happened? Especially after such a grand announcement. Feels like a decade ago that this was going to happen.
In terms of what happened to Eurovision Asia, it looks like two things happened.

The first is that Eurovision Asia was announced prematurely, before enough planning and preliminary talks had been done to see how achievable the project truly was. This may have been because Australia's one-off appearance may have been intended to be more permanent by Jon Ola Sand, but that doesn't mean that Australia knew that, or that enough of the EBU felt that way. It is important to note the timing. Australia made a 'one-off' appearance in Eurovision 2015. In March 2016 the idea of Eurovision Asia was announced. It is possible the timing of the Eurovision Asia announcement was part of helping to convince the EBU of Australia's worth in remaining in Eurovision as a bridge between Europe and Asia.

Or it could have been out of eagerness and optimism.

The second thing that happened, as has been publicly stated, is that Eurovision Asia proved to be too geopolitically difficult.
In February 2020, TVTonight (a major source for reporting developments in Australian TV) stated that their sources had said that one of the key difficulties was that several broadcasters were reluctant to participate if China was not involved. That may be related to geopolitical reasons. Other geopolitical reasons may include any relevant lingering barriers between South Korea and Japan r, which arose out of past conflict. Those barriers opened up in the 2000s but not fully.

That same update saw this statement from Paul Clarke:

"We were in Japan in December but ultimately it doesn’t come down to just SBS being interested. It has to be some major partners as well… and Northern Asian partners. It’s just still in development." The reference to Northern Asian partners means that China, Japan and South Korea are important to whether or not Eurovision Asia happens in future. It seems that interest in Japan is solid (as evidenced by that December 2019 meeting) but that isn't enough.

A possible part of the issue is that getting suitable partners on board may be complicated by Eurovision Asia being part of the Eurovision brand and as a result, certain arrangements that might get more nations on board may not be acceptable to the EBU. For example, allowing individual broadcasters to not be bound to broadcast the entire show.
 

hawadharma

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If Eurovision Asia is happening in 2021, this song will represent Malaysia.
It just won our 35th National Song Championship Award 2021 (AJL35) last week.

 

Eulaliya

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It's official: Eurovision Asia is cancelled. Here lies every Asian's hopes and dreams.


So should we move this subforum into the archive?
 
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