[Game] 158th FSC (July 2020) - Limerick, Ireland (TORTHAÍ)

[cheapthrills]

Fáilte ar ais go hÉirinn! Welcome back to Ireland!

There once was a contest in Ireland
featuring music that was straight fire, and
while they certainly popped,
there were acts that so flopped
the voters had them, out of ire, banned.

Look, it's the best I could come up with on short notice, ok?
Perhaps I should have you all introduce your song this month with a limerick.

Anyhow, you're suffering this unfortunate limerick because I got my second win and first as host last month. It was with this song:

Orla Gartland - Did It To Myself

This is our 4th time visiting Ireland and Limerick is a town dating back to at least the Vikings who established the town during an invasion. The heart of the city is what is technically an island, separated from the mainland by tributaries and rivers, called King's Island.

While visiting Limerick, you can stay at the outrageous Adare Manor, which has fifty chimneys, and a stained glass window customized for all the days of the year, and fireplaces with titles. If you are feeling particularly quirky, or just need to indulge your fantastical side, you can also check out the over-the-top fairy garden at Terra Nova. Or go ahead and stop by the University of Limerick's living bridge, which yes, is a bridge, but one that sometimes features lectures or live music.

Yes, it all sounds delightful, but don't forget to vote!

RULES

01. This is a monthly contest, modeled after Eurovision. You need to have at least 10 posts to your credit to take part.
02. You can pick any country in the world.
03. The artist you choose has either to be a citizen of the country they'll represent or to have been born there. At least HALF of the people from your act must be from the country you choose.
04. Your song must be 10 years old at the most. For 2020, eligible entries must have been released after December 31st, 2009.
05. Eurovision entries are not allowed. Songs from concurrent Eurovision heats are not allowed either.
06. The song cannot have been a UK/US Top 40 hit, as it would give it an unfair advantage.
07. The song can be a remix.
08. The song cannot be a cover version.
09. If your song features a sample, please state it early enough, so the other contestants can decide whether it is acceptable or not by poll.
10. You cannot vote for your own country.
11. Discussion about one's favourites during the contest is NOT ALLOWED, as it has the potential to influence the voting.
12. PLEASE try and choose a song not everyone would know, the point is to discover new artists.
13. If a song becomes or is found to be ineligible at any time before the voting is over, it will be disqualified.
14. Make sure you understand all the rules before you take part. You will need to devote about 2 hours of your time to this game to listen to all the entries at least once. Do a little research on your entry before you present it, be sure that it doesn't violate any rules, and check here to see if it has taken part before.


TIMELINE

01 - 15/7 | RESERVE & PRESENT: Present your entry or just reserve your country. Last month's top 5 get their choice from last month reserved, so nobody may choose these countries until they let them go:

01. Ireland (cheapthrills)
02. Netherlands (CandyPerfumeBoy)
03. Japan (KindOf)
04. Spain (mondflug)
05. Albania (ConstantinosV)

16 - 17/7 | PRESENT: Pick any country that hasn't been presented yet and present your entry (ALL reservations are now expired). A maximum of 30 confirmed entries in total will be accepted.

18 - 28/7 | VOTE! Whoever fails to vote during this period will be subject to the penalties described under Late Vote and Very Late Vote

29/7 | Late Vote: Whoever votes on this date will receive a 10 points penalty.

30/7 | Very Late Vote: Whoever votes on this date will receive a 15 points penalty. Whoever fails to vote by this date (Limerick time ) will be disqualified.

31/7 | Results

ALL RULES AND PENALTIES WILL BE STRICTLY ENFORCED


ENTRIES:

Australia (Spartan) | Alfie Arcuri - If They Only Knew
Canada (trebor) | Kristin Carter - KARMA
Colombia (Leo) - Elsa y Elmar - Ojos Noche
Croatia (navi) | Malady Lane - All Of My Blood
Denmark (Affillate) | Christopher - Leap of Faith
France (jio) | SHY'M: Et Alors
French Polynesia (Mainshow) | Ken Carlter - Tura'i i te 'Oti'a
Germany (CandyPerfumeBoy) | VVAVES - 5 Of Your Exes
Ireland (westhammer) | The Best Part - Our House is Burning
Malaysia (Spiral) DOLLA - Dolla Make You Wanna
Norway (ConstantinosV) | Aurora - The Seed
Philippines (xtofer) | Manila Killa | Run Away
Romania (Top10) | TINNA LATINA - Pasatiempo
South Korea (Colbie) | Sunmi - Pporappippam
Spain (maroon) | María de Juan - 17:00 Monterrey
Sweden (KindOf) | Miss Li - Complicated
Tajikistan (heppolo) | Manizha - Люстра
Trinidad and Tobago (JSparksFan) | Destra - Stage Party
Ukraine (franklex) | Our Atlantic — Час Розваг
United Kingdom (mondflug) | Joe Goddard - Music is the Answer
United States (cheapthrills) | Samantha Fish - Kill or Be Kind
Venezuela (jszmiles) | Arca - Mequetrefe

Playlist provided courtesy of ConstantinosV

Tagging those of you who participated this year - let me know if you don't want to be tagged in future FSC posts:

Spoiler!

franklex jio trebor Mainshow KindOf Colbie Spartan westhammer Affillate mondflug heppolo CandyPerfumeBoy navi Top10 Leo ConstantinosV Spiral maroon xtofer Thriller JSparksFan JakeP Nanda flopho urbanmusik Magnus Undercover jszmiles

[cheapthrills]

The US, but let me know if you had your heart set on it.

Ireland is free.

[mondflug]

UK =)

[CandyPerfumeBoy]

Germany

[Top10]

1. Romania


Alternate Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcJboHv7N5c

[jio]

Canada

[Spartan]

Australia

[Mainshow]

French Polynesia

[franklex]

ukraine

[trebor]

French Polynesia

It's not a sovereign state. Although autonomous it still belongs to France.
It's the same issue we already had multiple times with all the French overseas colonies in South America, the Pacific, and Africa.
Sorry for being nit-picky. <3

[cheapthrills]

I know we allowed Faroe Islands awhile back. So what makes the distinction? Scorewiz does allow me to select French Polynesia.

[CandyPerfumeBoy]

02. GERMANY

VVAVES - 5 Of Your Exes

And the lyric video in case you want to skip the break in the middle:

[trebor]

I know we allowed Faroe Islands awhile back. So what makes the distinction? Scorewiz does allow me to select French Polynesia.

It's not a member of the United Nations and not acknowledged by the Olympic Committee as a stand-alone territory.
Faroe Islands: It's a member of the UEFA and competes under its own banner. But yes, politically it's a part of Denmark.

[heppolo]

I know we allowed Faroe Islands awhile back. So what makes the distinction? Scorewiz does allow me to select French Polynesia.

@trebor
Can I potentially enter Hong Kong?

[Leo]

3 COLOMBIA

ELSA Y EL MAR

[trebor]

@trebor
Can I potentially enter Hong Kong?

NO! The sovereign state it's under is China.

[heppolo]

NO! The sovereign state it's under is China.

The thing is...it has already competed twice, the last time as recent as 117th FSC.
Also a member of FIFA.

[trebor]

The thing is...it has already competed twice, the last time as recent as 117th FSC.
Also a member of FIFA.

Of course it has already participated. Just like Wales and Scotland. Question is, do we really want to keep on finding loopholes for territories that can be easily assigned to a higher sovereign state?
FIFA: Hong Kong was a member before and was allowed to keep their own team.

//

I'm going back to mind my own business

[Mainshow]

According to our history and (in)official rules, autonomous regions are fine to this game. Frnech Polynesia does have a different currency as well.
It's a different case to Mauritius (which is also part of France but unlike French Polynesia, it's part of the European Union and Euro is the region's currency).

Thus, French Polynesia is more like a Faroe Islands/Greenland scenario.

[Mainshow]

@trebor
Can I potentially enter Hong Kong?

I think it's (still) possible (but you better hurry up). The Asian Broadcasting Union let Hong Kong compete - its autonomy gets more and more neglected as we speak, though.

[westhammer]

I’ll take the host, Ireland

[Affillate]

I entered Taiwan a few years back and also debuted Greenland. We also had one contest IIRC with either one or both of the democratic republic or Congo and regular Congo competing so there’s precedent there.

[maroon]

Spain

[westhammer]

Democratic Republic Congo and Congo are separate countries though.

I have no issues with autonomous regions entering, it adds more diversity

[JSparksFan]

I wanted the UK.

I'll reserve Trinidad and Tobago for now.

[cheapthrills]

Thus, French Polynesia is more like a Faroe Islands/Greenland scenario.

I decided to see if I could find this discussion being held as a precedent in a previous contest.

In the 106th, the question was brought up when Affillate used Greenland and this was Grybop's response:

Regarding Greenland's entry:

Since this contest follows the patterns of Eurovision, if any country is member of the European Broadcasting Union, and thus eligible to take part in Eurovision, then it's good enough to participate here. Greenland is indeed a separate associate member of the EBU (as is Australia for example, and not Scotland or Wales), with a recognized national broadcaster, so there is no problem if it participates in our contest. By the way, this also means that Greenland could enter Eurovision if they wanted to.

...which works as an answer, though I am still looking for evidence that Greenland has a recognized broadcaster to back that up.

This is the only discussion on this topic I can find. No one brought up the question in any of the times the Faroe Islands came up (or Taiwan and Palestine, for that matter) that I could find. Not about to read tons of threads to find out beyond that. I went to Wikipedia, and read this on the Faroe Islands:

Since 2010, the Faroese national broadcaster Kringvarp Føroya (KVF) has been attempting to gain EBU membership and thus participate independently in the Eurovision Song Contest. However, KVF cannot obtain EBU membership due to the islands being a constituent part of the Kingdom of Denmark as determined by the unity of the Realm.[25]

In late 2018, the Faroese national broadcaster Kringvarp Føroya showed renewed interest in joining the European Broadcasting Union and participating in the Eurovision Song Contest. According to the broadcaster, they are not excluded by the rule that only independent nations can join, and as a result the Faroese broadcaster started internal discussions on applying for the EBU membership and participating in the Eurovision Song Contest and even hosting a national final similar to the Dansk Melodi Grand Prix.[26]

Of course, if we're being pedantic and saying EBU membership is required for FSC, then we'd lose a lot, like most of Africa, for example. I don't see any evidence of a dependency (or equivalents) having actually competed in Eurovision, but it sounds like the main requirement is EBU membership. It's an incomplete answer for FSC, but I think it's enough of a guide and I don't think we should over-complicate things. I'll ask that you use your best judgment. I don't think this comes up often enough to really be an issue, even if there's some grey area.

[westhammer]

4. IRELAND

THE BEST PART - OUR HOUSE IS BURNING

[Colbie]

5. South Korea
Sunmi - Pporappippam

[jio]

If French Polynesia is allowed to enter, I'll switch to France... otherwise I keep Canada

[jio]

It's terribly ignorant to place Palestine among all those other non-states.