Intro Post

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Introduction

Well, here we are now for the worst Eurovision year of the 2020’s. I mean that in terms of the show and the EBU’s inability to learn anything, because the song lineup was actually really good. In Vienna, 25 countries (would’ve been 26 if Spain hadn’t boycotted) competed for the trophy and the show was, suffice to say, quite a mess.

In third place came Romania with a massive fan favorite song, which is tied with 2005 and 2010 as their best result. In second place came the country that should’ve been banned yet-a-fucking-gain, but this time it was in part because the song did really well with the juries. And the winner came as a surprise to many viewers: Bulgaria with a catchy kickass girlbop titled “Bangaranga”. They had never won the contest before, but they did score fourth place in 2016 and second in 2017. When I reach Bulgaria’s song, I’ll analyze why it makes sense that this song won and how the song’s victory benefits the contest. No one in the final scored zero points overall, but the UK, Germany, and Belgium all got zero from the televote.

Romania and Bulgaria were among the three countries that returned this year after a hiatus; the other is Moldova, who achieved an excellent eighth place with a song that’s Moldovan to the core. That’s one of the positives about this trainwreck of a Eurovision year: all three countries that returned after taking breaks had a massive glowup. One of the negatives is that Israel still hasn’t been banned and thus five countries boycotted, and another negative is that Austria’s hosting this year was godawful.

A small positive is that just like Vienna 2015, Austria took the effort to open the show with an actual live orchestra which reminds us of Austria’s musical heritage and of the old days of Eurovision. JJ performs “Unknown” again, the same song from an interval act in the second semifinal (did he have no other songs he could perform?), then comes half of the flag parade, a reprise of “Wasted Love”, and the other half of the flag parade. Søren from Denmark comes first in the flag parade and he looks more stoked to be at Eurovision than anyone else, though I’m sure all the others were full of just as much hype. Thorsten Schorn said during the flag parade that Bulgaria’s song could become the summer hit of the year, which shows that by this point it was easily one of the standouts of the year. Sam from the UK got a substantial amount of cheers, though knowing his result they must have come primarily from British fans. Greece and Australia’s contestants were also met with a roaring reception, as well as the home team from Austria at the end. After 18 minutes the show finally begins, which is really excessive.

I watched the final with German commentary since I have an HD copy saved to my computer. Life hack for Eurofans who want to find commentary: for the latest year you can often find it on the broadcaster’s website, and for other recent years (2016 onwards) you won’t find them on YouTube, but rather on its Russian counterparts VK Video and OK.ru, or its Chinese counterpart Bilibili.