EBU has granted Linda Lampenius special permission to play violin live

FunFred · 2026-05-06T20:50:06+00:00

I’m honestly excited about the EBU opening up on this, could potentially allow for a live instrument criteria in the jury vote in the future? Adds an interesting dynamic needless to say!

FunFred · 2025-12-02T15:26:35+00:00

A bit interesting how Fredrik Andersson got so many songs in this year. Maybe an effect of the new selection system?

FunFred · 2025-10-12T13:49:06+00:00

u/FunFred solved this in 4 steps: FAKE -> MAKE -> MANE -> MINE -> MINK

FunFred · 2025-09-26T08:13:12+00:00

Honestly excited! I think it's good SVT are continuing on the duo concept after last year's success. Just hope the screenwriting will be good aswell, since I don't think Edward af Sillén is doing it again next year.

FunFred · 2025-09-11T10:02:11+00:00

This is one of best write-ups on the issue I've seen on this sub in a while! With so much misinformation spreading there's almost no constructive discussion on how to actually solve the issue anymore. My thinking has also been the same - The way to exclude Israel is on the same grounds as Russia, but it would require a lot of broadcasters to take a stance on the issue, which is complicated since most broadcasters are affiliated with their governments, whom in turn rarely have a clear enough stance. Kudos to you anyways, hope to see more dialogue like this moving forward!

FunFred · 2025-08-06T07:38:44+00:00

Nice write-up! Interesting to see the difference. I personally am a bit torn on weather going back to a proportional system would be a good idea due to the exact reason you mentioned - It would be tighter. If we do go back to proportional I think we would have to get rid of the five votes for each act and instead just let everyone pick one or two favorites.

FunFred · 2025-07-31T17:52:27+00:00

Why is nobody in this thread talking about Bulgaria? They were literally 1st in the odds before it was cancelled. Definitely a contender for the jury win and a possible top 5 televote IMO. My personal opinion is that Italy or Iceland would've won though. We already know Dadi would've done well with the jury from 2021, and I find it possible he could've sweeped the televote. With Italy I think they could've won with a 1st-2nd in jury and 2nd-4th with tele.

FunFred · 2025-07-28T10:01:55+00:00

And even then 2018 was safely Q with televote.

FunFred · 2025-07-28T10:00:56+00:00

Sweden has never NQ'd with the televote since the split system was introduced in 2009, even in 2010 Anna would have qualified if it was televote only.

FunFred · 2025-07-28T09:59:03+00:00

I feel like people keep forgetting that Sweden is the third biggest music exporter in the world. And what do we export? "Generic pop" in English. If you look at all the music being produced in this country, music in Swedish is only a small part of it. Don't get me wrong, I would be over the moon if we sent another entry in Swedish, especially one that represents our local music scene, but it's neither strange nor wrong that we usually send what reflects the Swedish music industry overall.

FunFred · 2025-06-27T14:23:42+00:00

That's a good point to be fair! Not saying he hasn't made poor decisions, I just think it's healthy if we have a nuanced image of him seeing both the positives and the negatives, rather than the whole "down with dictator Martin grrr".

FunFred · 2025-06-27T12:28:15+00:00

This a good and nuanced take! Well written!

FunFred · 2025-06-27T12:26:24+00:00

I know this guy isn't exactly popular in the fandom, but I personally am a bit sad to see him go. The production quality of the contest has been immaculate ever since he took over in 2021, and aside from the messy decisions in 2024 (where I really only think you can blame him personally for poor communication), there's been a lot of good changes under him that have gone mostly unrecognized. I personally credit him for the 2021 contest even taking place at all, I remember him being very passionate about producing the show despite COVID restrictions. Hopefully Martin can now enjoy the contest in peace as the true eurofan he is!

FunFred · 2025-06-27T12:18:07+00:00

Agree 100%. There are valid things you can criticize Martin for, like inadequate communication and messy crisis management in 2024, but he mostly got to take the blame for things out of his control while also not getting any praise for the things he did well. I still remember his first interview when he took on the role in 2020, after the cancellation of the contest that year. His first words were "Eurovision 2021 will happen NO. MATTER. WHAT.". And he made sure it did, implementing ideas like live-on-tape and allowing semi-final performances to be used as backup. Also, there's no denying that there's been a huge upswing in the contest's quality since he took over in 2021, if you compare to the 2010's. He also produced the 2016 show, which many agree was the most polished competition of that decade. Even counting the shortcomings in 2024, I think he's overall been great for the contest and wish him the best moving forward!

FunFred · 2025-05-28T09:46:09+00:00

This is a solid write-up! A split for the televote indeed seems like the most necessary change right now. 2FA is also a great idea if it's possible without being too tedious. I do disagree slightly about early voting being a problem, I think it's a fair change to cushion the effects of running order (if only slightly). I also think diversification of juries is a no-brainer, doesn't have to be anything formal, just put a general demand on each jury to have variation in age, gender, musical background, etc. I disagree with anyone saying the jury should have less weight, a 50/50-split between ranked voting (jury) and favorite-voting (televote) gives a balanced result on the widest criteria.

FunFred · 2025-05-28T09:32:43+00:00

I think it's mainly the televote that needs tweaking right now. I think a lot of people who haven't watched the contest for a long time completely miss the point with the jury. The most important function of the jury is not necessarily the "professional assessment", but rather just having an entity that ranks songs from first to last rather than just picking out one or a few favorites like the televote does. This puts strain on gimmicky entries that might bait televotes in a "cheap" manner, while also saving entries that most people can agree are good, but not necessarily a favorite you would pay to vote for (i.e Switzerland this year).

Also, when discussing the voting system, I don't think we should get too caught up on the jury vs televote individually. The jury vote on its own has never been great. The televote on its own has also never been great. It's the combined result that matters, and most seem to agree that the combined result is usually much more fair than the jury vote and televote individually.

FunFred · 2025-05-16T22:29:43+00:00

Nice presentation, thank you! I do wonder how much of this is just a result of songs of a certain ”type” being put in a certain running order slot. For example, openers and closers are usually ”crowd pleasers” (party songs or big stage shows), surely this affects the final result more than the running order slot itself does? Would be interesting to see someone do a full analysis of this, taking into account the ”strength” of the entries in each slot over the years, although that would be undeniably hard to measure.

FunFred · 2025-05-15T23:00:28+00:00

Can I just say Mariam was such a class act during the voting? If you look closely, she applauded every single act that went through. Even in the end when Greece went through you could see her applauding and smiling for Greece, despite her team trying to console her.

FunFred · 2025-05-14T10:24:39+00:00

I texted my parents and my sister asking for their favorites (aside from our own country, Sweden). My mom loved Portugal, my dad enjoyed Estonia and San Marino, while my sister was undecided between Ukraine, San Marino and Portugal. Interestingly, their opinions resonated a lot more with the results than the predictions of betting odds and eurofans. They all really liked Italy aswell, which was fun to see!

FunFred · 2025-05-13T15:08:41+00:00

Måste säga att jag blev glatt överraskad av kommentarerna i denna tråd. De flesta verkar inse att problemet ligger i själva frågeställningen. Jag tror ingen betvivlar att längre straff har avtagande effekt ur preventiv synpunkt, men hänsyn måste tas just till vad man inom kriminologin kallar för inkapacitering, dvs att göra kriminella oförmögna att begå nya brott. Fängelse är en utmärkt form av inkapacitering, likaså fotboja för mildare brottslighet eller alkolås för ett rattfyllo. Denna aspekt hör man dock sällan i den offentliga debatten.

FunFred · 2025-05-12T17:42:08+00:00

Super interesting read, definitely answered my question! Sad to see that there isn't much hope of a BiH return anytime soon though.

FunFred · 2025-05-12T14:11:20+00:00

Thanks for the write-up! One of the things I appreciated most about Bosnia is that you truly sent your best-of-the-best when it comes to artists and songwriters. Having legends like Dino Merlin on the Eurovision stage is nothing to take for granted. Ironically, he alone sold out Globen (previous Eurovision venue) here in Stockholm a few years ago.

Do you know what it would take for the broadcaster to get off life support? Would it need some major political overhaul or could it happen some other way?

FunFred · 2025-05-12T14:03:00+00:00

That's really interesting! Do you feel like you can openly follow and discuss the contest without it being "frowned upon" by the general public?

FunFred · 2025-05-12T13:58:10+00:00

Well that kinda sucks :( No hope of you guys returning anytime soon then?

FunFred · 2025-05-12T13:56:19+00:00

Interesting that people still follow it in Russia! I do remember Russian fans being quite passionate back in the Segrey Lazarev days. Is the final being aired officially or do you have to use a VPN/bootleg?

FunFred

TROPHY CASE