Eurovision 2023

As an aside Lorena Euphoria , seems to be a bigger hit than it actually was, yes it made number 3 but was only in the Uktop 40 for 4 weeks.
It's chart run was 85,3,13,20,30,41,42,60,64,75,59,77,79, 92, 75.
I don't expect Tattoo to do much better, probably worse we are 11 years on and charts are rubbish, it will not get much airplay and will plummet the following weeks, As Johnny says so will Mae, effectively career over in the U.K.

I can see why you say that but it's not quite true.

1. Yes, most of Gold's "sales" these days are streaming. On average weekly streaming equivalent sales of 4,000 and actual sales of 600 to 800. So its high chart positions in or near Top 10 are streaming based.


2. But if no Streaming, Gold would appear mid chart in a Sales only chart. Lower than official streaming dominant chart but still in the chart.

3. There are 5 veteran acts that do well week in week out on the Main Chart with Best Ofs - Fleetwood Mac, Elton John, ABBA, Queen, Oasis. ABBA sells the most in real sales, Fleetwood Mac and Elton sell next to nothing in real sales. They are so reliant on streams and would fail any Sales Only Chart.

Following on from your comments, Graham...

Had Voyage not happened, would this forum had died out completely, I wonder? One or two who joined a few months ago, and who for a while posted quite often, seem to have lost interest and disappeared. Inevitably, in a small forum such as this, devoted to one group whose heyday was 40 years ago - and drives the interest in Voyage - there will be quite a bit of discussion of minutiae that will hold little interest for some - and might even bore them.

I know that there'll periods when I won't have anything to say.

Maybe I should have posted this in the 'To Post Or Not To Post' thread of this section of the forum? 😆

Regarding the ESC, it's always struck me as being almost a world unto itself, and despite throwing up the occasional big hit, not really belonging to the pop world.

Generally speaking, the singles charts seem to have been made less relevant and it all seems to be the impact of streaming. Harry Styles is still in the Top 10 with As It Was after more than a year. It's a great song but that's not a chart performance as we've known it. That looks a bit more like how the album charts work. Maybe the singles charts have simply evolved past us, past what we're used to them being. Are they still the same barometer of success they were in, say, the 80s?

While he might have only had the one big chart success, it looks like Sam Ryder is successful in a much broader sense. His shows seem to do very well - and that seems to be where money is made in the music industry these days. Maneskin seem to have had a few chart successes but, like Sam, their live shows seem to be where it's at for them. Maybe that's how we might start looking at ABBA: the Voyage album did well, but it's the stage show that's the bigger success. It helps fuels Gold's sales and Gold probably helps sell the show too.

Gorel Hanser dismisses talk of renuion at ESC 2024 as "wishful thinking"

escbubble.com/2023/05/abba-release-statement-about-eurovision-2024/

^

Apparently, Euphoria is a ‘decade-defining smash’. Right.

Swedish charts

🇫🇮 #1
🇸🇪 #3
🇧🇻 #7

Loreen has already been #1 and is on her 12th week in the charts

www.sverigetopplistan.se/

Finnish charts

🇫🇮 #1
🇸🇪 #3
🇧🇻 #4

In total 8 Eurovision entrants chart in the official U.K. Top 75 and a total of 11 in the top 100,
Alas next week we will be lucky ( or not ..lol ) for 2 to survive... both with probable big falls.

It's the first time in the 71 contests that there are 4 entries in the top 10 , beating ironically 1974 when 3 made the top 10 ( not at the same time though ).

^ I think it unlikely. Rather agree with Foreverfan's assessment.

Here is a list of the Eurovision songs that charted in the UK. Prior to this week only 4 non-winners or non UK entries made the Top 10 - in 1958, 1974 (twice) and 2014.

Now we have Norway and Finland added to that this
www.officialcharts.com/chart-news/eurovisions-highest-charting-songs-in-the-uk__26224/

Looking at the chart entries of the first 2 Voyage singles there's a lot of similarities

🔥 Both sets did best in Scandinavia, Switzerland, Belgium and UK. Less so in The Netherlands
🔥The opening week's sales for both sets very similar in the UK and the sales/streams figures too
🔥 Both Voyage singles and the Eurovision songs did badly in Australia and Latin Europe - France, Spain, Portugal, Italy.
🔥 A bit of a difference in Germany. The 2 ABBA songs made Top 5 and only one Eurovision song in German Top 10 (Loreen at #7)

The plot thickens....

Bjorn is open to the idea ofban appearance at next year's Eurovision...


eurovoix.com/2023/06/07/bjorn-ulveaus-does-not-rule-out-abba-appearance/

Yes, I did notice that. It contrasts with Grumpy Benny's "One out, all out. And I'm out". (Not exact quote 😀)

Edit: ABBA members can't win. If they attend an event they are Media Whores and if they don't they are letting fans down!

For all his Media Whoredom, there might be some benefit to Bjorn going out on a limb like this. Who knows - Benny's Grumpy Old Man routine might be susceptible to subtle and persistent erosion? If Bjorn signals that he could be persuaded to appear and then the next most likely candidate, Frida, mentions that she might be up for it, then maybe Benny could be disarmed. Agnetha remains an unknown quantity.

Personally, I'd prefer an all or nothing participation: ABBA in its entirety doing something meatier than just waving. Naturally, it'd be stupid to imagine ABBA performing live, but there are other ways to skin a cat. Something as simple as delivering the Swedish votes could be cute. If there was some new release in the offing/recently dropped, its profile would be heightened straight away. A video for a new song could be special. Hard to imagine that it wouldn't feature the ABBAtars in some shape or form. Ultimately, this rolls us all back to mid-2021 when all we could do was daydream and speculate while unknown shenanigans were going on in secrecy.

What's the betting on all of the other Swedish winners doing an ABBA medley in the opening sequence, or as part of the interval act? All four members of ABBA seated in some "royal box" scenario, smiling beatifically and waving regally, while Graham Norton delivers some semi-b1tchy platitude?