What didn´t you like about the ESC 2024??

[ESC94]

Hi everyone,

I thought it would be a good idea to open a thread where we can curse a bit about the show and write about things we didn´t like.

This is supposed to be about the show itself, for comments about the Joost incident and Israel please use the respective threads.

I´m gonna start if it´s ok.

- Malin as host wasn´t necessary, she didn´t add anything and was pretty dull next to Petra

- The postcards and their concept weren´t my cup of tea. The constant flashbacks about former entries of the competing countries got boring very quickly and the "glam shooting" at the end often looked AI generated if you ask me

- The opening and intervall acts often felt "rewarmed", there was nothing really exciting or surprising, instead we got Johnny Logan for the millionth time

- Lynda Woodruff was sooo unfunny and her "love song" to Österdahl was completely unfitting in the heated mood and kinda felt a bit like mocking the fans

That´s everything from me at the moment. What do you think??

 

[HarryUK]

Yeah I felt like Malin was an add on but she had her moments to be fair

The postcards felt cheap and not showcasing the host city or country in any way

The fact that ABBA didn’t even record a message themselves at the very least. Felt a bit of an anti climax to 50 years since Waterloo won

 

[SpZ]

I absolutely hate any reference to ABBA on any ESC events... And the ABBA performance this time was certainly not even good.

 

[0scar]

Honestly I cannot come up with anything that I particularly liked about this year's production to be honest. I hated the postcards, the whole show felt very plastic, mundane, quick and dirty. The graphics were cheap.

Petra was ok but I liked her better in 2013 en 2016.
Oh to be fair, the stage was great although the "it's in the middle of the audience" didn't add anything, as the audience was really low.

 

[Chrisiam]

Without going into the whole tense atmosphere there was, I have to say that I feel the humourous bits and asides felt tacked on. It feels like the organisers were perfectly fine with doing a more serious (but still light-hearted) contest and felt that they had to put more jokes in as that is what you have at Eurovision. Maybe it is due to the chemistry (or lack there of) between our hosts, maybe it was the tension surrounding the contest. But I'd have been fine with fewer jokes, a little banter between songs, and that is it.

 

[SpiritofKeiino]

The comedy from hosts and others was awful, Lynda Woodruff should be cast into the dustbin of history.

Little or no Swedish culture was shown. The show could have been anywhere.

No good behind the scenes content like with Nikkie in 2021 or Rylan in 2023

 

[Zeus]

Everything.

Bambie Thug saved the contest for me. And yeah, Israel not winning.

 

[AndroZeus]

I actually loved the stage and thought this year had some of the best stagings I've ever seen (especially Nemo and Bambie). I didn't watch the full show, only most of the performances afterwards, but I thought the flag-coloured country names were very disjointed. Actually can't find much to complain about apart from "The Joost Incident and Israel" - but again, I didn't watch the show, so I can't say anything about the hosts or the vote sequence or the interval acts or the postcards.

 

[Sammy]

I posted it already elsewhere, but Loreens interval act was beyond everything. One of the most uninspired performances of a previous winner I've seen in a long time.

Also I liked the Idea of the postcards, but some of them lacked a concept and were just messy.

I hated the fact that ORF uses the breaks for advertising, and that I always had to change the channel not to miss Linda.

The freezing picture in Austrias best chores-moment was another letdown though I don't think that would've changed a lot about the result.

Another thing that was unfortunate: the ban on the Euro-flag. I know, that was not intentional and came out of another reasoning, but still...

 

[Lumina]

I actually thought it wasn‘t that bad, given the circumstances. It was a bit boring at times but I don‘t need all the so-called funny stuff or an hour long interval act. Petra is truly the best host ever and Malin was just as stiff as most presenters in every other year too.

The only thing that was truly awful was the STAGE imho. I really hate the cross design. Please never again! I hated the angles of many performances and I hated the bird's view from above. Looked like some staged music pop show, like Top of the pops, where all the screaming teenies gather around the cross in the middle. Looked cheap and small imho.

 

[Lance Esgard]

I'll start with some positives. I liked the overhead cubes of the stage. I liked how the Green Room was positioned and the way the screen opened to reveal them. I liked that Eurovision did not retry that attempt to show more of the reactions of performers who failed to qualify. I liked how one of the recaps went in reverse order. I love Petra Mede as a host, but I hold the written script she had to deliver in a lower regard. Generally liked the production. Personally, I was 100% fine with Johnny Logan this time because given we just had Loreen becoming the second two-time winner and first female winner, it made sense for him to show up this time.

But that's about it. My sharpest criticisms are for the EBU such as the various non-appearances at press conferences, the handling of the flag policy (decision-makers there clearly didn't think things through) and poor communication with delegations (and an alleged shift away from consensus-building to a more top-down approach)... Although seeing the reaction of the European Union to how their flag was treated has been fun.

I continue to take issue with the shift away from live vocals. To me personally it comes at the cost of energy and it makes me think less of stagings compared to when a strong staging also comes with sufficiently admirable live vocals.

Malin sounded like she was just reading a script. We've had better, but we've also had worse. Loreen's interval act was awful. I love Loreen but it just didn't work. Vocals didn't come across clearly and the staging was too static. The Turquoise Carpet only wasted the time of all involved. It was hard for it not to be that way given the circumstances, but given the circumstances, it would have been better just to cancel it or do some alternative better adapted to the circumstances.

 

[EscGeek]

Aside from the obvious stuff that nobody liked, it was one of the weakest years for me due to less than 60% of songs making my playlist

 

[Realest]

The 3K People I blocked on Twitter.
All of my Favourite Youtuber I lost this Season.
The Audience at the Hall.
Some of the Participants and Spokespersons.

 

[Romeo]

No Hannah

 

[Judas]

The final felt extremely rushed. After all the songs have been performed and before the jury results have started, all things happened just so quickly. Even the voting sequence felt very quick and Loreen has given us a very uninteresting interval act. The winning song from last year even lost all its spirit.

 

[rasmuslights]

Honestly, I loved the stage itself and the performances. One of the best stages ever.

But everything else... Hosting, graphics, and postcards were all fine but nothing to write home about. Interval acts apart from Loreen and Benjamin (and eleni, chanel, eric) were straight-up awful.

But the biggest problem was Israel competing and Joost's DQ.

 

[blue00eyes]

Things mentioned above already and the so called "random" order

 

[Uto]

Positive:

- Show didn't have a shit ton of unnecessary drivel, it was fast
- Stage looked iffy at first, but totally delivered
- Production team pulled off very impressive staging jobs here and there

Negative:

- Felt phoned in
- EBU allowing Israel and all the fallout it caused
- Running order doctoring somehow feeling even more artificial

General negatives:

- Anti-boo and other forms of censorship
- Leaking info about rehearsals causes bookies to know too much, causes us to know too much etc
- Juries are broken and they way they are set up and counted causes mediocre commercial stuff to win

 

[ag89]

Good:
- the songs and performances were generally very good
- top 4 songs deserved their results
- production, stage, it looked really great
- both hosts were good although many things were recycled from 2013 and 2016: Sweden got tired a bit and lost steam, but it was still good
- the final had a nice speed, I liked the fact intervals were not long and we made it quickly to voting
- booing EBU boss(es): it was a strong message and I believe they will sit down and reflect on it.

Negative:
- participation of Israel and everything surrounding it: it affected a big portion of the contest (literally chain reaction: gatherings, security, general vibe): 90% of dramas this year were directly or indirectly connected to Israel's participation and decisions that were made to accommodate its delegation
- all decisions the EBU made to make contest more apolitical actually made the contest more political
- fake cheering: misinformation is used by authoritarian regimes, I' ll just say that: again, related to Israel's participation
- recorded backing vocals: it was so obvious and overused by many. It must stop or controlled, it is not fair
- production's choice running order: it is another form of bullshit as the EBU already decides running order for those who are not "producer's choice": participants get first or second half yet somebody else decides their number after that

 

[SpiritofKeiino]

I found this years hosting very cold and dull. I hope the Swiss hosting is much warmer and shows us locations in Switzerland and gives a flavour of the culture, with the different languages represented.