About treating countries the same.

Russia got suspended from the Eurovision song contest after invading Ukraine. Israel is allowed to compete. The pro palestinian movement have made me aware that Azerbajdzjan should also be excluded.

One reason people talk more about Israel than other injustices is because people's respective countries side with Israel and sell them weapons. They are critisising their own countries, on top of Israel's military. There is less use in protesting Russia's invasion, because there already are no weapons being sold to them (from their own countries).

There is a scary rise in antisemitism and actual assults. I dont think that pointing at critisism and call for ceasefire and going "what about ___" is the thing to focus on? You do after all seem to agree that the use of exessive destruction need to stop?

I apologize if it came across as whataboutism, that was not the point of my post.

I personally don't care if a person posts more about one conflict than another.

The point of my post was to point out people's thought patterns, not make everyone talk about other conflicts more.

With the Russia Ukraine war thing, obviously there is nuance between that war and the i/p war. However people who call Israel genocidal often do so because of the death count and claim genocidal intent. It is extremely clear that Russia has genocidal intent towards Ukraine. Based on the two things which people use to claim Israel is genocidal, Russia should also be considered so by their logic. But it isn't which is why calling Israel genocidal is antisemitic as they have proven time and time again that they take preventative measure against genocide.

The thing with Eurovision, Russia was the aggressor and got banned. There was a long term ceasefire in place before oct 7th where Hamas was the aggressor in breaking it. Hamas is also a terrorist organization, designated by the EU.

The IDFs actions have not been 100% the best, however they do investigate incidences where they did wrong, Russia does not. That's the difference. That's why Israel gets to stay.

One is a country doing whatever they want to kill civilians, the other takes measure to prevent genocide and investigates any wrong doings.

To touch on the bit you said about people focusing more on Israel due to their countries being involved, shouldn't they care about all the other countries they send regular aid and military aid to? Shouldn't they want the US to do more to protect Ukraine? I mean, they protest for the US to do more to protect Palestine with aid, so why not protest for the US to do more to protect Ukraine with aid?

All the things that protesters want for Gaza, Ukraine also needs. Yet people don't protest for Ukraine to also get those same things.

To be 100% fair Käärijä’s new baby body (clothes) is normal/cute compared to other Eurovision contestants’s merch. Måneskin sells butt plug. Joker out sells/sold condoms and underwear.

Okay so, even though Finland was my very favorite performance in this years esc and I think they should have won I have to say my favorite song is the one from Slovenia, Carpe Diem. It's the song I listen to most right now and I love it so much!!! Both the original and english version are so pretty to listen to and I also just love the message♡

So... These results were a fucking disaster 🤡 

First day of rehersals are done, may is here, eurovision draws nearer every day.

BOYCOTT EUROVISION FOR ISRAEL PARTICIPATION.

I am the Eurovision gay this time of year, I love this show. Not only is my country hosting 2024 but it's also in a city I love, but I can't watch as people sing about peace and love while Palestinians are getting killed by one of the participants.

I've complied a couple of petitions, open letters and information regarding Eurovision: Eurovision isn't the highest priority regarding Gaza, but this show is marketing & tourism for countries, Israel is using it to pink wash their politics

According to SVT, Swedish television network in charge of Eurovision 2024 in Sweden Malmö, Eurovision is apolitical, and therefore Israel qualify. They refer to any calls for boycott meaningless ( via )

SVT statement:

[ID: "SVT statement on the debate over Israel’s participation in the Eurovision Song Contest

Israel’s participation in the Eurovision Song Contest is generating debate and today a number of Swedish artists have called on the EBU to cancel Israel’s participation in the Eurovision Song Contest 2024. It is the EBU’s decision which public broadcasters may take part in the event, and as the host broadcaster, SVT follows the EBU’s decisions. The humanitarian suffering in this deeply complex conflict is devastating. Nobody can be left unmoved by the current situation in Gaza, or by the Hamas attack in Israel. We are also concerned about these developments. We understand and respect that groups of people wish to make their voices heard. As the host broadcaster, SVT has an ongoing dialogue with the EBU about the challenges of producing Europe’s largest TV-production in times of unrest. We are humbled by the task and are working to ensure the project can be carried out in the best way possible, with the vision that music unites." END ID]

Eurovision has always been political, and was created as a celebration of peace after WW2. Songs are statements, and EBU took action by banning Russia and Belarus for the invasion of Ukraine. It's a way to show sympathy and solidarity, which Gaza is in need of now.

Why Eurovision is so important to Israel is the opportunity of pink washing, and appearing liberal and LGBTQ-friendly, that the show encourages. This leads to great marketing and tourism for the country, alqueerian on twitter did a great thread about it:

[ID: Tweet from @ alqueerian on X formerly known as Twitter. Tweet: "A really quick thread on pinkwashing and why it’s wrong: pinkwashing is a term that was coined by LGBTQ Palestinians to specifically refer to the use of homophobia as a justification for israeli war crimes, ethnic cleansing, mass displacement, starvation etc." END ID]

Full thread

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

Here are a couple of petitions, open letters and links to encourage the ban of Israel in Eurovision

And if all fail: we boycott

Here are two petitions for the ban of Israel: Petition 1

Petition 2

A list of emails and contact information for broadcasters regarding Israel participation: copy, paste and send. Document

It's created by verilybitchie on YouTube who also made a great call to action video I can recommend

[ID: Screenshot of verilybitchie youtube video "Genocide at the Eurovision Song Contest". The video is showing an article by Chris Lockeyer, news reposter, titled "Israel to compete at Eurovision despite boycott threats" The article says: "The European broadcast Union said its member organisations approved Israel's participation in the competition and it remains aligned with other competition organisations on its stance." The article is from December 19th, 2023. END ID]

And for Swedes, I think it's extra important for us to speak up; here's what we can do:

Open letter via Björk & Frihet, a charity in Skåne offer letters to sign but also have pdf version to print at home!

[ID: Photo from Björk & Frihet, a swedish charity offering open letters to sign to send to the government. "Stoppa folkmordet" as the letters are ladled, means "stop the genocide" END ID]

This is also a letter regarding the contest being held in Malmö, a city with a long history fighting for Palestine! Sign here

[ID: Vote for Swedes in Malmö to sign to protest Israel's participation in Eurovision. END ID]

Meanwhile, don't forget your daily clicks to help Palestine while we wait for EBU to stand by their words and prove we are united by music!

[ID: Iceland's Hatari holds up Palestinian flags during Eurovision in Tel Aviv, May 19, 2019. END ID]

yes yes rigged this cha cha that but please let’s not ignore this right now:

https://www.aftonbladet.se/podcasts/ab/episode/355975 Swedish “eurovision expert” Tobbe Ek (for those of you who aren’t Swedish, this is the same guy who accused Måneskin of doing coke on live tv back in 2021) and his posse of minions decided that it was time to spread some absolutely hateful rhetoric against the people of Finland by calling them shitty, idiotic, telling them they should be ashamed of not voting for Sweden (??? literally what???) etc etc, while also dragging in other contestants like Lord of the Lost and insulting them as a means of questioning why the Finnish public voted for them but not for Sweden. (You know. Because it totally doesn’t make any sense at all that a country known for having the most metal bands per capita in the world would vote for Lord of the Lost. Not at all.) 

As the cherry on top of this xenophobic shit cake, they started to go on about how “There’s no way there were ten contestants who were better than Sweden this year.” (Again. Not only disrespecting the other contestants, but them pretending not to grasp the concept of a country known for preferring heavier music choosing to vote mostly for bands this year... Yeah... Couldn’t be their preferences...)

Again, this man is considered a Eurovision expert here in Sweden, yet this is the type of behaviour he and his coworkers display over a nonissue like the Finnish public not voting for Sweden this year. If there’s something shameful here, it’s this.

To reiterate: These are three grown-ass well past 40-year old people having a genuine meltdown over one (1) singular country not voting for them.

Why are we giving Tobbe Ek (and his irrelevant coworkers) a platform, again?

EDIT:

Hoo boy, there’s more. Because of course there is.

ALRIGHT here’s an article from one of our tabloids using quite suspiciously colonialistic sounding rhetoric about Finland being “the kingdom’s previous eastern half”.

https://www.expressen.se/noje/finska-sveket-mot-sverige-gav-noll-poang-efter-uppmaningen-rosta-taktiskt/

The specific quote in Swedish: “Tv-tittarna i tidigare östra rikshalvan gav nämligen Sverige noll(!) poäng under Eurovisionfinalen på lördagen.”

Translation: “TV viewers in [our] kingdom’s previous eastern half gave namely zero(!) points to Sweden during the Eurovision finale on Saturday.”

Yeah, Johan Bratell (the writer of the article) is technically not wrong about Finland having been a part of Sweden. But why bring this up now? This was so clearly meant as a condescending insult.

The article also talks about a throwaway comment that the Finnish commentator Mikko Silvennoinen made about tactical voting (or more specifically, an anonymous comment he read out loud about tactical voting). From my understanding this was a joke reference to the previous elections which took place recently in Finland and forced a portion of the Finnish public to vote tactically as an attempt to block a far-right party from getting into the parliament. It’s embarrassing how much these people are reaching.

And even if they were voting tactically, so what? Sweden won. Why are we so focused on the public vote of one (1) country, Jesus Christ this is embarrassing.

EDIT 2: WHY THIS MATTERS. A LOT.

For those of you who are not in the know about Swedish politics, these statements are reflecting some far-right political views that have their roots all the way back in the times when Sweden ruled over Finland. In recent memory, our far-right political party Sverigedemokraterna claimed that the Swedish minority group Tornedalians are not Swedish, because they may speak local dialects that blend Finnish into Swedish, or speak the minority language Meänkieli. Coincidentally, Meänkieli just so happens to be a minority language that blends Finnish and Swedish, as it is mostly spoken by people who live by the Torneå river, i.e. the Finnish-Swedish border. Here’s an article about this controversy (however you may not be able to read it unless you’re subscribed to said newspaper): https://www.dn.se/asikt/orimligt-att-tornedalingar-inte-skulle-vara-svenskar/?fbclid=IwAR33K_UVRhXlJhyPd3gY7GDXN_lotUdrtM1AeL-nRzWE26Tmq5BFE0lIUzw

Sverigedemokraterna also believe that the Swedish minority group of Sweden Finns should essentially cut their ties to their Finnish roots and that they should not be able to be citizens of both Finland and Sweden. https://aip.nu/sverigedemokraterna-och-de-dubbla-medborgarskapen/

This sort of rhetoric is ridiculously common here, and in situations like the ones that have occurred in light of the ESC, they almost never get called out. Because it’s common. Because it’s okay to call Finnish people names and to use colonial rhetoric against all Finns, both those who live in Finland and those who live in Sweden. Because this is “friendly banter.” Mind you, as someone who technically belongs to both of the aforementioned minority groups I’m completely fine with the actually friendly banter and piss taking that we usually partake in, because it is just that. Friendly. But this is not it. This is actually harmful. I have never seen so many Swedish people attacking Finns on social media as I’ve seen these past few days. The usual colonialistic and fennophobic insults have started to rear their ugly heads: People have started to insult the Finnish language (a fennophobic sentiment that goes way back to the days when Finland was under Swedish rule and the Swedish tried to get rid of the language), they have started to insult the way Finns look (goes back to fennophobic rhetoric of Finns essentially not being “white enough”), etcetera. For more information on how the Swedish government treated the Sweden Finns and Tornedalians (the fact that they tried to abolish both the Meänkieli language and the Finnish language from Sweden and have even done skull measurements as an attempt to prove that these minority groups are not equal to Swedes), here’s another article: https://www.svt.se/nyheter/lokalt/norrbotten/regeringen-tillsatter-sanningskommission

For those of you who speak Finnish and are interested in the topic, the book Kansankodin pimeämpi puoli by Tapio Tamminen goes into both issues, with photographic evidence of skull measurement incidents among other things. Meanwhile, the Finnish media is mostly just reporting on the tomfoolery of these “journalists.” Sure, there are a lot of Finns who are acting out as well and spreading hateful rhetoric against Swedes, but the difference here is that one group is punching up, while the other is punching down.

Whether Tobbe Ek, Jenny Ågren, Markus Larsson and Johan Bratell meant to cause this does not matter. They’ve still done it, in the case of the former group, they’ve even dragged other Europeans (and Australians!) into this mess.

They’ve gone ahead and spread fennophobic rhetoric on huge platforms: Sweden’s biggest national tabloids. They should be held accountable for this.

To reiterate: ALL THIS OVER THE FINNISH PUBLIC “NOT VOTING FOR SWEDEN” DURING THE EUROVISION SONG CONTEST OF 2023.

Edit 3: Just in case we need a bit of clarification:

I know this whole post may come across quite negatively. So let me make this clear: There is an issue with the Swedish culture and its normalisation of fennophobia, however, that doesn’t mean every Swede is maliciously fennophobic. It’s literally just so normalised here, that sometimes people don’t even notice when they’re partaking in it, and because of said normalisation, for many these fennophobic and colonialist insults have become a sort of knee jerk reaction to when there’s “actual beef” with Finland. (Which, obviously, is a fucking problem, because look who has to bear the brunt of that.) 

Moreover, many Swedes aren’t even familiar with their shared history with Finland, and the discrimination Finland was put through during the Swedish rule (not to mention the discrimination the Sweden Finns and Tornedalians have had to face and still face). That part of our shared history simply isn’t taught in schools here, so a regular person would have to know to go out and look for the information. Heck, the only reason I’m aware of this is because at the end of the day, despite having been born and raised in Sweden, I am ethnically Finnish, and grew up by the border with very strong ties to the Finnish culture because of it. But less about me, and more about this issue. Most Swedes (and Swedish journalists who have any sort of sense in them and who work for respectable publications) have expressed their dissatisfaction with this years results as well. There’s a reason Cha Cha Cha is charting so well on Swedish Spotify. There’s a reason for why the Swedish jury and the public gave Finland 12 points.

So, Tl;dr:

1. Swedish tabloids are trash.

2. We have an undeniable problem with how normalised fennophobia is here, and it’s absolutely bizarre that this is how it’s getting exposed.

3. Most regular Swedes aren’t happy with this either, and are in fact not Finland’s and the Finnish people’s greatest haters in the world.

4. Tobbe Ek should get fired. At the bare minimun, he and his coworkers should probably issue some sort of apology for spreading this, seeing how it is actually hurting a lot of people.

Anyway, please don’t hate on the Swedes because of this lol, think about what Jere from Vantaa would think about that. 💚

Okay I know some finnish have propably been very disrespectful losers, I have too been too harsh on Loreen. But can we talk about the swedish newsreporters for a second?

Sweden WON. They WON Eurovision. And what is Sweden making news about? Making fun of Finland and throwing tantarums at finns for not giving them public votes.

Wonder why that happened.

Sweden WON and Loreen made history. First woman to win the Eurovision song contest twice. She should be celebrated. So why can't swedish be happy?

"Our weird little brother Finland is throwing a petty fit for losing" "Finland used to be part of us" "Sometimes the public is wrong".

Camoon Sweden, you won. Why do you have to rub salt into wounds?

"Some Germany got votes but not us" "I don't think they can find 10 better songs than Tattoo" "Finlands voting was rigged"

Thats what Sweden is saying. Instead of celebrating Loreen it seems. Because of course a nation of 5,5 million people can throw a national campain to not vote Sweden. Makes a lot of sense.

Also our commentator got some of this too. Apparently Mikko was telling everyone to vote tactically. In fact he read a joke from the live chat about tactical voting and no countries were mentioned. So no, YLE did not incite any camoain against Sweden. Loreen was actually Mikko's favorite.

Käärijä was descriped as "harshly partying salad bowl". Cool Sweden.

Of course we also have "shame on Finland" "fuck them" "stupid people".

You know, listening all this you would think Sweden lost. And I would have understood all this if they did, cause Finland has been saying these too. But Sweden WON, Loreen WON. THEY WON. So why can't they be happy instead of being bitter for not getting a few votes (which didn't affect the end result in any way) from Finland?

Loreen deserves better and Finland doesn't deserve this shit from Sweden.

Guys, the esc podcast is out..

I can't believe Bojan TALKED about the underwear saga and DIDN'T add any new info?? 😩 what's wrong with them??? (the gushing about how wonderful Jere is - at the end from around 24 min).

Also I adore Raiven

Also sleeping arrangements are Nace+Kris, Jan+Jure and Bojan in a single room because he'll be banished to sleep on a sofa when producer visits.

Jealousy Game | Damiano David

Pairing: Damiano David x reader (Måneskin!reader)

Summary: You were ready for a lot of things, but you weren't ready for a woman at the competition you were attending to flirt with your secret boyfriend.

Warning/s: jealously, dark side of the fame (kind of), possible grammar and spelling mistakes

Author's note: Just as promised here is another Damiano fic, it would have been published a lot earlier, but school is kicking my ass right now. Feel free to send requests and I'll gladly do them!! Enjoy!

You were NOT a jealous person. Even though some think that you do have a reason to be jealous. However, you weren't. It was just in your nature that you don't get jealous easily. You trusted Damiano 100% and nothing was ever going to change that.

But, you did feel like you started to doubt yourself considering the moment you were in right about now.

You were second singer of the bend Måneskin. Which means that you were always sholder to sholder with attractive frontman. At the top of it, your 3 year relationship was a complete secret.

You could still remember your excitement when you found out that you were about to compete in a Eurovision song contest. You and your band mates were so happy you felt like you were about to explode from so much excitement. Damiano and you both knew that you still wanted to keep it private as long as you could, and you both enjoyed it so much. So you didn't mention it in the interviews and in front of the cameras in general. And it truly was great.

You were having fun there. You were doing what you all loved the most, singing and playing songs and performing. You were positive that you had a big chance to maybe actually win this contest. However, it still didn't matter much. I mean sure, it would be awesome if you actually won Eurovision, but even if you don't you felt like it would be okay. Måneskin has come so far and you were extremely proud of what you guys accomplished. You knew that you were good.

But, what you didn't know or expect was one of your fellow contesters to fall in love with your handsome frontman and you knew that you couldn't really blame her. Damiano was sure something. Again, you didn't think of yourself as a very jealous person. Why? Because you did everything to make sure that you are a good girlfriend, a girlfriend Damiano deserves. Damiano did the same thing, too. You just didn't want to feel jealous because you always thought that jealously means that you are insecure about something. Plus, you didn't want to be that kind of a girlfriend and you truly weren't. Presides, Damiano didn't deserve that.

You could say that you just truly didn't expect it. At first, it started out as Sanja saying that Måneskin was her favorite. Then she said that Damiano was her favorite member of the band. Again, nothing wrong about that, nothing to be jealous of, not a thing out of what she said in these moments didn't step over the line. It was funny to you, actually. You were truly fine with it. You were quite happy when she said that you guys were her favorite. It flattered you. You really liked her and her girls, too. You always said that they had a lot of chance to win just like you did.

But then the tables slowly started to turn. Sanja started to constantly literally drool over him. She was constantly throwing compliments at him, but her compliments were not towards the band in general or about Damiano in general. She didn't compliment him in a way when she was saying about how amazing his voice truly was or about how talented he was or how creative he was. No. She was complimenting him about how hot and borderline sexy he looks and how his Italian accent was truly to hot too handle. And that would be fine for a few reasons.

First off, he truly was hot and his voice was too hot to handle, but to you it was more than that. He was a beautiful soul and you appreciated that every day more and more.

Second off, it was okay for her to comment this, but not when it made somebody uncomfortable. Presides, she slowly started to step over the line when she started to compliment his looks in a way that she maybe shouldn't have.

From that point on, she started to comment how she should marry him because she loves him oh so much and that kind of stuff and she was saying that in a live interview. In fact, almost the entire interview with her and the girls contained like 10% about their music, 10% about Eurovision and 80% was just Sanja pinning after Damiano. Presides, you could clearly see how she looks at him during your rehearsals. She looked at him like she was gonna jump on him at any given moment. Also, something new happened a few days after that interview.

You were still trying to catch your breath as you snuggled deeper into the silk sheets that were placed on the bed of Damiano and yours hotel room. Your hair was all messed up, sprawled on the pillow, but you didn't care about that at the moment. Damiano was taking a shower, he left a few minutes ago after you said that you were going to join him in a few minutes. And so, with one more passionate kiss you had to part away. You turned around slowly groaning softly from the sleepiness that was slowly, but surely creeping in. You took your phone in your hand and you went to Instagram.

The first thing you saw was Sanja's new Instagram story. You just couldn't help yourself so you clicked on it. You found yourself face to face with the photo of Damiano and Sanja in a friendly hug. At least it was friendly on Dami's side. On the photo she wrote "Next step" followed by an engagement ring. You truly felt sick in your stomach. You knew that this was just a friendly photo (at least on one part) and another memory, but you couldn't help, but feel this strange feeling creeping in.

You were roughly pulled away from your train of thoughts when you felt the other side of the bed dip from the weight and a strong tattoo covered arms of your beloved wrapping you up in a warm and safe embrace. Somehow, Damiano immediately noticed the change in your behavior.

"Are you okay, amore?" He asked her softly as he learned over her slightly in hope to even catch a glimpse of her face. He didn't succeed.

"I'm fine. Don't worry." Oh what a lier you are. You were anything but fine and Damiano really should be worried.

"Amore, you know that you can't lie to me, right?" He asked you. "I mean, you can, but I will see right through you." You hated to admit it, but in this moment you adored his ability to see through your little white lies. You slowly turned around to face him. He lifted his arm up giving you enough space so you could slowly make yourself comfortable in his hold. After you did so, Damiano softly cherished your breathtaking beauty as he slowly lifted your head up with his thumb so you would finally look at him.

"What's wrong?" And you came crushing down.

"Well, all this time Sanja was pinning after you and I didn't mind it at first. I didn't care about her little compliments about you. But then she started to compliment you in a more heated way and she was practically begging you to marry her already and I just..." You paused for a bit, exhausted about everything. Damiano kept quiet, waiting for you to finish. "I just got a bit jealous, I guess. You know I'm not a jealous type and I didn't want to say anything because I felt like a bad girlfriend and you don't deserve that."

You felt a few tears fun down your cheeks as you spilled your thoughts and your heart and your soul to the man you loved the most. Damiano was borderline shocked and both of you were quite for a bit. Finally he spoke up as he brushed away your tears.

"You are my everything, amore. You are my inspiration, you are my muse. You are my motive for everything I do and you are my heart and my soul and my whole being. You are my life." He confessed quietly, whispering away in the darkness of your shared hotel room.

"You are a fire in my heart and a fresh breath of air for my lungs. You are more addictive then the hardest drugs. But most importantly, you are my one and only greatest love. And yes, she was crossing a line with that one, I was honestly getting uncomfortable, too. So no. You are NOT a bad girlfriend."

For the rest of the evening you were just enjoying each other in many different ways. At that moment, for the rest of your life, you were reassured that he was your only one and to him you were the only one, too.

"I love you more than the life itself and nobody is ever going to change that."

->

->

->

TAGLIST

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JOIN THE TAGLIST HERE!!

United By Music Hatred Of The Jury  

Eurovision has been dogged by allegations of cheating, corruption, bad judging calls, and hatred of the jury for many years. This year brought that to a head with Sweden’s win over the public favourite Finland, in an allocation of points that shocked Europe.

Sweden received only 243 points from the public vote, without a single “douze points” from any country. Finland received 376 votes from the public, the second highest amount ever, including the coveted 12 points from eighteen different nation-states. How, then, did Sweden manage to win? Finland was only awarded 150 points by the professional jury, while Sweden was given 340, sailing their singer Loreen, a previous Eurovision winner, to victory.

Understandably, people are upset.

One reason that Finns have said it hurt to lose to Sweden is due to their history. Finland was colonised by Sweden for over 600 years, after Sweden annexed them (a long process lasting between the 1150s and 1350s at least). Sweden is still seen as superior in a number of ways. The Finnish language is often considered weird and ugly. Käärijä, the singer representing Finland, went to Eurovision to prove that a song sung in Finnish could win.

The professional jury clearly shows bias against songs sung in native and minority languages and not English. Time and time again, they vote for the most generic pop songs instead of performances laced with languages and culture from the performing countries. Last year in 2022, France sent a song in Breton, a language with a long history of oppression in France, with Celtic iconography. They received only 9 points from the jury. Meanwhile, audiences enjoyed the performance, and were happy that France finally sent something other than a modern chanson song, French audiences included. Keiino included aspects of Sami culture and language in their song in 2019, and lost out to the Netherlands, falling several places due to the jury vote. The Eurovision Song Contest exists to showcase and celebrate the full cultural richness of the competing countries, and it is wholly wrong for the jury to penalise that.

This argument is unhelped by those that often complain about the amount of Anglophone pop songs, yet then vote for the same due to loyalty, or the attractiveness of the singer, or politics. There is nothing wrong with voting for an English language pop song if you think it is the best song that year, but one way to help these non-English language songs is to allocate them a smaller amount of votes and save the rest for your favourite. This way these countries know that other people did enjoy their performances, and that they would like to see more of the same.

During its occupation by Sweden, Swedish became the dominant language in Finland, spoken by the upper class, administration, and education. It was only under Russian rule that the Finnish language started to gain traction and recognition, finally achieving equal status as Swedish legally in 1892. This is part of why it was so important to Finns to have a winning song sung in Finnish, their only previous win being in English. To show that their language is not rough and ugly sounding, and to demonstrate what it means to sing in your native language. The crowd sang along to Käärijä’s performance in Finnish; people who are not Finnish and have never spoken a word of Finnish. I cannot imagine that feeling. Käärijä also performed topless, with a perfectly normal body, unlike the heavily chiselled bodies favoured by Hollywood, which are, only produced by extreme diets, workout regimes, and dangerous levels of dehydration. It is no surprise he became a national treasure. Finland redecorated statues and had green shrines in their libraries and supermarkets. The country was so excited. Then they lost to Sweden over the jury vote.

Norway got the third highest votes this year from the public. They also won the televoting in 2019 too, but lost because of the professional jury votes that propelled Netherlands to the win. It was said that Norway may have had some voice trouble during the finals week, including her jury performance. The BBC praised her jury performance, but Swedish newspapers allegedly said it was very rough, and that she missed nearly every note.

The professional jury doesn’t judge the same Grand Final performance that everyone else sees. The jury judges the final jury performance, a separate show where the public is not allowed and only press accredited people can attend. Performers will obviously give it their best, but that does not guarantee it will be their best performance. It is also reasonable to assume that some singers might have a lower energy performance during the jury performance due to exhaustion, or in order to save up for the grand final, among other possibilities.

It is clear that everyone needs to be voting on the same show – anything else is just blatantly unfair. Votes cannot be accurately distributed if people are voting on two different shows.

If the juries are unbiased, we have a huge problem. Even if Finland got 12 points from everyone voting in the grand final, they would have only scraped a win with 11 points. They scored the second highest votes in Eurovision history, second only to Ukraine last year, a win that itself was mired in allegations of cheating and corruption. And yet Finland still lost.

The weighting of the votes is undoubtedly tilted towards the jury. As mentioned earlier, Finland received the second highest amount of televotes in Eurovision history, and won the public vote, yet lost to Sweden based on the professional jury. This is a kick in the face to members of the public that watched and voted. It sends a clear message that the public and their opinion clearly does not matter at all and they might as well have not voted. The public pay for Eurovision, the public stream and download and buy the songs, and as such, the publics vote should count, otherwise why bother? Why have a competition?

As it stands right now, the Eurovision Song Contest is essentially voted on like a US Presidential Election. The professional jury vote is essentially the Electoral College, capable of snatching the victory from the clear public winner that secured the majority of public votes. If we are going to complain about this system being used for American elections, then there is no reason that it should be acceptable here.

One way to fix this is to change the weighting of the jury versus public votes. The professional jury was established to prevent nations from simply voting for their neighbours or allies, yet it is remarkable how often the professional juries’ votes reflect these politics anyway. A 30/70 split to the public votes will allow the jury to make clear who they think should win while also not holding enough sway to alter the public results.

An overhaul also needs to be made to the professional jury itself. It is no secret that corruption is present within Eurovision. Keeping the names of the jury secret to prevent this from happening is only going to make it impossible to know when it has happened. Instead, the jury list should be transparent, and the juries themselves should be diverse, with a number of musical styles represented. Eurovision has a wide range of musical styles perform, and having a jury compiled of industry professionals from only one or two genres will only harm these entries, especially those that draw on traditional music styles. Many fan favourites were cheated by the voting system because their songs and performances weren’t “normal” or “palatable” enough for the jury. As mentioned earlier, these trend towards songs that have considerable influence from the culture of the country, including native and minority languages. It was also caused by the “war” between the juries, as evidenced by the graphic put out by Eurovision showing the difference between the jury favourites and the public favourites. Sweden and Finland sat in the middle of each half, essentially causing a fight over who would win by each half voting only for that one country.

Worldwide voting should also be removed. There should be a return to form when it comes to who can vote, as it was last year. Those that did not pay for Eurovision should not be able to vote, and worldwide politics could tip a win or loss by a considerable amount. The US has a population of almost 332 million people. India has a population of 1.408 billion. Imagine if any country with a population like this had even a fraction of its people cast a vote based on socio-political reasons.

Even within the voting process itself, there are problems. Votes should cost the equivalent amount everywhere. It ranges from 15p/17ct up to over a euro to vote, depending on where you are. This is going to have an impact on who can vote, and therefore who will win. Even on the app, it costs money to vote. This will not be a fair competition until everyone can vote equally and the organisers need to get on top of this rapidly.

Equality is the basis of every democratic vote, but Eurovision does not treat all of its competitors equally. The Eurovision Song Contest explicitly acknowledged the war in Ukraine and the need for another nation to host because of it. They sanctioned Russia by banning them from entering, this year being the second year in a row after their initial ban last year. This is considered the right thing to do, but it has raised several questions. The Eurovision Song Contest declined to let Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy address the audience at the grand final, saying that it would politicise the event, ignoring the fact that they had already politicised it by acknowledging the very real events happening in the world that caused something as drastic as a change of host nation. They also politicised it by denying Russia entry. The politics are even implied in the theme. While seen as the correct thing to do, it means they have, to an extent, been hypocritical. They have then taken it one step further though, with the inclusion of Israel.

Israel’s participation has long been debated due to geographical location and politics. However, to ban Russia for the invasion and war against Ukraine while allowing Israel to compete is hypocrisy at its finest. Israel has carried out the same actions against Palestine as Russia has against Ukraine, yet they have not been banned. Instead, they have hosted in recent years, often receive a decent amount of points, and this year had a previous winner featured during the interval act. Many people with the job of awarding points made statements in support of “peace and unity!” only to immediately award points to Israel.

This disparity of treatment is most obvious at two previous competitions. Israel hosted in 2019 when the Icelandic group Hatari famously waved Palestinian flags during the grand final, causing them to be deported and banned from the country. They were later fined for breaking the no politics rule.

In 2021, the Israeli entry was a song called ‘Set Me Free’, a song title that was mocked and by many for its irony. The day before the grand final, Israel launched a missile strike against Palestine (reminiscent of the harrowing news that the hometown of the Ukrainian entry was bombed moments before they took to the stage this year simply from the other perspective) as part of a series of escalations that included threatening to evict Palestinian families from East Jerusalem and nightly clashes between Palestinians and the police during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Many people felt that it was wrong for the performance to go ahead. For a considerable time, YouTube searches for Israel’s grand final performance only returned results for the semi-final.

Despite all this, Israel faced no sanctions at Eurovision. Contrasted with Russia, who has faced sanctions for their actions in Ukraine, fans are understandably angry and upset with Eurovision’s lack of consistent positioning on this issue, calling for the end of the hypocrisy. The double standard shown here, in the disparity of Eurovision’s treatment of Russia and Israel, is a symptom of racialised Eurocentrism – something which remains a massive problem in Europe and a subject which deserves its own post.

Speaking of the war, the UK did not utilise enough Ukrainian talent, or songs. The UK hosted on behalf of Ukraine, yet little of Ukraine was represented. Previous performers Verka, Go_A, and Jamala (who herself faced controversy for her entry at the time, it being an allegory to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in the same year as the title under the excuse of “allying with Nazis”) returned to sing their Eurovision entries, and last year’s winners Kalush Orchestra returned with an extended opening sequence. Beyond this, and one Ukrainian presenter, Ukrainian representation was far below what it should have been. Other Ukrainian groups or previous entries should have been invited to perform, and the three previous groups that performed should have had the option to sing additional songs if they wanted to. This was a serious let-down by the UK, especially given the interval performance. Famous songs of Ukraine could have been sung instead, or even some of those Liverpudlian songs translated into Ukrainian and sung by Ukrainian performers.

Moving on from those who didn’t perform to those who did: Loreen, too, is facing accusations of rudeness and arrogance. She has already won Eurovision once before and has returned to try and win again. The popular opinion is that those who have won Eurovision before should be allowed to return and perform as part of interval acts, but should not be allowed to enter again. It is unfair to the other contestants; they have already had their moment, and should move on to allow the new competitors a fair chance under the spotlight.

Viewers noticed that it was strange that the hosts kept mentioning Abba, and that a member of Abba even made a recorded appearance. Eurovision has nothing to do with Abba’s 50th anniversary next year. Abba won Eurovision for Sweden in 1974 when the UK hosted on behalf of Luxembourg. Now, 50 years later, Sweden wins Eurovision again, in the UK hosted on behalf of Ukraine, just in time for Abba’s big anniversary. No-one can deny that this coincidence seems suspicious, especially considering the jury versus public votes Sweden received and the landslide amount of votes won by Finland.

And that brings us to the plagiarism. Many fans say Loreen’s song this year, “Tattoo” is very similar to her previous winner ‘Euphoria’. An even more common accusation is that her song is very similar, or even identical to ‘Flying Free’ by Pont Aeri. Indeed, the openings are almost a complete match. It seems hard to believe that she could compose an identical opening without having heard the original at all. Sections of the instrumentals are also similar to Loreen’s entry.

Having not heard about this controversy before the grand final, the comparison this blog draws is with Abba’s ‘Winner Takes It All’. Perhaps this is why Sweden scored so many points from the jury this year? After all, Abba constructs very enjoyable, musically excellent songs. This was only noticed when my own father heard Sweden’s entry and began singing along with Abba’s lyrics, only realising that something was different when his lyrics didn’t match Loreen’s. He has been a fan of Abba since they won Eurovision and owns several records and CDs. And even he thought it was a dance remix of Abba.

During the judging section of the competition where the points are awarded, the crowd kept booing, and chanting Käärijä’s name and “cha cha cha” while the hosts were trying to announce Sweden’s victory. This chanting continued during Loreen’s victory song, as well as many other competitors immediately making their way to Käärijä to chant and support him. It was very clear who people thought the winner should be, and it was not Loreen.

No-one remembers who won the year Verka performed. They remember Verka. That’s what’s going to happen this year. This won’t be remembered as the year Loreen won Eurovision for the second time. This will be remembered as the year the juries finally went too far, and the year Finland was robbed.

Next year we should all just send our previous winners. And maybe question if Israel has a place in this competition anymore.

When I think about the difference between Finland and Sweden in Eurovision, it has always been clearly different for me.

Sweden knows how to be that factory-like perfect machine that creates songs. I myself have never liked Swedish representatives that much, I disliked Måns Zelmerlöw’s as well both Loreen’s songs with the simply reason - its boring. In the last decade I can name only two Swedish songs that I have liked which are Frans’s If I Were Sorry (2016) and Benjamin Ingrosso’s Dance You Off (2018). I've been of the opinion for a long time that swedish songs are the same, it’s the same perfectly sound pop machine song what you can hear every day on radio. it's like playing the same old record over and over and always the jury eat the same old smelly cheese and it's not fair. The problem with that is that it encourages countries to send in non-offensive pop music in order to appeal to the professional jury, most of which will be very mediocre and boring to watch. If the people didn't get a vote, we wouldn't see entries like Finland or Croatia. Those kinds of performances are what people watch Eurovision for! Nobody (should not) wants to see a non-offensive pop music contest. We want originality! We want fun! Eurovision is about the fun, this is not The Voice or Idols.

When I think about Finland, the success has been variable, but what I'm proud of is how at least Finland doesn't send the same old garbage every year. We have taken risks, risks which certainly not every one of them has been my favorite but I think that daring to take risks is one of the most appreciated quality what you can have. The last night Finland had one of the most unique songs ever and now I am not afraid to say how I feel I have been cheated. And before anyone has time to comment that "Finns are just bitter when Sweden took the victory in front of their noses" this is about much bigger than national cheating.

Käärijä's popularity among the international Eurovision nations has been extraordinary. During the five-day week polls, comment fields and reaction videos were filled with green emojis, Finnish flags and Cha Cha Cha shouts. The reactions of the live audience at the finals were also incredible. During Käärijä's performance, the large audience wildly sang along. The greatest moment, however, was when the impatient audience got tired of Sweden's growing neck in the town hall votes and burst into shouts of protest.

Three minutes later, in the midst of all this ecstasy, the rug was pulled from under our feet. The situation was simply awkward that all felt wrong in every blood cell of me. This can't go like this. The public had made Käärijä a phenomenon. The audience cheered Käärijä in a way that has not been seen before in the history of Eurovision but the professional jury made all of that look like nothing.

There are five music professionals in the jury of each country. So 185 councilors have been given the same power as hundreds of millions of viewers at home. council whose task was originally to prevent favoritism from neighbors? Nevertheless, year after year, it is precisely the "professional jury" who, by chance consider their own border neighbors and language partners the best of all. How is this fair?

The audience was just entertained by Käärijä. So much so that viewers wanted to use their own money to show their support for their favourite. Who is the show even made for if the audience doesn't get to choose their winner?

My not-so-unpopular opinion is that jury votes must be abandoned or at least reduced in weight. The Finnish Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu has already taken a great step in this regard, when in the finals of the competition, the public votes had a weight of 75 percent and the international juries only 25 percent. By renewing the voting system, the power would be given to those for whom the program is made to those who listen to Eurovision songs.

Today, Sunday, Finnish flags fly in Finland, of course, in honor of Mother's Day. But in my heart, the blue cross flags have been hoisted equally for Finland's victory.

Because that's who we are. Real winners.

In bitter disappointment I'm hovering right now and I'll be hovering for a very long time my mind also brushes with thoughts like how I would like to deny yesterday's results, abolish the jury vote praying so hard something shady happened with the jury votes and the result will be declared invalid oh and a bit also ban Sweden too, but especially the juries.

unfortunately I have to bring it up as well how we all know that Eurovision voting is also a bit shady..? It's Abba's anniversary next year? Doesn't seem suspicious at all. To win twice and bring back the trophy on an important year? yeah it does seem fishy. A lesser known artist catapulted into stardom? Loreen been internationally known for years. A country getting a chance to host after never/rarely doing so before? Sweden’s had it 6 times already. An underdog taking the crown by being an audience pleaser? She was the bookies’ favourite from the start. Eurovision being one of the biggest, most exciting things they’ve ever done? She’s done it all before.

None of these things are personally Loreen’s fault, and I actually feel bad for her that this win will be remembered as one that the public clearly wanted to give to someone else and being hated by so many people now and most won't even remember that she won. But it does all feel extra slimy and calculated on Sweden’s part, especially given the 50th anniversary of ABBA’s Waterloo just happening to be next year. It all feels very hollow and it will become pointless to argue.

I think that at this point it has become clear to everyone that I am from Finland myself yes and I really love my home country. My intention is not to bash Loreen this was not her fault nor to take away opportunities from any country. Sweden is my dear neighbor despite all this, but I hope that everyone understands the disappointment and even anger that I feel right now. I want to get justice that belongs to my country and was decided by the public and audience. For my country but also justice for every country that gets discriminated just because the jury think they know ”better” than the audience who is supporting, dancing, cheering, breathing and loving Eurovision air more than anyone else. Power belongs to the audience.

Someone in my office asked me today what the Eurovision Song Contest was (fucking heathen) and I summed it up by saying:

"It's like if political chess was a person and fucked the X Factor bent over a desk wearing a pride flag."

And just like that, peaked 2024 already.

Tell me I'm wrong.

Anthem of the day [BC]

A/N: No one specifically asked for this I really just wanted it myself! Not a Joker Out expert so sorry if details are wrong or whatever but I'm in love with Bojan, and a clemswinecorner post isn't a clemswinecorner post without some F1 references.

yourusername

Baku

liked by bojan_cvjeticanin , wbuxtonofficial and others

yourusername TrackTV day 1!! (Plus the press conference ;) What. A. Quali. The anthem of the day was It Wasn't Me - Shaggy! What was yours tagged maxverstappen1, charles_leclerc, schecoperez

posted April 28th, 2023

randomf1fan tututudu... Max Verstappen motorsportsfan i want this life randomdriver Party Rock Anthem🔛🔝 hater stop posting only drivers you think are hot yourfriend how was work today bestie? can't wait to see you again x

yourusername chaotic. (i'll stop by in london next week x) randomfan are you not going to be in Miami?

... view more comments

yourusername

England

liked by yourbestfriend, georgerussell63 and others

yourusername touchdown in England! lil' pause from the hectic tracks for some other hectic things :) Anthem of today: ...Baby One More Time by the iconic Britney Spears! What was yours? tagged yourbestfriend

posted May 1st, 2023

randomfan enjoy your small break!! any fun plans? yourbestfriend aahhhhhh i missed you sm!! motorsportsfan whatttt i was so excited to see you on trackTV this weekendddd :(( bojan_cvjeticanin how funny! we have the same anthem 😲😲 fanofyours omg miss gurl is this a soft launch? anotherfriend you're in london and didn't even text me? smh

yourusername omg wait text me!! not in london anymore but might make it work

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yourusername

liked by krisgusti, maemuller and others

yourusername London -> Liverpool Anthem of the day: I wrote A Song - Mae Muller

posted May 3rd, 2023

motorsportfan why aren't you in Miami???? yourfriend aaahhhh yayayayay!! Call me so I can talk to the boys before they're too busy for me x randomfan omg Y/N in her eurovision era? yourfan i can't with the softlauuuunch krisgusti hahaha you did some people dirty with that second slide

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yourusername

Liverpool, UK

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yourusername Loverpool <;3 tagged krisgusti, juremacek, nace_jordan, joker_out_official, bandwildyouth

posted May 6th, 2023

yourusername anthem of the day is obviously Lover (by Taylor Swift, for the uneducated ones) maemuller queenie 👸🏻 jokeroutfan omg she's hanging out with joker out??? how do they know each other??? motorsportsfan Y/N really is such a main character because wdym she's hanging out with eurovision contestants on her break?? nace_jordan 😎😎😎 wbuxtonofficial enjoy the break with your 'lover' ;)

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yourusername

liked by bojan_cvjeticanin, joker_out_official and others

yourusername Second Semi-Final night!! Good luck to my boys 🩷🩵 🇸🇮 SSF!!! ANTHEM OF THE DAY CARPE DIEM BY JOKER OUT !!!!! tagged juremacek, bojan_cvjeticanin, nace_jordan, krisgusti, janpeteh, joker_out_official

posted May 11th, 2023

janpeteh thank you Y/N 🙏🏼❤️ randomfollower Y/N IS A JOKER OUT STAN?????? (so valid though)

anotherfollower wdym stan they're FRIENDS?????? how did she do that???? randomfollower she shaw joker out and decided stanning them wasn't enough she had to befriend them

bojan_cvjeticanin Hvala 🤍 motorsportfan this is suuuuch a random crossover omggg yourbestfriend send them a luck hug on my behalf!!

krisgusti thanks you both <33

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yourusername

liked by paidatonriehuja, nace_jordan and others

yourusername TO THE FINALS!! almost had a heart attack (just like the boys), but so so proud of the boys @/joker_out_official (Don't forget to vote Slovenia saturday!!!!!!!!!!) tagged krisgusti, juremacek, bojan_cvjeticanin, janpeteh, nace_jordan, paidatonriehuja

posted May 12th, 2023

jokeroutfan LFGGGG SO PROUDDDD krisgusti thank you for your continuous support for all 5 of in this progress, so glad to have you with us 🥰 🥰

yourusername kris i love you so much stop😭😭

randomfan don't follow eurovision but I'll vote for them if Y/N tells me to 🙇🏻‍♀️🙇🏻‍♀️ bojan_cvjeticanin ❤️❤️❤️ yourfriend so proudddd!!!!

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yourusername

liked by lukeblackmusic, whothehellissalena and others

yourusername eurovision out 🫡 what. a. fucking. adventure. (anthem of this eurovision: Because Of You) tagged paidatonriehuja, bojan_cvjeticanin, krisgusti, juremacek, maemuller, nace_jordan, janpeteh, joker_out_official, whothehellisteya

posted May 14th, 2023

yourusername for those wondering yes I did watch quali during the show yesterday, girl's gotta keep her job x randomfollower y/n casually befriending every eurovision artist 😭😭 maemuller it was always a blast when you were around! loved meeting you and spending time with you queenie 👸🏻

yourusername no you!! giving you a call when i'm back in the uk xx

randomfan obsessed with the last pic nace_jordan whooooo!!! awesome time jokeroutfan i always love your f1 grwm videos! was just curious, how do you know joker out?

yourusername ahhh thank you!! i made a eurovision grwm storytime about it, but long story short my friend (who's slovenian) showed their songs and i found out most of them followed me on ig and we became friends :)

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continuation

other social media works & main writing masterlist

Eurovision

Eurovision fic, hope you all enjoyed watching it last night as I loved watching it. So I hope you enjoy this fic because it has been ages since I’ve wrote a fic this long. Feedback is welcome!  Word Count: 1,573  Liverpool were getting ready to host this year’s eurovision for Ukraine as they couldn’t host.  You had been the biggest eurovision fan for years, you would sit and listen to the music before the show came out so you’d get a feel for the songs. But with the contest only being yards away, you were just so excited. 

As you rushed home from work, feeling like you had been at work for what felt like an eternity.  Putting your key in the door, you immediately heard laughing.  “fuck sake” you muttered as you closed the door behind you, trying not to slam it.  “Oh hi, do you erm have a home or is this where you live now?” you sassily remarked as you saw the boys yet again, in the same position as they were when you arrived home from work the previous day.  “Hi babe, how has your day been? thanks for asking” Trent cockily replied.  “HA-fucking ha. but seriously do you live here now? I have seen you more this week than I’ve ever seen you” you laughed as you kissed Trent’s lips.  “No but we can move in if you are that desperate babe, only have to ask” Harvey smirked as you rolled your eyes at him as you kicked off your shoes.  “So why are you not coming on Saturday?” Harvey asked his fellow team mate.  “Couldn’t be asked mate, not my thing” Trent muttered as you turned to face him.  “What is happening Saturday?” you asked him as this was the first you was hearing about something happening on Saturday.  “We got invited to see the Eurovision, did he not tell you?” Curtis replied as you eyes widened as you turned to face Trent, moving your head so fast almost giving yourself whiplash.  “Wait a minute, you didn’t tell me you were invited? what is wrong with you ”you rolled your eyes as Trent shrugged, not entirely bothered.  “Can we still go?” you asked, hoping he’d get the hint that you desperately wanted to go.  “I mean we can go if you really want to, but I don’t want to” Trent shrugged once again as you pouted, using sad eyes at him.  “Urgh, don’t look at me like that” you sighed.  “Fine” he huffed again as he crossed his arms across his chest firmly.  “Yay thank you” you blushed as you left a kiss on his cheek.  “Good job I love you isn’t it” he laughed as you smiled sweetly at him as you got up.  “Well you didn’t even tell me about you even being invited, so I am still mad at you” you glared at him as the boys let out little laugh.  “I’ll leave you to do whatever you were doing, see ya boys” you waved before kissing them before you left the room.  - Eurovision day had arrived, you were absolutely buzzing and couldn’t wait to get to Liverpool Arena.  “How do I look?” you asked as you showed off your glittery outfit.  “Cute” he smiled, barely lifting his eyes from his phone.  “Oh okay, guess ya phone is more important” you rolled your eyes as you added some more lip gloss.  “Sorry” he put his phone down to look straight at you.  “You look absolutely beautiful, right are you ready?” he asked as he put his phone in his pocket as he took your hand gently.  “Yep, I’m just so excited” you squealed as you got into the car on the way to the venue.  There were so many people walking around, it was so busy with everyone in such bright colours which was so amazing to see.  “Oh my god, so many people” you gasped as you walked into the venue and were taken to your seats as you got into the box which was already filled with Liverpool players. Greeting them all, feeling nervous as there was lots of new people you’d never met before. But you felt a hand on your shoulder as Trent pulled you in for a cuddle.  You took your seats to get ready as the show was about to start, as Trent poured your wine out as you sipped on it.  “Ahh I am so excited” you squealed with Emilia as you posed for a photo with her.  “Poe Poe Poe Poe” you shouted as you jumped up and down on the spot.  “Nah that song is so catchy, did you like it?” you managed to get out through breaths as you were far too out of breath to be shouting.  “No” you rolled your eyes as Emilia jumped up and down.  “Edgar Allen Allen” you screamed again and again.  “Oh he is so adorable” you and Saffie cooed as she came to join the group as you leaned on the bars with excitement.  “God you three are awful” Kostas remarked, making you turn around sharply as you watched as Kostas ran off sharpish.  “Shut it you, Greece aren’t in it anyway” you sneakily remarked as he clutched his chest sarcastically. “That fucking hurt me, you know what” he sassily walked off as he stuck his middle finger up at the three of you.  You were now swaying as much as you could as the songs weren’t as great now, but when Cyprus came on the screen you all gasped loudly.  “We need to go to Cyprus if they are all that fucking fit” Saffie burst out as the boys immediately turned around as he watched the screen.  “Excuse me, we are here?” you laughed as you shrugged.  “And? what’s the point you are making?” you laughed as Trent put his hands on his hips as he watched on.  “I am allowed to say he is fit, great song too” you smirked.  “Cheeky one you are” he gently tapped your cheek as you blew him a kiss.  “God I need a sit down, I am exhausted already. This night is so fun” you smirked as you sat down on the chair.  “Oh my god- wait I have heard this song on TikTok, this is so good” you squealed as you ran back to the  “When the stars align then I'll be there“ you screamed out loud.  “No that song is awful” you cringed as you sipped your wine as you were now having a lull in the show, so you and the girls filmed some TikTok’s.  “Oh he is so fit too” you cooed at the Italian singer.  “Babeeee” Trent sighed  “Oh come on, you are fit too baby” you flirted with him as you kissed him on the lips.  “Good job I love you babe” Trent smirked as he started to enjoy the music even though it wasn’t his sort of music he still had a smile on his face as he wrapped his arms around your waist.  The rest of the night was fantastic, you and the girls were jumping up and down so much drinking your wine. Trying your best not to get too pissed.  “I am so happy I got to experience this with you, I know it’s not your thing and you are all moody. But I appreciate you saying yes just for me because I have had so much fun tonight” you turned to cuddle into Trent as he put his hands on your shoulders as he kissed your forehead gently as you took in the smell of his aftershave.  “I did enjoy it, I just don’t show it. But I had the best time with you” he kissed your lips as your lips turned into a smile.  “Cha Cha Cha Cha” you sung into Trent’s lips. “You are going to be singing that all week now aren’t you” he laughed as you were interrupted by the roaring sound of the United Kingdom’s act coming on.  “Instead I wrote a song 'Bout how you did me wrong I could've cried at home“ you screamed out as if you were going through a breakup yourself.  “You’d write a song about me if I dumped you wouldn’t you?” he questioned. 

“No never, I’d just take everything as mine” you shrugged.  “Hmm, good thing I won’t dump you anytime soon unless you keep singing in my ear I will be” he smirked as he kissed you again.  “You two are so clingy, so cute” the boys remarked.  “Awww” you laughed as you separated from one another as you felt shy now as eyes were on you.  There was now an interval as all the acts sang, you were starving after all that singing and dancing you were doing.  “The voting will take so long, I may have to have a nap” you laughed as you took some cute photos with Trent to remember this amazing moment.  The show resumed with a honour to Liverpool with Eurovision legends singing songs that were from Liverpool. “You’ll never walk aloneeeeeee” you swayed as you sang your heart out despite you sounding horrendous.  “yeah never sing again” you gasped at Trent’s remark.  “SWEDEN” you screamed as Sweden won the Eurovision.  “I am proud that I predicted that would happen, anyway. I am starving still” you laughed as you said goodbye to all the girls.  “Thank you for the best evening, I need the longest sleep I am so tired now” you let out a yawn.  “That is okay, I am so glad you enjoyed it” you nodded as he took your hand as you left the venue.