#I used to love Eurovision

[lavonq]

Majestic man, yes yes 💚

[oliwolly]

words can’t DESCRIBE how much i love this man like DUDE

also i’m so mad cause the quality was so much better like when i was drawing it but it’s just so bad here😭😭😭

[vogelmeister]

Eurovision 2024: my experience as a fan

One thing about me is that I love Eurovision. I have all the winners plastered on my door at home, I can beat anyone and everyone at European geography. Each year for a week in May, I am people’s go to for anything and everything Eurovision, from explaining the big five to promoting my favourite songs. I willingly get up at 5am to tune in live, I have written two academic essays on Eurovision, and both essays have a sense of passion running through them where you can tell I love the topic- may or may not have been called out once on that. I knew so much about the topic that neither essay required much research. When I lived in the Netherlands, I attended Het Grote Songfestivalfeest, probably killing my seat neighbours with my singing and poorly articulated Dutch when De Diepte came on. As well as that, my friends and I took a trip to Rotterdam and visited where the contest was held in 2021. Having me, an Australian, alongside a Dutch person and a Greek, exploring Rotterdam highlighted to me exactly what Eurovision should be about. Unity. 

Being in a room of Eurofans gave me joy that is unexplainable. I just remember realising, ‘hey I found my people’

However, I always knew ESC 2024 was going to be a hard watch for me, even before the boycotts begun. About a year ago I went through a massive friendship breakup with one of my closest Eurovision friends, and their villianisation of me meant that watching with them wasnt an option. I didn’t want to watch alone. That’s all I will say on that. I had a year to deal with that, anyway, and even when people were boycotting the event after October 7th, I thought, theres actually no way that Israel is actually competing this year. They surely will send something too political and get dq'd, right? Most of the knowledge I have of Palestine and Israel comes from my year 12 modern history class, which as my friend and I discussed today, was taught neutrally- and it’s not in Israel’s favour. I was there when Hatari spoke out in 2019 and did the banners, and I remember the shock and understanding what a big deal this was.

I toyed with the idea of boycotting myself. I had my reasons. I auditioned for a play, which didnt work out for me, as I was too distracted by Eurovision week to care. I was less invested in Eurovision as a whole, and I would get sleep. But in the end, I decided not to. My friend (who found out I liked Eurovision after I bitched about my ex friends not enjoying that I had other interests asides from Taylor Swift) was already coming around to watch.  I decided my mental health came first, before boycotting and before being an activist. If I could save this one piece of my mental health, I would be fine. Stupid delusional me, well she had hope. I wanted to support Joost, and the other artists who were stuck in this shitshow of a year. I staunchly boycotted Isreal’s song, I have only heard it in full once, and that was against my will. I even blocked her on Spotify. 

I looked at it all positively- this all meant I was going in more blind than ever. I bought my 2024 CD, but I also broke a lot of traditions- I didnt do my predictions like I do every year on my whiteboard, I didnt film the first semi qualifications with the caption ‘im in spain’ and put it on my story, and I hardly watched the NFs. I liked Eurovision, but this year, with all going on, I felt guilty and ashamed. I have been ashamed of being a eurofan before, but not on this level. I felt like I was trapped in a glass box, kicking and screaming at the ebu but they had airpods in. The answer was so obvious. Ban Isreal, like you did with Russia. People were harassing artists for competing, especially Olly, who I realised had no choice in the matter anyways. I ended up thinking “just get through the week, soon it will be over, and you’ll have fun with your friend.” I have never wanted Eurovision week over in my life. I just wasnt excited.  Europapa basically became my ride or die, built upon my love for the Netherlands, and the genuine good vibes of the song. Joost was charismatic, and the song had a nice story. Another one of my friends, who realised I was eurofan after I posted a video on my story where you could see my Dowue Bob poster (I have my reasons for keeping it), found a watch party and it was free. She had her drivers license so she could get us there, and my other friend and I agreed. It would be fun, I would bring my Dutch flag and my orange beanie and wear my Sam Ryder shirt. 

The first semi happened. My friend came over, we slept on the couch. I enjoyed myself, the qualifiers werent shocking though and I guessed 9/10 of them. It was pretty mid, but it was fun. The only issue was Poland being robbed and the Australian commentary on SBS being dicks to Portugal, which they backtracked in the final. It was insufferable, but the worst was yet to come.  

The second semi. I was so excited to see Joost perform and bonded with my Dutch coworker over him and his song, which honestly was beautiful. If she didnt know how much I love the Netherlands before, she does now. I did notice that when Israel qualified, all the sickness in my stomach just exited the room, as the worst that could happen, happened. But sadly, I knew it would happen. Seeing the videos, however, of Palestine protesters and the booing and shouting, despite attempts to silence us, was beautiful. It showed exactly where the fandom stood, what we thought. And my mum was even happy about Israel being treated like bullshit. 

And then shit started to go down. 

The second semi press conference. The kaarija video. Joost being followed around for propaganda content by Israel. Joost’s “why not” and throwing the Dutch flag over his head.  Marina falling asleep (queen). Bambi being dehumanised by Israel’s delegation and asshole of a commentator. Zionists kept making excuses and I got a few threats on TikTok of all places for supporting a bully manchild. Well, fuck you, at least I am not suporting genocide. It was a mess. My friend asked me for my opinions on the qualification while at work and i basically told her I didn’t want to talk about it. I looked so sad on break my coworker offered me a banana. 

“Treat Eden Golan as human! She’s only 20” I wondered, how could I? How could I treat someone as human when they were basically a puppet, a face for a genocidal nation. How could I do that when that same genocidal nation was tearing apart the one thing I loved?  Her delegation certainly didn’t treat Joost Klein as human; certainly just as another tool they could use to promote their propaganda machine. I felt sick. He wasn’t the only one. I was so proud of Joost, and I will always be proud of him, I think. What he did during the press conference after semi 2 took guts.  Normally I would be pissed at a delegation getting mistreated like this, but not today. As far as I was concerned, this was good riddance. Get the fuck out, you’re not wanted here. 

On Saturday, I started to realise I had this heavy feeling in my chest and it wasn’t leaving. I felt on edge, and yet I was a world away in Australia. I listened to “I can do it with a broken heart” fifty times on my way to work that day, confident that maybe I could power through this matinee shift without cracking. My favourite thing in the whole world was falling apart before my eyes, and it was easily avoided. I felt sick at work, there were points when I was thinking “I can’t do this.” But I could. I would. I would get through this shift. I messaged one of my friends in NL asking her how she was and she said she also wasnt having a good time, to which I confessed not wanting to get out of bed that morning because I was so sick with discomfort. 

People were continually asking my thoughts, if I enjoyed the shows, the memes were sent and I had to put on a brave face because crying over a song contest is stupid and im a coward and hate being an outspoken activist.

The final straw for me was Joost Klein getting disqualified. This would have been a devastating blow for me no matter which nation it was, but it being the Netherlands, the one country I love more than anything else, the one song that was basically my ride or die in this shitshow of a year: well it felt personal. It showed the double standards of the EBU- how could an incident, hardly worth a fine, get Joost kicked out of ESC when Israel waltzed in with a smugass grin and a kill count. If it was about Joost's parents, I hope he hit them hard. the misleading information, the lack of transparency, and AVROTROS's discomfort over the whole ordeal was the cherry on the cake and really, actually showed me in full colour who the EBU were and that they didn't give two shits, bending the rules for Eden and using everyone else as scapegoats. That Joost, or any of the other artists were not allowed to have boundaries. Instantly I messaged my friend,  and went “I am not fucking going to this watch party.” She agreed with me, the vibes would be off and probably zionist. My other friend, who was staying the night, was still keen to watch ESC. Instead of going to the livestream in Hurstville, we all  came to mine at 5am and we elected to watch together.  To finish what we started. As my friend said, “it could be the last one.” 

I saw myself witnessing the death of Eurovision.  All because someone wouldnt fucking kick out a country. When I woke up in the morning, I saw that Bambi had posted a statement saying they had issues with Israel and the delegation, and even the EBU fully admitted that Israel had broken rules. Yet where was the punishment?

I will confess the 5am start time hurt more this time around. Normally I would be bounding down the stairs, box of chips in hand, and excited to see the memes. Today, it just hurt. Dancing around to Europapa didn’t hide the emptiness in my soul about the disqualification, about the double standards enacted by the EBU this year.  The interval acts were mid. Petra talking about the rules, saying shit like “it’s apolitical” stung with irony I had never felt before. I put on a brave face and I had as much fun as I could but in reality, I was sad and angry. Wishing I had gotten into that play. That I had the guts to boycott and explain to people why. That Joost wasnt disqualified for shit Eden Golan would have gotten away with. 

After the show, I felt empty. Switzerland won, and congrats to them obviously, I like The Code. But after the shitshow of this week, all I felt was free and relieved. Israel still came top 5 and it confirmed what was sickeningly true. People still support Israel. People were still pulling the “Croatia robbed” game, unaware how tone deaf that feels in the current circumstances. It didn’t matter who won, as long as it wasn’t Israel, but it never felt like Israel lost. All I wanted to do was cry. My friend was showing me Eurovision memes probably unaware that I had been through the worst Eurovision of my life, and just wanted to cry and be left alone. No hate to her obviously but I was fucking trying to hold it together all morning, but I couldn't express my emotions on the matter. I hope AVROTROS sue the shit out of the EBU. I hope Joost gets a hero’s welcome home in the Netherlands. I hope past artists speak out. I hope Isreal gets banned. 

I will be celebrating the small wins this year. I will be streaming the artists that stood up to the ebu, streaming the ones that spoke out, and of course, continuing to support Joost Klein. I will never forget watching Ukraine sail past Israel in the televote, a win of itself. I am thankful to those in the arena that spoke out against the EBU and booed both Israel and Osterdahl.  To those who smuggled in flags, to those who refused to be silent. I will get over this, I will, but seeing the outcome of this week leaves little joy. I hope this isnt the end of Eurovision, but wherever we go now, I think a part of me did die this week.

[twpsyn-who]

This is going to be my last Eurovision guys. It was nice being part of this fandom for so long (only 2 or 3 years on tumblr, but much more IRL), but to me Eurovision died this year.

Croatia, Netherlands, Ireland - you guys are my winners too, together with Switzerland. Thank you for making this Eurovision something worth watching.

And thank to Switzerland, Ireland and Lithuania (and anyone I might've missed) for showing the nonbinary flag and for giving us the nb representation we need. It was huge, especially for me, to find out not only one artist but TWO were nonbinary.

It was a shitty year with an even shittier Eurovision, but the little things like this made it worth paying some attention to it.

Love you all

[niuniente]

After jury votes, audience doesn't sound happy with the gigantic lead of Sweden and the audience screams Cha Cha Cha.

[potatounicoorn]

Honestly, so iconic of us finns giving Sweden 0 points in public vote, while our jury gave them 12

[jaarijani]

am i in my joost klein era? maybe. maybe. if i have to personally be the reason our weird little guy breaks out internationally then i might just have to

song recs of the day under the cut :)

i can go off about these lyrics, this man is an artist and i am.... maybe a little bit obsessed

[unhonestlymirror]

People: - Sweden, you are so corrupted.

Sweden:

[arabela25]

The Liverpool Songbook | Eurovision Song Contest 2023

[sisididis]

I can’t stop laughing [X]

[charlie-rulerofhell]

So, we got a message from these two sweethearts on Telegram, where they briefly talked about their pre-ESC concert next year in Malmö, and I would have loved to share it with you all, but there's this top-secret-highly-important rule that whatever happens on the Telegram channel stays on the Telegram channel, so I found a compromise: You'll get these two very crappy screenshots up there and a translation of the German video plus a transcript of the English one down under the cut. Enjoy!

Translation:

Alright, friends, today a message from the car. Ah wait, gotta hit the break very quick, AAAH, no wait [points the camera over to Klaas], I'm not even driving haha, Klaus Granate is driving.

Sooo … If you have nothing planned yet for next year, tenth of May, and you feel like coming to Sweden … Well, there are no hotels anymore in Malmö [laughs], cause that's when the ESC is gonna take place there. But I mean, you can just sleep somewhere on the countryside, in a nice sleeping bag – we're gonna do that, too, right? [films Klaas again – Klaas: Yeah yeah, course.] Exactly. No, actually we could still find a hotel in Copenhagen, which is just across the bridge.

So we came up with an idea, we thought we'd do the following: Whenever it is somehow possible for us, time-wise and distance-wise, we will be playing a concert on the evening before the grand final in the respective ESC city, so it will always be somewhere else. We just enjoyed the time at the Eurovision Song Contest so much, that we did not want to leave this feeling or this community, and we also wanted to give something back to the community. So we want to come back to the ESC every year from now on. So one day before the grand final and one day after the semi-final – which is exactly this one Friday – we just bring our own ESC party into the respective city, in the form of a concert of course.

Or as someone wrote in a comment that we just read: trauma management [both laughing]. I was like: C'mon! Maybe we're just really up for this. Whatever, there will always be someone complaining, there will always be that ass. How does that song from Lacrimosa go? Irgendein Arsch ist immer unterwegs [literally: there will always be some ass running around]. That's how it is.

Alright, so if you don't yet know what to do on the tenth of May, just come to our – probably only – concert in Sweden next year.

***

Transcript:

So friends. I'm here with Klaus Granate in the car. So, you might have seen it already, although we haven't posted it officially yet, right now it's just within the Eurovision bubble. We're coming back to the Eurovision next year – don't be scared! We're not participating. Although we'd love to ;).

No, but we thought it might be great to do our yearly thing at Eurovision from now on, so we thought, one day before the grand final, one day after the semi-final on this Friday, where actually only Eurovision parties are happening, we bring our own Eurovision party in the form of a concert to the city where the finals are taking place, which will be Malmö next year, in Sweden. So we thought, you know, we don't really wanna leave this Eurovision community, and this way we might be able to give something back.

This might be our only show next year in Sweden. It's on May the tenth in Malmö. And yeah, presales are going superfast, the club is kinda small, so if you wanna see us in Sweden next year one day before the grand final, come to our Eurovision concert, it's gonna be a special show with some special songs.

[because-its-eurovision]

eurovision We are all United By Music 💛 

[multiakimo]

i definitely think that if anyone deserves to be the first woman to ever win eurovision twice its loreen, but bro.... not like this 😭 

käärijä is the real winner this year, fuck the international jury

[i-regret-a-lot]

idk what they put in the australian open this year but i have not been normal about tennis ever since

[thanatosdetesreves]

The french presentator is a slay

[asleepinawell]

I see it's the time of the year again where I watch my european mutuals go feral over eurovision and I just wanted to say I have no clue what's going on but I love and support all of you and hope your favorite little gay people in fabulous outfits with songs that absolutely slap win