Aha aha
KLF must be the most instantaneous and calendar successful pop phenomenon this country has produced since The Beatles, but they’re criminally overlooked
Bung in their work for Doctorin’ The Tardis and the like as well and it feels like denying an entire era
Last point for tonight, as Discourse is unhappy with me posting a few in a row, but this is an overlooked version within an overlooked group
I would not have said this version was exactly a genre I loved until they took me on a personal journey
Italy winning was a bit too predictable this time around. Unique enough act that stands out and right near the end of the line up, makes it easy to remember.
Ukraine got a bit skewed going on right before France. Ukraine’s was great, catchy, unique, and memorable. But France’s performance was a standout.
People tend to complain about the show being all politics, but I don’t see that myself. I feel like the right songs wind up near the top of the leaderboard. The jury voting was also more in line with which songs were best this year than the public vote was too, which was a bit bizarre.
Was a very solid year this time around, with quite a few decent songs and it was hard to pick a favourite. Ukraine, Malta, France, Switzerland, Russia. Would have been happy to see any of those win it. Iceland’s performance ended up being very good too. I thought the song was rubbish, but it was performed very well. Very funny too. I wasn’t too keen on Lithuania though!
I don’t think our entry was necessarily bad, it was just your typical forgettable overproduced pop song with X Factor vocals. It’s why we don’t win, and I don’t understand why we keep sending acts like that! I would personally love for the U.K. to win it if only how accessible it makes it to go and watch in person!
I’m surprised more folk on here haven’t discussed it given how diverse a community we are. I watch it every year, I love it! It’s one of my favourite things to come out of Europe. The celebration and sharing of our cultures. Would be nice if we did a bit more of that with our acts than just a karaoke pop song.
I didn’t like Italy song at all, nor performance 
Lithuania (probably) could win last year, but who knows now 
Cyprus song was catchy for me 
, but VERY strong reference to Rita Ora song “take me anywhere” 
As a winner I would choose Switzerland 
Quite the tie in there - Hooverphonic covered Shake the Disease on 1998’s ‘For the Masses’ DM cover album and while most covers are bluurgh, this one is fantastic. As is the insanely over-done Rammstein cover of Stripped
As for DM stuff, I always liked the B-sides of 12" single releases. Then a pattern emerged where I seemed to like the last track on albums since Some Great Reward - ‘Clean’ on Violator & ‘Higher Love’ on SOFAD. Watching Alan Wilder on drums playing ‘I Feel You’ live is still a lifetime memory moment.
Difficult to pin-down a specific DM favourite, but Violator and SOFAD were, IMO, the pinnacle.
Ah, so that’s what it reminded me of! Thank you, I couldn’t quite place it when I heard it.
I agree with you on Italy, but I know LGBTQ+ Twitter was on fire during Eurovision so they got voted to the top. If they didn’t snatch so many votes, I imagine the bottom of the rankings would look a lot different and it would have been a tight race between France and Switzerland.
I really don’t get the obsession with the singer of the Italian band. What were they called? I keep thinking Moleskine 
I agree with this, but I think it was still better than a few of the other productions. Perhaps I’m biased because I have an expectation of what productions I want to see at Eurovision.
And whilst I agree that politics don’t have as strong an influence as people think, there always is some politics. Just look at how countries in Russia’s sphere of influence voted, or Greece/Cyprus voting each other at the top. Some productions also bring politics into their performance which I really, really dislike. It doesn’t matter what your message is, please leave politics out of a fun, happy competition.
Ultimately I always look for a slightly wacky, upbeat song that also represents the country’s culture so Russia and Ukraine were some of the strongest performances for me
Fellow Depeche Mode fan here! I actually got to interview Daniel Miller and Gareth Jones from Mute Records some years back for a radio documentary I worked on all about the Black Celebration album. That was a great day at the Mute office.
My personal favorite albums are Violator and Ultra (also a big Bomb The Bass fan, so to have him on production duty for that one was a fantastic collaboration imo)
On a slight tangent, despite being a huge Vince Clarke fan, the early DM stuff with him doesn’t speak to me as much. For me, his best work is unquestionably the two Yazoo albums. His synth wizardry plus Alison’s incredible voice is just a magical pairing.
@SouthseaOne I would highly recommend this book if you haven’t already read it. Fantastically well written.
My friend Marcus is their live keyboard player 
Tends to be certain bands here in Birmingham that most of us Brummie musicians have a connection to one way or another and ELO is one of them (also Led Zep, Black Sabbath, Duran Duran and UB40)
Considered that purchased next time I get a moment
Thanks for the recommendation!
For me, it’s Erasure. Possibly because I was first exposed to Love to Hate You at an impressionable age.
I always joked that Peter Gabriel leaving Genesis improved both Peter Gabriel and Genesis (and later made a unlikely, but relentless, solo global hit machine out of Phil Collins too)
I reckon the same could be said of Vince Clark going on to create Yazoo and my beloved Erasure. Depeche Mode seemed to scrape by OK without him too 
I think there’s a strong argument to be made that no-one has had more success with more bands than Vince Clark, especially when you take into consideration that he was a core member of each band.
The musical Harrison Ford 
Not stopped listening to the Ukrainian Eurovision song since @N26throwaway shared it the other day.
Have it on repeat whilst I’m doing uni work, it’s very motivating. I’m convinced I saw the band in Kiev in December 2019 doing a live performance at a Christmas market. It sounds very familiar.
That must have been a remarkably lively Christmas market!
Moving on from KLF briefly, somehow I came across Tycho for the first time over the last year during lockdown and WFH. Maybe it was a random Google Home shuffle, maybe it was recommended on The Verge, or I was just searching for music to listen to while I work
Whichever way, his albums have a good combination of cracking on, while having a steady pace and not having vocals (for the most part), which helps when doing document reviews and the like:
Then listening to him on YouTube Music took me into a few other acts, like Deadmau5, who I had obviously heard of, but had never actually listened to and was surprised to find so accessible for a WFH or driving setting
It certainly is when you get involved with home brewed Ukrainian cider…
This stuff reminds me of a more mellow Eric Prydz. Music like that is great for working I think. They’re great background music in general. Words are too polluting and interfere with your ability to think.
Don’t know if you subscribe to Apple Music or not, but Eric Prydz has a show on beats one Apple Music 1 that I would always listen to when working or reading.
It’s a bit more up tempo but it fills the silence and helps drown out other noise pollutants, like the cows and barkers outside. Makes me feel old and grumpy, but barking dogs are so annoying, especially dogs who bark in alarm.
