Off-Topic / WWWSC General Discussion

[nijat]

I was late to submit my wishes for the 10th anniversary of the WWWSC, so let's write them down here

I was invited to the contest by a former Turkish player Emre on a Eurovision fan group in Facebook approximately 8 years ago in September, 2013. Back then we used to communicate with Mimis through an Azerbaijani email platform box.az which nobody really needs nowadays
I have been a different person back then - a teenager newly graduating from high school, also with a completely different taste in music; the contest was vastly nonidentical too - the semi-final rule was recently introduced and there was a distinct form of musical diversity in comparison with today. These eight years not only saw my personal growth, but also that of the contest - and frankly, at this point the sheer idea of leaving the contest permanently sounds unimaginable to me, despite an increasingly busy schedule. Of course, continual hard and creative work of the hosts Mimis and Florian play an important role in that, without such ceaseless efforts, my interest would have probably died down a long time ago.

My philosophy in this contest was to represent musical diversity of my home country, as I have been representing Azerbaijan, and not myself. I have done my best to submit alternative and mainstream musical genres alike; not sure how liked these attempts have been by the participants, but at least I tried. Indeed, I've received the same musical diversity back: without this contest, I would have probably not had an opportunity to listen from indigenous music of say, for instance, Taiwan and Philippines (which are culturally distant to ours) to globally known pop music (which I do not usually listen to in my everyday life). In my opinion, this is one of the best dimensions of this contest: musical exchange between countries across all continents, and collaborative process of learning from one another.

For all these reasons, I want to thank the hosts on the 10th anniversary of the WWW Song Contest. I wish continued success, many more years of togetherness and longevity to the WWWSC and its sub-contests Retro WWWSC and Themed WWWSC (not to mention considerable efforts from Jasna, thanks a lot as well!). I appreciate all the work you have been doing from the start, and hope the contest will be full of accomplishments in the long run as well. To many more birthdays, enjoy this occasion

[Laurinda]

In the video, I didn't have the opportunity to express everything so here comes my essay.

In 2010 I found MelodyVision. It was because I was looking for a song and that channel had posted it. I probably had a video suggested and I stumbled across a recap. I was wondering, "What is this?" There seemed to be countries, songs, and people who submitted them. But then I saw Slovenia and realized, that I can't take part. From time to time I still checked if Slovenia was free, but it never was.

A while later I was contacted to take part in an online Song Contest called WWW Song Contest (probably because one of the hosts saw my ESC video). All communication from my side was done via YouTube so all those messages are unfortunately long gone. We used this website where all the songs would be listed and in the first editions, it was the only way to vote. You could comment on peoples' profiles (to congratulate them or to comment on their entries). It was a very lovely community from the start.

My current self looking back at my past self is really mad because my-2011-self thought I'd have to stop participating due to a severe lack of (competitive) entries. But boy, I was so wrong. I always have waaay more entries that I can send. I had to change my criteria of what to send over the years or I'd be just overwhelmed with the sheer amount of possibilities.

The voting has changed significantly too. In the early editions, I opened all the songs and listened to them in full-length. Removed the tabs until I got my top 10 and then re-arranged them in the voting order. Eventually, I had to just listen to the top 15 in full-length, and finally, I just vote listening to the recap. There was a time I was in 10 contests at once, and it was completely unrealistic to listen to everything.

There have been so many players over the years I still reminisce about. All the memories we've made together are priceless and are going to stay with me even if the players are gone.

I'm honored to have been allowed into the WWW Song Contest Council, even if I don't have a say when it comes to WWW It's good to vent to other hosts sometimes

Looking at the times I wanted to (rage) quit hosting Retro for whatever reason it's absolutely mind boggling you managed to host the contest for a decade without interruptions and with reasonable breaks. The contest wasn't on hiatus a single time during the whole decade. Hats off to both of you. I find it inspiring how well you work in tandem. It's very hard to find someone that you can work well with for such a long time. You're like Rhett & Link of the online song contests . There are so many contests where it's just one host (FoM, FoIM, Retro) or with big councils. And then there are you two.

Everything that has been done is there and will stay there. This legacy cannot be taken away. If it won't stay on the internet then in our hearts.

---

As for the video project
I told everyone not to say anything to the hosts, but I meant, "Don't tell anything about the project." People could still congratulate or write essays
Everyone went so silent to the point that made it suspicious
Anywho, if you didn't have time last week, forgot or any other reason, please, feel free to share your thoughts

[Dylan]

hi! so first off, sorry for missing the show last night - I was caught up with other things and realized it may have been too late to join, but I did watch the video that Jasna made right after it was posted. First off, congrats Laurinda on a stunning and very cute video - it was so nice to see different testimonies from different participants of the contest, including mine. Its hard to believe really that the contest has been running for this long - 10 years is insane! In fact, this contest is as old as the forum itself is, which really says a lot. Great work to those who got involved in the video, especially those who recorded their testimonies which I found amazing (I would've done so myself but I was kinda late submitting my few words, typical Dylan I suppose : bebe : ).

WWWSC was my first real contest that I participated in. I participated in one before being asked by Mimis to join WWWSC but it wasn't with Ireland. This contest was the first contest where I could take part with my own country, which at first seemed like a challenge as I have never actually searched for songs from Ireland before when I joined. My debut entry didn't go quite well, but I still remember the final of the 20th edition and how my favourite, Armenia, managed to win. I just knew back then that I wasn't going to leave the contest, as it was fun and really introduced me into the world of online song contests, which I am very glad it did - as 8 years on I consider this forum as a second home.

I've met many different users along the way through this contest, some of whom have been in the contest since the very beginning and are still here now. Although I don't often communicate with some of you nowadays, I'm still very happy to participate in this contest and show off my favourite Irish songs, regardless of whether or not people have seen them in contests before. I've discovered songs from my country that I wouldn't have discovered otherwise and songs from around the world that I continue to listen to to this day. A prime example would be one of my all-time favourite songs from the contest, Game Over by Vitaa and Gims which represented France all the way back in 2013-14, in the 26th edition. A special shoutout to Blandine for many French songs that I have discovered because of this contest - as you know I have lived and studied in France and I will hopefully become a secondary school teacher with the language in the near future, so its always nice to have some material to listen to!

I joined the contest when I was 14 years old and I'm still competing now when I'm turning 23 soon, which... on the one hand is mad to think about but on the other hand it really does go to show you how long this contest has been running for and how well both of our hosts Mimis and Florian have hosted it over the years. There have been times where I have considered taking a break, which is natural, however I haven't withdrawn once since my debut in the 20th edition. Which means that I have been participating now for almost 75 editions straight.. I'm surprised I even found 75 Irish songs to compete with! okay I'm joking about that one, our music industry is actually quite good.

I have some very fond memories of the contest, including managing to win the contest 5 times. When I joined I didn't even expect to win it once. I don't mean to brag with this because I cherish each win, but I am proud of this achievement. I hope that over the past 8 years I have given people some songs from my country that they enjoyed and continue to listen to, because above all, my main goal with the contest is to showcase my favourite songs from Ireland and show all of you different sides of the Irish music industry. I am glad that I have been able to send songs in Irish, my 2nd language, and have them be appreciated by others as the language doesn't really get that much exposure in song contests except if its from Celtic Woman. (at least that's how I see it - and yes, I have sent them before!)

This is getting a bit long so I will just close it by saying thank you to our hosts and to all other players who have made this contest special. It has been running for 10 years now, and I hope that it will run for many more years to come. I also have to congratulate Jasna for her incredible work with Retro WWW Song Contest over the past few years and I was glad to take part there as well. We're now going onto the 93rd edition of the WWW Song Contest and I can't wait until we reach #100! I'll surely be there to participate.

Táim an-sásta a bheith anseo libh agus tá súil agam go mbeidh mé sa chomórtas go gceann tamall fada.

- Dylan, Irish participant since 2013.

[balint]

Time for an essay from Hungary too as I'm getting nostalgic.
But first thanks Jasna for collecting those tribute messages, I've had fun creating mine. Though I got kinda frustrated while filming it (which probably shows ) as I messed up many times, my words had to match the lyrics. I should have added the bloopers, you would learn some Hungarian swear words.
And it was also nice to see some faces, listening/reading your thoughts.

So back then I already participated in some contests, but they all died sooner or later. And at some point our dear Turkish friend told me about this new contest that was starting up. And I was like why not, I didn't participate with Hungary anywhere else at the time, and I knew the hosts' name already from their ESC videos (yeah, back then you couldn't find thousands of videos like that, we were the pioneers ). And I liked the idea that everyone is representing their own country, the players don't just go for victory all the time, but want to share their own music. So I joined in the last minute for the first edition, and now I can proudly say that I participated in every single edition of WWWSC! For sure no one thought at the first edition that it would last so long, all other contests stopped in a year or two tops.
In the beginning it was fun that we basically knew all the players, I still remember some of those folks. I also liked that we didn't have recaps, the players had to listen to the songs. Of course it was easier when we didn't have so many songs in one edition as these days. And sadly I don't have my youtube messages anymore, it would have been fun now to look at some of those.

If you look at the recaps of those first editions (when we already had recaps), you can see that it was way different from the current editions. There were some weird stuff, I must say. At some point everyone was just trolling, even I was once, though I wasn't really a fan of those songs. And some others sound retro now, but believe me they were great at the time. It was nice to see new countries joining all the time, you all added your own flavour.

Sure it was fun to share some good Hungarian music in the beginning, but when everyone else won already, I wanted to join the victors too. So it was frustrating when I came really close more times, but at least I had this motivation for a long time. And then I broke the ice with Hosszú idők! Which I never intended to send, I was pretty sure that it would go to ESC. The final of A Dal was one day after the submission deadline for #51, so I sent two options to the hosts from A Dal, and whichever doesn't win, it would be my song for WWWSC. My first choice was Hosszú idők of course, but I only added it for safety, just in case for some reason the juries mess up the results (as they usually did...). My second choice was Dust In The Wind by Chase, that's what you would have had if Gabi Tóth had won A Dal. But she didn't... so I ended up playing with her song. One's loss is another one's gain I guess. I remember that it was the only edition when the scoreboard didn't work, so the results were just announced from the last to the first. So it was really exciting until the end, I was getting nervous... And then it finally happened, I came on top and we went to Budapest the next edition! I was really happy to finally achieve this.

After that, I really was just playing for fun, didn't have that pressure anymore. But after a while I wanted to be successful again, and that's what I'm working on ever since.
I've had my ups and downs, but I still enjoy playing here, I always find a few great songs that I can listen to afterwards.

Over the years, WWWSC became a routine for me, whenever I heard a new Hungarian song, I was instantly thinking of its "WWWSC-potential". And I discovered many Hungarian artists/songs when I was doing some research for new songs. Even found some good indie-pop and pop-rock that you guys like, but I don't really.
And for a long time now, WWWSC is the only contest that I take part in, that also says something. (apart from not having time for more lol)

Ok, this is way too long already, so just thank you again Flor and Mimis for all your work in these 10 years, I've really liked playing with you guys, just don't mind me whenever I'm complaining over results.



P.S. adding my WWWSC-related videos (own entries and 12 pts up until #75) to the spoiler, the next episodes will probably come after #100, another huge milestone.

SPOILER: Click to show

[mimisthesc]

Okay so where do I begin from?

This really feels surreal to me and I can't even express how much I want to say right now but I will try not to write a huge essay, I promise

First of all, I would like to thank each and every one of you who either took part in Jasna's video, or joined our last night's show or basically anyone who has taken part in our contest for at least one edition - you have all left your mark and despite the disagreements and potentially the arguments we might have had, I am sure the contest wouldn't have gone so far without you. I was really astonished while watching that video, especially as I was not expecting to see people having actually recorded themselves and that really did leave me speechless. A big thank you to all of you and of course to Jasna for this surprise, which neither Florian, nor I were aware of!

When we first started this project with Florian, I was just 14, having some knowledge of how an online song contest worked but definitely not of how to manage one. I feel like throughout these 10 years, I have personally improved significantly on that aspect and I have literally grown together with it. I am now 24 and during these 10 years I graduated from high school, completed my military service, finished my first university degree and now I am about to complete my Masters degree and I really feel like I can associate each and every edition of the contest with a particular time of my life. Despite my busy schedule, which remains busy and is about to get even busier, I believe that I have gained a very important skill which is no other than time management. I know that I will find the time to check out for new entries or votes, create a recap video, prepare the images, update the wikia and all that stuff that I do (which is actually even more than what I just mentioned) and yet I will have some extra time to focus on stuff that needs to be done for my life outside the contest. I guess WWWSC is something like my child.

I am very grateful for all the wishes you shared but even more for all the support some of you have been giving us. Every single time someone is thanking us for an edition or for the contest, it feels like I'm just getting extra motivation to keep it running. I am very happy to see the WWWSC community having grown from a small group of some random YouTube accounts and a few MSN users back in the early days to a large community of people from all around the globe and I would actually be more than happy to meet many of you in real life, if we ever happen to be in the same country or whatsoever.

Each one of you definitely deserves being thanked in person but I believe there is a special reason to mention the only 3 'survivors' who have been with us since Day 1, these are  Bálint, Clive and Hannes - thank you so much for being with us since the beginning of all this! Also a huge thank you to Jasna for everything and all the efforts to make the contest grow even bigger, as well as for having come up with the idea of Retro WWWSC which she is managing perfectly well!

I guess the biggest thank you from my side has to go to a person that I might have never really met in real life, but I really consider them to be close to me and I feel as if we have known each other for ages (although we have actually known each other for not just these 10 years of the contest ) and that is of course my colleague and great friend Florian! I really couldn't have imagined having a better person to work with on such a project and it's so important to actually have someone so understanding that you can truly communicate with. I have many close friends in real life that I have gone out with, I have shared a lot of secrets with etc. and despite not having met Florian, he is definitely on one level with them.  

Thank you all again!  (for probably the 284715th time )

[fabbi]

I attended the show yesterday night, but have for most of the time stayed silent about this throughout the entire last week. That was actually not supposed to happen, but I was actually at a somewhat loss for words lol.

If I may just leave this here:
Ofc congrats to the contest and its community for the 10th anniversary. That's of course highly impressive by itself - and even more because most of these contests have died after approximately 15 editions at most. So reaching 90+ editions as well as having 2 lasting subcontests is something to be excited about.

Yesterday's show was fun, thanks again for hosting it.

[Wys]

Congratulations to Florian and Mimis for this amazing milestone for your contest! 10 years is a long time, and you can definitely be proud of yourselves for your hard work and where the contest is now being able to share music from your country is a really great opportunity and every edition I can tell amazing songs are sent every edition. And also congratulations to Jasna, for the amazing Retro WWWSC, which I participated in two times the video you made was really amazing!

Of course I do not know much about the main contest, considering I do not participate. But I can tell the contest is just a really nice and positive way to share amazing music, and that all comes down to the hosts and the participants. May the contest continue to be successful for many more editions, 100th one is coming soon

[ferrygraf]

Also reacting now finally

Thank you very much to Laurinda for your video and for organizing this incredible surprise! Huge thank you to donneylepland , willsong , Wen-hsuan , Gilberto and balint for your great video clips and messages there, it was really surprising and moving seeing you guys speaking to us 
Likewise thank you very much to Julian , xqil , Shovkovskyi/Peter , panchin , Blandine , Jozef and Dylan for your text messages in the video, and to all who posted or sent us some words and congratulations afterwards, it's really nice of all of you as well 

Ngl one gets emotional when people seem to be enjoying the contest and get so passionate about it, I guess such moments make the efforts worth it and give some new motivation. A lot has happened in the last 10 years in the world and in our lives, and WWWSC has been pretty much one of the few constant things there for me.

Surely didn't expect this contest to become so big when we started it in 2011 with 15 people, so I have to give credits to Mimis here, without him, his passion and his diligence this contest would have never come this far and wouldn't have become this big So I'll give the nice words you posted back to you
Huge thank you to Jasna too for doing a splendid job with Retro ever since you started it, it's really a fantastic sub-contest 

I couldn't have asked for better co-organizers and I value both of you a lot, especially personally

The same way I want to give credits to all our participants who have helped us build this contest and keep it going, especially those who have been with us since the early days or for many years meanwhile, there are quite a lot of these people actually, you know who you are anyway

In general thanks to everyone who currently participates in the contest or participated in it in the past, you are all a part of this journey and we appreciate it  
Despite the competitive character of contests and some disagreements or arguments we've had on some topics and occasions, it's nice to see that we have some kind of community here and that some friendships have started through it. I'm happy about that

---

Finally I would like to congratulate the forum as a whole, as it happens to be 10 years old too  

It has been an ideal platform to organize the editions and to make the contest more structured in a way, so thank you to the founders of this forums and to all admins and moderators who have kept it alive ever since 

[Chante™]

so, i'm not at all sure who at all cares about this, but i recently came across a video someone uploaded to youtube, which is a live performance of the 98th retro winner, fantasy by Nakahara Meiko, and i'm not sure how many of y'all care about me being a little sappy about growing up in Akita, but this song was one that the parents of one of my closest friends back over there would play for us, even having a video of her performing on VHS. finding this video really made me feel so nostalgic for the times i spent over at their house, mesmerised by Nakahara-san and her performance. i'm so glad that y'all liked the song enough to give it a win, and i hope this live performance can help someone to love the song more, like it did to me

[Laurinda]

tl;dr

SPOILER: Click to show

The first time Cyprus and Slovenia were together in the running order was in #11.
The odds have significantly reduced as we go on due to semi-finals (first two and then three).
The next time was in the SF of #29. Between #36 and #45 it was 3 times in the final. Nothing too unusual I'd say. In the 7th decade it was once in the semi (#68) and once in the final (#63). Nothing until the SF of #80 and then something interesting happens. Between #89 and #93 Cyprus and Slovenia appeared next to each other 4 times, while in previous 85 editions only 8 times.
Out of all appearances together 1/3 was in the last 5 editions
For more (complicated) math, ask Mimis

The first time Cyprus and Slovenia appeared together in the running order in Retro was in #18.
It repeated already in #19, but then not for over 20 editions until #40. In the same decade it happened again in #45. This reoccurred 3 times in the 6th decade. Then not for a while again until #76. But then we reach the anomaly again. Another 3 times in the 11th decade.

I don't really understand the odds here. The semis should increase the chances due to two running orders in one edition. But if we're not in the same semi in the first place then it already can't happen. Same when we're AQ. Interestingly enough we appeared together 11 times in Retro and 12 times in WWW. That would make it 9,7% in Retro and almost 13% of the editions in the main contest.
Of course I haven't checked this for every country, I just did it for Cyprus because I've been noticing this for quite some months now.

This also never happened in the first decade of any contest/sub-contest. So it was never in Themed so far.

Final summation: Cyprus and Slovenia were placed next to each other in the running order 7 times this year in WWWSC and RWWWSC alone. Is this abnormal? Is it suspicious? Probably if someone else made this post It's not like anything is gained by placing us next to each other so often. I only say this because we are in fact the ones who do the running orders with the help of Florian. He only did it a few times in Retro, but one time he helped me it also happened.

Anyway, I didn't have to make all this research, but I really wanted to make the meme however.

New map of Europe according to WWWSC running order