Eurovision 2020

[Levin]

No funny title and I'm certain this thread won't be the used on the night but...

Russia has chosen Little Big to represent them. Little Big, performer of songs such as Russian Hooligans, Life In The Trash, Give Me Your Money, and Big Dick.

Everyday I'm Drinking

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

The UK's, not for the first time, is a worthy enough ballad that is quite a nice song (would be a passable Bond theme) but is just not what anyone's looking for at Eurovision and will end up with 10 points from Cyprus, 2 from Malta and 1 from Ireland.

[Levin]

Well if you don't take risks you can't be criticised when you fail.

[ad hoc]

Someone yesterday shared this with me. Iceland's entry. I haven;t watched Eurovision for years but this seems way too good to be in it. And the video is good too

[Simon G]

That is an awesome song and video.

Watch it not even get through the semi-finals

[Felicity, I guess so]

Can’t get it to play. Any Nordic linguists here to advise on how to pronounce the 3rd letter?

[Levin]

It's a th sound isn't it?

[Benjm]

That is brilliant. Thanks, ad hoc.

[Kevin S]

It's a th sound isn't it?

It is but it's one of two.

Þ is the 'th' in thick, thin and Thor.

ð is the 'th' in this, that and the.

[Kevin S]

Hermann Hreidarsson, for example, is actually Hermann Hreiðarsson. It always bugged me that the 'eth' got changed to a 'd' in English when we'd be perfectly comfortable saying 'Hreitharsson' with a soft 'th'.

[Various Artist]

Isn't that a hard 'th' Kev?

Þ is the soft 'th' in thick, thin and Thor, or breath.

ð is the hard 'th' in this, that and the, or breathe.

So "Hrei∂" is functionally the same sound as in "writhe".


In Welsh, it would be spelled Hreiddarsson to the same effect: the 'dd' is a hard-th sound, e.g. "dydd" (day) is pronounced "deethe".

Put that way, Icelandic pronunciations suddenly became a lot easier to remember, from my point of view.

[Kevin S]

Er... yes. Somehow I've always remembered which sound is Þ and which is ð but it would appear I've also always had the terms hard and soft the wrong way around..

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

I also wouldn't have known which sound was labelled "hard" and which "soft". Surely the more useful phonetic terms are "voiced" (for the th in that) and "unvoiced" (for the th in thing)? Certainly that was the terminology when I did some linguistics options in my languages degree back in the 1980s.

[ursus arctos]

That's the more technical terminology that I was exposed to as well, but the hard/soft thing is more common in regular conversation, at least over here (though usually with individual consonants, not dipthongs).

See also "long/short" for vowels.

[Simon G]

Someone yesterday shared this with me. Iceland's entry. I haven;t watched Eurovision for years but this seems way too good to be in it. And the video is good too

It's been bugging me all day but I've finally realised who the lead singer reminds me of - World Darts number 1 Michael Van Gerwen

[Various Artist]

I also wouldn't have known which sound was labelled "hard" and which "soft". Surely the more useful phonetic terms are "voiced" (for the th in that) and "unvoiced" (for the th in thing)? Certainly that was the terminology when I did some linguistics options in my languages degree back in the 1980s.

Yes, indeed, but I was just checking I'd got Kev's point correctly before I started talking about voiced alveolar fricatives or whatever...!

[Diable Rouge]

Eurovision aren't in as immediate need to decide on proceeding as other events, but appear close to cancelling:

https://twitter.com/Eurovision/status/1239907629834612737

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

I'd forgotten Eurovision. They'll almost certainly postpone that, yeah.

[Diable Rouge]

https://twitter.com/Eurovision/status/1240267936981569538

[Benjm]

Damn, the year that the UK finally comes up with a nailed on, unbeatable strategy that has winner written through it like a stick of rock and this happens.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

All of this year's songs that never got performed will be played on 2 youtube broadcasts, tonight and thursday (the planned nights for the 2 semis). Search for Eurovision Song Celebration.

It's a nice idea, as none of these songs are allowed to in next year's as they have to be original (artists can come back, but only with new songs).

It's totally non-competitive, no voting, but we could always have an OTF poll.

[Levin]

Love you Rogin.

Are they showing the music videos or under finals rules performances?

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

The ones so far seem to be from their respectively qualifying finals. I can imagine Macedonia's would have been played around a lot of holiday pools this summer.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Ireland's by Lesley Roy is a straight up and down Katy Perry style pop banger.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Oh, Russia's, "Uno" by Little Big, is eurovision heaven.