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Slovenia SLOVENIA 2015 - Maraaya - Here for You

How do you rate this song?

  • 12

    184 51.0%
  • 10

    58 16.1%
  • 8

    37 10.2%
  • 7

    22 6.1%
  • 6

    14 3.9%
  • 5

    14 3.9%
  • 4

    10 2.8%
  • 3

    3 0.8%
  • 2

    5 1.4%
  • 1

    4 1.1%
  • 0

    10 2.8%

  • Total voters
    361

evija87

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March 15, 2011
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Bydgoszcz, Poland
One of my very favourite songs. Shame about starting place, it took most of the chances for great result :/
I agree staging was kind of slow, flat and with not perfect camera work just didn't do this song much justice. I think it's brilliant, Marjetka's voice is fantastic and this will remain one of my all time favourites for this decade at least.
What can I say, keep calm and xmusic to Maraaya!
 

tuorem

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We simply suck at staging. The only year since the 2000s that we got it right was in 2007, every other year it was either lacklustre or simply beyond awful(2008). Even San marino is better. The only country that's worse is Macednonia(still can't believe what they have done to their song this year and last year too).

Anyway, I highly doubt that we can qualify 3 years in a row and since I'm sure that Björktroll will come up with more stupid changes, I probably won't care much about ESC next year. As seen in the past years, the easiest way to get a decent result is to have a good singer that performs a vocal acrobatics. It's not a winning formula, but should get enough support to achieve a nice result. So maybe RTVSLO should try searching for such songs/artists in the future.

Don't say such things. Next year, buy an overhead projector and voilà! xqueenbitch

Seriously though, there is anything to be ashamed of this year as far as Slovenia is concerned. You got the girl, the vocals, the song, and the staging wasn't bad. I just expected a more dynamic camera work. Apart from that, the winner relied entirely on visuals while you've been punched in the face with this disgraceful 1st slot. Thank you not EBU. 14th place is unacceptable considering you were one of the major acts this year.

Björktroll needs to retire by the way, I also fear some changes again. But please keep the faith. xkiss
 

strupberry

Active member
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February 7, 2011
Posts
410
Sooo, about Sweden 2016... can we just send Maja Keuc since she's already there? :p There's a decent chance for a good song, good dress and good staging, just saying...
 

EscGeek

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Milky Way
yes! Maja with a self-written song! I trust her completely:cool:
 

Carian

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Posts
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Village in Slovenia
I'm really sad about my favorite failing like this. The way Germany voted this year was awful and all my votes didn't help. :(

Slovenia would have at least deserved to be in the top 10.

Thanx Chorizo for your votes... I voted Czech republic in the semis, and when I saw my votes didn't help at all, luckily I didn't try in finals... Voting and winning ESC is becoming a joke, a comedy. Imo, the best part of the ESC are fans and the fact that we know each other's culture better. I cannot count the songs, languages, and singers that I have discovered through ESC. For this very reason, I will be always thankful to Eurovision. However, the rest leaves bad taste in mouth - now, for years already...
 

Carian

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Don't say such things. Next year, buy an overhead projector and voilà! xqueenbitch

Seriously though, there is anything to be ashamed of this year as far as Slovenia is concerned. You got the girl, the vocals, the song, and the staging wasn't bad. I just expected a more dynamic camera work. Apart from that, the winner relied entirely on visuals while you've been punched in the face with this disgraceful 1st slot. Thank you not EBU. 14th place is unacceptable considering you were one of the major acts this year.

Björktroll needs to retire by the way, I also fear some changes again. But please keep the faith. xkiss

I really like your posts Tuorem. You should get an interactive TV show about ESC :) Keep that wisdom of yours pouring on us xrose

As for your implicit criticism/critique of what was wrong this year, I couldn't agree more with you. However, unlike you, I do think that changes are needed. When in mid 2000's "Eastern" countries started winning ESC, juries were brought back - to counterbalance the "block" voting. Funny, now when it seems that the only effect of these juries was that now we have total Nordic domination of ESC - over the last 7 years, they won four times, and in the last 4 years, 3 times. Over the last 7 years, only one Eastern country won, for Germany and Austria definitively do not belong to the East. So? Who profited from juries since 2009? Western countries (and here Nordic are included). So, when we sum up, this system doesn't work either, and I don't see this year's complaints by Eastern countries nothing less legitimate than those outcries of Nordic countries 10 years ago, when everyone complained about Russian and Balkan block voting... Now, in this current system, which flawed by the same problem, it would be utterly unfair to say that system works. No, it doesn't, and changes must be introduced, otherwise, I will have to say something I never thought I would: if the system doesn't become more just for all contestants, it is better for Slovenia to withdraw - just like Croatia did - and let the "Western" countries from the north of Europe have this farse for themselves.

So, this is my opinion. But! Even if Slovenia withdraws, it doesn't mean that fans of ESC in Slovenia will die out. No, not all. We will still watch the show, but simply out of the protest, it would be better to keep fingers away. After all, this wouldn't have happened for the first time, for Yugoslavia withdrew from the ESC in late 1970's for always ending low = in the bottom of the ESC scoreboard. And funnily, reasons back then weren't much different from those that I have put forward in this post. To sum up, EBU must come up with something, because in this current format, ESC is anything but a fair MUSIC festival.
 

Carian

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No-one
can do it better than Maja.

No-one was a dull song for a great singer. Today, NO-ONE remembers Maja's song apart from ESC fans. It isn't either airplayed in Slovenia... The song is simply heavy... Maraaya gave us much better song this year than ANYONE before from Slovenia. xcheers
 

Carian

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If Maja Keuc, oops, sorry, now she is called AMAYA, comes back to ESC, she will probably represent Sweden, and win for them the 7th time. She doesn't seem too be interested in her homeland any longer... Sorry, guys, for crushing your dreams xqueenbitch
 

Milos-BC

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Serbia
Even though the song is great, both performances of Maraaya were a letdown for me (the vocal part), and I thought it may pull the song out of the top 15. Luckily that didn't happen. In the end, quite a solid result :D With a better performance I believe it would have ended in top 10. This way, the result still isn't bad at all.
 

Carian

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Even though the song is great, both performances of Maraaya were a letdown for me (the vocal part), and I thought it may pull the song out of the top 15. Luckily that didn't happen. In the end, quite a solid result :D With a better performance I believe it would have ended in top 10. This way, the result still isn't bad at all.

I don't think it was her vocals. She hit the notes, wasn't singing out of the tune as some singers :) Imo, it was the staging and dress - this is also estimated by juries. And the TV audience didn't like it either. Well, as I said in one of my earlier posts: even Marjetka's son told her that her dress is ugly. She said this by herself :) So, is there anything to add? :)
 

tuorem

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I really like your posts Tuorem. You should get an interactive TV show about ESC :) Keep that wisdom of yours pouring on us xrose

As for your implicit criticism/critique of what was wrong this year, I couldn't agree more with you. However, unlike you, I do think that changes are needed. When in mid 2000's "Eastern" countries started winning ESC, juries were brought back - to counterbalance the "block" voting. Funny, now when it seems that the only effect of these juries was that now we have total Nordic domination of ESC - over the last 7 years, they won four times, and in the last 4 years, 3 times. Over the last 7 years, only one Eastern country won, for Germany and Austria definitively do not belong to the East. So? Who profited from juries since 2009? Western countries (and here Nordic are included). So, when we sum up, this system doesn't work either, and I don't see this year's complaints by Eastern countries nothing less legitimate than those outcries of Nordic countries 10 years ago, when everyone complained about Russian and Balkan block voting... Now, in this current system, which flawed by the same problem, it would be utterly unfair to say that system works. No, it doesn't, and changes must be introduced, otherwise, I will have to say something I never thought I would: if the system doesn't become more just for all contestants, it is better for Slovenia to withdraw - just like Croatia did - and let the "Western" countries from the north of Europe have this farse for themselves.

So, this is my opinion. But! Even if Slovenia withdraws, it doesn't mean that fans of ESC in Slovenia will die out. No, not all. We will still watch the show, but simply out of the protest, it would be better to keep fingers away. After all, this wouldn't have happened for the first time, for Yugoslavia withdrew from the ESC in late 1970's for always ending low = in the bottom of the ESC scoreboard. And funnily, reasons back then weren't much different from those that I have put forward in this post. To sum up, EBU must come up with something, because in this current format, ESC is anything but a fair MUSIC festival.

First of all, thank you for your kind words :)

I totally agree with what you say. The current system is flawed on several levels: among others, disappearance of the random order (which creates a smoother lineup but also induces favoritism of countries) and too much power given to juries because since 2013 they rank all the songs from top to bottom instead of simply making a top 10 like they did from 2009 to 2012, which seemed to be the best compromise. They currently have the power to give points to whoever they want and completely annihilate televoting provided they rank the most voted songs very low. That's why we should get back to the former system, so that the song that is the most loved by the people would still be given points even if it wasn't the juries' top.

On the contrary, I agree with the fact that getting back to 100% televoting would be as unfair as now, some Eastern European countries would most likely take the lead again to the detriment of some others. To me, the balance reside in equal powers like in 2009-2012, no system is perfect but it was really fifty-fifty, both juries/viewers had an equal say regarding the outcome.

While I would be devastated by this news, I would understand if Slovenia decided to withdraw someday, like every country that is constantly underrated no matter what song is sent. As you are my favourite country in Eurovision (and in real life :D), that would be a great loss for me, that's for sure. But considering how it turns out, if there are no changes, well, you may be entitled to stay out of this sadly rigged contest.
 

Carian

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Posts
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Location
Village in Slovenia
First of all, thank you for your kind words :)

I totally agree with what you say. The current system is flawed on several levels: among others, disappearance of the random order (which creates a smoother lineup but also induces favoritism of countries) and too much power given to juries because since 2013 they rank all the songs from top to bottom instead of simply making a top 10 like they did from 2009 to 2012, which seemed to be the best compromise. They currently have the power to give points to whoever they want and completely annihilate televoting provided they rank the most voted songs very low. That's why we should get back to the former system, so that the song that is the most loved by the people would still be given points even if it wasn't the juries' top.

On the contrary, I agree with the fact that getting back to 100% televoting would be as unfair as now, some Eastern European countries would most likely take the lead again to the detriment of some others. To me, the balance reside in equal powers like in 2009-2012, no system is perfect but it was really fifty-fifty, both juries/viewers had an equal say regarding the outcome.

While I would be devastated by this news, I would understand if Slovenia decided to withdraw someday, like every country that is constantly underrated no matter what song is sent. As you are my favourite country in Eurovision (and in real life :D), that would be a great loss for me, that's for sure. But considering how it turns out, if there are no changes, well, you may be entitled to stay out of this sadly rigged contest.

You are welcome, I mean, as regards my compliments to your posts. They are indeed great, and once again you've proved it. However, this time I will try to shorten my reply. (I am working/must work... No comment.)

I've completely forgot about this new system of ranking by juries that had been introduced in 2013. And I must concur with you that you are absolutely right. In all points, and I have nothing further to add. Return to the 50:50 would surely balance the results and make them more legitimate, as well as less subject to deviations of the sort that happened this year.

However, your post has illuminated me this time in one important respect because of what you said. As a matter of fact, what you said, I may draw a simple conclusion that since 2013 the decision about the ESC winner does not lie within the hands of the "commoners", but rather entirely in hands of juries. In other words, we have a system that resembles the system from the era before the televoting. Basically, televoters can now only slighly influence the outcome of voting, but have no real power to decide/pick the winner. If so, I must say that EBU that earns a lot of money with televoting actually in a way deceives the "common" audience whenever one says that we, televoters, decide who will be the winner. And this is surely not moral nor ethical...

As for Slovenia's withdrawing from ESC, I don't think that this will likely happen any time soon, because it is up from RTVSLO, and as long as they have high viewership rates thanks to this sharade, there is no worry that we will withdraw. However, I must say I feel quite stupid now. I knew that the voting system is flawed and it will be hard for Slovenia to win ever, but over the last two days, I have got several replies to some of my posts that opened my eyes. I've learnt things I didn't know before. And I must say I feel like a little kid who has just learnt that Santa Clos doesn't exist... So, why to take part in something, when you know beforehand, you cannot win no matter how good you prepare for the competition? I really hope that a number of "overlooked" and "underrated" countries would withdraw/boycot ESC just to show EBU what they made of ESC, a joke... Meh, better I stop wasting my energy and thoughts on this. Surely, my posts won't change anything. Thanx anyways, Tuorem.
 

Blerg

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Joined
February 4, 2014
Posts
58
Maraaya’s vocals were fine and the best part of the performance personally. I think it was the backstory of the headphones that didn’t connect with people.
 

tuorem

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You are welcome, I mean, as regards my compliments to your posts. They are indeed great, and once again you've proved it. However, this time I will try to shorten my reply. (I am working/must work... No comment.)

I've completely forgot about this new system of ranking by juries that had been introduced in 2013. And I must concur with you that you are absolutely right. In all points, and I have nothing further to add. Return to the 50:50 would surely balance the results and make them more legitimate, as well as less subject to deviations of the sort that happened this year.

However, your post has illuminated me this time in one important respect because of what you said. As a matter of fact, what you said, I may draw a simple conclusion that since 2013 the decision about the ESC winner does not lie within the hands of the "commoners", but rather entirely in hands of juries. In other words, we have a system that resembles the system from the era before the televoting. Basically, televoters can now only slighly influence the outcome of voting, but have no real power to decide/pick the winner. If so, I must say that EBU that earns a lot of money with televoting actually in a way deceives the "common" audience whenever one says that we, televoters, decide who will be the winner. And this is surely not moral nor ethical...

As for Slovenia's withdrawing from ESC, I don't think that this will likely happen any time soon, because it is up from RTVSLO, and as long as they have high viewership rates thanks to this sharade, there is no worry that we will withdraw. However, I must say I feel quite stupid now. I knew that the voting system is flawed and it will be hard for Slovenia to win ever, but over the last two days, I have got several replies to some of my posts that opened my eyes. I've learnt things I didn't know before. And I must say I feel like a little kid who has just learnt that Santa Clos doesn't exist... So, why to take part in something, when you know beforehand, you cannot win no matter how good you prepare for the competition? I really hope that a number of "overlooked" and "underrated" countries would withdraw/boycot ESC just to show EBU what they made of ESC, a joke... Meh, better I stop wasting my energy and thoughts on this. Surely, my posts won't change anything. Thanx anyways, Tuorem.

Hi again Carian, I have to say to I enjoy reading your posts too. Don't feel sorry or stupid for realizing countries don't have equal chances at all in Eurovision, you know, I also discovered it after several years. For how long have you been following the contest? It's nice to know what you're thinking about all this since it is sadly unfair, not only for the countries but also for the artists that represent them.

I understand that it may look pointless to take part in a contest when you have actually very few chances to win, I guess every country has its own reasons to do so: winning, achieve a good result, qualifying, promoting the country, showing your culture, take part in a big Entertainment event at European level, etc.

Yes, I do believe that, from 2013, the viewers' voice has been relegated to a position of second importance. People are still allowed to vote, yet their votes may be completely useless if the juries rank the songs they liked best very low. Everyone on the forum remembers the fishy split results of 2013 presented by "average ranks", that were quite difficult to interpret. That's why they decided in 2014 to show the rankings of each member of the jury for all the countries, because the EBU was in a delicate situation as there was suspicion of rigging votes. Some countries like Azerbaijan were accused of buying votes abroad, which would explain their 2nd position that year.

To be honest, the fact that the contest comes back to Sweden does not make me hope for positive changes because the situation we currently know started in 2013 when they hosted. I hope no further changes will be made, because this is getting ridiculous. I thought Slovenia had a real chance to fare well this year, yet you didn't even reach Maja Keuc's place in 2011, who wasn't hyped at all. To me, this shows that even with a good song that stands out from the rest, this is not enough because of what you are.
 

Carian

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Hey, Tuorem. Before I say anything, let me apologize for my grammar errors in my earlier post. I was rushing, and only after I had posted and reread my post, I've realized how many mistakes were in there :) Sorry.
Anyways, as you put it, indeed the ESC race may appear totally ridiculous once one realizes how it works, but I also agree with you it has numerous pluses/positive effects. You've mentioned some of them, and I can add at least one more: because of ESC I have got interested in many languages that most likely I wouldn't care about if I hadn't followed ESC. For instance, Hebrew. Thanks to Dana I have taken lessons in Hebrew, and look me now, I speak Hebrew :) So, for me, ESC was a sort of the window into linguistic diversity of Europe.
As for the future of the ESC, I don't know what will happen, but I wouldn't be surprised if also other countries (even if they don't withdraw from the ESC) will take this indifferent attitude as your homeland France, for instance. Decades ago, it was an honour for French artists and singers to sing and represent at ESC, today, they avoid it, mock it... Not even Mylene Farmer wants to have anything with it, although she is the supreme gay diva in France :) Oh, I love her... And if we talk already about the French entries, a couple of days ago I've told you that since Natacha St Pierre France hasn't sent good songs any longer... Apologies, mistake. I actually adore Amandine's song, also P. Kaas was superbe, and I loved also that song from the early 2000's with the title Ciels et .... Something... I can't remember, but that song was poorly sung live, but I liked the studio version. So, France was good too over the last 15 years, but apart P. Kaas, you haven't scored high... Never? One more thing about French entries. I've asked myself earlier why P. Kaas took part in ESC in the first place? It doesn't seem logical at first sight, but then I remembered that in 2009 ESC was in Russia, and some of the French singers have huge following/fan base in Russia. For instance, Lara Fabian is super popular in Russia. So, my opinion is that P. Kaas went to ESC that year only to "impress" the host nation, for this is a huge market that everyone would love to get in - regardless of the fact we talk about the "horrible" Russia :)
Okey, after this long post, I owe you still reply to your question for how long I am following ESC? My first ESC that I remember in its entirety is from 1989, when Yugoslavia, back then my homeland, won the contest with Riva in Lousanne :) That night, one little 8 years old boy could fall asleep until early morning hours because of the whole excitement :) Oui, cela veut dire que je suis "fan" d' ESC déja 26 années :) Mais il faut que je dise aussi que je ne sois pas "hardcore" fan comme les autres ici. Sorry, my French has got rusty a bit over the years, as I am not using it much.
Finally, I am glad you like Here for you. In my opinion, it is our best entry ever, but in my fave list, it shares its first place with Samo ljubezen by Sestre. I know, I know, the majority of ESC don't like this song, but for me, this song has emotional and personal value: its lyrics in Slovene are simply perfect and their meaning made me proud for the first time as a gay, even though back then I barely admitted to myself I was gay. Samo ljubezen is a sort of anthem for me, to put it simple :)

Okey, here I end. Damn, tuorem, you made me get really personal on the public forum. Next time, when it is as personal as now, I will send you rather a private message xrunhug
 

GRE

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Stubborn Raay destroyed himself on his own.
I am not sorry at all for this result. (Although i voted for it)
 

Chorizo

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This song has always been a big favorite of mine and I can also enjoy the quirky staging but looking back at the show now, I can see that the staging killed it. I voted for Slovenia because the song had been my favorite before the show but I'm not so sure, if I had voted for it, if I had watched the contest without prior knowledge of the songs. When I voted, I gave most of my votes to Slovenia and also voted for Australia and Belgium but I had already decided to support Slovenia before the show.

When ORF decided to start the show with Slovenia, I was mad at them for giving one of the favorites this year such a bad draw but Maraaya had a great draw in the semi and they were only number 7 in the televote and number 6 in the jury vote, so it was obvious to ORF that Slovenia wouldn't win with any draw. Maraaya had gotten support from ORF with the good draw in the semi and I'm not sure, if starting the show is really so much worse than being somewhere in the middle between two other songs anyway. After all, the first song gets some extra attention. People also seemed to disagree if Italy coming last would kill them or help them. Of course, ORF could have decided to start with Serbia or another country but when most favorites ended up in the first half, they had problems coming up with a good running order and they couldn't give every country one of the supposedly good draws. A better draw could have helped Slovenia to make it to the top 10 but they wouldn't have come close to winning with any draw. Better camera work could have also helped but I think the staging really killed it.

I suppose the average viewer saw the headphones as a silly gimmick and the dress and the camera work didn't help either. Marjetka's facial expressions might have been to intense too. The juries probably considered the headphones as unprofessional. If you want to be a singer on a big stage, you shouldn't need headphones to make you feel like in the studio. The back story about the headphones is cute but I think Maraaya were just harmed by them. Slovenia also doesn't have traditional voting buddies that could have pushed the country in the top 10 regardless of the song or staging. Before the contest, I had thought that the juries are supposed to focus on the song and performance alone but from what I've learned, they judge the staging too, so I guess this wasn't going anywhere. It just doesn't have sufficient mainstream appeal.

I will try to create my final ranking based on the live show alone and I think Slovenia will have to vacate the top spot in my ranking due to the staging. It's hard to make a ranking based on the show alone, if you have followed the contest as closely as I have this year but in previous years I have often not known anything about the songs and the staging and odds before the broadcast and I would like this year's ranking to reflect the live show alone too. I think a proper Eurovision ranking should be about the live show and about the whole package including the staging and not about music videos you watched before the show.
 

musicfan

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May 18, 2012
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1,484
The headphones weren't the problem, the song was, or certainly the way it was conveyed. Not sure if it can be remade better, maybe it can like the Stefan Raab version of Satellite. Basically it's the same cutesy thing that Lena did and had undeserved success with. I guess everyone's tired of it now. Yes I know she's cute looking, but the song isn't that good. Not that success or not in Eurovision relates to song quality of course.
 

CatEye

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December 9, 2014
Posts
560
[MENTION=13781]Chorizo[/MENTION] And yet the juries had Estonia only 10th in the semi, despite having the best staging of the year. And they had The Netherlands 5th, despite being a visual trainwreck. The juries are quite hypocritical and offten punish some songs for something, while turning a blind eye to others that have the same flaws.
We are so or so used, that in case we get support in the semis, that by the time the final comes, we only get scraps from most countries. The same happened in 2007 and 2011.
 
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