Meanwhile, In Israel

at

This afternoon.

Tel Aviv, Israel.

Ted writes:

We’re 106 days away from Eurovision in Tel Aviv and the Semi-Final Allocation Draw just took place…

Ireland will be performing in the Second Semi Final. Very few songs selected but we’re mixed in with traditional heavyweights Russia, Sweden, and Norway.

I didn’t know this but there’s a Eurovision Host City Keychain that gets passed from city to city. Weighs over 15kg apparently…

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27 thoughts on “Meanwhile, In Israel”

  2. Eoin

    Boycott!

    Did you know RTE pays the European Broadcasting Union a membership fee of €0.5m a year? And on top of that, it pays for this rubbish which stopped being a contest based on merits a couple of decades ago. How abouts we cancel our membership? Why should we pay absolutely outrageous salaries of the secretive Swiss EBU organisation led by the ex-boss at RTE? Other broadcasters drop out or cancel all the time, why not Ireland?

    1. john f

      Because financially it makes great sense for RTE, you get 2 nights of prime entertainment time taken care of for a relatively small cost.
      Personally, I think we should just boycott the whole thing. Mostly because of the ridiculous salaries of the Ebu but the fat cats at RTE wouldn’t draw attention to that for fear of opening themselves up to criticism regarding their own pay. Secondly like you said, it’s not based on merit any more, it’s a political tool about forwarding the “progressive” ideology of the day. Thirdly, the upcoming one is in Israel….nuff said

    2. bisted

      …there are lots of reasons to boycott this event in apartheid Tel Aviv…money is the least of it…no doubt that Eurovision stalwart, John Waters, will have an entry…he and Gemma could do a duet…

    3. rotide

      ” stopped being a contest based on merits a couple of decades ago”

      How is a contest that is decided entirely by the watching audience not based on merit?

      1. f_lawless

        watching audience may be influenced by their own political/cultural bias?
        https://www.economist.com/europe/2018/05/12/neighbourly-voting-in-the-eurovision-song-contest
        Also, “Last year Russia withdrew after the host, Ukraine, denied entry to its contestant, who had performed in Crimea after Russia had invaded and annexed the region in 2014. Ukraine had previously won the competition with a cheery song about Joseph Stalin’s deportation of Crimean Tatars during the 1940s. In 2015 Armenia’s lyrics marked 100 years since the massacre of 1.5m people, which its neighbours Turkey and Azerbaijan refuse to recognise as genocide. Turkey has boycotted the event since 2013, in protest against the automatic qualification to the final round enjoyed by the “Big Five”: Germany, Britain, France, Spain and Italy.

        Yet the data show that neighbourly tensions tend to be outweighed by collusive voting, defined as a consistently greater exchange of points between two countries than would be expected by random allocation”

        1. rotide

          Yeah, I’m not actually sure what your point is.

          Regardless of that wall of text, the people watching it , vote for it.

          1. Yep

            Jesus rotide. That was an interesting link and added a bit to the discussion on the topic of “merit”. You do understand these walls of text you can’t seem to clear do have some useful information in them sometimes? Why so angry?

    4. Pete

      So for the cost of a house in Dublin millions of people can get some enjoyment and memories in their sad lives for a week. Seems like a good investment to me. Why not just cut funding for everything and go sit in our crying chairs?
      Eurovision is a fantastic institution.

  3. Shayna

    I’ve got a couple, or three things to say about this. #1 I’m going to Tel Aviv next month. #2 I’m Irish Catholic #3 See #2.

    2. rotide

      Don’t worry Shayna, It’s not actually apartheid , only people who aren’t sure what apartheid means think it is.

      It is a fairly right wing country however.

        1. Shayna

          What can I tell you, already. I worked for the London Jewish Society, I operated the autocue for Maureen Lipman and John Conteh – they “read” excerpts from The Diary of Ann Frank at Wembley Conference Centre to celebrate 50 years of Israel. Of course, that was ’98. Apart from the building being evacuated during rehearsals due to an unattended box of “Rovers Treats” – oh and the conference centre being surrounded by Muslims – it was another day at work.
          I think I’ll be okay in Tel Aviv – I quite like houmus?

        2. rotide

          Yeah, Should have said that TA is very liberal. None of the zealot idealogues that take the money to settle in the disputed territories there.

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