#they both HAVE to make it to finals though if croatia and/or france makes it i will be physically ill .

[petrolwave]

YES miku is from japan YES mexico got eliminated weeks ago NO i don't care . in my heart miku is a mexico fan <3333

based off of this figure and this 5 second edit i made for my discord pfp

[umahumahumah]

Can you rate all hetalia ships and your fav

I'll try. Let's go alphabetical order!

America/Australia: 0/10

It feels incestuous. I do find it funny how apparently Australia, someone clearly younger than America, is apparently in his 20's while the latter is 19.

America/Austria: 5/10

I think the fun part about this ship is how America has the potential to annoy Austria so much. Still, I can't really see the appeal.

America/Belarus: 5/10

I like the concept of this ship because both characters have contrasting personalities and are on opposing sides! I'm a sucker for that type of thing, which is kind of surprising that this ship doesn't compell me too much. At least not enough to make content of them.

America/Belgium: 6/10

I think America would really like Belgium's waffles, that fatass...

America/Bulgaria: 5/10

Clearly Bulgaria has dedicated his heart to one man and one man only. I don't see any chemistry between him and America... Actually maybe a little. I like the dynamic between normie and pathetic loser. Though I think if Bulgaria is not with Romania he would kill himself

America/Cameroon: 4/10

I think America would take a liking to Cameroon due to their shared interests in sports, but Cameroon feels way too mature to take any of America's tomfoolery.

America/Canada: 0/10

Blatantly incest.

America/China: 8/10

It feels like an alternate version of RusAme, with one side clearly maturer than the other. Though tbh I think the fun of this ship would be seeing how long it takes for America to break China

(+1 Point for that Wash My Belly Dude! Roblox game)

America/Croatia: 6/10

I think I made fanart of this ship once. I never finished it and it's on my dead phone, so... From the very minor appearance Croatia made in the entirety of Hetalia's existence, he seems like a very lethargic character, a great contrast to America's personality. Unfortunately, since Croatia is less than bare bones, I can't rank it any higher. If he was developed more I could easily ship him with America.

America/Cuba: 7/10

Cuba has a very strong hatred for America, doesn't he? Though whether America reciprocates that hatred or not is up to question. Considering his other rivalries though, America is probably very dismissive or unaware about Cuba's hatred. Whether it is reciprocated or not, I love a good ol' rivalry!

America/Cyprus: 3/10

I guess there's nothing bad about it, but what can I say about this? Cyprus would probably be scared of America or at least uncomfortable with his presence.

America/Czechia: 6/10

Anything to cuck Slovakia.

America/Denmark: 7/10

I think these two would be a very chaotic duo! They'd get into all sorts of shenanigans and probably plant a stink bomb somewhere in the meeting room. Them in a romantic context doesn't compell me, but they seem like they'd be good friends.

America/Ecuador: 6/10

There's nothing wrong with it, but I can't say much about it since Ecuador's barely a character. I can imagine them being good friends though.

America/Egypt: 6/10

There's something interesting about the dynamic of someone who doesn't talk and someone who doesn't know how to shut up.

America/England: -100000000/10

We got to USUK.... Honestly man I don't think I can describe the absolute HATE BONER I have for this ship. Reading the world itself feels like a walk through the fiery coals that make up the ground of hell. The ship is a bastardization of the characters involved and I am glad that it is finally dying out. Putting aside the incestuous and pedophilic undertones, most USUK content I've seen heavily mischaracterize America and England. I could probably replace the two characters with Generic Yaoi Couple™ and nobody would be able to tell the difference!!!!

America/Estonia: 0/10

No idea why but Himaruya made Estonia 17... I know ages are almost obsolete in Hetalia nowadays but maaan still

America/Finland: 1/10

Honestly I've always imagined Finland acting more like a father figure to America than anything romantic.

America/France: 0/10

Incest.

America/Germany: 7/10

Couples with one wild party and one that keeps them in check are always fun!

America/Greece: 3/10

Honestly I'd feel bad for Greece if he has to deal with America all the time. Let him nap pls

America/Hong Kong: 0/10

Hong Kong is 16-17

America/Hungary: 3/10

I think she'd just be trying her hardest trying to set him up with Austria instead.

America/Iceland: 0/10

Iceland is 16-17.

America/India: 4/10

I think I see potential in this ship. The two are both described as pretty wild characters, with India still being pretty mature. I see America instigating India to act more upon his wild side. But honestly I don't know much about India to actually determine what the nature of their relationship would be like.

America/Indonesia: 6/10

Again, I see potential. I think these two might be cute together, but I can't really get invested in it.

America/Ireland: 7/10

I think America and Ireland would be really close considering the history of Irish immigrants in America. Maybe they could've lived with each other at some point? Considering there were a lot of Irish immigrants to the country back then....

America/Italy: 7/10

It sounds pretty fun! I like both characters, I think a relationship with each other is enjoyable. Dumb + dumb stick together!

America/Japan: 9/10

I think America and Japan have a pretty wholesome relationship, I really like them together. Their dynamic also interests me with it being extrovert x introvert. Also also cultural exchanges between the two are always fun

America/Korea: 0/10

Korea is 15-16

America/Latvia: 0/10

Latvia is 15

America/Liechtenstein: 0/10

Liechtenstein feels too young.

America/Lithuania: 5/10

Ehhh, I think it's fine. Most of the content I've seen of Ameliet falls into the pitfalls of typical yaoi tropes and I can't really get into it. It seems homey though so extra point.

America/Luxembourg: 0/10

Luxembourg is under 18... Apparently? I'm not sure where this age came from but I got it from the wiki.

America/Macau: 4/10

Ehhhh.... I guess it's fine. + Extra points for gambling

America/Malaysia: 5/10

This ship seems fun. Malaysia kun is such a cute character and he would have very funny interactions with America, I like imagining the latter helping him build his confidence.

America/Moldova: 0/10

Bruh

America/Monaco: 0/10

Monaco is under 18.

America/Netherlands: 2/10

I don't know, doesn't seem that interesting to me.

America/New Zealand: 0/10

Feels kind of incestuous but idk

America/Norway: 1/10

It's not bad but I'm not that invested in Norway.

America/Philippines: 0/10

There's a dynamic between them I built in my head that makes it hard to put them in a relationship...

America/Poland: 6/10

Dense Character x Cheeky Character? I wonder how long it'll take for either party to become annoyed.

America/Prussia: 0/10

While I think a ship between two characters with both of their personalities would be cute, it's important to note that Prussia was America's mentor during the American revolution. So it just kinda feels weird tbh....

America/Romania: 3/10

It's fine, I could see how it may interest some people but ultimately I don't really care about it.

America/Romano: 2/10

I think it's fine but explosive tsunderes aren't really my cup of tea anymore, I've grown out of that phase :( a platonic relationship between them would be fun though.

America/Russia: 9/10

OTP!!! Honestly though I've gotten quite bored of it, but I especially like this ship because America and Russia are my favourite characters in Hetalia.

America/Seychelles: 0/10

I think Seychelles is underaged... Idk

America/Singapore: 0/10

Singapore is under 18, I guess.

America/Slovakia: 2/10

I don't think Slovakia is able to be with anyone other than Czechia.

America/Spain: 5/10

It seems interesting! I see potential in it but I can't really bring myself to ship it.

America/Sweden: 1/10

Same as Finland, for some reason Sweden/Finland and America have been depicted in a lot of parental relationships in the fandom. Can't unseen it tbh.

America/Switzerland: 2/10

I think it could be interesting, but I really can't see these two work at all.

America/Taiwan: 0/10

Pretty sure Taiwan's underaged + shipping her with a guy feels wrong.

America/Thailand: 3/10

These two could be interesting together, but ultimately... ?idk

America/Turkey: 3/10

Don't see any romance between them but I think these guys would be pretty epic drinking buddies.

America/Ukraine: 2/10

I'm gonna be tbh guys I don't think Ukraine will be able to handle a manchild like America, then again, I don't think anybody can handle America.

America/Vietnam: 2/10

Idk most of the content I've seen of this ship involves Vietnam War stuff and sometimes it does feel a little messed up but... I do think that if I researched more about it it could be more interesting

[gadriezmannsgirl]

Hey, i love your work and i hope you 're a having a great day💞 I have a request if it's okay, i was thinking maybe something with Anto and his girlfriend/wife is argentinian maybe related to Messi and some tension during the WC finale.

Or another idea where they are experiencing some cultural differences. Maybe her showing something from her culture to his family.

Thank you💞 💞💞

Conflicted -Antoine Griezmann (x Messi!Reader)

Summary: Your French husband is at the final of the World Cup but so is your Argentinian brother, Lionel.

You were the happiest when you saw Argentina beat Croatia 3-0 and with a goal, even though it was a penalty, of your brother, Lionel Messi. You were in your hotel room with your husband, Antoine, with the Messi 10 shirt on, when that happened. He had laughed when you threw yourself at him kissing him in your celebration form.

Antoine obviously welcomed your kiss and loved the attention.

You never thought too deeply into it but you started doing it when you saw that France was beating Morocco.

It was such a hard decision for you now. You were born in Argentina, you were proud of being Argentinian and you obviously wanted for your country to win, but on the other side you had your French husband.

He had already won a WC but you were also waiting for him to win another one, he had worked so hard for this, he deserved it, he also wanted to make his country proud once more and you wanted to be there for him.

So that's how you came into the place you were being now, sat in the French side with your Argentina shirt on but a French flag tied around your neck. People were whispering at the fact of the blue and white striped shirt on the dark blue side but whoever knew Lionel Messi and Antoine Griezmann knew that you were sister of the first one and wife of the latest.

You were feeling funny today, you knew that at the end of the day you'd feel happy and sad at the same time however the result will be. Happy for your husband and sad for your brother and country if France wins or Sad for your husband and happy for your brother and country if Argentina wins. By the end of the day, you'll be destroyed by the social media either way.

Good thing was that you learned to not give a single shit of what people said about you on social media.

Antoine's parents and the French WAG's were understanding your position. Of course, you can imagine they feel a little betrayed but they also knew your good intentions and the fact that you wished both teams the best of luck.

"Stop stressing so much about it" Antoine had said before arriving at the stadium

You were laughing at that right now.

First half passed and Argentina was already winning 2-0, you didn't celebrated the goals made by your older brother and by Angel Di Maria... And you were also not going to celebrate France's goals.

If they scored seeing as they weren't going to do it.

Your breathe hitched everytime the ball moved from Argentina to France territory and from France to Argentina territory. This was the world's best and worst final for you.

The amount of times your stomach was tied in a knot were uncountable.

It was worse when Kylian at minutes 80' and 81' did a doublet. It was tied and both of them heading into the extra time.

At this rate you wanted to throw up. You felt the looks of the whole stadium on you, even if they were on the pitch. You felt the whispers of both countries hit on your back.

At 108' Lionel scored and ten minutes later Kylian scored too. Fucking penalties. They were heading into the penalties. Everything could happen now.

4-2, was the end result. You cried for both happiness and sadness. You couldn't see Antoine's sad face and you could imagine your brother's happiness for finally winning a WC.

After a few minutes you bolted out of the French stands and got into the pitch, both teams still there along with the family of the Argentinians.

You showed your pass and security let you in.

Your eyes scanned the whole stadium searching for the brunette of your brother and the blonde of your husband, after what felt ages looking and looking around; you finally saw them both, hugging each other. You ran towards them and finally crushed both of them in a hug

You heard both of their laughs and felt their arms wrap around you

"This past three hours were absolutely hell for me" You admitted "I'm sorry and congrats, both of you" You spoke

"Don't worry, hermanita. We understand it" Your brother spoke first "Still, thank you for the support"

"I love you both so much" You said crying "And please known I'm happy and sad at the same time. This wasn't easy"

"We known it wasn't" Antoine whispered leaving a kiss on your cheek "We thank you for putting up with it, tho" You pulled away from them kissing Antoine's lips quickly and then your brother's cheek, hugging them once more

You guess, it was your country's time. It was your brother's time. Last time you were in the French side, cheering for them and celebrating with them on their win. Now, you'll also be there but with your people. Your latina people, you'd still celebrate it.

You were hurt for your brother back in 2018, now you are hurt for your husband in 2022.

Still, you loved the fact they respected each other, both of them understanding each others position. You went to your mom hugging her tightly feeling the excitement of your fellow Argentinians, you hugged your sister-in-law and your nephews.

You hugged Angel, Rodrigo, el Dibu, Dybala, Julián and every single one of the team congratulating them and even kissing the throphy your brother put up to your lips, laughing with him.

After a while, you escaped from them and went towards your French people. The first one you hugged was Lloris, the greatest captain ever, you kissed his cheek and congratulated him for the amazing job he had done, you then went to Varane, Olivier, Théo, Kylian, Koundé, Ousmane and the rest of them, leaving last your husband who was slightly behind them watching your brother with the Cup.

You went to him, hugged your husband and kissed him once more

"I'm so proud of you, I love you so much, I'm sorry and congratulations" His arms tightened around you

"Thank you, chérie" He smiled at you "Go and have fun with them" You shook your head

"I can't have fun knowing my husband is feeling sad, I know it's a normal thing right now but I just can't. I already feeling like I'm betraying both of you"

"You aren't. You're happy your brother and country got another Cup"

"But I'm also sad and destroyed because my husband and his country lost" You shook your head "I'm feeling everything a persona can feel" He laughed lightly

"That's not healthy for the baby, you know it" Antoine's hands went to your barely shown stomach, you were four months into pregnancy and not many people knew about it

"Well, I can't exactly help it. This baby will be in the middle next WC just like his momma is"

"I'm sorry"

"Don't be" You kissed his once more before feeling a weight on your shoulder "Merde!"

"¿Cómo que merde? ¿Qué sos vos argentina o francesa, boluda?" Your brother's voice made you and Antoine laugh "Venga, que mamá quiere una foto de todos" You nod

"I can take it if you want" Anto offered as Leo laughed

"Mamá dijo todos, vos también estás incluido. Somos familia"

After a few photos and some easing things from your family's part to Antoine, they were having a good time. Not the exactly best or they were fully partying like you knew they would, for Anto's feelings and respect but you loved it and were feeling now happy seeing that despite the differences they were able to push them aside.

Football is football but family is first.

Those two were your champions- your world champions and you couldn't help but think your third one was also on its way.

°°° °°° °°° °°°

Taglist: @gaviypedrisbride @stuckinaf4nfiction @elijahslover

[mask131]

I was trying to look around to see if I could find some more information about Père Noël in its pre-Americanized incarnation online, but unfortunately most websites share the misinformation that "Père Noël" only existed from the 50s onward and was a French invention... No. [Note: I know books exist folks, but I precisely wanted to do a web research first]

There is only one website that does not share this idea and does identify Père Noël as a typical French figure that was then overtaken by the American Santa Claus, and the most fascinating thing is that it points out (despite previous sources I shared claiming "Père Noël" was first recorded in literature in the mid-19th century, by people describing their youth around the turn of the 18th-19th century) that Père Noël seems to have existed since the Middle-Ages, with texts referring to "Père Noël" or to "Monseigneur Noël". But it does recognize that the Père Noël traditions really boomed in the 19th century and were associated with the bourgeoisie of the time...

The website in question however is mostly focused on the various local, regional incarnations of the gift-giver - because as with many things in France, this tradition is rather a set of various regional and localized specificities that were ultimately synthetized into one entity.

It reminds that in the Lorraine and Alsace region, the Germanic cultures and German influences make it so that Saint Nicholas and Christkindl are still the main gift-givers. In Lorraine it is Saint Nicolas who is most honored (he is after all the saint patron of Lorraine). Appearing in his bishop outfit that makes him look a lot like Santa Claus (thick white beard, large clothes of red and white), every 6th of December he brings gifts and treats to nice children - while naughty children are confronted by his dreaded companion, Père Fouettard dressed in blacks, who beats up with a stick bad children. Saint Nicolas is also still strongly celebrated in the North of France (aka, what is above the Parisian region, because despite what some foreigners believe, Paris is not part of the North).

While in Alsace it is the Christkindl that still goes strongly, with Hans Trapp as its own Père Fouettard. The website briefly reminds that Christkindl is an avatar/incarnation of the Child-Christ, or Baby Jesus, that ended up being fused with the 23rd of December Saint, Sainte Lucie (Saint Lucia), resulting in this unique Christmas figure appearing as a woman dressed in white with a crown made of fir branches topped by four candles. It also reminds how Christkindl stays a symbol of Protestant end-of-the-year celebrations, as they pushed the Christkindl figure to oppose and replaced the Catholic celebrations of Saint Nicolas. Finally, there is an Alsace-specific legend that claims Hans Trapp actually originated as an Alsacian lord that tyrannized his people - Hans von Trotha, the 15th century lord of Wissembourg.

[Given the Alsace region has a lot of website pages about its traditions I'll place here in brackets informations from other websites:

The Christkindl, also written Christkindel or Chriskindla, is a Christian figure that is supposed to be an embodiment of L'Enfant Jésus, Child Jésus (the name comes from Christ-Kindel ; Christus-Kindlein, Christus als Kind), but definitively was influenced by Saint Lucia, who is very big in Scandinavia. In fact, Saint Lucia and the Christkindl look a lot like each other - female entities dressed in white with a crown of candles... Though the Christkindl can appear both as an adult woman and as a little girl, and also tends to have white veils. People tend to also find in Christkindl remnants of the Germanic goddess Berchta. No need to tell you that the Christkindl is big in all parts of the world influenced by German culture - Germany, Austria, northern Italy, Croatia, Slovenia, Switzerland, Czech Republic, and even some parts of Brazil, the ones where there was strong German imigration.

The Christkindl appeared in the 16th century with the Protestant Reform. Up until this point the day of Saint Nicolas was a very big thing in Alsace - saint-patron of school students, he offered good children mandarines and "manala" (a brioche in shape of a child). But the Protestants did not agree with this (Protestants were known to strongly dislike saints in general), and so they replaced the saint with the Christic figure of Christkindl, while keeping Père Fouettard/Hans Trapp (whose job was to threaten with stern lectures naughty children... or take them in a bag to abandon them in the deep dark woods). The change occured over the 16th century, from 1530-1536 (last mentions of Saint Nicolas in Alsace) to 1570 (first mention of Christkindl, when the Klausemärik was replaced by Christkindelmärk). In fact, Christkindl still has some Saint Nicolas traits - she also goes around with a donkey, named Peckeresel, which carries two bags, one for the treats (mandarines and bredalas), one for the whips. People left hay or carrots for the donkey to eat by the front door. Pastor Johannes Flinner made a strong public attack against saint Nicolas in Strasbourg during the "cultural transition", by pointing out that distributing gifts to all should be the prerogative of the Christ and no one else.

During the 20th century the Christkindl lost popularity in Alsace (jee, I wonder why France would like to bury Germanic traditions in the century of World War II) - but it returned in the traditions from the 1990s onward.

Fascinatingly, despite being supposedly a Christ-figure of an angel, the Christkindl, or White Lady, is also frequently called in alsace, a "fée", a fairy, la fée de Noël, the Christmas fairy. It doesn't help that she sometimes carry around a wand with a star at the tip, that is strikingly reminding of the stereotypical fairy-wand. Another irony of fate - despite the Christkindl being brought over to replace Saint Nicolas, the two currently still coexist in Alsace thanks to people not wanting to abandon the good old bishop. A third fun fact: originally the Christkindl could be played as much by women as by men, due to being a truly androgynous entity. From the 16th century onward, the Saint Nicolas celebrations were replaced in Alsace by parades of teenagers of both sexes dressed in white, going from door to door to give gifts and sing Christmas songs. However you can't have teenage boys and girls go around late at night without getting some problems... And those "Saint Nicolas hook-ups" were a real problem in Alsace, you have records from the 17th and 18th centuries pointing out how authorities have to try to refrain all the Christkindl from... well you know.]

The next entity presented is the famous Pays Basque character of Olentzero, whose appearance is that of a coal-man. Well a bizarre coal man - he has a bag filled with coal in one hand, a sickle in the other, a large beard on his face and a béret on his head. According to the Basque-version of the Nativity lore, he lived at the top of the mountains but saw in the sky the announcement of the birth of Kixmi (Basque name for Jésus), and he descended from his mountains to announce the good news. While he is the gift-giver of Pays Basque, leaving gifts for children in the night between the 24th and 25th of December, entering in the house by the chimney ; he is also a bogeyman figure, as he was a scary-looking man who was said to take away in a bag naughty children. As with everything Basque, Olentzero is actually a pre-Christian figure, as the very name of the character is related to the "pagan" winter solstice celebrations of the old Basque religion.

[Again, time to bring some more information from other websites to make sure I give a more complete portrait:

Long story short, because the Basque folklore is very well documented and I can't spend too much time on this, the Olentzero (or Olentzaro, Orentzaro, Omentzaro, Orantzaro...) is at the same time the Basque name for Christmas and the Basque figure of the coal-man that brings gifts during Christmas. He is supposed to be a grotesque character - rude, fat, dirty, gluttonous, his face blackened by soot, with worn-out clothes... He is basically a caricature of mountain-men and forest-men. Sometimes he is even given monstrous traits such as "having as many eyes as there are days in the year, plus one" - which is reminding of a French being of the New Year folklore called L'Homme aux Nez who also has as many noses as there are days in the year...He typically holds branches of gorse in one hand and a sickle in the other.

He comes down from the mountains, enters houses by chimneys, goes into the kitchen once everybody goes to sleep to eat all leftover food, and he warms himself by the fire - either you had to leave a log burning just for him, either he used the flames of the fire to burn his gorse branches. In fact, "olentzero" was also the name of a special log that was left bruning in the fireplace from Christmas to the 1st or 6th of January. This theme of the "coal man" of winter or the burning of branches all answers to a deep motif of bringing back light and heat in the heart of the cold and the dark. Him holding a sickle has made people draw parallel between him and the figure of Saturn/Kronos.

In fact, there is an old tradition, long before the Olentzero was embodied by a disguised man or by a mannequin paraded through the villages, to embody the character simply by the sickle. The sickle hanged by the chimney, as a threat to all disobedient children, to all lying children, and to all children that refused to go to bed. Another symbol of the Olentzero, outside of the sickle and the coal-sack, is a wine-bag or wine-bottle that he carries around, because to add to the grotesque he is also a drunkard, and according to stories it is because he gets often drunk that his wife regularly beats him. (Because yes the Olentzero has a wife, a character named Mari Domingi and who is typically depicted wearing a medieval regional outfit). However it seems that all this grotesqueness is simply due to the Olentzero being a character from the old Basque mythology that got Christianized - think of how the Dagda of Celtic mythology also got more buffoonish/clownesque/grotesque as time passed. We do know that the roots and origins of the character lie in the valley of Bidassoa...)

Today gone is the creepy bogeyman and grotesque glutton ; the Olentzero has evolved into a kinder, nicer, cleaner incarnation that is closer to the Père Noël traditions. For example he now parades through streets during the day, riding a horse (pottok) or by foot, giving children candies and sweets (including fake-coal actually made of sugar) ; and the legend claims he goes down from the mountain to offer coal and wood-logs to the poor families that can't afford fuel for their fire]

And finally, we find back our good old Père Janvier! Here we have most of the same info as previous. Père Janvier was a Bourgogne character, most present in the Morvan and Nivernais regions up until the 1930s. He brings gifts in the night between the 31st of December and the 1st of January by going through the chimney - chimney which must be decorated with holy and mistletoe. Père Janvier (Father January) typically looks like a skinny old man with a long white beard, dressed in a brown monk-like robe, and he is usually bent due to wearing on his back a heavy wicker basket filled with toys. And he too has for companion the Père Fouettard.

Most interestingly, the website mentions "Père Janvier variations" across France, most notably the Savoie character of Père Chalande, and the Normandie character of Barbassioné.

More information from other website. Le Père Chalande (or Papa Chalande, Daddy Chalande) was indeed a figure of the Savoie region, but also of the Dauphiné, and he was also present in Geneva. Martyne Perrot, in her book "Faut-il croire au Père Noël? Idées reçues sur Noël" even lists the area of action of this figure as: Savoie, Suisse romande, Bresse, Forez, Ardèche, Gard, Lozère and Hérault. He is basically identical to Père Noël because "Chalande" is just an old word for "Noël" (Christmas) in the regional language known as arpitan.

There was a traditional song that went as such: Chalande est venu / Son chapeau pointu / Sa barbe de paille / Cassons les anailles (noisettes) / Mangeons du pain blanc / Jusqu’à Nouvel An. / Il monte dans sa chambre / Il trouve une orange / Il la pluche / Il la mange / On l’appelle le petit gourmand. / Il descend les escaliers / Il se casse le bout du nez / Il va chez le cordonnier / Se faire mettre une pièce au nez / Quand il est malade / Il mange de la salade / Quand il est guéri / Il mange des souris/ Toutes pourries !

I can't translate the full song, but it refers to various traditions. For example leaving an orange for Père Chalande ; Père Chalande wearing a "beard of straw and a pointy hat" (leftovers of Saint Nicolas, especially the pointy hat) ; Père Chalande giving "anailles" (walnuts) to children ; and the habit of placing inside the Christmas log (real log of the fire) chestnuts, so that the burning of the Christmas log doubled as the cooking of the wintery treats. Raymond Christinger wrote in 1965, in a set of research about Geneva folklore, an article studying the character of Chalande, if you know how to read French: here.

While doing Chalande research I stumbled upon a Swiss theory brought forward by a journalist named Bernard Léchot - I don't know how accurate this is when it comes to actual evolution of Christmas figures, but here it is. According to him, the Christmas archetype of the "Old Man" actually comes 18th century Germany. In this era of rationalism, the German Protestant landgraves decided to introduce some laicity to their country, and so cut-off all characters close to Christianity from their Christmas celebrations (from Saint Nicholas to Christkindl). As a result, pagan figures returned, including the Old Man in the shape of Weihnachtsmann. Which then spread to other European countries, each land creating its variation: Bonhomme Noël in France, Father Christmas in England, Père Chalande in Savoie.

As for the Barbassioné of Normandie, I found nothing about him. As in every says it is the Normandie name of Père Noël, but he doesn't have any specific thing to his character.

To conclude, I will link you to a page documenting a Père Noël/Christmas beings exposition that collected various visuals of the history of the Christmas gift-givers through time, right here.

And through it you will see the evolution from the "Scandinavian ancestors" (Thor and Odin) and Saint Nicolas (celebrated in Germanic countries and the Alsace region), to the American Santa Claus and the British "Old Father Christmas", passing by the Germanic Knecht Ruprecht, the also Germanic Weihnachtsmann, the Christinkindel (of Germany, Belgium and Alsace), the Jultomte of Sweden, and the Enfant Jésus/Child-Jesus of France and Italy...

Without forgetting the French Bonhomme Noël, the Italian Befana, the regional ancestors of Père Noël (Tante Arie, Père Chalande, or the Breton Ted Nedelec), the Russian Ded Moroz, and Mère Noël (Mother Christmas)... With additional sections about Santa Claus in advertisements, the theme of "outlaw Father Christmas", Père Noël during the World Wars, and more...

[eurovision-revisited]

Eurovision 2004 - Televoting Watch

Bang the gong! Finally, it had to happen. We've gone full televote. 100% of the vote in this year's final came from the public. The juries were there but only to provide a back-up in the case of a technical problem or unforeseen circumstances.

That's going to make my analysis of this year's final a little more boring than usual. However there are a couple of points of note.

First - of course - there's a semi-final to look at as well, and in that a back-up jury was used. Monaco and Croatia both had issues with their phone networks. The Croatian mobile service provider had forgotten to delete votes for their own country. These were recalculated without those votes, and the remaining televote went forward, so the Croatian backup jury wasn't used. However the Monaco jury did have their verdicts included in the result, as the problems affecting their televote couldn't be fixed.

Having just a single jury vote to compare doesn't really lead to any well-founded conclusions, but it is possible to have a look at the running order biases.

After experimenting (successfully!) with the reverse recap in 2002 and 2003, the EBU have removed it from 2004. We're back to a standard running order recap and it shows. Both the Monegasque back-up jury and the televote heavily favoured the second-half of the running order in the semi-final. Even though Ukraine and Greece were in the first-half, none of the first seven countries on stage qualified. This bias is probably due in large part to the random running order placing several of the weaker songs towards the start, but even so, around 60% of both the jury and televote went to the second-half countries.

Having a semi-final allows us to see the relative strengths of the two halves of the draw for the first time - which gives added context to the outcome.

In the final, both of the big two from the semi-final (Ukraine and Serbia & Montenegro) were drawn in the first half. Even with this advantage, the first half barely exceeded the second half in the televote 52%-48%. It's going to take a few more years of reverting to non-reverse recaps to see if the effect is noticeable again. I'm already missing it.

One other point of note. Even though all competing countries could vote in both the semi-final and the final, leading to higher scores all round, there were three fewer countries voting in the semi than in the final. This was because of France, Poland and Russia not broadcasting the semi-final on the grounds that they weren't in it and interest was low. Some countries just take longer to get it than others...

Despite there being more voting points than ever that doesn't mean that countries receiving zero-points can't happen. And it did happen this year. Commiserations to Switzerland - the first ever country to get zero points in a Eurovision semi-final!

[cheshire387]

Eurovision rant ahead

So, obviously upset with Sweden winning and disappointed in the results as a whole but like

Loreen reusing her own song and winning with it???

Tattoo is literally Euphoria 2.0

Don't understand why jury also gave so many points to Israel, I mean, the song was good but there were much better entries

Poland. Generally just hate the fact they sent Blanka instead of Jann(check "Jann- Gladiator" if you haven't), she can't even sing, Solo is such a generic song and I wish Georgia would be in the finals instead

Norway getting to top 5 thanks to audience votes is another proof that jury is not needed, my favourite entry this year though I wasn't expecting them to win as there were better singers

Surprised Greece didn't give Cyprus 12 points as they usually do but whatever

Germany was done dirty, Lord of the Lost is an amazing band, their songs go hard, they deserved a better score

Jury leaving Germany and Croatia at the bottom just seems like reaction to both entries making satire of politics, though Germany is more subtle maybe 🤔

France deserved a better score too, literally one of the best songs this year and La Zarra's voice is just 👌

Finland is definitely the winner this year by audience votes alone, but it's not the first time jury votes decided the winner instead of the audience. What's even the point of audience votes when jury have so much power over it 👀

[lageografiademicamino]

How should voting system be changed in Eurovision?

So..... Community is buzzing about the results of the Grand Final and especially the voting system. I find it unlikely EBU wouldn’t change the system in somehow considering how huge is the people’s reaction and they did drop the juries from semifinals last year so... Anyhow here are some options. 

1. JURIES ARE DROPPED FROM EUROVISION ENTIRELY 

France 2023. 

I don’t think this will happen. First of all, there are too many delegations and countries that benefit from the jurers. Second, it wouldn’t change the problem. Last year folks were crying why Juries didn’t stop Ukraine winning with sympathy televotes. People don’t always know the best and we do make decisions based on politics etc soo.. Every year we’re not happy with either side of voting system but I do believe we need both sides to continue in the contest. 

2. JURIES PERCENTAGE WILL BE DROPPED 

Currently jurers hold 50% of the votes in the final (semifinals it’s only televote). In some national finals their percentage is less and people votes have more impact. If this scenario did happen, would it be 30%? 40%? 45%? 

Ukraine 2023. 

3. JURERS WILL BE INCREASED TO ADD DIVERSITY OF THE VOTES 

Currently there are 5 jurers / country. Would adding more people bring diversity of giving the points? Because they often are surprisingly aligned on their big favourites. They should be musical professionals or media professionals experticed in music industry and they’re not allowed to talk about the acts to each other or have any connection to the delegations, artists etc. 

4. BRINGING IN 3RD VOTES (TELESCOPIC)

Georgia 2023. 

Sanremo and Benidorm Fest use Telescopic votes. I think they have 15-25% impact to the final points. This might help to smoothe the biggest differences between audience and the jurers or make the final decision in some cases perhaps. 

5. KEEPING JURERS BUT MAKING JURY SHOW PERFORMANCES PUBLIC 

Currently only the audience that bought the tickets to Jury shows and press sees the actual Jury show. Would it be better to add visibility here by publishing the performances later on Youtube? 

Armenia 2023. 

6. KEEPING JURERS AND CHANGING CRITERIA 

So the current criteria being: 

Vocal capacity of the artist(s)

Performance on stage

Composition and originality of the song

Overall impression of the act

Every year the entries outside of pop genre seem to be receiving less Jury love. Jurers should represent different genres and parts of the industry though to appreciate rock, rap entries for example. I wonder is the singing overly hyped in the criteria and should there be different guidelines for it because you can’t judge pop song singing and rock song singing in the same way. 

7. KEEPING JURERS BUT MAKING THEM VOTE ALL THE ACTS 

Croatia 2023. 

Again to make the jury votes more even and less in favour for the big favourites only, would it help if they’d judge ALL the entries? Having limitations on how many 12 points etc you can give of course. This would also solve the zero points dilemma. 

8. KEEPING JURIES BUT CHANGING TELEVOTING TO VOTE 3 ACTS WITH THE SAME PRICE 

In Junior Eurovision public must choose 3 different acts I believe. Not sure how this would work but it would help diving the points instead of people voting for their one and only favourite. In years like these when we have such a strong televote favourites like Finland and Sweden, they tend to suck all the votes and there isn’t much left to anyone else. We saw the televote scores being quite small even for songs that were loved (Austria, Moldova, Czechia etc)

Portugal 2023. 

9. KEEPING THE JURIES BUT CHANGING TELEVOTING FOR FREE

They do this in Melodiefestivalen I think. They’ve built up an app just for voting where voting is free. Again people wouldn’t just vote for the number 1 favourite but several acts and this would also perhaps prevent the unpleasent zero points situations. 

What are your thoughts on the voting system in Eurovision and how would you change it? 

[college-girl199328]

England vs France referee learns World Cup fate amid Lionel Messi and Harry Maguire concerns

Match officials being still in Qatar for the remaining four matches of the World Cup have been decided, as England vs. France referee Wilton Sampaio stays in the tournament. The Brazilian was heavily criticized after the Three Lions crashed out on Saturday night, with Gary Neville and Harry Maguire both telling their frustration.

Sampaio did not award a free kick for a foul on Bukayo Saka in the build-up to Aurelien Tchouameni's opener, while the Arsenal star was kicked and disrupted for the rest of the game without much punishment. Sampaio won't be going home just yet, though, after the list of officials was revealed ahead of the semi-finals.

Premier League referees Michael Oliver and Anthony Taylor have also learned their fates, with the former traveling back to England and the latter awaiting bigger things in the final week of matches.

Elsewhere, Lionel Messi's criticism of Antonio Mateu Lahoz may have had an impact on the Spaniard's chances, as he was also left without further assignments.

Messi slammed the official after he issued 16 cards in the Netherlands' penalty shootout loss to Argentina. The Paris Saint-Germain forward said: "I don't want to talk about the referee because they sanction you.” But people saw what happened. We were afraid before the match because we knew how he was, and I think FIFA must review this. “You can't put someone like him in charge of these matches."

England fans may well be frustrated that Lahoz, widely regarded as one of UEFA's best referees, was punished while Sampaio wasn't, especially after Maguire's fury. "Big decisions went against us; a lot of decisions went against us,” the Manchester United defender said after the game. I think the referee’s decision-making throughout the game was poor. We always stand here, and as players, we get criticized.

"So, it would be nice to see if he comes out and says whether he’s had a good game or not” because there were so many decisions in that first half where they made five or six early fouls. I think Harry Kane was outside the box, but it was a clear foul.

"He didn’t in the second half; Bukayo’s is a clear foul leading up to their first goal.” “With big moments and big decisions, you expect to get some right, but unfortunately tonight we didn’t get any."

Neville doubled down on that view, adding, "The referee had a nightmare game, an absolute joke of a referee.”

"I’m not saying that was all down to England’s defeat because that’s making excuses; he was just a bad referee, rank bad."

Argentina vs. Croatia will be officiated by Daniele Orsato, and France vs. Morocco is under the control of Cesar Ramos. No decisions have been made over the final or third-place play-off, but Taylor will remain in contention.

[kayla1993-world]

England out to stop World Cup's 'irresistible force' Mbappé

England’s players have been asked one question on repeat as they prepare to face France in the World Cup quarterfinals on Saturday. How do you stop Kylian Mbappé? Hardly surprising, given Mbappé is the tournament’s leading scorer with five goals and is widely considered the man to succeed Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo as soccer’s biggest stars. "I’m sure England will have prepared to face Kylian," France coach Didier Deschamps said at a news conference Friday. "But Kylian is in the position to make a difference. Kylian is Kylian, and he always will be." There is no sense of France trying to manage expectations of its star player, even as the hype surrounding him grows with each stellar performance in Qatar. He has already scored one more goal than the four he managed as his country won the 2018 World Cup in Russia. In the round of 16, he struck twice as the defending champions beat Poland 3-1, with two thunderous shots past goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny. "He cannot be compared to other players," said teammate Dayot Upamecano. "We all believe in Kylian," added Youssouf Fofana. Mbappé is being depicted as an unstoppable force in Qatar, something England defender Kyle Walker pushed back against this week. "It's good for [Walker] if he can stop Kylian Mbappé," Fofana added. "But 19 other teams in Ligue 1 have been waiting for the solution. The truth will come from the pitch." Walker will have the job of trying to limit the damage Mbappé can inflict on England’s defense at Al Bayt Stadium. But rather than merely trying to contain France’s biggest threat, discussion this week has been about how bold Three Lions coach Gareth Southgate is prepared to be in response. England reached the semifinals in 2018 and the final of last year’s European Championships. On both occasions, Southgate was criticized for his cautious approach, even though England only lost in a penalty shootout to Italy at the Euros. "I very much like Gareth. If I understand correctly, not everyone appreciates him so much in his own country," noted Deschamps. England lost 2-1 to Croatia four years ago, and the shootout loss to Italy came after a 1-1 draw at Wembley. England had taken the lead in both matches, and Southgate was accused of adopting defensive tactics to try to protect the lead. His team has played with more freedom at this World Cup, with a more attacking style leading to 12 goals in four games to tie Portugal as the leading scorers. Southgate has opted to play with a back four in the tournament so far but could switch to a five-man defense to try to cope with Mbappé. "No one objected to us playing five games before the Euros," said Walker. "I think it’s a bit harsh to judge him on what we’ve done previously. I think at this tournament we have been playing good attacking football and scoring a lot of goals." After coming close in its last two major tournaments, Walker believes England is ready to win this time around. Beating France, he says, would be evidence of that. "It’s a great opportunity to stamp it down and say that we are a good team and we can achieve great things, and give us the belief that we can win this," he said. "I’m not saying we don’t believe, but beating such a big team in a quarter-final--they’re the reigning world champions--will give us a lot of confidence rather than arrogance."

[calciopics]

Kylian Mbappé is Born to Run

The France forward grew up in the suburbs of Paris, steeped in the culture of football. At 22, the World Cup-winner is already a global superstar, and only now entering his prime. Will Euro 2020 be the moment when he overtakes Messi and Ronaldo to become recognised as the best player on the planet?

Kylian Mbappé was 18 when he walked into the changing room of the French national team. “It’s very difficult,” he recalls, “because great players don’t want to give you their place. That’s what makes them great players. They especially don’t want to give you their place if you arrive with the label of ‘Future Great Player’.” Within a year, Mbappé and France had won the World Cup in Moscow.

Three years on, we are talking in a room of his mansion in the leafy, old-money streets of Neuilly, just outside Paris. It isn’t even his home; he bought it to house his foundation, which offers after-school activities to rich and poor children alike. In conversation, Mbappé resembles a veteran TV presenter more than a young footballer. He makes short speeches in complete sentences, as precise in his footing as he is on the field. He sits as straight-backed as he runs. His expressive face keeps breaking into smiles: he likes talking, and is almost unburdened by the usual footballer’s fear of saying the wrong thing.

His burly father Wilfried sits beside us, but only once during the interview will he feel impelled to intervene. Meeting Mbappé, you come to understand how he hit football seemingly already fully formed. At 22, he has achieved more than most great players ever do. Can he take one more step and become the world’s best footballer?

His story starts 10 miles and a universe away from where we’re sitting today. His hometown, Bondy, is a multicultural suburb just northeast of Paris that looks as if someone plonked a Soviet town on top of an ancient French village. The old church is surrounded by fast-food joints and fading 1960s’ apartment blocks, one of them now adorned with a giant mural of Mbappé.

His parents grew up in Bondy: Wilfried, of Cameroonian origin, and Mbappé’s mother Fayza, of Algerian descent. Mixed marriages are common in the Parisian suburbs, the banlieues, but the couple did have to defy some local disapproval.

If a wannabe footballer had to choose the ideal place on earth to grow up, it might have been the Mbappé home in Bondy. Mbappé’s father and uncle were both football coaches, and Fayza, who ran after-school activities, played handball in the French first division. His parents had adopted an older boy, Jirès Kembo Ekoko, who went on to make a long career as a journeyman professional footballer. “I didn’t bring a new passion into the family,” Mbappé says with understatement.

He grew up practically inside the local football club, AS Bondy. “In the Parisian suburbs there are football fields everywhere,” he enthuses. “People here live for football. I was born with the sports ground facing my window.” It’s no wonder, he adds, that Paris’s suburbs are perhaps the deepest talent pool in global football, producing players such as Paul Pogba, Blaise Matuidi, N’Golo Kanté and Riyad Mahrez.

As a non-white kid from the suburbs, did Mbappé always feel accepted as French before he became a French icon? “I’ve always felt French. I don’t renounce my origins, because they are part of who I am, but I’ve made my whole life in France, and never at any moment was I made to feel I wasn’t at home here.” In the banlieues, he says, “We have a love of France because France has given to us and we try to give back to it.”

Mbappé’s parents made him take school seriously, and he was also a not-very-talented flautist at Bondy’s conservatory, but football came first. At AS Bondy, he says, “My father was my coach for 10 years. He helped construct the style of player I wanted to become. But I never felt the pressure of, ‘You have to become a footballer.’ Above all, it was a passion.”

Tagging along with his dad and uncle on their coaching jobs, the child acquired an unusual gift: he became a footballer who thinks like a coach. “Very young, I was always in the changing rooms, listening to the tactical talks and the different points of view, because football is made up of different viewpoints. I learned to have this tolerance, and I think it helped me, because being a coach is putting yourself in somebody else’s place. I think I have the gift of doing that. It helps in football, because if you’re a player, generally you think about yourself, about your own career. I can see, for instance, when something in a game is frustrating a team-mate. I can put him at ease.”

When you’re in the World Cup final, you’re convinced you’re going to win. You walk onto the field, the trophy is there, and you tell yourself it is impossible the other team will take it

Mbappé turned out to be that perfect sporting combination: a natural who is coachable. “He assimilates advice quickly. You ask him something once, and the second time he does it,” Antonio Riccardi, his former youth coach at AS Bondy, told me. Even as a child, Mbappé was an efficient footballer: decisive, never just decorative.

By adolescence, he was being courted by the big European clubs, which all keep close tabs on the Paris region. He visited Chelsea, and celebrated his 14th birthday at Real Madrid, which cannily found him the perfect babysitter: the club’s then assistant coach Zinedine Zidane, the greatest French footballer. When Zidane offered Mbappé a lift in his fabulous car, the overawed child offered to take his shoes off first.

The Mbappés sifted the countless offers and chose Monaco, where the route to the first team looked shortest. Mbappé arrived there, he says, “with my [footballing] baggage well filled.”

Kids in performance-sports families learn that they never arrive. Each step up is just another learning opportunity. In Monaco’s first team, the teenaged Mbappé encountered the veteran Colombian striker Radamel Falcao, freshly returned from unhappy loan spells with Manchester United and Chelsea.

“He was a star,” says Mbappé, “but he had a desire to transmit. He was like a teacher to me. He’s someone who always wants to score, but he left me the space to express myself. He’s very cool in front of goal, calm in his game, and he transmitted this serenity that I didn’t have, because I was young, excited and wanted to go at 2,000 kilometres an hour.”

The kid who didn’t yet have a driving licence scored 15 league goals in his first professional season to help Monaco win the French title in 2017. He added six more in the Champions League knockout rounds. He also passed his baccalauréat, France’s equivalent of A-levels.

Mbappé marvelled at the tension on the faces of other professionals, because he didn’t feel it himself. Everything came easily to him, without great sacrifice, he has said. When I ask about stress in a profession of hypercompetitive men, he shrugs: “Daily life is easy.”

His vertical ascent didn’t surprise him; it just happened a bit quicker than he’d expected. But others were stunned. Here was something new: an 18-year-old complete forward. Built like an Olympic sprinter, Mbappé ran upright, looking around him. He could dribble, cross and shoot. He was more advanced than Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo had been at 18.

How does he describe his style? “The modern attacker who can play anywhere,” he replies. He explains that forwards used to be specialists: “There’d be a number nine, or number 11, or number seven.” Mbappé, though, is the all-in-one. “I think my CV can speak for me. I’ve played alone up front, I’ve played on the left and the right. In all humility, I don’t think it’s given to everyone to change position like that every year and keep a certain standard of performance at the highest level. That didn’t fall from heaven. If I speak of the baggage given me in my teens, it’s all there.”

In one regard he has always been unequalled: the counterattack at speed. He says, “I’ve managed to work on my weak points but above all to perfect my strong points, because I was always told that it’s through your strong points that you’ll exist.”

In March 2017, Mbappé became the youngest player in 62 years to debut for France. Five months later, his hometown club Paris Saint-Germain agreed to sign him for a fee of £166m. He drew on his childhood experiences to navigate two alpha-male changing-rooms. At PSG, his good English and Spanish helped him deal with foreign team-mates. With Les Bleus, France’s assistant coach Guy Stéphan told Mbappé’s biographer Arnaud Hermant: “He knows the codes of the changing room. At table or in the bus, he doesn’t just sit somewhere randomly. For a youngster, he isn’t timid or introverted. He expresses himself.”

By summer 2018, picked for the World Cup in Russia, Mbappé was comfortable enough to claim the blue number 10 shirt — previously worn by Zidane and Michel Platini — and to say in public that he was gunning for the trophy.

“I went to play the matches calmly like I always have. I didn’t want to change just because it was the World Cup,” he says. “We were lucky to have a young squad. We were totally carefree, just a band of mates.”

Hang on, surely a football team isn’t really a band of mates? “No,” he acknowledges. “Just like the baker doesn’t get on with all bakers. You don’t have to eat with your team-mates every evening to win.”

In the World Cup round of 16, his two goals and a 37kmph gallop through Argentina’s defence made his global name. The night before the final against Croatia, he admits, “I was a bit stressed. I didn’t manage to sleep much. But the nearer the match came, the less stressed I was.” Before kick-off he was joking in the changing room. Stéphan recalls: “He experienced the final as if it were a PSG-Dijon game.”

Mbappé says, “When you’re in the World Cup final, you’re convinced that you’re going to win. Even the Croats were convinced they were going to win. You walk onto the field and the trophy is there, between the two teams, and you tell yourself it’s impossible that the other team will take it. That’s why there’s such disappointment afterwards if you don’t win.”

Half of Bondy gathered in front of a giant screen to cheer on the commune’s own “Kylian national”. Scoring in France’s 4–2 victory, he seemed to have reached his career apogee aged 19. He didn’t see it like that. Interviewed the night of the final, he described winning the World Cup as “already good” but only a start.

The next day, as the Bleus’ bus edged along a packed, ecstatic Champs-Élysées, writes Hermant, the ice-cold kid mused to the French Football Federation’s president Noël Le Graët: “Was all this really necessary?”

Mbappé explains now: “For me, it wasn’t an outcome, a finality. I don’t think of that trophy now at all. I don’t look at pictures of the World Cup before going to sleep. Honestly, it’s people on the street who come up and say, ‘You’re world champion, merci, merci.’”

He understood that his early triumph had upset football’s all-important hierarchies. Returning to PSG, he immediately reassured Paris’s Brazilian star Neymar: “I’m not going to walk on your flowerbeds. I’ll be a candidate for the Ballon d’Or [the award for world’s best footballer] this year because you won’t be, but I promise I don’t want to take your place.”

Soon after, he took the World Cup trophy to Bondy, where thousands came out to greet him. “It was a way to say, ‘Thank you.’ I’ve never forgotten which soup I have eaten. So it was important for me to return there after my first World Cup and first international title.” (Note that word, “first”.)

France’s coach, Didier Deschamps, recalls falling into “physical and moral apathy” the season after he lifted the World Cup as a player in 1998. Did Mbappé experience a hangover? He grins: “I finished as best player in the league, highest scorer, best young player, I was chosen in the team of the season, and we won the league.”

Winning the World Cup made Mbappé a national hero. Does he consider himself a star? “I think so. If your face is everywhere in the city, everywhere in the world, that’s for sure. Being a star is a status, but it doesn’t make me a better person than others.”

He lives like a luxury prisoner, who cannot leave home without being mobbed. “It takes an organisation just to go out,” he says. He has joked that when his future children ask him about his youthful adventures, he won’t have any.

“A fan gives you enormous love,” says Mbappé carefully, “but sometimes maybe an excess of love, and he might not respect your intimacy. We give our lives to the people, because we give them pleasure every three days, and we give them our time. It’s impossible to hope for a normal life, but just a little respect for one’s private life isn’t too much to ask for, I think.”

As a young man of non-white origins, he has a particular vulnerability with the French public, one-third of whom voted for the far-right candidate Marine Le Pen in the run-off of the presidential elections in 2017. Even so, he has begun to speak out against police violence.

“I took time to start talking about it, because I wasn’t ready,” he admits. “I had a lot of things to digest: my change of status, my new life. But I have always opposed all types of violence.”

When I note that French police violence is disproportionately directed against people of non-white origins from suburbs like Bondy, his father stirs from his silence: “We’re not answering that. You’re orienting it as if the violence were only against people from the banlieues, which is false.”

In high-level football, nobody will make a place for you. Ego, self-love, isn’t just the caprice of stars. It’s also the will to give the best of yourself

French fans like their stars humble. Mbappé has explained “the French mentality” to Neymar, who favours a bling-bling, poker-playing party lifestyle. Mbappé says, “In Brazil, they are more festive, in France more serious. Here it’s not considered good to display your passions. People will think he’s neglecting PSG because he plays poker. I think he has begun to understand that. At first it was hard for him because he experienced it as an affront. When he arrived, they put his face on the Eiffel Tower, and six months later they’re asking him why he’s playing poker. In France, people know what you have but they don’t want to see it. They just want to see you playing football, smiling.”

But Mbappé believes humility isn’t enough. He thinks great footballers need big egos. “In high-level football, nobody will make a place for you or tell you that you’re capable of things. It’s up to you to persuade yourself that you are. Ego, self-love, isn’t just a caprice of stars. It’s also the will to surpass yourself, to give the best of yourself.” Every time he walks onto the field, he says, he tells himself, “I’m the best.”

In truth, he knows he isn’t the best — Messi and Ronaldo are better. “It’s not only me who knows that,” he laughs. “Everyone knows it. If you tell yourself that you’ll do better than them, it’s beyond ego or determination — it’s lack of awareness. Those players are incomparable. They have broken all laws of statistics. They have had 10 extraordinary years, 15.”

Still, he admits: “You do always compare yourself with the best in your sport, just as the baker compares himself with the best bakers around him. Who makes the best croissant, the best pain au chocolat? I watch matches of other great players to see what they’re doing. ‘I know how to do this, but can the other guy do it too?’ I think other players watch me, too. I think that pushes players to raise their game, just as Messi was good for Ronaldo and Ronaldo was good for Messi.”

Does Mbappé compare himself with the other great forward of his generation, Borussia Dortmund’s Norwegian Erling Braut Haaland? Mbappé’s reply sounds a touch patronising: “It’s his second year, we’re getting to know him. It’s the start for him. I’m happy for him, for what he’s doing.”

The more you become an important person, the more duties you have. I’m no longer the little kid. I’m Kylian Mbappé

In this elite individual competition, the top spot may be coming free. Messi (34 this month) and Ronaldo (36) are “nearer the end than the beginning”, acknowledges Mbappé. In February, his hat-trick helped PSG thrash Messi’s Barcelona 1–4 at the Camp Nou. “The best match of my career,” Mbappé says, “because it was complete. I helped my team both offensively and defensively, and I succeeded in the creation and finishing of my moves, in one-against-ones. I won 90 per cent of my duels, if that stat is correct. All match, I never had a moment when I felt extinguished.” He then scored two at Bayern Munich, before PSG fell to Manchester City.

Some opposing teams now rearrange their entire tactical systems to combat the Mbappé counterattack. “There are quite a few anti-Kylian plans every match,” he says. “It means I’ve been recognised as a great player. It requires you to have multiple strings to your bow. I like that, because I adore challenges.”

Surely he’s now too big a player for the French league? He umms and aws: “France isn’t the best championship in the world, but it’s my responsibility, as a flagship player, to help the league grow.” Yet he may well leave this summer, to Real Madrid or England. The decision, perhaps the biggest he’ll face in his career, will be made inside his family. Almost uniquely for a star footballer, Mbappé doesn’t have an agent, just lawyers.

At 22, he considers himself an experienced footballer. He says he and Neymar “are now the two natural leaders” of PSG. When he kicks off the delayed Euro 2020 with France in June, it will be with more responsibility than at the World Cup. “The more you become an important personality, the more duties you have. I’m no longer the little kid. I’m Kylian Mbappé.”

Kylian Mbappé’s prime may have already arrived. Fast strikers usually peak between 20 and 24. A Euro and a World Cup within 18 months, while France’s generation of 2018 remains almost intact, may be his best chance to make football history. What are his career ambitions? That smile again: “To win everything.” (Esquire Magazine)

[irkimatsu]

Eurovision is coming~ I've listened to the playlist far more times than I can count, and my opinions are becoming more concrete.

France is my favorite, hands down. That one grabbed by the throat hard and it won't let go. It has a lot of the same elements I loved about "Shum", but is distinct enough in its own way. It's dark, it has a heavy beat, I just love it. I guess electronica with folk elements is just my thing - "Spirit In The Sky", "Shum", and now "Fulenn". A great lineup if you ask me!

Austria was a very close contender for first - "Halo" and "Fulenn" battled it out for a bit. It gets a cushy spot in second, at least. What an awesome party song. Other favorites include Israel, because what's my top five without at least one really obnoxious song that no one else likes? It's just so campy and fun, I think I love it for all the same reasons it annoys the hell out of everyone else. Moldova also gets a spot in the top five for being so fun! Not sure what rounds out the list yet... Czech Republic? Other contenders for top five include Cyprus, Finland, Romania, and Spain. Things can change by the time I make my final ranking next month. We'll see!

Songs that aren't making it to top five but that I still really like include Albania, Lithuania, Slovenia, Ireland... and Bulgaria. Yes I said Bulgaria. I really don't know why everyone's shitting on that one so much! Yeah, the lyrics are absolute word salad, but come on, this is Eurovision, that's par for the course. I've been listening to European music for so long that I don't even notice nonsense lyrics anymore. Go listen to some Eurobeat and then come talk to me about lyrics that don't make sense. (A rock-flavored Eurobeat cover of "Intention" might be fun, actually...)

And then there's Serbia, which is on a whole other level. As a piece of music, I like it well enough but wouldn't call it a favorite - but translated, they're some of my favorite lyrics of the year, and I like the artsy staging. Even if it's not my personal favorite, it's one of those that I most want the best for. It's so experimental, and I love experiments! (Just wish the music video didn't have chewing noises...)

Georgia is a fun experiment, too. Perhaps the most I've enjoyed a Georgian entry in quite a long time! Love the chiptune elements. It's a fun song! Everyone's having so much fun experimenting this year! It's so good! I'm using the same words a lot!

Norway and Latvia are both so batshit that they defy proper judgement. I love Norway, though. A friend suggested Jyushi finding a wolf in the woods and immediately befriending it and naming it Keith and/or Jim, and I can see it so well. It's delightful. Latvia isn't quite as good, but the music is catchier than it has any right to be, and my brain will be shouting that opening line at random intervals until the day I die. I'll probably be eating a cheeseburger during the performance, though.

Is Greece's entry supposed to be creepy? Because holy hell it's creepy. Unintentional yandere anthem right there. Can't listen to it without thinking about Ichimi, even if the relationship she's trying to save via murder-suicide only exists in her own sick little head. Musically it's on the lower rungs for me, but those creepy fucking lyrics. If I bring back the "biased" category, this one goes in there.

Last place is Croatia, there's no contest on that one. Sorry, Croatia, but your lyrics are infuriating. Funny thing is, when I saw the title "Guilty Pleasure", I hoped that it'd be vague enough for me to use on ships that have much, much more to feel guilty about than cheating. But then it turns out to be "just" cheating, and I lose interest. Brains are weird. But I don't think the problem is just that it's a cheating song, it's that I don't like when cheating songs are so... wistful? I think a song with lyrics like this needs a bit more self-awareness about how terrible this is, or a reason why the betrayed spouse deserves any of this. As it stands, I have no idea who the hell this is for. There's nothing for me here. Welcome to last place.

Italy gets the reward for "song everyone is shitting themselves over and predicting as the winner, song that will definitely score well, but I'm a stupid monkey who prefers party music and so I don't like it much". Oops. Always need that one every year. Don't get this one at all. Don't think I'm smart enough.

San Marino is also kind of annoying.

Less than a month to go! Can't wait! (If I can get time off from work...)

[sunflowersteves]

Hi! Can I please request a Bucky x short!civilian!fem!reader where they meet when he’s in Bucharest, & getting his plums & he meets Y/n, who is a tourist. Y/n’s a bit clumsy, trips, Bucky catching her (cliche🤣), they start talking, drawn to each other. Her weeks vacation turns into months as they start dating, her practically living with him. Their fairytale comes to a halt when Steve + Sam track Bucky down, Steve finding Bucky & Y/n in the apartment (Bucky’s full focus being keeping her safe)

Bucky x short!civilian!fem!reader

author’s note || I’m sorry this is a little late! Today is my mom’s birthday so I’ve been a little busier at home, with her, since it’s quarantine time. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this!! @kpopgirlbtssvt I really liked this request and I like the idea that he started his whole life over with the reader, ugh so good! Thanks so much for sending in the request, love!!

warnings || a littllleee angst, fluff! 

You had planned the best trip of your life. You had traveled all over Europe: France, England, Poland, Germany, Italy, Croatia, Serbia, finally you ended the trip in Romania. Your trip had been the utmost best, meeting people from all over the world and seeing vast cultures.

You had been there for about two days and not knowing Romanian made you struggle a bit. Even though everyone was super friendly, you always felt a bit bad for not knowing their language. Today, you were trying to have a relaxing one by just chilling at your hotel, and going to neighborhood markets, enjoying the local’s presence. So, you made sure to go to the part of the market where they mainly sold fruits. 

You were trying to buy a pound of cherries, but the worker at the stand didn’t speak an ounce of English. You felt really bad and you also really wanted some fresh cherries. The worker looked at you sympathetically until a man next to you with a bag of plums spoke up. 

“Vrea să cumpere niște cireșe.” [she wants to buy some cherries]. The worker brightly smiled at you and handed you a pound of cherries which you then gave him some money. You apologize to the worker about not knowing Romanian to which the worker replied “Ești cel mai amabil American, nu-ți face griji!” [You are the kindest American, don't worry about it!]. Which of course this nice, handsome, stranger was translating for the both of you.

The man looks at you, a gloved hand appears in front of you. “I’m Bucky.” You smile and take his hand, shaking it. “Y/n.” You both agree to walk around the markets just talking for hours with each other.

“I’m from Brooklyn actually.” Your whole face lit up, “oh! I’m from the Bronx!” You both laugh and start complaining about the city which then ventures into a conversation about what you love about the city. It was like the two of you had just clicked, desperately drawn to one another and you did not want this day to end.

By this time, the sun had started to set and Bucky insisted he walked you to your hotel. So, now you both were at the entrance of the hotel. “Can... I.. uh... See you again?” Bucky was so nervous his hands were trembling. “Yeah! I’d love that.” You both just stand there a little awkwardly until Bucky speaks up again. “Next time, can it be a date? I mean, uh, only if you want to! Oh god, we just met I-” You giggled and gasped excitedly. “Of course, I want to go on a date.”

--

It had been a couple of months and you decided to cancel your flight back home. You two had hit it off and are even dating now, have been for months. You laughed at yourself for practically living in Bucky’s small apartment, him convincing you to leave the hotel a while ago. 

Some days Bucky had been super distant, not wanting to do anything but stare at the wall. You were okay with that, only being there when you needed him. He had told you about his arm and what he had done. He had expected you to run away screaming in fear, but his eyes snapped open in surprise when you started leaving kisses up and down his metal arm. “I’m with you until the end.” His eyes welled up with tears and that night he never let you go.

At the moment, you and Bucky had been cuddling and laughing on the couch, filling your mouths with leftover pizza. “No, he totally should’ve been with Brad. It was so clear!” You giggled and shook your head. “No, his best match is with Clyde. Him and Brad were too toxic!” You and Bucky laugh at your antics and continue the night with laying in each other's arms. You start tracing patterns on his metal arm and grip it lovingly while Bucky just stares at you in complete awe. How did he get so lucky?

He looks at you in panic as he hears yelling from coming downstairs. You both stand up and Bucky quickly grabs a knife from the kitchen. He shoves you behind him, getting ready to attack anything and anyone that came through that door. Nothing was going to touch that pretty head of yours. 

Soon after you both prepare yourselves for the worst. Captain America and the Falcon burst through your door, panting and regaining composure. Steve spoke first, still panting from beating up a couple of guys on the way upstairs.

“Bucky, let’s go.” He shook his head, hand squeezing yours. “I’m not leaving.” Steve dropped his shield in frustration. “What do you mean, ‘not leaving.’” Bucky shook his head and turned to look at you with twinkling eyes, making sure nothing happened to you in three seconds. Then everything clicked in Steve’s head and he spoke up, anger making his voice slightly trembling.

“Buck, this isn’t your life. We have to leave.” Bucky snaps, anger flashing in his eyes. “This IS my life. I’m not leaving her.”  Steve sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “She’s not Bucky. You barely even know her and I bet you’re just doing it to feel something. I’ve known you your whole life!” Bucky glared, pointing an accusing finger at Steve. “If you think, for a damn second, that I’m going to leave the love of my life for someone in my past, then you don’t really know me.” Bucky turned towards you, eyes taking over your body making sure that there wasn’t a single scratch on you.

Sam put his gun and weapons in their holders and turned towards the three of you. “Look, Hydra is coming and we don’t have time for arguing. If you love her, bring her with you. It’s about damn time another person without a dick is on our side.” You laughed at Sam’s statement while Steve and Bucky just huffed. You and Sam shared a look with each other, “This is going to be a bumpy ride with these two, isn’t it?” Sam rolled his eyes playfully, “tell me about it. These men are the craziest, white people, I swear!” You laughed wholeheartedly as Steve and Bucky were still glaring at each other.

This was going to be a long day but as long as Bucky was by your side, it was manageable.

chapter two

[balkanballad]

Eurovision 2021 ranking

hello, hello and welcome to my eurovision 2021 ranking. the songs are ranked with numbers but I also put them into categories (from 💐 to 🥀) and added a short comment. so, if you are interested in my personal opinion about the songs, have fun:

💐:

Switzerland: I was rooting for him last year and it’s the one returner in my top that didn’t disappoint me that much. what a start, huh? I love the song, I love the feeling it gives me when I listen to it, the clip is very pretty too. did I like his last entry better? yes, but I will say it already here at the very top of this list: I liked last year’s choices in general a lot more. nevertheless, this is a beautiful entry! and it is my personal winner this year

Australia: I loved her last song. It was there for me when I needed it. Technicolour does not touch me in that way but it is fun!! it’s catchy to me and I really like Montaigne. I adore her style and how she sings. I am excitingly looking forward to this performance :)

France: beautiful song, amazing singer, the national final performance was wonderful. however, I listened to it so much that back in March I already needed a break form it. now as I am finishing this it’s April and I can slowly listen to it again. it’s me though, it’s not her. that’s really a me problem. she’s wonderful and I love the French touch to this

Albania: a ballad from the Balkans <3 hello, of course I like it and I love that they kept it in Albanian this year. I heard similar songs before, but I like the sound of it still.and overall it’s a song that gives me familiar vibes in a cozy way with a bit of drama

Russia: interesting!! I was relived to see that Little Big didn’t return because, as I explained in my ranking for last year, I was not feeling them. absolutely nothing about them, but I love her! I think it’s catchy, it’s something different and I like the message she supports. it took me a few times to fully decide how I feel about the song, but now it’s in my top for sure 

Denmark: fun! a fun song in Danish. I really like the good mood it puts me in. I even see this in the context of the Umbrella Academy or Stranger Things or something like that when they go to Europe to party a bit. I also really enjoy the old school vibe this has to it. I miss that vibe. I’m also a bit old school

Cyprus: I absolutely do not relate to anything said in this song but it’s catchy! it is a bit fuego and a bit replay but I liked those entries as well, so yeah fire. I have not heard a single live performance by her but I am not exactly sure that vocals will be the aspect that she will try to win votes with anyway. I am amused by the fact that apparently people were offended by this song when it clearly makes no sense whatsoever. it’s simply a bop, move on and dance a bit

🌺:

(8.) Greece: fun as well! a ‘dream team’ entry for sure. I say this a bit sarcastically, but they do well a lot of the times and I am lured in by a lot of their entries myself. Kontopoulos is a big name in the esc industry, it’s a fact. the song is a bit more mature than Superg!rl, which I also listened to more often that I thought I would. It still reminds me of a theme song for a superhero show for kids and I am a bit worried that the ‘dReAM TeAm’ is a bit too outdated for Stefania because I think she could have done something cooler than both of those songs

(9.) Sweden: it took me a few times listening to this song, but I like the song now. I don’t think it’s too special and “a million voices” reminds me of Polina immediately because those are her words for me, but this is a good song too. I like how it makes me feel empowered and like everything will be okay. thank you for that, Tusse, I need that 

(10.) Israel: Eden deserved a better song. I like this song less than last year’s entry because I think it’s less interesting and I loved some instrumental parts from last year’s entry, but this is not bad either. I am rooting more for her than for the song, but I guess that’s this year’s motto for me. I also can’t say that I love the revamp because it made it sound even more generic for me  

(11.) Belgium: I saw the promo pics for them and was very confused how different the singer looks this year, but it turns out that it’s not the same woman. I like this entry a lot better. I like her voice and I really like the vibe. It sounds a bit like it could play in the background of a classic American tv show when a character is going a bit through it and pouring a drink while it’s dark outside. I have the same problem that I mentioned already while talking about the French entry, but that’s still a me problem. I just need a break

(12.) Ireland: this entry is a lot less annoying to me than the song that she had last year. I like the lyrics and whole aesthetic of this one a lot more. it’s another one that I can’t listen to too often, but I still think it’s a very good choice imo

(13.) The Netherlands: Jeangu!! I think he for example will give a wonderful vocal performance. Growth felt way more personal to me, but that’s a repeating motive this year and also a me problem because obviously this is his song and he does it well

🌻:

(14.) San Marino: I’m still confused by this feature and I can’t really say that I’m ‘living’ for it, but I already made a post about how I don’t think she needed Flo Rida. minus the feature it’s a catchy party song, but it reminds me of one song that I simply can’t remember anymore. something that I heard from the Greek music industry, maybe even Eleni, if you know which one I mean, pls let me know

(15.) Estonia: just like last year: this song doesn’t make much sense and I don’t want to, but I still catch myself listening to it frequently... I am sorry, I can’t help it, but it puts me in a eurovision mood and yes, I am blaming Kontopoulos again. I am a weak person when it comes to his melodies

(16.) Ukraine: first I had it lower in my ranking, but I like SHUM better now and I like it a lot more now than last years entry. I really like the part when it gets faster, that’s really fun and makes me want to jump! jump! jump!

(17.) Spain: it’s a lot less repetitive than the last entry, but I would be lying if I said that I listen to this very often. it’s alright, not bad at all actually, but I just wasn’t in the mood for this (yet?)

(18.) Romania: this is for me still the same type of style as Bulgaria. European Billie Eilish type. last year I ranked her higher than Bulgaria as well, but they are pretty much the same to me. I can’t comment on whether I like her song less or more this year. it’s not bad either but I simply don’t think about it much

(19.) Bulgaria: I think I like this entry better than her last one. the message is cute, the melody too and yeah, but I don’t care about it too much

🌼:

(20.) Croatia: it’s a faster pop song without a real meaning. ground-breaking. the title makes me think of Ukraine 2014. which I like better, but we’ll see, maybe the performance will have something cool too. I will say though, I would have prefered the whole song to be in Croatian, it doesn’t make it much deeper, but I like that part the most

(21.) Malta: another faster pop song. I think she will give an amazing vocal performance and it will be cool and powerful, but the message and lyrics are a bit confusing to me. I am not the lyrics police, but I am confused by them a bit

(22.) Iceland: I think I like it better than last year’s song, but it’s still not LOVE that I feel for the song. I can listen to it though

(23.) Lithuania: it’s there. I am not a fan of them and it’s not a song I love too much, but I can listen to it

(24.) North Macedonia: sigh. I liked last year’s entry a lot and Vasil seems like someone who cares a lot about the contest, but I don’t feel this ballad. I think I know what they were going for and what it’s trying to be, dramatic and meaningful, but I don’t feel it that much. it’s okay? but it doesn’t do much for me

(25.) Czech Republic: this was a surprise because I think the overall quality of his entry got a lot better, this time though I have the problem that I do not like the lyrics. they don’t make me as uncomfortable as Germany last year but they are in that area of uhm, I don’t love the feeling this gives me

(26.) UK: hm :/ I can’t say that I’m a fan. this sounds like the type of song that the boring straight men in my area put in their tinder bio as their song, but it’s every third guy that says this is his song. those Calvin Harris remix type-ish songs and I am sooo bored. I swipe left because it’s no match, I delete tinder. breath was a lot more my thing and a lot more exciting and interesting

(27.) Poland: as soon as this stops, the exact same second, I forget everything about it. I don’t remember a single word, barely the title and singer and not the melody. what is this about? I can’t tell you. it’s not exactly bad, but it is so forgettable

(28.) Moldova: oh faster pop song? wow.. so.. original. I am starting to sound like those weird people that hate ballads. I don’t feel it and I don’t relate to it, but I also don’t hate it. the video though.. no thanks.

(29.) Italy: as so often: I see a lot of Italy fans on here and I can’t relate. it’s not for me, but it’s there and I can listen to it when I can’t reach the skip button for some reason

(30.) Austria: hm. Austria and Slovenia are going there. this is the better Amen song for me, but I don’t love it. it’s better than what Ana is trying to sell even though it’s super repetitive

🥀:

(31.) Serbia: I can’t tell you if it’s worse than last year but it’s less catchy. the lyrics are still bad. actually, maybe I am the lyrics police

(32.) Finland: this not my genre and I don’t really listen to it

(33.) Slovenia: nop. not for me in any way. I already said last year that I don’t like her voice and it didn’t change but now I also don’t love the message or weird vibe of this entry. I had it even lower, but I can’t push it up more. this is as high as I can rank it

(34.) Norway: I don’t like it. I don’t like the lyrics or melody or performance that was in the nf actually. I have a hard time understanding the concept even with the explanation it makes no sense to me

(35.) Portugal: I don’t like it. a lot of the parts of the melody are really not for me and borderline annoying, but definitely boring

(36.) Georgia: it’s boring. the last entry was at least something interesting, but this one is boring, which makes me a bit sad because his voice sounds and he seems like the guy that could make something cooler. I know I am not the person that can judge rock because I don’t listen to it too much, but I feel like he could have done something cooler and ‘rock’ it more

(37.) Latvia: again: I can’t even say if it’s worse or better than last year. maybe a bit better actually but, just as last time, I can’t listen to this. it annoys me and gives me a bit of a headache. I don’t think her style and voice is for me

(38.) Germany: I wouldn’t necessarily call it hate that I feel when I have to listen to this, even though that’s a funny play with the words of this title, but I definitely feel very annoyed by this song, so I simply don’t listen to it

(39.) Azerbaijan: the song sounds just like the last one, which I had placed on the 14. place in my own 2020 ranking, however, I can’t bring myself to support someone who posts war propaganda on their socials. it’s eurovision and about the songs, I know, but this is my blog and my ranking. so it’s a no for me this time and my last place in this ranking

[eurovision-revisited]

Eurovision 2004: The Scoreboards

For some reason, I've neglected to mention that, for the past two years, each host has selected a slogan or theme for that year's Eurovision. In Tallin it was A Modern Fairytale, in Riga it was Magical Rendez-vous. This year, TRT have gone with Under the Same Sky which given the location of Istanbul, the city that's in both Europe and Asia makes a whole heap of sense.

That theme is reflected in the layout of the scoreboard. Two arcs of nations either side of the spokesperson delivering the results. Albeit with the implication that the European half of the results are a much, much better than the Asian side.

Another first is that the flags of the countries are present inside heart-shaped cut outs. That heart is going to become ubiquitous. It's used all over the place this year and will be back in the future.

Now there's a semi, there's more than one scoreboard. More for the graphic design department to do - although not too much more. The scores aren't given at the end of the semi, only a list of the winners. That's a relatively simple task.

The results reveal for the semi final is done in a very traditional manner with the hosts picking from a set of red envelopes at random to reveal each of the qualifiers. It should be tense, yet somehow it's not quite there yet. Work to do.

Time for the spoilers.

The ten qualifying countries were (in order of the number of points they received):

Serbia & Montenegro - 263 points

Ukraine - 256 points

Greece - 238 points

Albania - 167 points

Cyprus - 149 points

Netherlands - 146 points

Bosnia & Herzegovina - 133 points

Malta - 74 points

Croatia - 72 points

North Macedonia - 71 points

There was quite a big drop down to Israel in 11th place who had 57 points. These scores were only released after the grand final.

Those ten countries joined the 14 other pre-qualified countries in the grand final. There was a lot less tension in the scoring this year. Two countries jostled for the lead for most of the sequences, but in the end Ukraine pulled clear with a few countries still to go. Slovenia this time were the third last voters and it was once again joker Peter Poles delivering the points that cemented the winner. With two countries to go, Ukraine couldn't be beaten - even though they were the final country to vote.

At the bottom end of the scoreboard, there were no nul points this year, but there weren't many points in total at all. The seven bottom countries all got fewer than 20 points. There was chasm between the top 6 and everyone else.

The grand final full results were:

Ukraine - Ruslana - "Wild Dances" - 280 points

Serbia & Montenegro - Željko Joksimović and Ad-Hoc Orchestra - "Lane moje" - 263 points

Greece - Sakis Rouvas - "Shake It" - 252 points

Türkiye - Athena - "For Real" - 195 points

Cyprus - Lisa Andreas - "Stronger Every Minutes" - 170 points

Sweden - Lena Philipsson - "It Hurts" - 170 points (joint 5th)

Albania - Anjeza Shahini - "The Image of You" - 106 points

Germany - Max - "Can't Wait Until Tonight" - 93 points

Bosnia & Herzegovina - Deen - "In the Disco" - 91 points

Spain - Ramón - "Para llenarme de ti" - 87 points

Russia - Julia Savicheva - "Believe Me" - 67 points

Malta - Julie and Ludwig - "On Again... Off Again" - 50 points

Croatia - Ivan Mikulić - "You Are the Only One" - 50 points (joint 12th)

North Macedonia - Toše Proeski - "Life" - 47 points

France - Jonatan Cerrada - "À chaque pas" - 40 points

United Kingdom - James Fox - "Hold On to Our Love" - 29 points

Poland - Blue Café - "Love Song" - 27 points

Romania - Sanda - "I Admit" - 18 points

Iceland - Jónsi - "Heaven" - 16 points

Netherlands - Re-union - "Without You" - 11 points

Austria - Tie Break - "Du bist" - 9 points

Belgium - Xandee - "1 Life" - 7 points

Ireland - Chris Doran - "If My World Stopped Turning" - 7 points (joint 22nd)

Norway - Knut Anders Sørum - "High" - 3 points

[eurosong]

Undo my ESC 2021 - Semi-final 1

Good afternoon, folks! Every year, I take a look at each semi-final and share what feasible change I would make – as small as changing a few lines of the song or an element of staging, or as big as a different song completely winning a national final – to make it even better (just in my own opinion of course!) This year will be harder than usual, but I’ll try to set aside my conviction that every 2020 artist should have been able to return to see how different SF1 might look. Let’s go!

🇱🇹 Lithuania: PiN was in the Roop's hands, and whilst I fell in love with some of the underdog songs they were up again, most notably Home and Never fall for you again I wouldn't take away the chance away from the Roop. There's nothing I'd change about Discoteque, and I love their nod to On fire, but the way that they also took things in a different direction to last time.

🇸🇮 Slovenia: I may be in a small minority, but I absolutely love Amen and I loved Voda too! Ana Soklič has so much presence and stunning vocals with so much texture and depth; she can sell me pretty much everything. My only change would be to insert Slovenian language lyrics!

🇷🇺 Russia: I was initially really disappointed that we wouldn't see the iconic Little Big on the ESC stage - but I commend the way they wanted to share the limelight with other artists. The unexpected Russian mini-NF ended up being a revelation and very diverse for its size. I liked all three songs, but I think that the best hands down won. There is nothing I have to change to Russian woman, one of the most powerful propositions of the season for me. I just hope juries will value it and we won't see a Telemóveis style situation!

🇸🇪 Sweden: After a year of being happy with the result in Sweden - I was always in Dotter's corner, but who can't love the Mamas? - we return to more familiar terrain of an MF result disgruntling me. Tusse has charisma and talent, but his song is lacklustre at best for me. My fav was, once again, Dotter, and I wish that either she'd taken the win or that the Mamas got their shot at ESC as main artists.

🇦🇺 Australia: I really enjoy Technicolour, one of the more out-of-left-field entries from Oz. I am so intrigued as to what the Diane Warren song offered to Montaigne was like, as I'm certain that this isn't it, but I'm glad she trusted her gut and went for something so distinctive. My one change would be to get rid of the unnecessary key change at the end.

🇲🇰 Macedonia: When there was a nationalistic furore with attempts to stop Vasil from representing MK, I was entirely on his side even though his song for me is one of the least appealing of the edition. I'd still want him to get his chance at ESC - but his Sudbina would have been such a more compelling entry for my taste.

🇮🇪 Ireland: Lesley Roy served nostalgic pop wonderment for the second year in a row, and another song that has etched itself already onto my life's soundtrack. I don't know what I'd change, except perhaps translate one of the choruses into Irish Gaelic - it'd make the message of a return to home even more resonant for me.

🇨🇾 Cyprus: Cyprus and I haven't seen eye to eye for several years now, and it's a shame as they were one of my favourite countries of the 90s. I do enjoy El diablo more than their last trio of songs, but I find it leans too heavy on a clear inspiration from Gaga, which takes away from some of the more original elements of the song. So, I'd rework the chorus, and also change some of the lyrics elsewhere because some lines just flat out make me cringe.

🇳🇴 Norway: I seem to have been in the minority of people delighted at MGP's final results! I had bigger favourites - the rambunctious sea shanty that is Vi er Norge, the kickass empowering Witch woods or the pulsating groove of Playing with fire - but I wouldn't take Tix' win away from him given how meaningful it was for him and what the guy has been through. My change? Revert partially or entirely to the Norwegian version, Ut av mørket; for me, it hits my heart harder.

🇭🇷 Croatia: Sincerely, my biggest disappointment of the NF season potentially - I wish Damir had been internally selected, not just because of my wish to see all ESC'20 alumni return, but because his was the best Croatian song for me since Moja štikla. Tick-tock is harmless but if we can't get a Damir return in this hypothesis, then I'd go for Rijeka, which captivated me with its epicness on first listen and has just risen in my estimation since. Though, given Nina's histrionics after coming second, maybe I'd have Albina perform the song instead.

🇧🇪 Belgium: I was prepared to not be on board with Belgium this year despite my long-lived love for the country - I found Release me, whilst orchestrated beautifully, entirely lacking in dynamism; and I really couldn't stand the way the band dumped Luka unceremoniously. And yet... this lush piece of art is one of my favs of the entire season. And there's something different and singular in Geike's voice. So the only thing I'm changing here are the dudes' attitudes to ESC so that they can value it more, especially Alex.

🇮🇱 Israël: As one of the most naturally charismatic performers of 2020, I had high hopes for Eden's return and the original idea of a mega-NF for her seemed really promising. Instead, we ended up with an uninspired strewing of songs, of which the best didn't even get the chance to be recorded by her. Set me free was my favourite of the three that got to the final, but I feel they've really worsened it with the revamp, in between the hail mary pass of the whistle vote and the extra emphasis on "I'mma". I would have Eden perform Shoulders instead - I don't know how it NQd and think it would allow her to showcase her personality a lot more.

🇷🇴 Romania: I really enjoyed Roxen's selection last year - small but quite diverse, and I felt the best song won. My change would be to have seen a similar national final with 3 or 4 other songs of hers this time, because I'm not convinced in Amnesia anywhere near as much as I was of Alcohol you.

🇦🇿 Azerbaijan: I wish they had gone with something at least a bit different rather than this cut, smudge and paste from last year that is so on the nose with its "you loved Cleopatra, so you will love this, won't you?" feel that it even namechecks the previous song. Efendi has a lot of talent and could have shown more diversity here.

🇺🇦 Ukraine: I'm getting used to the surprise revamp of Šum by now, but the question still remains for me, why did they do it? They needed to cut about a minute off the duration of the track, but to me, that doesn't explain why they also had to change the melody in large parts of the song. I'd be tempted to revert to a shortened form version of Šum version 1.

🇲🇹 Malta: Another unpopular opinion, but I'm just not that into the Maltese song this year. The lyrics are great and Destiny has poise and presence and PIPES and I'm sure she'll do well, but the style - a glammed up Electro-Velvet, essentially - doesn't heat me up, and I feel like the different parts of the composition are too dissonant from each other, like we have 2 or 3 songs in one here. My change would be for her to have gone with something more soul-ish in its sound, like AOML was.

And the AQs of this semi

🇩🇪 Germany: How did juries decide upon this, especially when there seems to have been many promising artists in the German selection? No shade against Jendrick who seems like a lovely chap, but the song sounds like the cheerful four chords on a ukulele you hear repeated as royalty free background music on Youtube tutorials, merged with a post-chorus breakdown taken from a Stefan Raab b-side. I would have gotten out my phone book and given Lilly among clouds a call - she gives me the vibes of being able to create something totally show-stopping.

🇳🇱 Netherlands: My original slight disappointment at this was more because of how high I have Grow than any fault of its own. It's another gorgeous composition from Jeangu, with probably the best set of lyrics of the year, and this is going to be a moment. I change nothing.

🇮🇹 Italy: I like Måneskin and their performances at Sanremo were brilliant - but they were far from being at the top of my favourites list. I would have given the win to Madame with Voce, or Ermal with Un milione di cose da dirti. Both would have been my #1 of the entire year, both move me deeply. Madame showcases contemporary Italian style with classic songwriting, whilst Ermal almost created a companion piece to Fai rumore - Diodato wanted to hear the sound of his loved one, whilst Ermal struggles to make a noise and say what he feels about his love.

Join me soon as I take a look at SF2 and its songs (and France, Spain and the UK, the auto-qualifiers from that semi!)

[doux-amer]

My thoughts on today:

So we have both the World Cup and Euro winners out now in Euro 2020 (good riddance as both were boring and I will never accept how both of them won World Cup ‘18 and Euro ‘16) and I'm thriving off the chaos ksdajfdlaksjfkas. Spain–Croatia:

I continue to be exasperated with Alvaro Morata, but good for him that he of all people scored the goal to turn the tide because as much as I think he’s not worth it, he absolutely doesn’t deserve the abuse he’s received from the public

When Riqui Puig joins the senior Spain NT and Ansu Fati is fit again, it's all over for other European NTs!!!!!

Spain is out here breaking records!

LOVE THIS FOR PEDRI WHO IS SHOWING THE WORLD WHAT A SUPERSTAR HE IS. HE’S BEEN WONDERFUL FOR SPAIN AND HE’S ONLY 18. 18!!!!! MY LITTLE BABY!!!!!!!!!! LOOK AT HIM!

Got annoyed at people saying Spain is utter shit after years of going “Yeah, unfortunately, they’re meh and I can’t break up with them” because they’re not. Spain has been playing well since Busquets came back from testing negative for covid lol. The only big weakness they have (other than the lack of talented, consistent strikers) is when they start playing too slowly on the ball in their own half and end up making holes in their defense which is frustrating to watch, but Spain is one of the youngest NTs in the Euros so they need to gain more experience. And tbh considering Spain won both of their last matches with five goals, I think they can squeak by with not having a true reliable striker like Villa or Fernando Torres. Not ideal, but it's still doable. Their defense worries me though. I got so impatient when they kept the ball near the box instead of trying to move forward and were slow in multiple matches. Lucho needs to drill some sense into them. 

Look, they're actually a very promising side. They're just undercooked and understandably so, but they're not bad by any means. They're wobbly this Euros, but I'm really looking forward to seeing what's in store if the team can gel together under Lucho

Please say sike...between this and Sid Lowe saying, “[Busquets] is the only man left from the team that won the 2010 World Cup," I felt ancient 

Unai Simon has been good this tournament, but I wanted to astral project myself off the face of this planet when he made that bizarre beginner’s mistake. Imagine being Pedri and getting an own goal because Unai did that...but alksjdlfjasdlkfas for pure chaos, I loved it (because Spain ended up winning). So many own goals this tournament! So much drama! We’ve truly seen everything, and there’s more to come. I was here for everyone saying they wouldn’t have put it past De Gea and Kepa to make the same mistake and I’m inclined to agree. I never fully trusted De Gea or saw him as the true successor to Iker. :/ But anyway, Unai was one of the players keeping Spain alive and he’s been good so I’m okay with him!

France–Switzerland:

France deserve to go out because Switzerland played well this match and France has been not only mediocre and anemic but possibly one of the most boring sides as well this Euros lmao bye

France had to get knocked out at some point because the idea of France winning another title with Benzema on the squad was too much for me

As everyone pointed out, France has a surplus of excellent players, more than any other NT, but Deschamps is so conservative and doesn't let them be as fun and brilliant as they can be because they can afford not to. I LOATHE that mindset so I'm not sad to see France leave. Replace Deschamps with a manager who can take advantage of a squad that includes Mbappe, Pogba, Kante,  etc.  or not because then I'll suffer an identity crisis because I hate France, but I like a lot of the players on the French NT

Happy for the Swiss getting to the quarterfinals for the first time! Happy for Big Shaq!

The Swiss were really good and fought to the end just like Croatia and I love both NTs showing that kind of spirit. 

Plus as a neutral (jk, a neutral that hates France, but I didn’t expect France to leave before getting to the quarterfinals), I love the chaos and finally, FINALLY, we got to penalties. 

And others:

Patrik Schick needs to get two more goals so Penaldo can't get the Golden Boot (unless someone else overtakes him and Penaldo, which I'm okay with too although Schick hasn’t had one bad goal this tournament!) 

If you want to talk about NTs that actually do suck, there are two examples I can point to that are better choices than Spain: Belgium and the Netherlands. Can you believe FIFA keeps ranking Belgium as #1? In what world????? If you want to talk about bad NTs that shouldn't be bad, Belgium and the Netherlands are on the top of my list. The Netherlands went out yesterday and deservedly so (sorry, Frenkie and Gini). Maybe they'll regroup and come back, but I'm relieved they didn't advance in a way because if they end up going far in a tournament, I want Virgil to be there although that will be bad for me as a Dutch NT hater. Belgium has consistently been overhyped and for what? Take out KDB and Lukaku and it’s a snoozefest. They’ve never actually been good for as long as people kept hyping them up, and I really don’t get why people continue to do so when they’ve never lived up to expectations.