Once again we have a new ESC Insight newsletter for our readers. Each week the Newsletter reviews the latest Eurovision news and gives comments and as to what is happening in the world of the Eurovision Song Contest. We always make sure the full newsletter goes online after launch to find via the website.
This week we are looking at the fallout from the Head of Delegation meeting in Vienna as all forty countries reveal their songs. As always Robertson’s Reflection, from our Newsletter Editor Ben Robertson looks in-depth at one part of the Song Contest. This week he gives his opinion as to why middle game, the run in to rehearsal week in May, is more important than ever and gives tips to one country in particular to achieve it.
Conchita nailed middle game. Nobody last year worked harder travelling to each and every preview event and then some in an epic piece of co-ordination for flights across the continent. Attending preview parties and events gives an artist a great chance to show off and delivering a vocal performance to note will turn a few heads, but the immediate family of the Eurovision network is probably worth no more than a few points on the scoreboard. Conchita was more than a great vocal though, and wherever she travelled the attention and media craze was the main highlight. That’s not going to apply to most artists.
The key to middle game is about getting your song a steady and strong reputation beyond your country’s borders. This is where we are watching to see if iTunes sales or Spotify charts reveal anything about the spread of a song throughout the coming weeks and months. When Germany won in 2010 no doubt Lena had a perfect draw and a catchy song, but that wasn’t the key for winning both jury and televotes that year. In this period ‘Satellite’ crashed through all of Germany’s bordering nations and sucked their points dry in Oslo. This kind of pressure is especially important with the current jury ranking system, which jury members would want their names attached to being somebody voting down an already hit song in their country? Few, I argue.
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That’s a good point you make about the charts in neighbouring countries. And it’s interesting to hear that the heads of delegations were predicting 2016 in Sweden.
But then what do you make of the fact that Mans Z “Heroes” is not in the top 100 Spotify of Norway and Denmark and only 60 in Finland? (The east of Finland speaks Swedish and watches Swedish TV).
A slight worry, but less of a problem than with Estonia. Estonia is not a one-time listen. I’ll happily admit I adore ‘Goodbye To Yesterday‘ but unless staging is special (insert Common Linnets reference here) then it may be lost to a casual viewer. Måns’ song is more impactful so will more easily pick up the votes of people just tuning in on the Saturday. It doesn’t need the chart streams although it will help and I think will come with more time (Spotify is generally slower to pick up on new songs as lots of listening is playlist dominated).
Mans’ song is would probably be a good contender for third or fourth place in a normal year, however in such a ballad heavy year, any reasonable uptempo song should have a chance at winning, unless the semi-finals become a ballad witch hunt.
I’ve always thought that a lot of Conchita’s pre-competition campaigning was to get audiences used to the idea of a bearded drag artiste, so when the competition finally came around, the general reaction would be “Yay, it’s Conchita!” and not “Wait, a lady with a beard?!” And the campaign started early – Conchita appeared on an Irish talkshow in November 2013 – months before “Rise Like a Phoenix” was even released.