Totallympics Annual International Song Contest 2020

[Olympian1010 7,483]

7 minutes ago, Werloc said:

 

I thought it would be a huge brawl between Canada and the US with a first time non-European winner. 

 

China, really a huge surprise for me that came out of nowhere. I lost it somewhere at 18-22nd place together with Australia, Argentina and India in my voting.

 

Another thing I did not expect was the success of the Spanish language songs over the Portuguese language songs. I was definitely strongly in favour of the latter. 

 

What was really fun for me is that my reserves: Hungary, Indonesia, Sweden and Norway all found themselves up in the top 10. Immediately made me feel less bad, when I couldn't give them that one point 

 

And my final surprise was that my actual last place and the only song that I ranked with 1 instead of 2 at the first stage of my voting slid in the first half of the scoreboard, so I guess what do I even know about music 

I expected our song to do just as well as Canada’s, so I was quite shocked when we couldn’t keep pace. I wasn’t a huge fan of the song, but it’s still a really good song in my opinion.

 

China was a huge shock for me as well. It did manage to distinguish itself from the other pop songs in my voting though, so I could see the appeal. I gave China 1 point in my personal vote. If I would have given China 2 (which I had for a while), it would have received 3 points from the US jury instead of 0.

 

There are more Spanish language users than Portuguese language users. Language familiarity plays a significant role in voting I think. I absolutely agree that the Portuguese had a lot more going for them, and that I preferred them to the Spanish songs, but the standard of Spanish songs was actually really good this year.

 

My voting was pretty different from the status quo it seems. Even my reserves found themselves quite a ways down the pack.

[dcro 10,182]

15 minutes ago, Werloc said:

Another thing I did not expect was the success of the Spanish language songs over the Portuguese language songs. I was definitely strongly in favour of the latter. 

 

I remember you being puzzled about Portugal having so much more points than Brazil early on. Litttle did you know that Brazil would easily finish ahead.

[dcro 10,182]

For me the Portuguese song was all about "words, more words, and more words". Similar to Argentina, which I liked more incidentally.

 

But it was hard to get interested about those two anyway, not having a clue what they are talking about.

[dcro 10,182]

21 minutes ago, Werloc said:

And my final surprise was that my actual last place and the only song that I ranked with 1 instead of 2 at the first stage of my voting slid in the first half of the scoreboard, so I guess what do I even know about music 

 

We all know that one is ******.

[dcro 10,182]

1 hour ago, OlympicIRL said:

By the way, another interesting stat is that this contest was the first time ever that Australia finished outside the top 10

 

And the Netherlands managed to keep their perfect top 20 record with 19th place.

 

Aside from Vietnam, now they are the only nation who never finished outside of the top 20.

[Olympian1010 7,483]

26 minutes ago, dcro said:

For me the Portuguese song was all about "words, more words, and more words". Similar to Argentina, which I liked more incidentally.

 

But it was hard to get interested about those two anyway, not having a clue what they are talking about.

Well, you could’ve taken a hint from the video for Portugal. Google translate also exists, and you could find the lyrics for both. Personally, I don’t need to know the language to appreciate a song based off my judging criteria. It does hurt the songs in the lyrical merit category, but they both made up for that much more then the Spanish songs (of which I’m more familiar with the language, and understand much more of the song). 

[dcro 10,182]

12 minutes ago, Olympian1010 said:

Well, you could’ve taken a hint from the video for Portugal. Google translate also exists, and you could find the lyrics for both. Personally, I don’t need to know the language to appreciate a song based off my judging criteria. It does hurt the songs in the lyrical merit category, but they both made up for that much more then the Spanish songs (of which I’m more familiar with the language, and understand much more of the song). 

 

It's not just that. I loved the Swedish song even if didn't have any idea what she was saying. Same goes for Mexico, China, Denmark, Israel and Brazil who all received points.

 

It's rather that I don't really enjoy it when the songs almost sound more like a speech.

[Werloc 3,127]

45 minutes ago, dcro said:

 

I remember you being puzzled about Portugal having so much more points than Brazil early on. Litttle did you know that Brazil would easily finish ahead.

 

It's still puzzling, because the difference of quality of those two songs was very little, so I'd expect people to either vote for both, or for neither. And not one over the other 

[Werloc 3,127]

16 minutes ago, Olympian1010 said:

Well, you could’ve taken a hint from the video for Portugal. Google translate also exists, and you could find the lyrics for both. Personally, I don’t need to know the language to appreciate a song based off my judging criteria. It does hurt the songs in the lyrical merit category, but they both made up for that much more then the Spanish songs (of which I’m more familiar with the language, and understand much more of the song). 

 

I think that Enrique Iglesias has ruined Spanish songs for me for my entire existence

 

And the resurgance of reggaeton is the death of me (The US Billboard charts with all that lovely trap and reggaeton music, I'm looking at you)

 

Never in my life have I listened to a genre and thought that you could literally drop a lawsuit for copyright on any song, because they're all the same.

[Olympian1010 7,483]

15 minutes ago, dcro said:

 

It's not just that. I loved the Swedish song even if didn't have any idea what she was saying. Same goes for Mexico, China, Denmark, Israel and Brazil who all received points.

 

It's rather that I don't really enjoy it when the songs almost sound more like a speech.

I didn’t get that feeling from the Portuguese song. For me, I hate music that doesn’t convey a message. So Mexico (bleh), Israel (meh), the others were good through. I also hate how every song as become “You dumped me, and I don’t need you.” “Y’all mistreat me, but I’m independent.” “Girl I love you.” etc. Those songs aren’t all dead to me because their are some really creative ways of expressing those sentiments, but songs like the New Zeland song score hugest one lyrical merit in my book.