Controversies, exclusions, huge errors, conspiracies and fireworks, literal and metaphorical. Everything really happened at this Eurovision – more than usual. In the end, Switzerland and Nemo won, with “The code”, which she won by a landslide with the national juries, beating the very favorite Croatian Baby Lasagna (who won in the televoting, but did not close the gap). Italy came 7th, with 268 points (164 from the juries, but no “12”, and 104 from televoting). Ukraine is third, France fourth, Israel fifth and Ireland sixth.
Here are the Tops and Flops of the final and the 2024 edition of Eurovision.
Top: Angelina Mango
Angelina was perfect. The national support makes us perceive our songs as masterpieces and all the others as nonsense: it happens in every country… But beyond this distortion of perspective, Angelina was on another level: she brought a contemporary song interpreted with a enormous mastery of the stage, with a spectacular staging of international level, a notable upgrade compared to Sanremo. It’s a shame for the things that happened around this edition that penalized it.
Flop: the controversies, the EBU and Rai
ESC, the organizers said, has nothing to do with politics – but we knew that it would come back in every way and from every hole possible, with the organizers trying to empty a torrent of controversy with a bucket, with choices they made anything but calming the spirits. Let’s say that it wasn’t exactly the year in which to choose the slogan “United by music”, because the situation divided spirits: in the final even Martin Osterdahl, head of ESC, was contested.
Things went worse with the RAI mess, which published our nation’s televoting on Thursday evening – banned because it influences the rest of the race. Then she apologized (“A technical error”), but in the meantime immediately afterwards the Israeli singer (who in Italy would have taken almost 40%) flew to second place in the bettors’ odds and Mango fell to 7th place – then the final position was obtained.
We have already talked about the commentary for Italian viewers in recent days: Gabriele Corsi very competent, despite some blunders, Mara Maionchi a little pissed off.
Top: the show and the performances
Eurovision remains not only the largest non-sports television show in the world in terms of numbers and quantity but also for the quality of what you see: it may seem like a sideshow, but there are ideas and effects of the highest level. Hats off to the Swedes, who put together a series of truly remarkable numbers surrounding the competition, from the musical on why they always win, to the montage of films by Ingmar Bergman with Eurovision songs and a nice tribute to ABBA.
The performances: pure entertainment here too. A series of live video clips with an enormous quantity of ideas and stagings, shown one after the other in very fast sequences – made possible by the fact that only the voices were live (the so-called “half playback” or “voice on basis”).
Remarkable things (English Olly Alexander’s rotating room) and terribly trashy things that appeal exactly for this reason. A special prize to the Finnish Windows 95 with his fireworks underwear and to the Estonians, wonderfully crazy.
Flop: the songs
Eurovision is made up of songs, which are the ones that matter the least: it’s Sanremo to the nth degree (but at least there are some good songs there every year). They are mostly really bad, but almost none of them were saved from this edition, perhaps only the folk metal of the Norwegians (last) and the gothic of the Irish singer. An edition, as always, dominated by derivative pop and tamarra dance. In the end, the victory of “The code” rewards one of the most acceptable songs in the competition.
