Totallympics Open International Song Contest 2020

[dcro 10,210]

Glen: "No Wonder Almost Every Song Obtains Top 3 From at Least One Voter"

 

 

When TISC comes around, you can almost bet to find Malta somewhere in the upper-middle part of the order. Indeed, in 11 out of the 14 editions (78.6%), they have placed somewhere between 14th and 23rd position. This includes the four most recent editions (15th, 19th, 17th, 16th). Malta also has two Top 10 placings (2014 Open, 2017 Annual), and the disappointing 34th position from the Jubilee.

 

One has to wonder if Glen's judging has been just as consistent all along...

 

Q: How do you go about evaluating TISC entries? Do you use a specific system when picking out your Top 12?

A: I listen to the playlist for about 3 times. I give a vote to each song with 10 being the maximum vote possible using 0.5 intervals (e.g. 6.5, 7, 7.5 etc.). Normally a song would require a vote of 7 to make to my top 12 votes. I then relisten those songs that are at a borderline of whether to make it to the final list or end up on the reserves list.

 

Q: And what about the maximum 12 points? Can you recognize it immediately? Or do you take a certain amount of time before deciding on it?

A: Normally, the 12 point song is recognized immediately, or sometimes it's just a decision between 2 songs. The problem in voting is normally to decide to which countries to allocate the 1 to 6 points and which countries to miss out on votes by just a position or two. 

 

Q: Do you have a favorite music genre? Is there any genre you would like to hear more of on the TISC stage?

A: No particular music genre. The nice thing about these contests is that everyone is free to select his own particular song. Having participants from various cultures and different music tastes make it a contest with different genres. No wonder that almost every song obtains a top 3 position from at least one voter in each contest.

 

Q: How important are lyrics to you?

A: I give more importance to music. Having songs sung in their native language would be unfair to them if I don't understand them. As I already said, I follow the playlist when voting. Therefore I wouldn't follow the written lyrics included when submitting the song, even if they are translated into English.

 

Q: And finally... How can we get 12 points from Glen?

A: By submitting a catchy song that stands out from the rest of the songs after the first listening of the songs. 

 

If Glen's musical preferences still feel like a jigsaw puzzle - maybe this will help. Our resident Maltese juror has outlined the following entries as favorites during the most recent editions...

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

Stay tuned for more user interviews to come, as we count down to TOISC 2020...

[heywoodu 15,147]

Delegation location 10 - Nunspeet

It's taken a little while, but finally we have arrived at the tenth and last of the delegation locations. We find ourselves on the very northern edge of the Veluwe in what the Dutch host delegation unanimously voted the best place to live in in all of the Netherlands: Nunspeet, home to a little under 28 thousand people.

Nunspeet is the overarching municipality under which Vierhouten falls, and apart from Nunspeet proper there are a few more of these small towns around. It is a fairly popular tourist destination in the summer, since one goes south for a few minutes and stands in the forests, but there's also the Veluwe Lake to the north, a wonderful place to put on the ice skates...if ever there's a real winter again.

 

The Veluwe Lake, where one can enjoy wildlife of a certain ornithological kind, or a certain avian variety - plus it's great ice skating if it gets frozen!

Nunspeet was part of Ermelo long before the year 1000, just like Harderwijk. In the centuries after that however, Nunspeet developed into a more important location and since 1972 it is it's very own municipality. During the summer, the little lake the Zandenplas and it's beaches are very popular among locals, perfectly situated in the forest.

 

It ain't big, but it's got beaches and the smell of the forest, what more would one like apart from not having sand everywhere?

 

A local legend is about a woman called Eibertje. She lived in Vierhouten in the early 19th century and used to walk to the market in Nunspeet every week to sell eggs. She had to walk through a forest which locals deemed dangerous: ghosts, evil spirits and even Satan himself was said to live there. Eibertje kept on walking though and through the years, a path was created this way: the Eibertjespad, Eibertje's Path. One can still walk from Nunspeet to Vierhouten this way nowadays, or take the bike...but cycling would be too fast to hear Eibertje's (friendly!) whispers coming from the trees.

 

Nowadays there's asphalt on most of Eibertje's Pad, but walking in the area is still an excellent bit of leasure time

 

Another big local thing is the Round House, which once stood there until halfway in the 20th century. There's all kinds of conspiracy theories surrounding this house, which was built in the early 20th century. The conspiracy theories are truly wild and revolve around a sort of elite group - including royals - who brought young girls there to abuse while deciding the fate of the country. Oh yeah, you read that right, Nunspeet basically has it's very own Pizza Gate, long before the Americans did!

 

The Round House, the location of which - though hard to find exactly - can still be visited somewhere in the forest, if you know where to look...which a lot of digging conspiracy theorists do

Nunspeet is a part of the Bible Belt of the Netherlands, where the by far most strictly religious party is voted the biggest in national elections year after year. One can forgive Nunspeet this minor issue, the nature surrounding the village is truly wonderful...and there's a tower! There you go, Nunspeet, which by the way was liberated by the Canadians in the Second World War. There wasn't a whole lot of fighting done anymore here, but the Canadian tanks rolling in from Harderwijk were greeted warmly, before moving along to Elburg.

 

The Canadians were very welcome in 1945, and still are!

 

Delegations in Nunspeet

Canada

Great Britain

Slovakia

Netherlands

[heywoodu 15,147]

On 05/11/2020 at 17:53, Werloc said:

I'm honestly sad that we postponed the event to the following weekend, because it is driving me crazy that I have absolutely nothing to do this weekend 

 

 

Whereas I am quite happy about it, since tomorrow morning I'm probably off to the forest (and/or one of those big sand areas mentioned before) to try and spot some wildlife  

[heywoodu 15,147]

@hckosice I know the Netherlands isn't big, and the big beaches we do have are all half-German beaches at the North Sea, but the bit of beaches one can find on the Veluwe are in Nunspeet and that's why I placed you there/here, so I hope you'll enjoy your stay  

 

It was a choice between Nunspeet and Staverden (where there's a brewery), but since Staverden has no beaches but Nunspeet does have a very nice local liquor store - run by an old and incredibly friendly woman who by now has probably given me at least a hundred euro of free stuff 'just because' - so I picked Nunspeet for you  

[hckošice 14,836]

Awesome place to stay. Our delegation Already organizing a late night Eibertje walk tonight

 

[hckošice 14,836]

5 minutes ago, heywoodu said:

@hckosice I know the Netherlands isn't big, and the big beaches we do have are all half-German beaches at the North Sea, but the bit of beaches one can find on the Veluwe are in Nunspeet and that's why I placed you there/here, so I hope you'll enjoy your stay  

 

It was a choice between Nunspeet and Staverden (where there's a brewery), but since Staverden has no beaches but Nunspeet does have a very nice local liquor store - run by an old and incredibly friendly woman who by now has probably given me at least a hundred euro of free stuff 'just because' - so I picked Nunspeet for you  

That´s Ok. I am not really interested on North Sea beaches right now in November but that Liquor store should be cool, I see the organizing committee is located at the same place, so if we survive tonights Eitbersjepad I´ll invite you there tomorrow for a shot or two...

[dcro 10,210]

intoronto: "I Like All Genres, Except Heavy Metal"

 

 

Earlier this year Canada became the first non-European nation (and non-EU member in general) to win the Grand Final. In doing so, Canada also became the first winning nation to enter a song which mentions the name of its own head juror - "I'm in Toronto and I got this view."

 

As we are now exactly one week away from the Opening Ceremony in Holland, it is an ideal time to catch up with our latest champion...

 

Q: How do you go about evaluating TISC entries? Do you use a specific system when picking out your Top 12?

A: I try to listen to all the songs "blindly" (as in not knowing which country). I will discard any song that I do not like right away. From there I will try to narrow it down to my top 12 and then find out the country associated with each song.

 

Q: And what about the maximum 12 points? Can you recognize it immediately? Or do you take a certain amount of time before deciding on it?

A: It takes time, I don't think it's set after listening to the song for the first time.

 

Q: Do you have a favorite music genre? Is there any genre you would like to hear more of on the TISC stage?

A: I like all genres, except heavy metal (seriously, wtf, who can listen to that crap lol?)

 

Q: How important are lyrics to you?

A: Not that important, but they need to make sense. 

 

Q: And finally... How can we get 12 points from intoronto?

A: Make the song sound amazing!

 

If intoronto's musical preferences still feel like a jigsaw puzzle - maybe this will help. The resident Canadian juror has outlined the following entries as favorites during his most recent TISC participations...

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

Stay tuned for more user interviews to come, as we count down to TOISC 2020...

[heywoodu 15,147]

4 hours ago, hckosice said:

That´s Ok. I am not really interested on North Sea beaches right now in November but that Liquor store should be cool, I see the organizing committee is located at the same place, so if we survive tonights Eitbersjepad I´ll invite you there tomorrow for a shot or two...

I did hear some screams coming out of the forest...you alright?  

[heywoodu 15,147]

Just to be clear about one thing, by the way: I've had no requests about schedule changes and I have started the brain-killing process of preparing templates, so...no more schedule changes are allowed  

[dcro 10,210]

Festival of Music appears rather unpopular this time. Usually it's 10 songs on day 1.