Banning Gate[]
Banning gate is an issue that occured during the contest in Manchester. During the contest two users, Alecto and 007-11 were banned from the Digital Spy Forums. The reasons for this are not entirely clear, though Alecto has stated that Digital Spy 'thought we were the same person'. Both continued the contest via e-mail. After the contest it turned out that the winner was 007-11 with the song 'Sinead' by Within Temptation for Luxembourg. Because he was banned he could not host the next contest. According to the rules hosting duties then go to the player who finished in second position, which in this case was 21stCenturyBoy with the song 'How About That' by Isis Gee for Poland. 21stCenturyBoy did not wish to host the contest twice in a row and the hosting duties were then offered to the player coming in third. This player was Poeme with the song 'Action Man' by Hafdis Hulde for Iceland but she rejected hosting duties due to a holiday. The next player in line, coming in 4th was Alecto with the song 'Dirsi Che è Normale' by Nicolas Bonazzi for Italy. Alecto, however, was also banned and couldn't host either. Hosting duties were then offered to Saturn who finished fifth with 'Undo Your Mind' by Eivør Pálsdóttir. Saturn accepted hosting duties and the contest was brought to the small city of Tórshavn on the Faroe Islands.
007-11 still plays via e-mail, and Alecto left the competition for good in Tórshavn.
It later transpired that Alecto, 007-11, Diorhomeboy, fleeflyflow, Felix the Dog, Poeme and some others involved with DSFE all knew other and were in contact. Amazingly, they all made exactly the same spelling and grammatical errors and had the same writing style. It was during Fantasy Eurovision 13 in Helsingborg that this became apparent, after host Youngswede noticed patterns among 2 usernames (Felix the dog and Fleeflyflow) voting for each others' songs, and similarities in the way they sent their messages, and that they sent their votes within two minutes of each other. This led Youngswede to make a public accusation on the board. It later became apparent that a third username (Poeme) was also involved in this voting bloc, however she was only publicly revealed after discussions among previous hosts to see if Poeme had been involved in voting blocks in the past. All this resulted in the five countries these three usernames had being disqualified from the competition, interestingly this included the host country, and the country who received the most points in the final (Greenland), along with Andorra, Slovakia and Portugal.
The three consistently awarded points to each other throughout the contest including Poeme giving her 8, 10 and 12 to Felix the dog's and Fleeflyflows' countries in the final, interestingly though in the final, Felix and FFF gave no points to Portugal, one of Poeme's countries, however gave points to her other country Sweden, and to each others'.
It was revealed the next day that Felix the Dog and Fleeflyflow are a couple, and Poeme is one of their mothers. They still deny voting together, and claim this incident has put them off competing again.
The Silent Majority[]
The Silent Majority is a group of players who vote and play in the contest but don't publicly give out their opinions about the songs. If an entry gets praise by everyone giving their opinions about the songs, and the entry still falls before the final, the silent majority is usually blamed. The silent majority is also responsible if an entry which is loathed by the reviewers has done (relatively) well, this can lead to phrases such as 'WHAT?! MALTA?!'.
Hackneyed Artists[]
Hackneyed artist are artists that have been entered into DSFE four or more times. These artists often result in outcries like "Oh them again" during the initial reveals of the entries. Because these artists lack a certain freshness it may impair their ability to score really well in a contest.
Slutpop[]
Slutpop is defined as a song, often with questionable lyrics and a classically Europop backing track, performed by a woman whose image is very much based on camp imagery and provocative clothing. Seen as the antidote to the more serious elements of the contest, Slutpop is yet to produce a winning entry, but it's influence on the contest is indisputible, with several sub-genres being spawned (including gigolo-pop and cougar-pop).
The concept of slutpop has been present since the first contest in Dublin. In fact the very first entry ever released: 'Ani Ani' by Anjeza Branka for Albania, which commenced with a minute-long striptease on a truck and some random dude screaming 'Oh my god', was very much a slutpop entry. Unfortunately for Anjeza, she didn't manage to qualify for the final. The slutpop movement wasn't awoken and slutpop entries in the following contest were shot down and didn't reach the final. These entries include Andreea Balan in Oslo who actually physically rubbed her own genitals in the video for 'Trippin'. The movement didn't achieve notability until the 6th contest, held in Manchester. In that edition, one slutpop diva turned it all around. Her name: Isis Gee, representing Poland. With Gee achieving an impressive 2nd place with 250 with her song How About That!, somewhat of a revolution was started. The public opinion about slutpop shifted, and people started to encourage slutpop. kvn is seen as the fairy godmother of all that is slutpop and defends and supports every entry in the genre. In the 11th contest slutpop returned to the center stage with the self-proclaimed Queen of Disaster, Jelene Karleusa or 'JK' for Serbia. This was not encouraged by the host JordanC55 and despite her best efforts voters didn't pick up the phone just because Jelena exposed most of her breasts.
The Euan Sham[]
The Euan Sham refers to the drama that happened during the 55th contest in St. Helier. Several players were banned by the Digital Spy forum, and they all turned out to be the same person (The first of which was EuanDesu). The person behind this was very committed to each of the accounts and their separate personality. Later this player took the time to insult the players of DSFE that in their eyes was responsible for their demise. It is unclear whether this person is mentally ill.
The Euan Sham initially led to new players being questioned as if they were probably the player behind the multiple accounts. It is not known whether Euan has ever returned to the contest.
The Microstate Dilemma[]
As more and more contests have taken place; it has become evident that so called 'microstates' have had an advantage over other countries, as they could choose a song from any of their neighbours (sometimes up to 3 major countries), in any language.
Microstates in the contest have included:
Other states with small populations in the contest have included:
In an effort to stop this advantage, kvn, the host of the 9th contest in Bratislava, implemented rules for individual microstates:
Andorra – The artist must be either Andorran or born in a province of Catalonia, Spain (Barcelona, Girona, Lleida or Tarragona)
- Monaco – Monaco are free to enter ALL French artists. However, no other nationalities are eligible to represent Monaco, this includes an artist featuring in a duet with a French artist *cough Tom Dice cough*
- Faroe Islands – There must be a Faroese artist featured on the entry. Unlike Monaco, artists from other countries can feature on the entry.
- San Marino – San Marino are free to enter ANY Italian artist into the contest.
- Liechtenstein – Liechtenstein are allowed to enter artists from the German speaking areas of Switzerland, bear with me (Aargau, Appenzell Ausserrhoden, Appenzell Innerrhoden, Basel, Glarus, Lucerne, Nidwalden, Obwalden, Schaffhausen, Schwyz, Solothurn, St. Gallen,Thurgau, Uri, Zug, Zurich)
Many forum members have expressed a desire to stop microstates participating at all, however, most seem content with the rules implemented in the 9th contest.