It’s Eurovision Finals Day Peaceniks! Are YOU READY TO ROCK‽
The Finals for the 70th Eurovision Song Contest start at 3:00 PM ET today. You can watch them LIVE on YouTube. And I am partly to blame for that.
There are MANY reasons to watch the Eurovision Finals.
🎤 It’s an amazing event. Incredible talent from 25 countries, sing and dance their hearts out, vying to be the world’s best song - and maybe even a modern-day ABBA (yes, they first got famous at ESC!).
🎤 It’s an incredible TV show, produced by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) in a different country each year - in conjunction with the host broadcaster of that country. They don’t know which country, or which broadcasting partner, until the very end of the Final - because this year’s winner hosts next year. This year, the contest is LIVE in Vienna, Austria, last year’s champ.
🎤 Eurovision is the world’s most popular entertainment event, only behind The Olympics and World Cup in popularity.
🎤 The drama every year is tremendous - the Olympics of Music. This year, THE DRAMA is palpable through the screen - as is the controversy!
🎤 Finland is in pole position coming into the Finals, but Greece and Australia (not European but still competing) are hot on their heels in betting markets.
🎤 HOWEVER… Amazing art is also colliding with intense geopolitics. Five countries sat out in protest of Israel’s war in Gaza and Israel’s behavior during the last Eurovision. Broadcasters in Ireland (RTE), Spain (Radiotelevisión Española), and Slovenia (Rtv) refuse to show the contest at all. Protests broke out during the show this week.
🎤 What’s more: EVERYONE can vote for the Eurovision winner! Last year, 1.5 million Americans voted in the ESC.
🎤 To avoid “gaming,” the EBU keeps semi-final vote counts a closely guarded secret until after the Finals. So while we have odds, we have NO idea where rankings stand going into the Finals.
🎤 BEYOND the international drama and pageantry of this global spectacle, Eurovision is also a PICTURE PERFECT case study in Transformation for The Affinity Economy. 🎤
🎤 YOU CAN WATCH THE EUROVISION FINALS LIVE ON YOUTUBE FOR FREE!
🎤 In Spain, Ireland, and Slovenia, if you want to watch the Eurovision Finals (and believe me, MANY do), the ONLY way to watch them live is on YouTube.
🎤 The EBU has 113 member countries/organizations. Between 35 and 45 countries participate each year in the Eurovision Song Contest. The members are all public service broadcast television or radio organizations.
🎤 Despite long legacies, traditional origins, considerable bureaucracy, and carefully curated diplomacy, ESC has fully embraced a new form of Broadcast: one that includes ALL THE FANS, FOR FREE, wherever they are.
🎤 Jurian van der Meer is Commercial Director at The EBU. I’ve worked with him this last year on this new strategy. I’m proud to have played a part in this important broadcasting evolution.
🎤 I talked with Jurian, Yigit Dogan Celik from Merzigo, and Filipe Ligeiro of RTP about the legacy and transformation of THE ORIGINAL SONG CONTEST, live on stage, at StreamTV Europe. You can watch that whole panel at the top of this post.
🎤 And you SHOULD WATCH The Eurovision Finals today at 3p ET on YouTube.
Happy Saturday!
ESHAP
