Cobi

I don't have high hopes with my pick for this edition, so it's very nice to score at least one point from the beginning. I was a little bit afraid of not having a single point this year  Thanks @OlympicIRL!

ireland  
Greeting from jury in National language
 
 
Maidin mhaith, Totallympics! Tá lúcháir orm a bheith anseo libh arís ag tús eachtra TISC eile. Ba mhaith liom an deis seo a thapú chun buíochas a ghabháil do rybak agus an Pholainn as obair iontach mar óstach. Is mór an onóir dom anois tús a chur leis an vótáil sa TISC Annual 2021. Go n-éirí an t-ádh libh!
 
   
 
 
English Translation of Greeting
 
 
Good morning Totallympics! I am delighted to be here with you again at the start of another TISC adventure. I want to take the opportunity to give thanks to rybak and Poland for the wonderful work as hosts. It is a huge honour for me now to begin the voting in TISC Annual 2021. Good luck to you all!
 
 
 
 
         CANADA 10  GERMANY 9  MEXICO 8  ITALY 7  GREAT BRITAIN 6  CZECH REPUBLIC 5  NETHERLANDS 4  SLOVENIA 3  NEW ZEALAND 2  SPAIN 1

Parade of Nations
 
We finish the parade with this nice, old song:
 

 

Słowenia/Slovenia
Jury Member: @justony
Artist: Luka Basi 

Stany Zjednoczone/United States
Jury Members: @dezbee2008 @Olympian1010
Artist: Ashe & FINNEAS

Szwecja/Sweden
Jury Member: @Belle
Artist: Molly Sandén

Hiszpania/Spain
Jury Member: @Cobi
Artist: Sinsinati

Tunezja/Tunisia
Jury Member: @amen09
Artist: Yasmine Azaiez

Węgry/Hungary
Jury Member @Vektor
Artist: Carson Coma

Wielka Brytania/Great Britain
Jury Member: @Dragon
Artist: Laura Marling

Włochy/Italy
Jury Members: @Gianlu33 @Henry_Leon @Pablita @SteveParker
Artist: Francesco Gabbani

Polska/Poland
Jury Members: @rybak @Vojthas
Artist: Brodka

It's the end!
 
I hope that despite long ceremony and parade which lasted over hour, due to some techincal problems, everyone enjoyed their evening here. See you tomorrow at 11:00 CET (GMT+2) with @OlympicIRL opening the show. May the best song win!
 
Good night!
 

Official Voting Order
 
Voting Order Host Jury
Time
National Jury
Time 
1   Ireland 11:00-11:15  10:00-10:15 2   Romania 11:15-11:30  12:15-12:30 3   Spain 11:30-11:45  11:30-11:45 4   Serbia 11:45-12:00  11:45-12:00 5   Czech Republic 12:00-12:15  12:00-12:15 6   Italy 12:15-12:30  12:15-12:30 7   Tunisia 12:30-12:45  11:30-11:45 8   United States 12:45-13:00  06:45-07:00  9   Moldova 13:00-13:15 14:00-14:15   Breakfast/Coffee Break 13:15 13:45 10   Germany 13:45-14:00  13:45-14:00 11   China 14:00-14:15  20:00-20:15 12   Slovakia 14:15-14:30   14:15-14:30 13   Israel 14:30-14:45  15:30-15:45 14   Finland 14:45-15:00  15:45-16:00 15   Kazakhstan 15:00-15:15  19:00-19:15 16   Indonesia 15:15-15:30  20:15-20:30 17   Poland 15:30-15:45  15:30-15:45 18   Lithuania 15:45-16:00 16:45-17:00   Lunch/Dinner Break 16:00 17:00 19   Brazil 17:00-17:15 12:00-12:15 20   India
17:15-17:30 20:45-21:00 21   Malta
17:30-17:45 17:30-17:45 22   Sweden
17:45-18:00 17:45-18:00 23   Portugal
18:00-18:15 17:00-17:15 24   Argentina
18:15-18:30 13:15-13:30 25   Canada
18:30-18:45 12:30-12:45 26   Greece
18:45-19:00 19:45-20:00 27   Netherlands
19:00-19:15 19:00-19:15 28   Croatia 19:15-19:30 19:15-19:30   Snack/Supper Break 19:30 20:00 29   Bulgaria
20:00-20:15  21:00-21:15 30   Norway
20:15-20:30 20:15-20:30 31   Hungary
20:30-20:45 20:30-20:45 32   Denmark
20:45-21:00 20:45-21:00 33   Mexico
 21:00-21:15 14:00-14:15 34   Great Britain
21:15-21:30 20:15-20:30 35   New Zealand
21:30-21:45 07:30-07:45 36   France
21:45-22:00 21:45-22:00 37   Slovenia
22:00-22:15 22:00-22:15

The logo have been revealed!
 
It's about time to presented Totallympics Annual International Song Contest 2021 logo. Ladies and gentlemen, this is it:
 
 

 
As you can see there is white stork (it was reason why I presented the White Storks team as last). As you could read earlier today this bird is one of the Polish animal symbol as over 25% of all storks is living here by most of the year. With Poland's national flag in the background. But it isn't just flag, the red part of logo is as well water over which the stork is flying and on the white part of the flag you can see blades of grass. Simply, the white stork is flying over one of the hundrends Masurian lakes. It's song contest, so the notes couldn't be missed in the logo as well. 
 
This year contest motto is "Let the notes fly!"
 
I want say a big thank you to @Olympian1010 who helped created this stunning logo and idea for the motto. Thank you so much!
 
The opening ceremony which is scheduled for Friday, April 16th will take place in Moszna Palace in small village Moszna.
 

 
The Moszna Palace is a historic castle and palace located in the small village of Moszna, in southwestern Poland. Situated approximately 30 kilometres south of the regional capital Opole, the residence is an excellent example of romantic fairy-tale and eclectic architecture.
 
The history of this building begins in the 18th century, although traces of older cellars were discovered in the gardens during excavation and reconstruction works at the beginning of the 20th century. Some of the those could have been remnants of a presumed Templar stronghold.
 


 
The central part of the castle is an old baroque palace which was partially destroyed by fire on the night of April 2, 1896 and was reconstructed in the same year in its original form by Franz Hubert von Tiele-Winckler (the son of Hubert von Tiele-Winckler). The reconstruction works involved an extension of the residence. The eastern Neogothic-styled wing of the building was built by 1900, along with an adjacent orangery. In 1912-1914, the western wing was built in the Neo-Renaissance style. The architectural form of the castle contains a wide variety of styles, thus it can be generally defined as eclectic. The height of the building, as well as its numerous turrets and spires, give the impression of verticalism. The whole castle has exactly ninety-nine turrets. Inside, it contains 365 rooms with a total floorage of 7,000 sq. m. and a cubic capacity of about 65,000m The castle was twice visited by the German Emperor Wilhelm II. His participation in hunting during his stay at the castle was documented in a hand-written chronicle in 1911 as well as in the following year.
After World War II the castle did not have a permanent owner and was the home of various institutions until 1972 when it became a convalescent home. Later it became a Public Health Care Centre for Therapies of Neuroses. Nowadays it can be visited by tourists since the health institution has moved to another building in the neighbourhood. The castle also has a chapel which is used as a concert hall. Since 1998 the castle housed a gallery in which works of various artists are presented at regular exhibitions.
 

 
Apart from the castle itself, the entire complex includes a park which has no precise boundaries and includes nearby fields, meadows and a forest. Only the main axis of the park can be characterised as geometrical. Starting from the gate, it leads along the oak and then horse-chestnut avenues, towards the castle. Further on, the park passes into an avenue of lime trees with symmetrical canals running along both sides of the path, lined with a few varieties of rhododendrons. The axis of the park terminates at the base of a former monument of Hubert von Tiele-Winckler. On the eastern side of the avenue there is a pond with an islet referred to by the owners as Easter Island. The islet is planted with needle-leaved shrubs and can be reached by a Chinese-styled bridge. The garden, as part of the whole park complex was restored slightly earlier than the castle itself. Preserved documents of 1868 state that the improvement in the garden's aesthetic quality was undertaken by Hubert von Tiele-Winckler.
 

Passionfruit Award
 
As we count down to the latest TISC Grand Final, to be held in Poland on Saturday, April 17th, we have decided to use this timeframe to catch up with our very own TISC Special Awards. There are three different Special Awards in total. The J'en Suis La Award and the Passionfruit Award have been introduced in 2018 as part of the 10th edition Jubilee legacy, while the newly formed STOP THE COUNT! Award got first celebrated in the Netherlands last year.
 
While nobody really aims (or wants) to claim these awards, they do serve their purpose within the TISC festivities, if nothing else to remind us all of the exciting Grand Final journeys that the various award recipients have experienced. Today, we will examine more closely the Passionfruit Award and its recipients...
 


 
 
The Passionfruit Award is given to the song which obtained the most consistent score card during its Grand Final run. The score card consistency is measured by calculating its standard deviation, with the only requirement being that the song must have scored points from at least three (3) different juries. Since the Passionfruit Award has been predominantly won by backmarkers, the number of required voting juries has been increased to five (5) following the 2020 Annual.
 
The award owes its name to the Canadian entry Passionfruit (by Drake), which competed at the 10th edition Jubilee in Brazil. The song itself did not make any headlines at the time. It placed 37th (out of 42), scoring just 25 points and providing Canadian fans little to smile about. As it turned out, however, Passionfruit had the most consistent score card of the day, 7 - 6 - 5 - 5 - 2, making up a standard deviation of just 1,67.
 
Celebrating the Jubilee legacy, the consistency award got officially introduced in the run-up towards the 2018 Open in Orlando, Florida. Its first recipient was Spain (Standard deviation: 1,12). Other recipients include Chile (2019 Annual; STD: 1,11), Romania (2019 Open; STD: 1,72), Uruguay (2020 Annual; STD: 1,89) and Hungary (2020 Open; STD: 2,06).
 
As mentioned above, the Passionfruit Award has been predominantly won by backmarkers. Spain, Chile and Uruguay finished last in their respective contests, while Hungary placed second to last. This leaves Romania, as the only award recipient who used its consistent points spread to achieve an upper bracket result (8th).
 
Under the revised rules, which stipulate that the song must have scored points from at least five (5) different juries, the Spanish and Uruguayan recipients would no longer be eligible for the Passionfruit Award.
 
 
Passionfruit Award - Hall of Fame
 
2018 Open - Spain
 
Tino Casal - Eloise
Rank: 35th (out of 35)
Score card: 6 - 5 - 4 - 3
Standard deviation: 1,12
 

 
 
2019 Annual - Chile
 
Paloma Mami - Not Steady
Rank: 38th (out of 38)
Score card: 4 - 2 - 1 - 1 - 1 - 1
Standard deviation: 1,11
 

 
 
2019 Open - Romania
 
Edward Maya & Vika Jigulina - Stereo Love
Rank: 8th (out of 37)
Score card: 12 - 11 - 10 - 10 - 10 - 10 - 9 - 9 - 8 - 8 - 8 - 5
Standard deviation: 1,72
 

 
 
2020 Annual - Uruguay
 
latejapride - Corré
Rank: 38th (out of 38)
Score card: 5 - 1 - 1
Standard deviation: 1,89
 

 
 
2020 Open - Hungary
 
Anima Sound System - '68
Rank: 34th (out of 35)
Score card: 8 - 6 - 3 - 3 - 3
Standard deviation: 2,06
 

J'en Suis La Award
 
As we count down to the latest TISC Grand Final, to be held in Poland on Saturday, April 17th, we have decided to use this timeframe to catch up with our very own TISC Special Awards. There are three different Special Awards in total. The J'en Suis La Award and the Passionfruit Award have been introduced in 2018 as part of the 10th edition Jubilee legacy, while the newly formed STOP THE COUNT! Award got first celebrated in the Netherlands last year.
 
While nobody really aims (or wants) to claim these awards, they do serve their purpose within the TISC festivities, if nothing else to remind us all of the exciting Grand Final journeys that the various award recipients have experienced. Today, we will take a closer look at the J'en Suis La Award and its recipients...
 


 
 
The J'en Suis La Award is reserved for the song which climbed the most places between the half-way point and the conclusion of a given contest. After going through a rough opening patch, most participants would agree that there is nothing sweeter than witnessing your own entry gain numerous positions during the late afternoon and evening sessions, and the J'en Suis La Award is designed to recognize just that.
 
The award owes its name to the French entry J'en Suis La (by Slimane), which remarkably climbed from 33rd to 10th during the second half of the 10th edition Jubilee in Brazil.
 
Indeed, the 2018 Annual Jubilee was destined to be a very special edition. So much so that seemingly every jury was looking to post the best result they could, more than ever, just to commemorate it. French jury was no exception, however after scoring just 15 points between the first 20 (!) juries, the expectations were no longer too high. But that is when the ball started rolling. Numerous high scores, including three silver and three bronze medals, started coming the way of France. It was enough to lift them up to 108 points and a respectable 10th place finish - something that nobody saw coming during the lunch break. The record jump of 23 places has been unmatched since.
 
Celebrating the Jubilee legacy, the award itself officially got introduced in the run-up towards the 2018 Open in Orlando, Florida. Its first recipient was Malta, who then climbed from 28th to 15th. Other recipients include New Zealand (2019 Annual; 27th -> 9th), Finland (2019 Open; 24th -> 13th), China (2020 Annual; 19th -> 2nd) and Germany (2020 Open; 16th -> 7th).
 
On average, the J'en Suis La Award recipients climb 13,6 places. The recipient's average half-way point ranking is 23rd, while their average final ranking is 9th. China's Grain in Ear (by Zhao Fangjing) is the only award recipient who eventually earned a podium position, while every other award recipient has also finished 15th or better.
 
 
J'en Suis La Award - Hall of Fame
 
2018 Open - Malta
 
Claudia Faniello - Pure
28th (18 pts) -> 15th (81 pts)
2nd half highlights: 3x11 pts (POL, RUS, SLO), 10 pts (INA)
 

 
 
2019 Annual - New Zealand
 
Yumi Zouma - In Camera
27th (19 pts) -> 9th (97 pts)
2nd half highlights: 12 pts (IRL), 2x11 pts (BRA, ITA), 10 pts (VEN)
 

 
 
2019 Open - Finland
 
Haloo Helsinki! - Beibi
24th (27 pts) -> 13th (81 pts)
2nd half highlights: 11 pts (SVK), 10 pts (IND), 9 pts (POL)
 

 
 
2020 Annual - China
 
Zhao Fangjing - Grain in Ear
19th (40 pts) -> 2nd (140 pts)
2nd half highlights: 12 pts (IRI, ITA), 11 pts (FRA, POR), 10 pts (BRA)
 

 
 
2020 Open - Germany
 
Robin Schulz ft. Jasmine Thompson - Sun Goes Down
16th (39 pts) -> 7th (118 pts)
2nd half highlights: 12 pts (CRO, GRE, SRB), 10 pts (KAZ, MLT)
 

Due to lack of time yesterday, today we will visit two places, first one is...
 
Krasiczyn Castle
 

 
Krasiczyn Castle  is a renaissance castle à la fortezza in Krasiczyn, southeastern Poland. It stands on a lowland at the right bank of the San River, along the Przemyśl-Sanok route and some 10 kilometres southwest of Przemyśl. Across the centuries, the castle has belonged to several noble Polish families, and was visited by many Polish kings.
 
The construction of the castle started in 1580, initiated by a local nobleman Stanislaw Siecienski of Siecin, who came to the area from Mazovia. Works lasted for 53 years, and the castle was not completed until 1633, by Marcin Krasicki, son of Stanisław and Voivode of Podolia, who in the meantime had changed his name. Originally, the castle was a fortified stronghold, protecting southern border of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. However, Marcin Krasicki, who was regarded as one of the most important promoter of arts in the country, turned the fortress into a sophisticated residence (palazzo in fortezza), under supervision of Italian architect, Galleazzo Appiani. Also, he dubbed the complex Krasiczyn, after his last name. Later, a village of Krasiczyn grew near the castle, also bearing the same name. The Krasiczyn castle was built on the site of an older, wooden complex, called Sliwnica, which had probably been built in the 14th century.
 

 
Despite numerous fires and wars across the centuries, the castle's complex has been essentially unchanged since the early 17th century. Built as a square, with walls representing all four quarters of the globe, at the corners there are four oval-shaped towers: Divine (Boska), Papal (Papieska), Royal (Krolewska), and Noble (Szlachecka). These names reflected the eternal order of the world, with four grades of authority. The rectangular, spacious court is surrounded to the east and north by living quarters, and to the south and west by walls, adorned with attics. In the middle of the western wall, there is a square-shaped tower of the clock, added by Marcin Krasicki at the beginning of the 17th century. This tower serves as a main gate, with a wall bridge over the moat. Across the centuries, the castle attracted most famous personalities of Polish history. Among visitors, there were kings Sigismund III Vasa, Wladyslaw IV Vasa, John II Casimir Vasa, and Augustus II the Strong. Sigismund III Vasa, of whom Marcin Krasicki was a loyal supporter, visited the castle thrice. For the first time, in 1608, together with wife Constance of Austria
 

 
One of most precious elements of the complex is the chapel, located in the Divine Tower, which has been compared to the Sigismund's Chapel in Krakow’s Wawel Cathedral. Among other interesting things, there are richly sculpted portals, loggias, arcades, and unique sgraffito wall decorations, whose total area is about 7000 square meters. All works were overseen by Italian architects, and the details were completed by craftsmen from nearby Przemysl. The sgraffito depicted Roman emperors, Polish kings, members of the Krasicki family, hunting scenes, and saints of the Roman-Catholic Church. 
 

 
Near the castle, there is the Swiss Pavilion, connected with Krasiczyn by a secret passage. Standing also in the adjacent park is the Hunter’s Pavilion, a villa in "the hunter style". The park itself is abundant with birds and plants.
 

 
After Krasicki family died out in late 17th century, the complex was inherited by Urszula Modrzewska. Then it belonged to several other families: Wojakowscy, Tarłowie (since 1724), Potoccy (since 1751), Pinińscy (since 1785). Finally, in 1835, the castle was purchased by prince Leon Sapieha, and his family owned the complex until 1944 (with the exception of the Soviet occupation in 1939-1941), when Communist government of Poland nationalized it. The Sapieha family invested plenty of money in the castle. They remodelled it, with the help of Engerth, an architect from Vienna, founded a sawmill, a brewery, and a small factory of farmers’ appliances. They actively promoted economic development of the whole area. On 3 May 1852, a great fire destroyed most of the complex, except for the chapel, and it took several years to repair the damages. In 1867, one of the most important personalities of Polish Catholic Church, Cardinal Adam Stefan Sapieha was born here.

The rule talks of "placing", so I think we should look at the actual position in the rankings and not at the number points scored (which may be different only because of a different coefficient for the single competitions)...
 
But I'm not sure at 100%...only FIE could solve the doubt if they wrote the tie-breaking criteria with more detailes...
 
However, in today's case it's quite clear that Egypt have the edge in their tie-breakers...
 
Still, among the women they have to beat Japan and among the men they have to end up at least in 13th place...otherwise, all our posts are useless...

Egyptian women (who will be tied with Japan if they win) have a 1st place.
 
In any case yes, a 3rd place is better than a 13th
 
 

I think? @phelps, do you know something about this? The FIE site only says that the best results decide in case of a tie. 

Well, priority system in foil and especially sabre might be a little more difficult to understand for a person who has never watched fencing before.

first of all, no quota was added to the Fencing program, as the team events have been added without adding new quota to those who were already there for the Individual event...they just adjusted the distribution of those spots...
 
second, Fencing is the most historical discipline of the Games together with Athletics and Artistic Gymnastics...so, it was time to make up for that enormous injustice that the was the rotation of 4 out of 6 team events (and we're still talking of a sport with 12 competitions all together, when there are some other sports giving away tons of medals to the same athlete or tons of medals in general without having a true diversification between their disciplines)...
I'm really tired of new sports without tradition and/or special features replacing the core of the Games I've always loved and I still love...
it's absolutely a nonsense...
 
third, team events in Fencing are not just the addition of some individual performance (like many other sports), therefore, if there are 2 sports where team events have their own nature and must be saved, those are Fencing (and Archery)...
 
p.s. Compound Archery doesn't have anything to do with the true art of Archery, which has always been and always will be only the naked Archery (the current olympic event)...

María Xiao was born in Barcelona and has lived her whole life between Spain and Portugal, so she is 100% Spaniard. We also have a junior girl called Sofía Xuan-Zhang who was born in Cartagena (Murcia), so writing a comment like that based exclusively in the surname of the girl without knowing her story is kind of disrespectful... 
 
It is true that we have had a few Chinese players representing Spain in the last decade (Yanfei Shen or He Zhiwen who played in London and Rio and arrived to Spain because they were paid by the clubs and the federation made them an offer to join the national team), but right now all of our players have been born and/or raised in Spain.
 

María Xiao was born in Barcelona and has lived her whole life between Spain and Portugal, so she is 100% Spaniard. We also have a junior girl called Sofía Xuan-Zhang who was born in Cartagena (Murcia), so writing a comment like that based exclusively in the surname of the girl without knowing her story is kind of disrespectful... 
 
It is true that we have had a few Chinese players representing Spain in the last decade (Yanfei Shen or He Zhiwen who played in London and Rio and arrived to Spain because they were paid by the clubs and the federation made them an offer to join the national team), but right now all of our players have been born and/or raised in Spain.
 

María Xiao was born in Barcelona and has lived her whole life between Spain and Portugal, so she is 100% Spaniard. We also have a junior girl called Sofía Xuan-Zhang who was born in Cartagena (Murcia), so writing a comment like that based exclusively in the surname of the girl without knowing her story is kind of disrespectful... 
 
It is true that we have had a few Chinese players representing Spain in the last decade (Yanfei Shen or He Zhiwen who played in London and Rio and arrived to Spain because they were paid by the clubs and the federation made them an offer to join the national team), but right now all of our players have been born and/or raised in Spain.
 

Yes, and Brazil also has a very good squad , with some elite club players. It's just they have been poorly managed last 2 years.  
 
As I said BRA & ARG will probably be in the same group and that group will be tough.

The African quota goes to Egypt.

I have no idea how sharing stuff with Spotify works (I only joined the Spotify bandwagon late last year ) but I've added all songs posted so far in a playlist for myself, no idea if you guys can see it too  
 

SPANISH ENTRY
 
Sinsinati - Cuando éramos dos

 
Lyrics:
 
The English translation of the lyrics can be found here.

Something is coming...
 

Bronze medal for Spain ! 

Bronze medal for Spain ! 

Bronze medal for Spain !