|
Post by MG on Apr 14, 2022 11:33:25 GMT 1
Happy birthday OAfSCers!!!
|
|
Wys
4 points
they/them
1,515
1,865
down down in my doomsday blues
|
Post by Wys on Apr 14, 2022 11:38:09 GMT 1
I can’t believe I’ve been in this contest (and OAmSC too) for just over a year now
|
|
165
270
FATHER FORGIVEEEE MEEEE
|
Post by Tommy on Jul 3, 2022 11:05:29 GMT 1
Hi, as I'm trying to enter for my first edition I'm not sure how exactly the process works. Any help with knowing how to confirm properly (I replied under the confirmations post wanting Western Sahara, is that enough or not?) and how to send my song properly would be very much appreciated!
Thanks in advance, Tommy (the hopeful Western Sahara HoD who originally wanted Botswana haha)
|
|
|
Post by MG on Jul 3, 2022 12:49:53 GMT 1
Hi, as I'm trying to enter for my first edition I'm not sure how exactly the process works. Any help with knowing how to confirm properly (I replied under the confirmations post wanting Western Sahara, is that enough or not?) and how to send my song properly would be very much appreciated! Thanks in advance, Tommy (the hopeful Western Sahara HoD who originally wanted Botswana haha) Btw Congo Brazzaville Mauritania just became free if you want a better country. Confirmations process is easy, just write in the thread that you confirm with a country that is free. Regarding the submissions, it’s the same, you just need to post an eligible entry in the thread. If something is wrong with you confirmation you will usually be notified about that either in private or quoted in the thread.
|
|
165
270
FATHER FORGIVEEEE MEEEE
|
Post by Tommy on Jul 4, 2022 10:21:51 GMT 1
Hi, as I'm trying to enter for my first edition I'm not sure how exactly the process works. Any help with knowing how to confirm properly (I replied under the confirmations post wanting Western Sahara, is that enough or not?) and how to send my song properly would be very much appreciated! Thanks in advance, Tommy (the hopeful Western Sahara HoD who originally wanted Botswana haha) Btw Congo Brazzaville Mauritania just became free if you want a better country. Confirmations process is easy, just write in the thread that you confirm with a country that is free. Regarding the submissions, it’s the same, you just need to post an eligible entry in the thread. If something is wrong with you confirmation you will usually be notified about that either in private or quoted in the thread. Thank you for the advice! Strangely, I'd rather stick with Western Sahara than Mauritania but I've replied in the confirmations thread making it explicitly clear that the country I'd like is free so I'll wait and see what happens. Thanks again!
|
|
|
Post by youreurovisionoff on Aug 10, 2022 12:32:12 GMT 1
Hi guys! Helper graphic designer for Your Eurovision here! I've been following this contest for a while and I'm really happy to finally be applying. I suggested some songs to the South African player, but have since read the announcement about participating countries and artists and it has left me a bit confused. It has been suggested that white songwriters and artists have some sort of advantage over black performers and as such are not welcome at the contest as the contest was made in a different spirit. I find this extremely troublesome as I am the HoD for South Africa in Your Eurovision and I have sent both black and white artists to represent South Africa to great success. My predecessor mostly chose white Afrikaans-speaking South Africans, whereas I have created an entire national final called Ingoma that has introduced black, white, coloured and Indian South Africans, at least 8 of the 11 official languages of South Africa throughout the editions and I cannot wrap my head around the suggestion that white Africans are not African enough to participate in OAfSC. I believe this policy would be more than borderline racist and if we are gonna follow such racial segregations, then North Africans shouldn't participate either. Afrikaners did come from the Netherlands, but their culture and language is now completely separate and includes many mixed race and fully assimilated black people as well. The same goes for English-speaking South Africans. Monark is a famous band in South Africa, that does not cater to a white-specific demographic, they have fans of all creeds. Moreover, if you were worried about certain countries having the upper hand you shouldn't have started this contest in the first place. Africa is a continent with the biggest inequality within countries and between them. It is inevitable that Nigeria, South Africa, Morocco, Ghana etc. have a advantage against the Central African Republic - they have a huge music and media industry, have human rights and are not in the middle of a raging military conflict. If this really is a policy that discourages non-black performers I wish to motion for it to be pulled, as Africa is far too diverse of a continent for such a disgusting rule to be in place. Hope I didn't cause too much offense by saying this. Regards from Croatia
|
|
|
Post by hayashi 🇺🇦🇵🇸 on Aug 10, 2022 13:54:47 GMT 1
Who said white acts aren't welcome in the contest? They're still allowed to participate aside from the melanieditions and I'm guessing those only come once in a while.
|
|
Dylan
Moderator
he/him
12,344
29,252
Free Palestine🖤❤️🤍💚
|
Post by Dylan on Aug 10, 2022 14:15:27 GMT 1
Hi guys! Helper graphic designer for Your Eurovision here! I've been following this contest for a while and I'm really happy to finally be applying. I suggested some songs to the South African player, but have since read the announcement about participating countries and artists and it has left me a bit confused. It has been suggested that white songwriters and artists have some sort of advantage over black performers and as such are not welcome at the contest as the contest was made in a different spirit. I find this extremely troublesome as I am the HoD for South Africa in Your Eurovision and I have sent both black and white artists to represent South Africa to great success. My predecessor mostly chose white Afrikaans-speaking South Africans, whereas I have created an entire national final called Ingoma that has introduced black, white, coloured and Indian South Africans, at least 8 of the 11 official languages of South Africa throughout the editions and I cannot wrap my head around the suggestion that white Africans are not African enough to participate in OAfSC. I believe this policy would be more than borderline racist and if we are gonna follow such racial segregations, then North Africans shouldn't participate either. Afrikaners did come from the Netherlands, but their culture and language is now completely separate and includes many mixed race and fully assimilated black people as well. The same goes for English-speaking South Africans. Monark is a famous band in South Africa, that does not cater to a white-specific demographic, they have fans of all creeds. Moreover, if you were worried about certain countries having the upper hand you shouldn't have started this contest in the first place. Africa is a continent with the biggest inequality within countries and between them. It is inevitable that Nigeria, South Africa, Morocco, Ghana etc. have a advantage against the Central African Republic - they have a huge music and media industry, have human rights and are not in the middle of a raging military conflict. If this really is a policy that discourages non-black performers I wish to motion for it to be pulled, as Africa is far too diverse of a continent for such a disgusting rule to be in place. Hope I didn't cause too much offense by saying this. Regards from Croatia Sorry, but this is ridiculous lmao. It is not racist to ask that certain countries not send white singers from time to time. Specifically, nobody is suggesting that this rule makes white Afrikaans-speaking South Africans not "African enough" to participate in OAfSC. The South African delegation can send these singers in most editions since they are from South Africa. You've overreacted towards this rule, in fact I don't think you understand how these new special editions work tbh. Also don't make the point about North Africans please, it's invalid and irrelevant. Sincerely, head of delegation of Tunisia, a country in the region you mentioned
|
|
|
Post by youreurovisionoff on Aug 10, 2022 14:39:58 GMT 1
Thank you for replying! Now this is certainly reasonable! I hated when South Africa was only represented by white performers in the beginning of YE as well. The post singled out Monark as part of the problem and that just wasn't sensical as they are as South African as one can be. And to the North African point, I've unfortunately come across many North Africans who'd prefer the Arab identity to the African one so I was merely making that suggestion, not endorsing it. Sincerely, M (P.S. you're lucky, Tunisia has some talent!)
|
|
Chante™
NBU Council
they/them
3,587
8,488
Aijā, aijā / Saldā miegā
|
Post by Chante™ on Aug 10, 2022 22:29:00 GMT 1
Hi guys! Helper graphic designer for Your Eurovision here! I've been following this contest for a while and I'm really happy to finally be applying. I suggested some songs to the South African player, but have since read the announcement about participating countries and artists and it has left me a bit confused. It has been suggested that white songwriters and artists have some sort of advantage over black performers and as such are not welcome at the contest as the contest was made in a different spirit. I find this extremely troublesome as I am the HoD for South Africa in Your Eurovision and I have sent both black and white artists to represent South Africa to great success. My predecessor mostly chose white Afrikaans-speaking South Africans, whereas I have created an entire national final called Ingoma that has introduced black, white, coloured and Indian South Africans, at least 8 of the 11 official languages of South Africa throughout the editions and I cannot wrap my head around the suggestion that white Africans are not African enough to participate in OAfSC. I believe this policy would be more than borderline racist and if we are gonna follow such racial segregations, then North Africans shouldn't participate either. Afrikaners did come from the Netherlands, but their culture and language is now completely separate and includes many mixed race and fully assimilated black people as well. The same goes for English-speaking South Africans. Monark is a famous band in South Africa, that does not cater to a white-specific demographic, they have fans of all creeds. Moreover, if you were worried about certain countries having the upper hand you shouldn't have started this contest in the first place. Africa is a continent with the biggest inequality within countries and between them. It is inevitable that Nigeria, South Africa, Morocco, Ghana etc. have a advantage against the Central African Republic - they have a huge music and media industry, have human rights and are not in the middle of a raging military conflict. If this really is a policy that discourages non-black performers I wish to motion for it to be pulled, as Africa is far too diverse of a continent for such a disgusting rule to be in place. Hope I didn't cause too much offense by saying this. Regards from Croatia Hi there. Host of this contest here. I've taken time to read over this multiple times while coming up with a response that I deem fit to share. I really don't agree with most of what you shared in your rant. Firstly, I never made any specific comments about white artists having an advantage over BIPOC artists. This feels like something you assumed when I introduced these special editions. Those editions are one offs that I'll introduce from time to time. It's made because it feels like the "African" part of this contest is being used as a loophole. An example of this is when The Gambia tried sending "Are You Lonely", which has Alan Walker, Steve Aoki, and ISÁK. ISÁK is a trio, where only one of the members is related to The Gambia. Of five people credited as performers of the song, only one is related to the continent of Africa. As the person who runs the contest, I have the right to deny songs from participating if I feel like they aren't within the rules I've set up. In this edition, you have white performers like Kongstead and Merk & Kremont. If I wanted to, as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, I could send Lenay, who has represented Minnesota twice in Own USAVision. I give an edition's notice if there is some kind of contingency for the next edition. The one time so far where there has been a rule about artists participating, we got the strongest edition the contest has ever seen, with OAfSC 11. This to me is further vindication that these special editions are a good idea, and they will continue to be a thing, just not a permanent rule change. I only made them when I saw the contest beginning to run away from my personal ethos, which was to create this contest to highlight African music. In the contest world, when you have full reign on what nations you can select, more often than not, you'll just get the same cast (Europe + Japan, South Korea, USA, Canada, Brazil) with some people feeling spicy, and taking nations to send big name artists with minimal ties there. The best example I can think of is people taking Antigua and Barbuda just to send Au/Ra (in 14 participation in Own Americavision, she has been sent 6 times for A&B, 43% of the time). Another example is when Festival of Miracles had an edition where participants had to take a nation that had yet to participate. Of the 40 nations that were chosen, 17 were African, with another 14 that were still available to be selected. That's a total of 31 nations out of 54, which is 57% of African nations that weren't participants at some point in the 49 editions that contest had. If you take away the African nations I debuted since I started in e41, there would have been 38 African nations that weren't showcased in any capacity, which is over 70% of African nations. That's not even including nations like Reunion, Mayotte, and Western Sahara that aren't considered nations. I made this contest to highlight African music because our Eurocentric contest community seems to not want to unless forced to do so. When people seem to take this contest and take the piss out of my ideals, I have to rein it back in. Otherwise, I won't feel good about hosing my own contest. Secondly, the idea of the Maghrebi nations not participating is wild. These contests are all geography based. If it was a cultural based contest, there wouldn't be enough participants to justify continuing to host the contest. I was largely inspired by the AfriMusic Song Contest, which is Africa's answer to Eurovision. In the 2018 edition, Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia all sent in entries, with Egypt having 3 that made it to the national selections stage. If I'm basing my contest on this, why would I deny their participation? While I'm on the topic of AfriMusic, I'm going to harken back to the first point. South Africa placed seventh with Kylie Unsworth, a white woman. It would be wild for me to base my contest on AfriMusic, and then not allow white participants when that happened. Anyways, back to this point. I know we have the Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa and Guam in Own Americavision and not Own USAVision, but that's because we did that before OUSC was announced, and now it would just be unfair to the HoDs to move their nations to another contest. That's why Algeria, Egypt and Morocco didn't participate in OAfSC 1. Culturally, they fit more with Own Asiavision, but there simply isn't enough room to move them in without completely ruining the balance of the contest. And at the end of the day, it is all fictional. It doesn't have to make logistical sense if we don't want it to. Kind of like when someone threw a fit about Northvision 33 being hosted in Batumi instead of Tbilisi. Thirdly, Monark is just an example who won. I'm not singling them out. It is just something worth mentioning over the course of the contest. When I made the announcement before edition 10 was over, only one of the winners was fully African. That was Monark (Hawa Boussim was listed as one, but it turns out the version of the song she performed was a remix done by Dino Cirone, a white man from Italy). The only winner without a white artist credited was the Seychellois winner. It feels wild that only two winners now are fully African and don't have a white performer credited. Especially considering how much good music you can find with just a little look at sources outside our Westernised ones. It feels harder to find collabs like Fuel Fandango and Amadou & Mariam for all nations than it is to find good native talent. You really have to jump through hoops to find stuff like the aforementioned Alan Walker and Steve Aoki collab for The Gambia. Fourthly, the idea that some nations have an advantage is true of all continents. Are you saying that Own Asiavision should be split up so that China, Japan, South Korea and Australia aren't dominating over nations like Brunei, New Caledonia, the Solomon Islands and Palau? Are you saying that Own Americavision should be split up so that Canada, the USA, Brazil and Mexico aren't dominating over nations like Turks and Caicos, Bermuda, Saint Kitts and Nevis and Saint Lucia? Are you saying that Own Eurovision should be split up so that France, Sweden, the UK and Germany aren't dominating over nations like Montenegro, North Macedonia, Gibraltar and Liechtenstein? Are you saying that Own USAvision should be split up so that Tennesee, New York, California and Georgia aren't dominating over states like Wyoming, Vermont, Maine and South Dakota? Unless you keep that energy for all contests, I don't want to hear it. At the end of the day, your arguments all just reek of " I'm not racist, but". The specific inclusion of your national final, good for you. Don't see why you'd need to bring it up unless you want to have a reason to justify your bad faith arguments. The white Africans not being African enough is just something you made up. The splitting up of the Maghreb from the rest of Africa is just something to justify your bad faith arguments. Is there some merit in what you said? Yes. Am I going to completely alter my contest based off of what some unnamed bit character to this contest said? Absolutely not. Since the first thing that appears in Google when you type "Why is Africa so" is "backwards", then I feel like it is my responsibility to prop up those native cultures to not be washed away by the Eurocentric music taste the Song Contest world has. As someone who's had to adjust to multiple cultures that I didn't fit into (a white person in Japan, and then a Japanese person into the Midwestern U*A), I know how hard it is to keep cultures alive when there isn't anything helping out. The dangers that are commonly shared with us about Africa are just remnants of colonialism. I am very proud of this contest, and I want to make more people in this Eurocentric world aware of the sonic wonders that comes out of places that aren't in the forefronts of our minds, not just Africa. I'll fight to promote Ainu culture positively. I'll fight to showcase Kanaky culture positively. I'll fight to promote African culture positively. Everything I do for this contest is all about this. The devils advocacy which you did is honestly really gross. Every single thing you said could be prefaced with the phrase I mentioned at the beginning of this paragraph, and the way it comes across would be just the same. Also, please never talk about a culture if you've never been immersed in it. Spending time with both the Nigerian community and Congolese community in my town made me want to rewrite not just my personal notions of African culture, but as many other people as I could. The comments you made clearly are by someone who's never interacted with Africans outside of the portrayals in media, which are loaded in stereotypes. I hope that everything I said makes sense, and that I don't have to spend another 40 minutes or so typing up something like this as a response to anything again. Now, I'll leave you with this.
|
|