American reacts to Eurovision Explained for Americans
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 18 ต.ค. 2023
- Thank you for watching me, a humble American, react to Eurovision Explained
Original video: • A Beginners Guide to t...
Got a video request? Fill out this form!
forms.gle/NeQp2oN5gzxpxXLx8
Thanks for subscribing for more European reactions!
It’s a SONG contest, not a SINGING competition.
Definitely not a singing contest! Ha ha! I watch every year for the NIL points … the glitz, the glam, the performances, the politics… love it!
It's a songwriter contest, that's why the trophy goes to the songwrite(s) of the winning song, not the performer. Yes, they give the trophy to the performer on stage, but if goes to the songwriter after the show.
Thank you so much. David Bennett did not make this clear. SONG contest not SINGING contest ffs...
I was about to comment the same haha
it was never a song contest but some weird political game for no reason. but had some fun or insane music here and there
If the USA got involved they'd probably take it far too seriously. It's not about who's best, it's about the spectacle, the camp, the process, the politics. It all sets it apart from your average singing contest. As someone else commented, it's a song contest, not a singing contest.
Yeah, we already have the UK throwing hissy fits when they don't get many points, we don't need another coutnry to do the same.
@@soniquecat4745 Germany generally expects to not get many points. At this point, it's a meme popular enough to get talked about in the media.
I mean it is for sure still a competition, it's just that hitting the sweet spot of being campy but not too obnoxious while still being catchy. Shitty vocals will be criticised and make you lose support.
@@soniquecat4745hissy fits, it's the running joke at this point. Hit songs get nill points. 😂 And we still love it.
But true the Americans would take huge offense.
The Winner of the esc ist everybody who does Not have to Host the Event the next year
You can’t compare any casting shows with Eurovision. Casting shows are usually about finding unknown talent.
Eurovision isn’t about the artists but about the song (which is why artists can participate multiple times). The artists can be newcomers or national superstars. And they have a whole team behind them for support.
I loved Lordi's performance & they didn't just win, they absolutely smashed it. Gotta love the Finnish metal scene.
One of the very few times i voted for a song, hoping that it would make sure we would get more harder songs for ESC.
Aww yeahh! I've been watching Eurovision since 2008 and only discovered Lordi by doing my ESC homework. However, I've seen them live now four times. Now I am still waiting on Teräsbetoni to get back together......
The greatest winning song ever.
I was a little girl who loved almost only pop stuff at that time lol BUT Lordi was the best!!! and are still the best in my opinion! 🤟❤🔥
oh boy, he doesnt know that its watched by 200 million people for the finale alone. the numbers and production is insane
It's nowhere near 200 million anymore. Turkey and Russia not broadcasting leads to a substantial drop in views. This year's final was at about 155-160 million I think.
@@kennikittythat's still pretty decent, and I doubt anybody else is going to drop the broadcast for the same reasons as Russia and Turkey
@@kennikitty Russia do normally broadcast it though, heck they normally participate - who remembers the grannies who?
Edit, sorry didn't finish the comment and someone has pointed this out to me, should have read ''grannies who took part''.
@@ABC1701AGrannies did not win, they came second after Swedens Loreen with Euphoria.
@@mantailuaa But that wasn't the point, they were different enough that you only have to mention grannies and EuroVision and people know exactly who you are talking about (while how many remember Sweden's entry that year, I certainly don't although I remember I didn't like it much), plus they were Russian which was more my point, Russia did used to take part.
EuroVision is basically one huge party that is lots of fun and can be held in your own home 3 nights of the year. And in case you hadn't guessed, we watch it in my home, we even score all entries ourselves and then see who gets closest to the official scores (win's a bar of chocolate) while 9 times out of 10 my daughter actually picks the winner, no idea how she does it though.
It's the SONG that wins, NOT the band. Ryan, being American, goes straight for WHO'S singing!
Well, how do you tell the difference?
It's the song that wins but it's the show and the artist and of course sympathy is what attracts the votes.
Most songs are crap, written badly and if it's not in English or your mother language you don't even get any meaning. So performance is very important
@@isalablomma "Not getting the meaning" isn't true for every country, by the way. In Finland, for example, there are Finnish subtitles for every single song. I wish more countries did that, too.
@@volatili oh yeah that's nice 👍
i'm not even Ukrainian, but politics apart, their song was a really solid song tbh. Imo the song itself was definitely in my top-4/5 of that year.
I feel like maybe you haven't yet grasped the significance that this song contest has to Europe. The unity, diversity and joy of the ESC are very meaningful to a continent whose war-torn history and age-old rivalries seemed insurmountable not very long ago.
So despite being a competition the ESC is about bringing people together and not your own country winning.
Well Ryan, we don't blame you for not knowing that Australia and Israel are part of Europe 😀 We didn't know either until they participated in Eurovision 😛
There are lots of asiatic countries in the EVSC. Its about the broadcast technology not the EU.
Eurovision is run by EBU (the European Broadcasting Union), which is a collection of TV and radio broadcasters that can interchange content. Now broadcasters from anywhere in the world can buy into that content sharing system and become associate members. And all associate members can enter the competion, though only one per country (AFAIK on a "whoever applies first" basis), by paying a fee, which also allows that broadcaster to show the semi-finals and the final live. All the major US networks are associate members, so if NBC, ABC or CBS wanted to, they could send somebody and if interest in the ESC keeps rising in the US, somebody probably will. You get a lot of live TV with a sizable audience for a relatively low pice - unless you host of course.
Every country which is a member of the European Broadcasting Union can participate in the ESC (NOT Eurovision. Eurovision is just the network that produces the ESC). This is a matter of membership, not geography. Israel is a member of UEFA and participates in the EURO, while Australia is a member of the AFC and participates in the Asian championships.
@@simongunkel7457 And Eurovision isn't a show, but a broadcasting network. The show is called Eurovision Song Contest. Or Grand Prix Eurovision de la Chanson, if you prefer that.
kazakhstan, azerbaijan, morocco too
It's not if professionals are allowed to enter, it's literally professionals that are entered most commonly because you want to enter the best thing you've got. And the song must be original (so no old songs) and be under 3 minutes long. Each country picks who to send. Specifically the national broadcaster gets to decide. While most commonly it's a contest, there does not have to be one.
We see many casting show winners, too. And it's definitely not always the best what's sent. That depends if you actually want to give winning a shot and many countries don't even want to win due to the hosting issue.
@@kennikitty I can't believe how often that has to be said but nobody is forced to host and nobody is scared of winning
you forget that many people come there just for promotion,
and some from trolling the rest of Europe
@@kennikitty
Norway often miss out with the public chosing their favorite 😅. So many great winner potentials or top 5 has been lost in the national finals.
Ukraine's song was awesome and one of the favourites to win even before Russia's invasion.
It's a shame that so many songs were so great that year. I think Ukraine deserved the win, but I also think that all in the top-three deserved their each individual wins
Not the best one though. And the landslide victory means that there obviously was a consensus about making Ukraine win no matter what
Also they should've won the year before anyway with Go_A
Ukraine was very good this year and had a very original sound, they won well deserved. Also:
The UK performance after Brexit was incredibly bad, just Germany (my country) was maybe worse. They deserved the bad ranking.
It was a great song which resonated with love and desperation. I didnt vote, but I really hoped it would win, and I stil remember it.
Fun fact: Jhonny Logan is no longer the only two times winner of Eurovision, Loreen recently won her 2nd eurovision contest in 2023 with the song tattoo.
Yeah "won" 2023
Crowd had was chanting something else xD
She shouldn't have won. The first time was deserved, but "Tattoo" was just not that good. It also happened to be the 50th anniversary of Abba's victory, def not a coincidence.
Fun Fact: Johnny Logan was actually born in Australia. In Frankston, an outer suburb of Melbourne, to be precise.
He actually won 3 times, two times as a singer, one time as a songwriter (Linda Martin - Why me)
If you do react to Eurovision songs, don’t just do the winners. There’s so many great songs that didn’t win. The band called ‘Go A’ from Ukraine did an absolutely banging song called ‘Shum’ in 2021.
It is still my all time favourite ❤ I still listen to their music regularly and even learned to sing in Ukrainian. They are Absolutely Amazing.
fun fact 'Go A's song was also the winner's of that year favorite song, every time they got asked in interviews about what other countries they liked Maneskin always mentioned Shum as their favorite
Yes,great song! 12 points from Italy🎉
I did not like the song at first, but it grow on me fast! It is such a good song XD love when it comes up.
Omg yes! I have been obsessed with that song since it came out
Makes perfect sense that the first hard rock/metal act to ever win was from Finland, since Finland has the most metal bands per capita of any country in the entire world, it is one of very few countries where metal isn't just some underground niche genre, there are metal bands who if they release an album will easily blow the biggest pop acts off the charts here in Finland! One of many reasons I am so proud to be a finnish citizen, we clearly have the best taste in music in the entire world! ;)
That's why I love Finland without knowing much about it. 😂 And because of the ä's, of course.
And the snow.
100% you do! I always look out for the Finnish entry, they have had so many good ones over the years! I also love metal and have made many Finnish friends. I particularly loved Hannah Pakarinin's entry and it is still on my playlist to this day. I am also a massive Nightwish fan too. There is so much to love about your awesome country!
IIRC, they mostly won because they rallied their fans for the public votes, so you might say in this case it was less about the song and more about the band and their fans.
Germany is known for their metal scene. Fewer people outside the fans of the genre know that the Finnish metal scene is even more vibrant.
@@kasperstergaard1592 I am aware that Germany is more known for their metal to the mainstream, but that doesn't change the fact. Hell, I'd even claim that Sweden has more bands that are internationally successful than Finland, even though we have more bands in total per capita
"why do you pay a lot of money for a contest you dont want to win?" and "why would you buy a huge pickup truck if you dont intend to haul stuff?" have the same answer "status"
Ukraine definitely had a great song in 2022, even before the war started the song was amongst the favourites
Noo, sorry but no...
@@susanaach Go_A Shum was an absolutely banger! Even better than 2022's song.
@@susanaachexactly, they got pitty votes! There were better songs that year
I loooved this song and didn't even know it's connected to the Eurovision at first. ❤❤
Australia was first invited to Eurovision in 2014 as "honorary Europeans". Eurovision has always been a bit of a big deal here, shown on our multicultural channel, SBS. It is a popular thing to dress up and have Eurovision parties at home while watching.. it's all about the glam and the quirky acts. This year was super special for people of Perth when our local synth-prog-rock band , Voyager, were invited. (Sadly, the lead singer has since been diagnosed with cancer.) It is called Eurovision Song Contest - more about the best song (though of course it doesn't hurt to have a great performer delivering it!)
Not to mention the huge amount of people watching the show in the very early morning every year for decades.
I liked your entry, it had a certain memorable quality to it though I'm not sure I can say what it was.
I've really liked the Australian submissions for the past couple of years, you really capture the idea of Eurovision very well
Omg nooooo, poor guy! I hope he can actually recover😭😭😭😭
th-cam.com/video/aqtu2GspT80/w-d-xo.htmlsi=GhGm_ruo50MHKOh6
Eurovision is a union of European broadcasters. Israel is part of that union. Australia is, as i recall, the country that has bought the show the most, that's why Australia got a chance to participate (i don't now if they now are a permanent participant).
The big 5 is the Countrys that pays the most to the broadcasting union.
Every country is having its own song contest (in Denmark 10 songs are competing to wind the place in the Eurovision).
It is NOT a talent show it is a contest of the best song. The Eurovision is held over a week (semi-finals Tuesday & Thursday, Final Saturday)
Glad someone is at least explaining some facts and not random nonsense. Thank you!
Not every country has a televised contest to choose a representative but a lot do.
Australia will most likely get kicked out this next year because the new Executive Supervisor hates everything good about Eurovision
Israel should be in a broadcasting Union with it’s own neigh……..oh! 😉
I know the UK has had some contests on the eurovision song choice, I never bothered watching them though. I don't actually care what song the UK picks.
I love the spectacle. That different countries host most years, and will put their own spin on it. Plus it's gigantic! Surely the largest song contest in the world. Blows me away every year, I just love it!
I thought it was funny in the movie Eurovision fire saga, they shot some of the scenes in Edinburgh and pretended the contest was held there. Scotland doesn't have any venues big enough for it, we only managed to squeeze 67k in for Taylor Swift, so we wouldn't be hosts, even if the UK won.
Yup, the song that Ukraine won the contest with last time, was very good, you can find it on youtube. For example, one of my colleagues is an avid Eurovision fan, he still listens to it on repeat and says it's one of two best songs ever submitted to the contest - that's subjective, of course, but it's a widely held opinion that it more than deserved the award.
I still listen to a lot of Ukrainian songs ,so i guess that song made me fall in love with the ukranian language and actually learned it and also visited ukraine during the war facing the risk to die during the trip. Слава Україні !
Героям слава
Thank you so much
Героям Слава!
Thank you! Героям слава! With love from Ukraine🇺🇦
Historically, the song contest was set up after WW2, iirc, to make Europe be united again. The big 5 donate so much money and keep the show running every year, so they get to be in the finale :) It's kinda expected for certain countries to send in an entry. It's like the Olympics. Everyone is here unless there is unrest somewhere, like Russia.
Yeah, the goal was to keep Europe united, except when it comes to Russia, they're always looking for reasons to mess with the russian act, like what they did to the wheelchair girl, or just prevent them from participating. Explain to me what does a military conflict between 2 countries have to do with a song contest?
@@ssantelhaIt’s politics, all of the other countries are currently having embargos and cutting diplomatic ties with Russia so it makes sense
@@skaq7294 No it doesn't, let the diplomats do their thing, what's that got to do with a song contest?
@@ssantelhaWhat happened with the wheelchair girl was not good at all. But it was bad only because Russia knowingly put her in that situation. She broke the law of Ukraine by visiting Crimea some time before the competition. So she was banned from visiting Ukraine. Russia made a bad guy out of Ukraine because of that one. And Eurovision is important, I agree. For me as well. But it is not exactly above the local laws.
@@sofiyau8413 I just hate it that music gets mixed with political stuff, I mean, it's a song contest, or is it that the EBU is the arbiter of european morality? They should stop policing each country's politics and just host a song contest. But I guess they love to control everything, even the things that have nothing to do with the SONG CONTEST. That's my opinion.
6:15 Abba did not start "as a eurovision", Björn and Benny had played together since the 1960s, and had worked also with Agneta and Frida for about four years at the time. But Eurovision was their chance to make the English speaking world aware of them.
Exactly that! When I watched them perform in Brighton that night in 1974, I immediately became a fan and I followed them avidly until they parted ways in 1982. I continued to follow the music of Benny and Bjorn after that and hope to travel to London to see their Abba Voyage show next year. My musical tastes are very diverse now and I much prefer heavy rock/metal these days but I still love hearing an Abba song played! 🙂
@@bojo88 Thanks. And me myself prefer jazz, fusion and ethnic music, but also appreciate many Abba tunes.
@@bojo88 You simply got a good taste man......
sure they didn't start at esc, but they became famous because of esc, and there's nothing wrong with that, dunno why you all get mad when its said a big singer or band became famous thanks to the contest and the song they entered there, because like it or not it s true thats how it happened. Without esc nobody would ve ever known abba beyond sweden, or celine dion beyond canada or the states at the most...that's just a historical fact.
Ukraine did the best song in the year before when they won in my opinion. Another big song from Ukraine was "lasha tumbei" which was said to sounds much like "Russia goodbye" and now they sing it with that phrase.
One thing all americans need to understand is that Eurovision was created to unite Europe. The contest is all about unity and celebrating together.
To be fair, Ukraine's song was a banger.
It might not have won without the political context but it was definitely good enough to deserve the win
I didn t like it
@@rain-cy6ve That's... fine... Everyone has different tastes.
it was top 8 only IMO
It was pretty good, but nowhere near the best. And getting twice the votes of the 2nd best, was pure bullshit politics.
It’s not about the winning, it’s the taking part ❤
Is that why they're handing out participation trophies?
you must be british
@@whattheflyingfuck... For Eurovision I am European ….. it’s a time of fun, craziness, singing, dancing and sparkle where we all come together and throw parties, support each other and just be happy 🤷🏻♀️
@@joannedelaney3866So ... German?
No, you're right, same here. :D I just love it since I remember, and I feel so European then. In want the act I like most to win, and not the country I live in. It's just amazing and I'm already looking foreward to may.
@@t.a.yeah. Ha ha! No I’m British, but country/background really doesn’t matter, it really is about the fun of joining in….. even the nil points are all part of the fun…. 🥳🎉
"She lookes a lot like the girl from Grease", haha. I almost lost it right there and then 2 seconds later you figured it out. Haha
The freeze moment was priceless.
Olivia Newton-John ,yes👍
I voted for Ukraine when the war started and the song is a banger. It was my ringtone for a year
It was already good in the betting odds before the invasion. I had it in my personal top 3. it was a great song. So I was glad for them winning. It would have been bad, if they had won with a disastrous song (think of jemini-cry baby level 😅)
Ryan, actually you should watch the whole song of Conchita Wurst. It wasn't about her 'uniqueness' alone. Her song was EPIC.
I just watched it again and it still gives me shivers. I always thought it would be a perfect „Bond“ song. Absolutely fabulous!
I agree. I loved Conchita's voice and it was a great song.
I will see if I can react to it without getting blocked!
There is actually a video out there of the internal qualification in Austria where Conchita/Tom performed 'My Heart will Go On' by Celine Dion, pretty remarkable as well. th-cam.com/video/WfaqZIo_4ts/w-d-xo.html
@@ryanwuzer
There are some reactions to the original eurovision video already, even from US youtubers, so I don‘t think there will be a problem with it.
th-cam.com/video/SaolVEJEjV4/w-d-xo.htmlsi=LdchkoZo_Fep59Dp
Looking forward to yours.😊
It's a SONG contest, the SONG is what competes, not the artist.
Many countries have a national contests to determine which SONG gets to compete in the ESC and sometimes the song changes language when going international, usually from native to English, but there are exceptions.
Like the song sung in Swahili (an african language) or even made up languages.
When a song is first sung in a national competition it's already out and can be heard on radio etc, but there is a date somewhere 1-3 months before the actual ESC.
"It's a SONG contest, the SONG is what competes, not the artist."
Don't think that is true anymore.
It is a big party and much more than only the quality of the song is important. The whole performance and the charisma of the performer. ESC became a big show and the quality of music decreased in general.
They did do an American version of this last year called American Song Contest. It was hosted by Kelly Clarkson and Snoop Dogg. Each American state and territory was represented by a song. There were Swedish producers I believe. There were both known and unknown artists representing the states. Michael Bolton represented Connecticut and Jordan Smith represented Kentucky for example. Don't thinkt it was overly successful though so I don't think a season two is in the works.
I think the main problem with it, from what I saw of it, is that all contestants were picked by the same group of people, and then put to represent a state. So there was no real build up with each state getting to feel a closer connection to their own song. To me, It felt far more like a national final, than like Eurovision itself.
(well that and they spent too much time focusing on each artists backstory. Like one of the many things I like about Eurovision, is that at most you get a single line about the artists by the national commenters, but there's no interviews where the artists tell their sobstories, or crap like that. If you want to know about the artists backstories, you have to go into fandom and look into it, it's not part of the show itself)
The ASC was a typical American contest within the framework of ESC. The biggest problem was the size of the event, it was to small. When my friend and I saw the size of the stage and audience we where so surprised. Little Sweden can do bigger contests for our national contest and that's a 6 week ordeal. They simply didn't have the budget to put together something for the USA.
It’s also a horrible idea in the first place. If you look at the history and politics of Eurovision you can’t just take the concept and make it American. And then to have it be the USA only is so typical. If they’d wanted the spirit of Eurovision they would have had to make a contest of different countries from the American continent compete against each other. Comparing European countries celebrating diversity and peace with different US-American states trying to imitate the hype actually infuriated me so much when I heard of this.
@morganmeadowes6861 Yes, an American Song Constest needs to have American nations a contestants, best case probably would be all 35 from Chile to Canada. Up to 43 countries (2008), I believe, at a time have taken part of the ESC. One needs different nations in order to have the (music-)olympic atmosphere that makes this event.
(Tbh, I can also see it being cathartic for continental relations within the Americas, as it has beein for Europe.^^)
The Ukrainian song that won was actually pretty cool.
I don’t think Ukraine won in 2022 "only" because of politics. I'm sure it played a part, but the song was awesome! It was so emotional and the instrumental was absolutely on point, it's a banger. Might not be everyone's cup of tea, but nobody can deny that it's high quality. I'm pretty certain it would have ended up in the Top 10 even if Ukraine hadn't been invaded. So it was absolutely not an undeserved win!
Edit: So far the replies to this comment have been relatively respectful, but I just wanted to remind everyone that people have different tastes in music and that's completely fine. It's one of the things making this contest so special. Please be respectful to someone who likes other songs than you do and have a nice rest of your day!
I would also credit them for writing/performing a song in Ukrainian that still sounds great even if you don't understand the language.
Singing in English is safer, but can end up sounding generic.
Also an interesting fact. Kalush purposely didn't release the video to their song "Stefania" coz they didn't want any pity points.... The video is a tear jerker for sure. They released the video only after Eurovision song contest was over. Another interesting fact is that this song was written before the war as a tribute to his own mother Stefania.... But because of the war, the songs meaning morphed into something much much bigger, tribute to all mothers of Ukraine...
yeah, that song was actually really good. if it would be a bad song and they would won it would be only because of the war
Let's be real, the current situation Ukraine is in right now was the big factor why it won. In a regular year it wouldn't have ended 4th with juries and not come close to 400+ Televoting point. It would still end top 10 tho
Sam Ryders ‘Spaceman’ was better though. Fact.
Professionals are definitely in it. This is the equivalent of the OLYMPICS in terms of song contests after all. Many of the countries participating takes Eurovision really seriously and genuinely sends the best of the best songs and singers the country has to offer each year.
But very offen Not the very very best, because they are afraid of underperforming:D
I laughed my arse off when he paused to say Olivia looked like Sandy from Grease only to hit play and have the narrator say exactly that 😂😂😂
Ukraine was actually my fav when it won, the song was also my fav in its national final, to still see people calling it an undeserved win kinda hurts, but i get it
I do not get it, they use it as a stupid excuse as to why other songs didn't win.
It's actually more of a disadvantage that 'the big five' go right through to the finale. Not only does it make it harder to get goodwill from the public, but also less people have heard the song.
Though admittedly that of the big five, the country that tends to have the most regular success in the past decade or so, is Italy. In huge part because unlike the other countries, their selection for Eurovision, tends to be the winner of the Sanremo music festival. A music competition older than Eurovision, which was actually the template for Eurovision.
As for the artists, most artists who compete in Eurovision are already established artists in their home country. The ones that aren't, often won, or ranked highly in talent competitions in their own country, or they somehow managed to win their national final. It's not really a show for amateurs, where you watch the singer grow throughout the competition.
And it's actually not a competition for 'the best artist' (though sending a good artist definitely helps), it's a competition for the 'best song' (which includes the performance).
True, Spain only won twice (1968 and 1969) and we had some good songs
All songs are known before competition and are on the Eurovision yt channel, so it's nor really like less people can hear them :)
@@G0ld3n3k Sure they're known, and Eurovision fandom will check out all the songs regardless. You just have to remember that the grand majority of viewers are not in the fandom, and have never watched, or listened to any of the songs before the semi finales.
Usually it really doesn't matter who Germany sends, if our politicians did something ppl don't approve of. 😅 This year's scoring was a surprise, but poor Lord of the Lost last year.
I'm not that strong in American culture, but I imagine you could compare Eurovision to something like Superbowl, just for music. It's a really great social event that brings people from the entire Europe together. You always get either some great music or decent memes out of it. Also, I'm Ukrainian, and our song last year (as well as in 2016, the one with the glowing tree, and 2021) definitely was great. I recommend you to check those out as well as other countries' performances. It's a very diverse contest and you'll definitely find something to love!
The Superbowl got 110M viewers, Eurovision 160M in 2023.
SuperBowl is nothing like Eurovision. It's a standard sport match just the final of the finals, that's why it's important. It shows the best of the best (sometimes). At the end of the day, it's a standard 60minutes game with a cool (sometimes) halfshow
A gay Superbowl...
I loved Shum by Go_A in 2021. They shoud have won that year, the performance was SO beautiful
@@elleglenn I also liked Shum better than Stefania but I think it's for the best that Go-A didn't wone that year. When I think of Ukraine spending money on hosting the Eurovision instead of arming itself against russia I shudder from inside.
Stefania by Kalush Orchestra (Ukraine) was fucking great, one of the best beats Eurovision has ever produced!
YES, the Ukrainian song was kickass, mix between traditional ethnic tune and hip hop... and it was dedicated to one of the band member's mother. Just look it up.
In the 2023 final, Loreen received the most votes from the jury, but Käärijä received the audience's vote. You should listen to them and say which one you think would have won. They are both very good, in their own way.
Interestingly enough, since then, Loreen been killing it on streaming services just crushing the others , so in the long run, it seems the audience liked Loreen’s song as well…
@@hanes2still, her song was boring and very similar to her previous one.
@@hanes2 yes, that's why she got the most votes totally.
@@hanes2my person opinion and thought on the final of esc 2023, is that Loreen mostly won and got points from the jury bc she did already win in a previous year, I think 2014 or so. So it felt like „we need to give loreen points“. Song wise imo the song from Finland (Cha Cha Cha - Käärija) was way better. Loren’s song was good but not that good
Omg people still not over it... both songs were popular. But I personally as it is a song so test would rather give a meaningful song a point than a party song singing about drinking pina coladas
Edit: and it's not the first time a song won because the jury gave a song more points...
Just wanted to add that the whole "the countries send in bad songs because they don't want to win" isn't all that true (although people keep saying it). Countries have to pay a lot of money to be allowed to participate. Countries spending a lot of money and then sending in a mediocre at best entry just so they won't win doesn't make much sense.
Like if you don't want to win at all, then why would they spend a lot of money on participating?
I think the confusion is partly created by 2 types of songs that tend to enter. Some songs focus on getting as much points from the (professional) jury as possible while other songs focus on getting points from the public. The (professional) jury usually is made of mostly 50 year old pop lovers, meaning the jury tends to give most points to the type of pop songs you hear everyday on the radio. Meanwhile the public tends to favor other stuff.
This year sweden won because they got the max. amount of points from (almost) all of the jurys, while finland was the public favorite.
If you have a contestant more people will watch the show which means more money from advertisement and more material to show.
@@reinhard8053 There is no money from advertisement as the host country is not even allowed to add any advertisement breaks (Advertising and other commercial messages are typically not allowed in this contest).
On a sidenote: Eurovision is a non-profit event, and they get their money from a fee from each participants, broadcasters, ticket sales, televoting and things like merchandise.
@@sirnh1 Some broadcasters do have advertising. There are breaks which are filled with some timewaster videos or on-stage skits which they use as ad-breaks.
@@sirnh1But I agree with your original comment. It's definitely not true that anyone ever sent a bad song, so they don't win (although there have been intentionally bad songs). That becomes an especially absurd concept when you factor in that it's not mandatory to host the next year, the winning broadcaster is just asked first (and they usually also do it). But if you're financially incapable of hosting, you definitely don't have to.
I'm Irish and that's not true, we sent a turkey one year because we definitely did not want to win. The winner hast to host and costs millions 🤷🏻
omg I really thought you were joking when you said Olivia Newton-John looked like Sandy 😂 that timing was perfect
As for why there are not many rock songs in Eurovision: the competition has always been meant to be "family friendly". Rock bands tend to make music that is "edgy" and the lyrics are not always suitable for very young viewers, and elderly viewers might simply hate it. It is a much safer bet for countries to enter the competition with a light pop song, or something like a French chanson or German schlager. The song also has to appeal to people from lots of different cultures, and this has resulted in a large number of songs with lyrics like "la la la" or "ding-ding-a-dong".
Personally, I don't think that the music in Eurovision is very good (with some exceptions), but the show is always worth watching. More that 50 countries have only 3 minutes on stage to make an impression, so the stage show is always carefully planned. The key is to be memorable.
Check out Hevisaurus. Metal music can be totally family friendly! Been listening to metal (and all kinds of music) with my kids since they were born. All the best from Helsinki!
I'll add that the contest rules ban for example swearing in the songs. The contestants sometimes change a line or a word to enter, like Måneskin did in Zitti e Buoni. (But then they sang the uncensored version after they'd won, so sometimes the system may fail 😆)
Thanks for the belly laugh regarding Olivia Newton-John.
As a compensation, here's a bit more info. Nope, they don't just sing the song twice (or once). Each participating country selects its song typically through a Eurovision-style national competition, so songs tend to be performed at least a couple of times months before the actual contest takes place. And now, with youtube, everyone interested (I'm not, but I'm European, and you can't really escape the whole shebang if you're European or living around here) can know pretty well all the songs and artists well in advance of the actual thing.
This year they actually made a point of featuring them all before the competition. It was good because I actually missed the semis this year and otherwise wouldn't have known the other songs I missed.
Don't knock Eurovision. It is tradition. It is fun. We watch on our TVs and some have special parties - in pubs or at home, and we dress up. Don't take the mickey!!
Why (as an European) do i like Eurovision? Because despite being cheesy af, Eurovision is actually like a melting-pot of cultural experiences and interpretations of many different things, for better or worst!... and, at the end of the day, that's actually just Europe at it's best imo: discovering, experiencing, learning and trying to make sense of many different things all at the same time!
A few facts on the ESC that weren't mentioned in the video:
Theoretically It's exclusively for members of the European Broadcasting Union. For the non-europeans countries: The Aussies get kind of a special guest treatment because for some reason it turned into something really huge down under over the years as they broadcasted it since the mid eighties. The first time 2015 they were set for the final but meanwhile they have to go through the semis such as most other countries. Israel does because as one can sadly see right now again, participating in anything together with those countries they are geographically most related to would be ... well ... kind of tricky so they are typically included in European competitions (Israeli football clubs also play in the UEFA Champions/Euro/Conference league if they manage to qualify).
Johnny Logan is no longer the only one to win it twice... Swedish Singer Loreen won 2012 and 2023.
You are NOT allowed to vote for your own country for obvious reasons and that half jury half people system was introduced because many countries -- especially those that pay the majority of the cost for the event-- got kind of p!$$ed off that primarily the Balcan, the Scandinavian or the former Soviet countries voted "too systematically" for their neighbours.
The ESC meanwhile is a mega event for the LGBT+ community.
The fact of Ireland having won too often and it getting too pricy was brilliantly parodied in the Irish comedy show Father Ted (th-cam.com/video/Nxf6ECuRcWM/w-d-xo.html)
Australia participate in the Eurovision as a guest because the ESC since the 80's attracted a strong viewing audience in that country. In 2015 the European Broadcasting Union invited Australia to compete (it was planned to be a one-off event), but finally Australia was allowed to participate to every edition.
If you are starting a deep-dive into Eurovision, I can recommend the compilation videos such as the ones that list all Winners of Eurovision. It is very interesting to see how it started in black&white, almost no choreography, how the style of music changed, etc. I know many reactors have been using videos from the channel "SchlagerLucas".
I can also recommend the Eurovision-introduction done by the channel "Geography Now", as well as the two videos "Six Reasons Americans Should Watch Eurovision" and "The Four Ways Eurovision Gets Political" by the channel "Overthinking it". They also have a third video which is a bit older but still relevant called "Intro to Eurovision 2013: What Is Eurovision?"
Zitti e buoni just was the very best performance and song ever. And it was so special and different from other Eurovision-Songs: Rock and in Italian! 🤍
You haven't lived until you've heard Cha Cha Cha by Käärijä
3:00 - Epic Sax Guy became the meme after this performance. He then returned a few years later for a second time at which point loads of people knew him from the meme.
3:30 - Yes they are all Original songs. There are rules that the song cannot have been performed earlier than a set date before the finale (some countries have their own national trials and the Swedish trials last for 5 or 6 weeks) but you cannot send some song that already made the charts a few years ago. There's nothing stopping a well known artist from participating, but the song must be fresh.
12:43 - The Tiebreaking rule is that if two entries get the same number of points.
During voting, the Jury gives 1-8, 10 and 12 points. So when there's a tie whichever artist got the most 12-point votes from the Jury will win. If two or more had the same number of 12-point votes, they go by 10-point, then by 8-point, then 7-point, etc. I am not sure exactly what happens if two entries had the exact same points all the way through but nowadays the Jury gives 50% of the votes and a televoting (or via the app) gives the remaining 50% of the votes. So say the Juries across all participating countries add up to 400p, the Televote will give another 400p, and if you get 50% of all televotes that means you will get 200p from the televoters.
18:00 - America should participate.
THere actually was an American Song Contest last year (or was it this year?) where each state would compete. The number of watchers was apparently not that great so we'll see if they keep it going to eventually build a following or if they scrap the idea. Many of the things that are in the rules for Eurovision (such as all participants must be on sage, including the artist, dancers and background singers but there can only be a maximum of 6 people on stage) were not part of the American version so some acts had like 20 people on stage..
I think run away aka epic sax guys song got robbed that year with such low points. Alltho i guess the winner satellite is a massive earworm song too
I think if two entries have the exact same number of points it’s based on the actual voter number, and if that is the same…coin flip?
They've actually added in the last Eurovision a R.O.W.(Rest Of World) vote, so you could have voted. They also had a web link international viewers could watch it via a stream.
Possibly thrice, once to get selected, in the semi finals and finally in the finals.
They also now have a Junior Eurovision contest, this years is set to happen in France on the 26th of November.
This year there was a bit of a controversy when Finland's _Cha Cha Cha_ lost to Sweden's _Tattoo._
Cha Cha Cha got 41.7% of audience votes compared to Tattoo's 15.4% of audience votes, but lost the votes from the judges.
You need to review the arithmetic, unless you made a mistake writing down the percentages each country got
@@imeandmyself525yeah that can't be correct, I looked at the scoreboards after the final show because I was curious to see how big the difference was (and also because I wanted to know how the public vote from my country was split) and while I can't remember the exact numbers I distinctly remember that Tattoo got the second most votes from the public after chachacha.
Loreen was very good i just don’t like the same person winning twice.
@@juliav601 We can't really get accurate percentages of the actual number of votes (points is a different story) because EBU doesn't like being transparent. It would be very interesting to know how many individual votes each song got.
As a Swede I have to hand it to you guys, your song was way better.
1. It's a song, not singing, contest
2. It's not really all over the world. It's Europe, respectively the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). Israel, Azerbaijan etc. are members (so is actually Morocco eg. but they haven't participated in a long time). The only odd one out is Australia which is just an associate member. They could be a precedent for other associate members to take part in the future. However, this would cause the main spirit to be lost. The US, China, Brazil, Iran are just some examples of other associate members.
3. Professional artists are allowed, however it's kind of tradition that you don't send stars. (Ans also since this is a tradition, if you do do that: 50% of the score are from televoting and the people tend to not like that and so those artists rarely get a lot of points. Flo Rida for example, they ended up 22nd (out of 26)
7:40 Ryan, THIS (among many others) is a reason why your channels are so much fun to watch! 😊
Not cutting every little bit out that doesn't portray you in a perfect light, makes you funny, approachable and even more adorable.☺️
Johnny Logan with the song "Hold Me Now" is still one of my favorites. His voice is one of the best in Europe of all times.
Watch Johnny Logan's "Just Another Year" my absolute fave. The quirky euro ones are off the wall. The whole shebang was held this year at Liverpool's Dockside. ✨️
The participants are from ccountries who are members of the European Broadcasting Union, the world's foremost alliance of public service media. Israel and Australia are both strong members of that, with major public support.
I live in Latvia, from which Marie N won the contest in 2002. I worked for Latvian Television as the announcer of the show for the television audience -- wherever it was, I was in a little booth at LTV narrating away. You asked whether professional singers can take part. Absolutely. The year it was in Riga (because Marie won the previous year), the contestant from France -- her day job was singing all the female roles in all Disney musicals that had been translated into French. The group from Slovenia had learned not just their own song, but all of the songs that were in the final that year and could sing them in four-part harmony. Yes, the show is enormously cheesy, and quite a few of the acts are far less than professional, but as noted, Celine Dion won one year for Switzerland, and ABBA won for Sweden. So the pros take part, as well. Thanks for your video!
12:20 'Alemania' is Germany in Spanish
The grease ref/part was hillarious, thank you for that 😂
I love how concerned you look , it's killing me 😂😂😂😂😂😂
Australia has a long lasting relationship with the ESC, since the Australian television is broadcasting the show since 1983. Because of the big interest there, Australia was 2014 for the first time allowed to attend the ESC. This was meant as a one time thing, but then it was decided, that they can attend from now on every year. An other reason, why countries which are not in Europe can attend is, that they have to be either an active member of the EBU or a member state in the Council of Europe. The songs performed at the ESC have to be original songs. In a lot of countries there is an extra show months before the ESC, where the public can vote, which song will represent their country at the ESC. The current voting system works like that: 50% of the votes are coming from expert juries (of all participating countries, not just the ones who made it to the grand finals) and 50% of the votes are from the public. Since 2023 everybody in the world can vote, before you had to live in one of the participating countries. You can not vote for your own country. The ESC always takes place in May. The next grand final is on the 11th of May, 2024
The Eurovision Song Contest is soooo much more than just finding the best song.
Although politics is not supposed to play a role according to the regulations, the score usually represents a fairly accurate picture of the political mood.
Overall, it's very much about representing your own country and celebrating the diversity but also the similarities in Europe. Even though we are competing against each other, Europe is actually moving closer together at the ESC. So it's basically an event for peace.
Objectively speaking, the crazy, shrill, colorful entries are often not the "best songs", but they are actually exactly what makes the ESC what it is, what all ESC fans celebrate very much and what also makes the ESC very popular with the LGBTQ+ community .
7:35 Olivia Newton John literally is the actress from Grease
It's one song for the entire competition. You sing it once in your semi-final. And if you reach the final, a second time in the final. Lastly, the winner sings the winning song at the end once more
Eurovision season 2024 has just started!! if you want to react to it, some songs have already been announced and other national selections are still ongoing! The semi finals are on the 7th and 9th of may and then the final is on the 11th.
Cha cha cha was actually supposed to be the winner, it was the fan favorite, but sweden was set up to win due to it being the 50th abba anniversary this year. The mass fan votes for cha cha cha were not coming trough
It is definitely a disadvantage to go straight to the finals. Less times you hear the song, the less it can get stuck to your head. Also people have resented the big 5 for going straight to finals and never voted for them before lol, but I'd say that has shifted now. 😁
Yeah, but the big 5 also didnt always have great songs except Italy after their return in 2011. Since they came back they delivered every single year....what you couldnt say for the rest, at least not being consisted.
Although this year Germany for example didnt deserve the last place or one of the last places.
It's big advantage that they don't risk getting eliminated already in the finals, like 10 of the other countries every year, and their songs are always played during the semifinals, just like those who compete in the semis, so their songs can get stuck in people's head just as the rest.
@@Niki91-HR GB is always good for a laugh too.
@@gonzo2495 thats true
Eurovision is an international audiovisual (radio and television) corporation, and it's more than the song contest, that's why the big 5 contribute to it
Eurovision was started by Marcel Bezencon in 1955 as he felt Europe was divided after two world wars. In 1956 the first contest was arranged and if im not mistaken the big five (Germany, Spain, France, Italy and great Britian) were big contributers at the start and have worked alot on the contest as a whole, which is Why They qualify automatically to the finals. Some countries Even have separate contests to find the one who will represent them at Eurovison. And countries such as Australia are allowed to compete as the general rule for joining Eurovision is the country has to be a member of the EBU which Australia is. It is an amazing show where anyone can enter and make a memorable performance🎉 its super fun to watch every year.
Usually the singers did not write the song. Arguably this also applies to ABBA as the main singers were Frida and Agnetha but Benny and Björn wrote Waterloo.
Sweden won, so they will host it next year. What a coincidence that next year it will be the 50th anniversary of the Swedish Abba winning with Waterloo ....
Finally some Eurovision content 🎉🎉🎉
Ukraine's win was partly because of the war but I think it was mostly because it was a very good song. I personally think it was the best song that year, the other top songs were okay or even good but the Ukraine had the best song that even though you did not know the language you could feel the emotions in it.
They don't only sing it twice. As well as all the local performances and promotional performances, there are a total of nine actual Eurovision shows. Semi final one, semi final two and the final are all preceded by their equivalent jury show (when the juries vote) and the family show (an afternoon performance).
Ryan should stream a reaction to the Eurovision 2024 live on youtube or twitch. So we can watch it together with him.
That would actually be a lot of fun! 😃
And he could not stop the video that often, which to me is really annoying…
The songs aren't meant to be a surprise as they are generally chosen from a competition to decide which song will be entered. Of course most people outside the country of origin don't hear the songs till the competition, and mostly only if they make the final.
It's been around so long we've just grown up with it here in Australia and it remains really popular. Eurovision is also the place that saw the global launch and fever for Riverdance (if you know what that is).
Except of course the ESC superfans who watch every single entrance as soon as they're published, and often know the lyrics to quite a few of them too by the time of the actual contest. There are whole TH-cam channels dedicated to the contest, reacting to and taking apart every song well before the semifinals, and compiling lists of best/worst/most entertaining etc. songs from previous years in between the actual competitions.
Australia was invited because the ESC is very popular there.
French is one of the official languages in Swiss.
In the last decade watching the ESC during special parties has become a ritual in the LGBT-community.
Fun fact: the us actually did their own states v. states version of Eurovision either last year or two years ago (I can’t remember when it was tbh). Sooooo the American version does exist.
Hi Ryan. Your video about an American reacts to Eurovision song contest was really interesting.
Let me clarify some things for you. Yes, other countries that are not European can enter but they have to apply to enter. When it comes to Israel. I’m not sure why Israel is in this contest. When it comes to Australia, the deal is that they have been following our Eurovision song contest for years and they just love it. So they applied to be in this contest and they’ve been doing really well.
The segment that your are reacting to you must be really old because in 2023 Sweden won the Eurovision contest with Loreen. That makes us tie with Ireland so in 2024 Eurovision song contest will be in Malmoe, Sweden. This contest is so big in Sweden it makes the whole country stop. Watch the 2023 Eurovision contest and some TH-camrs react to it. You’ll see how big this is in Europe.
You don’t have to be from a specific country to perform a song, that’s not the contest. The Eurovision song contest is about the writers of the composers. They are the one who competes in this competition. The artist/singers are the ones who just perform the original song. Good that you take an interest in this.❤If you want to have your mind blown, look up a Swedish composer called Max Martin, and see how much he has influenced the American music market.
Proud to be Swedish.
In my opinion Ukraine had the best Song in 2022
As an Australian who has woken up at 5am every year to watch this since I was a child, a big reason we’re in it, apart from continual financial contributions to it for decades, is only 3% of our population is indigenous- most of our population is built up of European migrants. People who are truly “Australian” by heritage are not white, but the picture most people have of an Australian is someone who looks like me- that’s because we’re all European (my mums first language was Greek haha). We were invited as a one off guest to say thanks for the continual support in 2015, and then because we did well they gave us a return contract which ended last year- but it seems we’re back again this year- but there’s always an aura of “this could be temporary” with our participation. Also, because we have no political “friends”, we struggle with the televote (the voting is split up, half is the public (televote), and half is a international “jury of experts”). Historically, the jury are very kind to our acts, but the televote aren’t. I think the danger with America entering would be it would be “Americanised”- part of what is beautiful about Eurovision is it is unashamedly European. That’s a vibe that Australia embraces and respects, but I think some people fear because America is a global powerhouse and dominates the global music scene, they could change that. With all of this said, whilst USA aren’t in it, they CAN vote as of last year- last year they introduced a “rest of the world” televote, which gives every country the chance to get involved ❤️.
Christer Björkman, our Swedish Eurovision superstar organiser did in fact try very hard to make American Song Contest become a thing but it flopped miserably. As Loreen won last year we're hosting this year's edition in my city, Malmö. It's just a few weeks before the election to the European Parliament too!
Yes please note that Australians compete in Eurovision, as important guests, but America has never been invited! 🇦🇺 It is so crazy! 🤣 Olivia Newton John was Sandy in Grease, she was also Australian! 😁 We've come 2nd! 👍
Australia and ESC =
Match made in heaven ❤
You Aussies live this contest, and from my point of view, you probably deserve it more to be part of it than many European countries.
I really, really hope to see Australia in Malmö next year! Fingers crossed!
@@klarasee806 Thank you, I think it's time we won! It's unfortunate we cannot hold the event here though - what a mega party that would be! 🎉
For me also Australia has deserved their spot just because of how many fans and passion they have for the show! When compared to Americans most of whom have never even heard of it. Love from Finland! 💚
@@elinahamalainen5867 Yes, Australian's fully embrace the spirit of Eurovision! 🤗
Olivia Newton John was born in Britain and I don't think she ever gave up her UK citizenship as it would have been professionally useful when she preferred to live and work in the UK or the USA. I think she was Australia only when it was professionally useful, like when there was some event that might get her international interest (Oprah visiting Australia, or the Olympics). Then she would fly in from the USA and pretend she still lived in Australia.
Ukraine's song last year was one of my favourites, actually. Not my very favourite, as that was Portugal, but in my top 3 (along with France). Obviously a portion of the points came from people being supportive, but many really loved the song, too. You should check it out.
Australie is in the last couple years the reason is that Eurovision song festival is very popular there. Israel that have to do with second war
Most countries has their own contest to choose a song to send to Eurovision. Here in Sweden it's huge. "Melodifestivalen" is the contest called, and has 4-5 prequalifying shows and then a final. The people vote.
As a german I can tell you we really tried hard the last years, but failed deservedly hard every time.
Absolutely professionals are in it. Remember how you loved Guy Sebastian when you reacted to him? Well he put Australia on the Eurovision map so to speak. He was the first Aussie to be invited and it was supposed to just be a one off thing. He came 5th overall and impressed them so much they decided to continue to allow Australia to participate!
Abba did not start at Eurovision, they existed and released music well before that. But Eurovision was their first international success, and even then it still took some time for them to fully take off.
Loreen winning the ESC this year got into controversy too. Since many people thought that yes, her song was good, but not the best, but was just SO pumped up by jury votes (if i remember correctly) that it couldn't be reached anymore. Also to many it seemed like too much of a coincidence that sweden won that strong just before the year where ABBA has their 50th ESC anniversary next year. So for many it just fits too well that sweden will be hosting in next year.
Why was Australia invited to join Eurovision:
Australia's invitation to participate in 2015 was intended as a one-off, in recognition of how popular the contest was in Australia. At that time, Australia probably constituted one of the largest non-European audiences.
The reason the country has continued to enter the competition is down to TV rights, as Australia's host TV broadcaster SBS, is part of the European Broadcasting Union - and that's a qualification requirement for entering the Eurovision Song Contest.
SBS is not a full member of the EBU but only an associate
@@NineBerry I just got it off Google
The big 5 are big contributors to European Broadcasting Union (EBU), that organises the Eurovision Song Contest, but that isn't only thing they do. It's a Union of European public broadcasters and they do lot of behind the scenes work.
Ryan, it is so much fun and pleasure to watch how many new discoveries and revelations you are experiencing in only one video! 😂
For the record: Each country decides independently which song it wants to send. In Europe, hardly anyone notices this except the inhabitants of the country in question (and sometimes the neighbours, such as Austria-Germany or Sweden-Norway). The song must never have been released before October of the previous year - so it is an original. Each country has to choose an artist and the song with which it wants to take part in the contest within March. This has to be done because the stage and everything around it have to be prepared by May. The final takes place around 10 May (always on a Saturday). In the same week on Tuesdays and Thursdays the semi-finals).
So in the end, each song will be performed a maximum of two times - in the semi-final and then in the final. And it's not a competition to see who can sing better, it's all about the entertainment and which song you like best.
And by the way: It is not called European Contest, but Eurovision Contest. “Eurovision” is the name of an association of many television stations in and around Europe. They usually exchange TV material for news, etc. Morocco or Libya also belong to Eurovision, but they do not take part in the contest. The countries are free to do so. And Australia is part of the contest because their fan base has grown so much over the years that they were given the opportunity to participate for the 60th anniversary.
I would love it if you reacted to some more Eurovision content!
Like Wetten dass?
First you need to win a contest in your own country, then you get aproved to eurovision. And yes, the song is always the same, the song you win it with in your country is the same you sing everytime during the competition.
Some countries just announce one song and interpret.
And to add to that, the song is released months before the contest, so it is not kept a secret, people can hear it before the semi/final, some participants tour with their song to other countries to gain recognition.
That‘s not true for every country. It differs from country to country.
I think it’s a lot about creating a hype beforehand nowadays, which leads to more people listening to your song before the competitions starts. Some songs need more than just one listen to get stuck in your brain. Ukraine was one of the countries who did that in 2022, partly because of the war of course. It was a surprise that they even managed to send a group midst of a war. In 2023 Käärijä also managed to create a big hype and won a lot of votes due to people giving the song a chance after seeing his charm and Tik too friendly dance (and a flawless and quirky national final performance).
16:30 "Doesn't it give the big five an advantage... that their song hasn't been heard yet?". All the songs will have been heard to some extent in advance of the final; not only will they all have been seen and heard (in their glossiest and most pitch perfect videos) in the preview shows normally airing a week before the final itself, but all the competing countries (so far as I know) have some sort of public selection process to choose their entries. Commonly, this will be a show running over some weeks with telephone voting for the song to compete in the final (got to squeeze in both as many hours of programming content and as many pennies of premium rate telephone votes as possible in order to make it all pay).
Incidentally, this is one of the reasons why it is pretty much impossible to attract established performers to the competition nowadays; they are basically required to 'sign the dotted line' blind as they don't know when signing the contract what the song they will have to perform--and a number of artists have publicly stated, after the event, that they loathed the chosen entries and thought them ill-suited to their style.