Features

Eurovision 2017 Second Semi-Final: Our Predictions

May 11, 2017 0

When 10 of the entries are toss-ups for qualifying, you know it’s going to be a good Eurovision semi-final. In all the years we have covered the Eurovision Song Contest–both here and other sites–we have not encountered a semi-final quite as tricky to predict as this year’s second semi-final. There is very little consensus among the telESCope staff or the external metrics (YouTube views, odds, etc.), which means the bubble/margin of error is quite large. Regardless, we have picked ten entries that we expect to move on to Saturday’s Grand Final. Maybe “expect” is too strong a word, but we know mathematically that at least two of our guesses will be correct… Belarus Bulgaria Denmark FYR Macedonia Hungary Israel Netherlands Norway Romania Serbia Bulgaria, Denmark, and the Netherlands are the only entries we feel certain about, as they have been in the top 10 of all metrics throughout the season. The only other entry to receive all thumbs up from the telESCope staff in the most recent rankings (done Wednesday) was Austria, but those rankings were all near the cutoff and held down by lower rankings in other metrics. The other area of consensus was in the realm of what […] [Read more…]

Eurovision 2017 First Semi-Final: Our Predictions

May 9, 2017 0

Will we go 10-for-10 in our guesses for who will qualify out of the first Eurovision semi-final? After much number-crunching, YouTube watching, head scratching, and consensus building, we have finally compiled our data and have made our prediction for which ten acts we think will advance out of the first semi-final of the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest. The 10 acts that we think will advance, presented in alphabetical order, are: Armenia Australia Azerbaijan Belgium Finland Greece Latvia Moldova Portugal Sweden Let’s talk about our confidence levels, shall we? Azerbaijan, Belgium, Portugal, and Sweden are the acts in which we are most confident, as they have all appeared in the top 10 of every single metric we have measured in this process. Armenia, Australia, Greece, and Moldova we also feel pretty confident about. Each had one metric that fell out of the top 10, but have otherwise strong records. Australia is the iffiest of the group, as Isaiah’s rehearsal footage was his low-scoring metric, which may indicate a slide in popularity. Moldova has been just making it into the top 10 of most rankings, though one of our gut predictions has “Hey Mamma” as 14th. The two acts that are gambles on […] [Read more…]

Eurovision 2017 YouTube Rehearsals: The Autoqualifiers

May 8, 2017 0

We take one last look at the Big Five and Ukraine’s rehearsals and see how their YouTube numbers stack up. The six autoqualifiers for the Eurovision Song Contest — France, Germany, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom, and host country Ukraine — also had the chance to rehearse on the main stage in Kyiv twice in the last few days. Here is how their stats measure up to the rest of the field. Italy The Contest frontrunner currently1 holds the lead for both the first rehearsal and second rehearsal YouTube views. The first rehearsal clip for “Occidentali’s Karma” is the second-most-watched clip of the entire field, with more than 245,000 views. The second rehearsal, which happened Sunday, will probably cross 100,000 a few hours after this post goes live. Spain “Do It for Your Lover” currently sits in second place in this smaller group. The first rehearsal has more than 172,000 views, putting that clip in the top ten of first rehearsal footage. The second rehearsal clip is not as strong, landing in third for the autoqualifiers. France Alma’s “Requiem” has the most-watched official video of this group2, but she sits in third place with about 190,000 total views between the two […] [Read more…]

Eurovision 2017 YouTube Second Rehearsals: Semi-Final 2

May 7, 2017 0

Croatia may be playing spoiler in the second semi-final, making this year’s Eurovision Song Contest that much more unpredictable. Sunday’s Eurovision Song Contest festivities in Kyiv included the second round of rehearsals for the Big Five and host country Ukraine, as well as the red carpet opening ceremony for this year’s competition. With 24 hours worth of data for the entire second semi-final field, let’s take a look at how the rankings of those videos may indicated popularity going into Thursday’s performances. Here are the top 10 videos from the second semi-final second rehearsals, as of 10:30pm CET / 4:30pm Eastern: Netherlands Serbia Croatia Bulgaria FYR Macedonia Denmark Belarus Romania Israel Austria Lithuania and Estonia dropped out of the top 10 from when we looked at the first rehearsal footage, and I fear this may be bad news for both countries. Lithuania sits in 13th and Estonia is in 15th, with at least 10,000 views behind Austria. In terms of the combined viewership for both rehearsals, here’s how the field shakes out: Netherlands FYR Macedonia Croatia Bulgaria Serbia Belarus Romania Lithuania Israel Denmark Croatia is poised to play spoiler based on earlier predictions. Hungary sits in 11th, trailing by fewer […] [Read more…]

Eurovision 2017 YouTube Second Rehearsals: Semi-Final 1

May 6, 2017 0

It’s Belgium vs. Greece in the Eurovision First Semi-Final YouTube Rehearsal Race. The countries competing in the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest had their second and final rehearsal on stage in Kyiv, Ukraine Thursday and Friday. Now that a full day has passed since Latvia closed out the round, let’s take a look at the YouTube data to speculate on outcomes this Tuesday. First, it should be noted that Eurovision changed up how they presented the second rehearsal clips. Rather than a two-minute clip including staging and backstage moments, each performance was a 40-second snippet showing how the performance will look on TV during the show. It works as a teaser, as well as clearing up some concerns that may arise if there are weird camera angles from off-stage that wouldn’t be part of the actual presentation. Here is how the countries rank as of 22:35 Central European Time / 4:35pm Eastern: Belgium Greece Sweden Poland Portugal Azerbaijan Montenegro Armenia Iceland Australia That’s quite a changeup from what happened after the first rehearsal. Finland and Latvia have fallen out of the top 10, though they are both within striking distance of Australia. Belgium is solidly in first place, […] [Read more…]

Eurovision 2017 YouTube First Rehearsals: Semi-Final 2

May 4, 2017 0

There is a clear YouTube front-runner after the first round of Eurovision semi-final rehearsals. The second set of rehearsals for the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest began Thursday in Kyiv, Ukraine. With more than 24 hours passing since the participants of the second semi-final wrapped their first set of rehearsals, let’s take a look at how those videos are faring on YouTube. Process nerds: the reason we’re doing a 24-hour delay in reporting data is to allow for the videos for those performing in the second half of the second semi-final to rack up views. As the data is about to show, an extra day on YouTube for those in the first half probably isn’t that much of an advantage. Here are the rankings1: Netherlands FYR Macedonia Romania Serbia Bulgaria Belarus Lithuania Israel Estonia Denmark The video for the Netherlands is currently dominating the first semi-final rankings, with more than 314,000 views. FYR Macedonia is behind by almost 200,000 views, and current first semi-final leader Greece has only 157,000 views. Either some loyal O’G3NE fans are hitting the repeat button, or we might want to add Netherlands to the list of challengers for the win at the Grand Final. Lithuania is […] [Read more…]

Eurovision 2017 YouTube First Rehearsals: Semi-Final 2

May 4, 2017 0

There is a clear YouTube front-runner after the first round of Eurovision semi-final rehearsals. The second set of rehearsals for the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest began Thursday in Kyiv, Ukraine. With more than 24 hours passing since the participants of the second semi-final wrapped their first set of rehearsals, let’s take a look at how those videos are faring on YouTube. Process nerds: the reason we’re doing a 24-hour delay in reporting data is to allow for the videos for those performing in the second half of the second semi-final to rack up views. As the data is about to show, an extra day on YouTube for those in the first half probably isn’t that much of an advantage. Here are the rankings1: Netherlands FYR Macedonia Romania Serbia Bulgaria Belarus Lithuania Israel Estonia Denmark The video for the Netherlands is currently dominating the first semi-final rankings, with more than 314,000 views. FYR Macedonia is behind by almost 200,000 views, and current first semi-final leader Greece has only 157,000 views. Either some loyal O’G3NE fans are hitting the repeat button, or we might want to add Netherlands to the list of challengers for the win at the Grand Final. Lithuania is […] [Read more…]

Eurovision 2017 YouTube First Rehearsals: Semi-Final 1

May 3, 2017 0

If YouTube provides a clue as to who will qualify from the first Eurovision Song Contest semi-final, there could be some major surprises in store. Rehearsals for the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest kicked off Sunday, with the first half of the first semi-final taking the stage in Kyiv. On Monday, the second half of the first semi-final got their turn on the stage in the International Exhibition Centre. As has been customary for the last several years, Eurovision has released teaser snippets of each rehearsal, giving home viewers a glimpse into what is in store for next week’s competition. You know what that also means? MORE DATA TO SPECULATE UPON! We have been tracking the viewership of these snippets and have discovered some surprises that may reveal some potential shakeups to previous expectations for this year’s Contest. As of this writing1, here are the Top 10 first rehearsal videos from the first semi-final: Greece Belgium Finland Poland Montenegro Portugal Sweden Azerbaijan Iceland Latvia There are quite a few countries on that list that haven’t been part of the conversation this season, including Greece, Finland, Poland, and Iceland. Noticeably absent from the list are Armenia (11th) and Australia (13th). It’s possible that […] [Read more…]

Eurovision 2017 Entry: Ukraine – O.Torvald – Time

April 26, 2017 0

With controversy swirling, can Ukraine capitalize on home field advantage? Country: Ukraine Song Title: “Time” Artist: O.Torvald Last year’s entry: “1944” — Jamala (1st Place) Ukraine captured victory in 2016, despite coming in second place in both the jury and televoting components, and thanks in part to an assist from a new voting system. (Under the voting system used in 2015, jury favorite Australia would have taken home the trophy.) Instead of trying to figure out who would host on behalf of the Aussies, we’ve spent the last few months wondering whether Ukraine and Russia could figure out a way to co-exist. (Spoiler alert! They have not.) Can O.Torvald cut through the geopolitical and bureaucratic noise to represent their country well at the Grand Final? I like rock at Eurovision, and I like several parts of this entry, but I’m not as keen on it as Mike was. In particular, there are some structural issues in the last third; the bridge starts at 1:54 with eight or nine seconds of silence, losing the momentum out of the second chorus. If they want to provide contrast and build tension, they could do so in half that much time. The next thirty […] [Read more…]

Eurovision 2017 Entry: Italy – Francesco Gabbani – Occidentali’s Karma

April 26, 2017 0

Will Italy’s Francesco Gabbani win the whole megillah with “Occidentali’s Karma” in Kyiv? Country: Italy Song Title: “Occidentali’s Karma” Artist: Francesco Gabbani Last year’s entry: “No Degree of Separation” – Francesca Michielin (16th Place) I started writing about Eurovision for the 2011 Contest, the same year Italy returned after a 13-year hiatus. My favorite entry that year was “Madness of Love” by Raphael Gualazzi, which almost won thanks to a ton of “welcome back” points and a fantastic song. Since returning, Italy has missed out on the Top 10 twice — in 2014 when RAI decided not to use Sanremo as its selection process, and last year when their singer was the Sanremo runner-up. This year’s Sanremo champion, Francesco Gabbani, won over the festival with a dancing gorilla and a catchy-as-all-get-out track: Normally I try to challenge the notion of the declared favorite winning, partly because a foregone conclusion (see 2012 and 2015) is hella boring. However, this song has so much going for it. The construction of the song brims with charisma, though the abridged version has removed my favorite part. The first verse begins with very basic instrumentation and vocals, building up to the party of the chorus. In the […] [Read more…]

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(c) What Else Is On 2016