Nice People Thread No. 15, a Cyber Summer

vivatifosi

Website have had a surreal evening at Casa Tifosi. As we are now in the run up to Eurovision, we decided to catch some of the broadcasts of the 'Song for Europe" equivalents from other countries to check out the other entries and the songs that don't make the grade. Anyone who knows Eurovision knows that the big daddy of these is Sweden's Melodiefestivallen. However we went for small and intimate instead... watching the contests from Iceland and Malta.

Watching Iceland, you get an idea of how problematic it must be to devise quality programming for a maximum audience of about 300,000. I think I can say, with a degree of certainty, that Iceland will not win Eurovision this year. However it was interesting to watch the Icelandic adverts... eggs and courgettes were both advertised on prime time tv. I also learned where people from Reykjavik go on holiday (Stockholm).

Then on to Malta. The Maltese take Eurovision almost as seriously as the Swedes, but without the strength in numbers. However they did win Junior Eurovision, and boy do they make sure you know it. 14 Maltese contestants battled it out, which may be half of the population. The Maltese get adverts for holidays in Slovenia, life insurance and cheese. It was obvious who was going to win as the audience were in a frenzy when she came on stage. She was also the best singer with the best song. She looked a bit like Liz Hurley and her outfit looked a bit like a wedding dress. I don't think she will win either, but nor should she score nul points.

I may try one of the big nations tomorrow.

CKhalvashi

vivatifosi wrote: »

Website have had a surreal evening at Casa Tifosi. As we are now in the run up to Eurovision, we decided to catch some of the broadcasts of the 'Song for Europe" equivalents from other countries to check out the other entries and the songs that don't make the grade. Anyone who knows Eurovision knows that the big daddy of these is Sweden's Melodiefestivallen. However we went for small and intimate instead... watching the contests from Iceland and Malta.

There's a rumour that it's harder to win Melfest than Eurovision itself. Very competitive, and not just because they're hosting it.

Watching Iceland, you get an idea of how problematic it must be to devise quality programming for a maximum audience of about 300,000. I think I can say, with a degree of certainty, that Iceland will not win Eurovision this year. However it was interesting to watch the Icelandic adverts... eggs and courgettes were both advertised on prime time tv. I also learned where people from Reykjavik go on holiday (Stockholm).

And a quick google suggests that for 300000 people, outbound tourism is worth around £500m a year, which has to equal 1 or 2 foreign holidays for everyone, per year. Not sure on the UK number, but for a small island, that is a high number.

Then on to Malta. The Maltese take Eurovision almost as seriously as the Swedes, but without the strength in numbers. However they did win Junior Eurovision, and boy do they make sure you know it. 14 Maltese contestants battled it out, which may be half of the population. The Maltese get adverts for holidays in Slovenia, life insurance and cheese. It was obvious who was going to win as the audience were in a frenzy when she came on stage. She was also the best singer with the best song. She looked a bit like Liz Hurley and her outfit looked a bit like a wedding dress. I don't think she will win either, but nor should she score nul points.

I may try one of the big nations tomorrow.

Malta won JESC twice. Assuming it was Destiny (and possibly Gaia) on stage this time around.

Tourism from Malta is largely to Italy, North Africa, and seemingly the UK for the purpouse of buying a car and driving it back

Ira Losco won the Eurovision in 2002, and I'm very sure will finish in the final this year.

zagubov

Fair play to Iceland, I frequent a music thread on another forum and I'm amazed at how they punch beyond their weight. Their population's not much different from Malta's.

As regards their foreign travel, a lot of that was always to Glasgow as it's the biggest shopping centre in the UK outside of London and the nearest/largest shopping centre to their country. Having said that Newcastle has also been getting more custom with their Metrocentre.

vivatifosi

CKhalvashi wrote: »

There's a rumour that it's harder to win Melfest than Eurovision itself. Very competitive, and not just because they're hosting it.



And a quick google suggests that for 300000 people, outbound tourism is worth around £500m a year, which has to equal 1 or 2 foreign holidays for everyone, per year. Not sure on the UK number, but for a small island, that is a high number.



Malta won JESC twice. Assuming it was Destiny (and possibly Gaia) on stage this time around.

Tourism from Malta is largely to Italy, North Africa, and seemingly the UK for the purpouse of buying a car and driving it back

Ira Losco won the Eurovision in 2002, and I'm very sure will finish in the final this year.

Not surprised that it is harder to win Melodiefestivallen than Eurovision. We could not get any tickets for any rounds of Eurovision thus year, so staying home. I think the Swedes get whipped into a frenzy by MF, and this will run over into Eurovision given they are hosting. When we went to Copenhagen it was full of Swedes watching Eurovision too. Now that The Voice is going to ITV, the BBC should consider a similar format to pick a song for Europe.

I agree that Ira Losco should make the final. It's a good song. I just don't think it's as good as the songs that have won since Azerbaijan hosted. We have had very good pop songs winning for a number of years and the contest has turned the corner. I think how well it does will depend on its draw if it makes the final... It will get forgotten if it is early, plus the type of other song. If we have another year of the ballad, like last year, then it will stand out more as a dance track.

The two contests I've watched suggest it's going to be an up tempo year, if they are in any way typical.

Oh and it was Destiny who opened the broadcast. What a fab young singer! She will definitely be entering the adult contest herself in a year or two.

ETA... forgot to mention, in the Icelandic contest they spoke to two contestants from Iceland who were entering the contest in Moldova. So again, for a small country, really getting into the mix.

silvercar

michaels wrote: »

I wouldn't glue stuff onto my door, either the glue will fail after a period or the plastic will break or discolour and you won't be able to get it off.....

Mine is screwed into the wooden door. Has lasted a number of years.

silvercar

Boiler problems.

So yesterday evening we get home about 6pm and the boiler is off. No sound at all, no lights, dead. Timer is working and thermostat is functioning and calling for heat. House is warm but the rads are cool.

Switch boiler off and on, change the fuse in the wall switch. Dead.

This morning boiler is on and rads are warm. Then the boiler goes off, in its usual cyclical way, but won't restart. Dead again.

Apart from trying to embarrass me in front of the engineers (that it has a history of when it decided to leak CO and then change its mind when the guys appeared), what is it playing at.

Nikkster

silvercar wrote: »

Boiler problems.

So yesterday evening we get home about 6pm and the boiler is off. No sound at all, no lights, dead. Timer is working and thermostat is functioning and calling for heat. House is warm but the rads are cool.

Switch boiler off and on, change the fuse in the wall switch. Dead.

This morning boiler is on and rads are warm. Then the boiler goes off, in its usual cyclical way, but won't restart. Dead again.

Apart from trying to embarrass me in front of the engineers (that it has a history of when it decided to leak CO and then change its mind when the guys appeared), what is it playing at.

Mine had a problem with (I think) the thermostat. So it would work sometimes but not others (usually had more problems when the weather was cooler). The part cost under a tenner, and the guy took well under 30 mins to fit it.

Doozergirl

silvercar wrote: »

Boiler problems...

This morning boiler is on, what is it playing at.

It heard you talking about getting a new one.

zagubov

Doozergirl wrote: »

It heard you talking about getting a new one.

I've now got an image of it sitting there like HAL in 2001 listening to sc through the heating pipes. :eek:

I always thought boilers seem to have too much electronic gubbins in them.

silvercar

It's funny how family sizes go ... although lots of people had dozens of children, some had none.

Somewhere in my family are 2 sisters who each produced 2 boys and a girl. One lot went on to have 5+5+3=13 kids. The other looked like they were going to have none for a long time, then one of the kids got divorced, remarried and produced 3 of his own. So final score is 13-3.