Eurovision 2026 – Guilty pleasure or genuinely interesting live audio production?

[Mart68]

1. To your best knowledge, what could be the core meaning of or the idea behind the word Eurovison, as part of »Eurovision Song Contest«?

2. Given that meaning or idea – could a country like Israel or Australia really be a perfect representative of it?

'Eurovision' is the name of the broadcasting network of the EBU.

EBU members can receive it. It doesn't matter where they are in the world. The song contest is named after the network. The name has nothing to do with the European continent other than the EBU orginated there. If there was a 'CBS Song Contest' (God forbid) there'd be no reason to reject entries from countries outside of America. It's the same thing.

Not confined only to Europe, the EBU is the "largest community of public service media organizations throughout the world". It currently encompasses 113 television broadcasting organizations located in 56 countries of Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East, for a total of 68 associated broadcasting organizations in Europe, Africa, America, Asia, and Oceania

 

[Karmacoma]

To answer the question, I take no pleasure in it so I don't feel guilty.
Could probably be interesting for an anthropologist.

 

[Juhazi]

The winner is ok. Israel's second place came by public votes, eg. it got best score from Finland, which is a miracle! I have not read or heard anyone liking the piece and it was not high on polls

I voted with my legs, went to bed early!

 

[Somafunk]

The winner is ok. Israel's second place came by public votes, eg. it got best score from Finland, which is a miracle! I have not read or heard anyone liking the piece and it was not high on polls

I voted with my legs, went to bed early!

Shame they didn’t pay for more influencers like they usually do to whitewash their current image

https://archive.fo/20260511073013/https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/11/world/europe/eurovision-israel-votes.html

 

[whereisbrian]

You don't know the fun you are missing!

I was almost joking.
I'm all for freedom, so everyone can spend their evening watching Eurovision, or not.
Personally, I also enjoy funny stuff. But this kind of show doesn't relax me.
I much prefer a Steven Seagal movie.

 

[KSTR]

I now listened to the winning song (the official video, not the "live" performance). Pretty generic 100% computer-produced stuff that could have been produced anywhere, bland performance, and I hear auto-tune at work. Given that Bulgaria is home to one of the most sophisticated and emotional choral music in the world, this is kind of sad.
They could have taken something like this, transcend it into a good modern catchy pop song and win by the sheer power of harmonies that everybody understands (no need to understand the lyrics)...

 

[Ropeburn]

Looool that's so British it hurts

 

[Blake Klondike]

How it is still going when 'Jeux Sans Frontières' (AKA 'It's A Knockout' ) got cancelled I will never understand.

not in my house it didn't. that song is incredible. this happened in actual reality?

 

[Blake Klondike]

The DDR of music pseudo artist that can not make it outside this context .

yes. same goes for the american idol, the voice, etc. i have a friend who insisted, when american idol was in its first season, that they would have to come up with a new store in the mall to sell the resultant product, since it has nothing to do with music and doesn't belong in a music store.

 

[Blake Klondike]

I now listened to the winning song (the official video, not the "live" performance). Pretty generic 100% computer-produced stuff that could have been produced anywhere, bland performance, and I hear auto-tune at work. Given that Bulgaria is home to one of the most sophisticated and emotional choral music in the world, this is kind of sad.
They could have taken something like this, transcend it into a good modern catchy pop song and win by the sheer power of harmonies that everybody understands (no need to understand the lyrics)...

I now listened to the winning song (the official video, not the "live" performance). Pretty generic 100% computer-produced stuff that could have been produced anywhere, bland performance, and I hear auto-tune at work. Given that Bulgaria is home to one of the most sophisticated and emotional choral music in the world, this is kind of sad.
They could have taken something like this, transcend it into a good modern catchy pop song and win by the sheer power of harmonies that everybody understands (no need to understand the lyrics)...

i agree 100% about bulgarian choral music. and every country on the planet has at least one musical style that is unique. now there is a show that i would watch. but even the link you posted was auto-tuned. those are women who could definitely sing, but they still auto-tuned the finished product. and this is in a style where the subtle differences in melodic expression between the singers create that complexity and beauty you are talking about. it is literally the whole point. so if these poor women are doing that to their profoundly personal and important national music, what does that say about something like the eurovision contest? it is so far from being about music that even discussing it is absurd. that doesn't mean people aren't welcome to enjoy it, but it is totally divorced from any of the creative impulses that caused music to exist in the first place. it might as well be improvised by an ai.

 

[Blake Klondike]

Even nominally good bands that participate do it with their possibly worst song ever , like ABBA did quality was downhill from there in the show .

It was historically a fun concept that captured many Europeans , and spawned cooperation among all the public service broadcasters around Europe in a time when this was needed. But it survived too long and is just irrelevant now, I thought it was time to end it in the early 80's .
But it is the OG music talent competition show who every other show is modeled after like idol et all .

So i would not linger too much on how horrible and tasteless it is now , but what it once was . they should ended it decades ago ! now its like the last seasons of TV show that dragged on for too long .

what it was in the early days is a very cool thing that i would definitely watch, because there were real writers and performers involved.

 

[Blake Klondike]

In the end, I really cannot get on with regurgitative, generic pop.
Plus, I'm a grinch because of this.
It all went wrong after Mary Hopkin.
Those were the days, eh?
And Clodagh Rodgers, or was it Lenin? [age dependent humour - Excusez-moi Madame Clodagh. Ecrivez-vous votre nom dans mon livre des hommes célèbrites, s'il vous plait. Là, au-dessous de Denis Compton]

mary hopkin-- precisely.

 

[Blake Klondike]

I watched the last fifteen minutes when the final votes were to be presented.
Israel was in first place until the last votes were presented.

Imagine if Israel had won, considering everything that is happening in Israel and surrounding countries now. A powder keg. You know all that and we don't need to have (we shouldn't have here at ASR) a political discussion about it but imagine Israel had won. Sensitive if next year's Eurovision final had taken place in Israel.

But Bulgaria saved us from that, starting at 14:30

Edit:
Yes, I realize that what I just wrote could be interpreted as some kind of political aspect, but I really only mean the inconvenience of a final in Israel. With all that would entail with endless discussion about whether it makes sense to have the final in Israel or not. Instead of being able to spend energy on getting angry, hating or love- hating on how bad the songs are instead.

i think your intention is clear-- everybody understands what a powder keg that would be.

 

[napfkuchen]

Was so "pumped" when Eskimo Callboy wanted to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2022. Naturally, it was a flop, because the song didn't adhere to the boring standard:

Yet it was energetic, funny, motivating, positive, enjoyable and would certainly have been a unifying blast for everybody regardless of age, nationality, gender or whatever (and regardless of whether one likes metal or not).

 

[Mart68]

not in my house it didn't. that song is incredible. this happened in actual reality?

No not the song, it was a TV show also made by Eurovison.

It was mildly entertaining, unlike the song contest and most modern television programmes.

Jeux sans frontières - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Of course I'm going back a bit. Here's video of it (From 1981):

 

[Redacted]

The influence of Peter Gabriel (hahahah!)

 

[Salt]

Some interesting historical technical aspects (use a translator of your like):
https://www.geo.de/wissen/vom-funkn...hnologische-idee-hinter-dem-esc-37399700.html

 

[pablolie]

I know Eurovision is not exactly the first thing most people think about on an audio-focused forum but every year I end up fascinated by the technical side of the contest.

Beyond the politics and the memes, it’s actually one of the biggest live music TV productions in the world. Some delegations clearly prioritize vocal precision and clean mixes, while others go all-in on atmosphere, staging and heavy backing track support.

This year especially feels interesting because there doesn’t seem to be one obvious runaway favorite from a production standpoint. Australia and France are getting attention for polished vocals and “jury-friendly” presentation, while Finland and Croatia seem to be connecting more through raw energy and impact.

I’m also curious what people here think about the current Eurovision rules regarding prerecorded backing vocals. In some performances it genuinely enhances the live show, while in others it starts feeling more like a studio track with occasional live singing layered on top.

Do any of you follow Eurovision at all from the audio engineering / live production angle?

Interesting topic. I was born in Spain still under the Franco dictature and even though Spain was an isolated country and not part of the European Union, Euro vision was already huge in the late 60s, which I have foggy early memories of. I remember watching Cliff Richard's "Power to all my friends“ as a little child. As well as copying his dance moves when we sang in church and getting spanked by our priest-and-religion-teacher. Stricter times...

I also remember watching Abba winning with Waterloo, and forming pre-pubescent opinions on Scandinavian women (Dad was an early Abba fan :-D).

But when I formed my teenage music preferences, I found the music ridiculously bad. Maybe it was a bad time in Eurovision history.

Because indeed, I am told production value has gone up a lot.

 

[Bob Olhsson]

My daughter went with some of her friends last year partly because she'd never been to Sweden where her grandfather was born. She had an incredible time that she felt the TV show didn't do justice to.