TRANSKRYPCJA 🔗
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Bonjour, good time, previous.
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Hello, and you know what's up means.
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That's right, it means only one thing.
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That's right, and welcome back to the D Spa podcast.
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Or should I say, Sawitika?
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And now.
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And welcome to Asia Vision.
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Woo! That's right.
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We are getting prepared.
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Asia Vision, or technically it's Eurovision Song Contest Asia 2026.
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That's right.
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Let me say that again.
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Eurovision Song Contest Asia.
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But we'll deep dive into the reason why they've decided to name this.
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Look, I'm just gonna say it's not catchy.
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It's not catching on Eurovision Song Contest Asia cannot compete with Asia Vision.
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But on the lead up to the big event, we are gonna take a deep dive into each of the 11 competing countries.
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And for all the Euro Diehards out there, you've got to understand what a shock it is to us to hear only 11 countries competing, usually Eurovision each year.
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We have to lock ourselves in for four days for what is a 9, 12, 13-hour show.
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No! This year, Asia Vision, there are 11 competing countries.
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Hopefully, we will get it done in one evening.
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We are here to give you a cheeky look at who the countries are, what's their history, how do they make their money?
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And more importantly, how do they party?
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I was supposed to effortlessly play some music, but it's been so long I cannot remember where my buttons are.
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That's what she said.
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We will be having a look at Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, Philippines, the Republic of Korea, Thailand, and Vietnam.
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My lord, it is exactly like Eurovision.
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Nobody mentioned the war.
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We're gonna take a look as we count down to this event, much more than a song contest, which has been decades in the making whilst still also being, yes, technically, a song contest.
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Nation versus nation.
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Can philosophies and ideologies meet in the middle of a giant stadium and dress itself in sequins and find the way?
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Now, all of the 11 countries have already had preliminary shows and they have all found a representative.
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Bhutan had the rhythm
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of Bhutan.
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Cambodia held Cambodia's finest voice.
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Laos had the one.
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Malaysia, they did something a little bit different.
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But again, as we come back, we're gonna do a deep dive into each of all of these countries.
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We're gonna have a look at the song contests, the history of the countries, what's brought them to this point, as well as the artists and the songs.
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Now, in Malaysia, they have the Song Champion Award, and that's an annual singing contest that's been held in Malaysia for the last 40 years.
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This year, they had the winner and went, surprise! You're going to Asia Vision.
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Woo! Mongolia had Mongolia's chosen one.
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Nepal had Nepal decides.
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Philippines, the Philippines selection night.
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Republic of Korea had Korea's next wave.
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Bless you, South Korea.
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Although, although technically you're gonna hear it referred to a lot as the Republic of Korea.
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No, we are talking about South Korea.
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Although, wouldn't it be interesting if North Korea did compete?
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And when I say North Korea compete, of course it would be Kim Yong.
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He does everything else single-handedly in the country.
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If you are to believe the film.
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So of course, oh look, you know what?
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I am very sure there is someone putting together a film right now that is going to be released on November the 15th, announcing to the people of North Korea that Kim Yong-un has won Asia Vision 2026.
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He doesn't even need to compete.
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He is already the winner.
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Yay! Thailand had Thailand's chosen one.
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There can be only one.
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Vietnam had the sound of Vietnam.
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Now, all of this is happening on Saturday, the 14th of November, 2026, at the One Bangkok Forum.
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Now, originally the contest was to be held at the Idea Live Stadium.
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That has a capacity of 4,000.
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The new venue, however, has a 6,000-person capacity.
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But oh my lord.
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Can you smell the controversy?
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That's right, it wouldn't be Eurovision without some controversy.
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AsiaVision hasn't even happened yet and it is already steeped in controversy.
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For once, nobody is blaming Israel for.
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But Philippines media started covering a story which was actually published in the Swedish newspaper Aftunblad, who claimed that the show's 4.5 million dollar budget.
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That's right, 4.5 million dollars.
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That is less than Lithuania spends on sequins in a single year.
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4.5 million dollar budget had already been slashed down to$1 million.
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It missed rumors that the show was going to be postponed or even cancelled.
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But a huge chunk of that budget was going to be on work performed behind the stage or off the screen.
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Originally it was planned for a large contingent of European workers to fly to Thailand to help perform a lot of the stage and camera work and things behind the scenes.
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But that number of foreign workers apparently has been slashed.
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Now it's down to just a very small core team of Europeans undertaking key roles.
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Whilst the majority of hand-on work will now be done by local production crews.
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This could be a budgetary constraint.
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This could also be the local teams and unions, and I think quite rightly throwing a little hissy fit saying, why is this great opportunity being handed to overseas workers?
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The local Thai crews were certainly within their right to push back.
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But a lot of people saw this as a sign that the end is near.
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Eurovision, however, went to social media to squash the rumors, saying the inaugural Eurovision song contest, Asia, just call it AsiaVision, will take place as planned in Bangkok on the 14th of November.
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Extensive work has gone into preparing the contest, and our production team and partners are focused on delivering a high-quality live show.
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We have full confidence in our local team whose wealth of experience producing world-class entertainment events underpins that commitment.
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It continued, we're proud to be creating jobs and opportunities for local and regional talent and businesses, contributing to the local economy and showcasing the region's creative and production expertise.
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We look forward to welcoming audiences to Bangkok for a celebration of Asia's artist songs and talent.
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So yeah, I think that might be a fancy way of saying we tried to push in and the local team said null poah.
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So the preview show will be on the 13th of November and the main event on the 14th of November.
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And what I find crazy is that tickets are still actually available to purchase.
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I guess, I guess with the fear that it wasn't gonna go ahead and all the plans of it being talked, people just didn't go ahead and book their travels.
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To be honest, it kind of the year got away from me.
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It didn't even occur to me to fly to Thailand for Asia Vision 2026.
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And honestly, I am kicking myself now.
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Now, on the website, there is a variety of tickets still available.
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The stadium is split over two levels.
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Now, there are still general admission seats available for$50 US.
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So I think that's about$75 Australian.
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So those are just general admission seats, mainly on the first floor.
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Kind of towards the back.
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It's a feeding frenzy.
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It depends how quickly you want to get to the door.
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The second options are basically the so the second row, the seated options.
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There's still actually some really good seats available.
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If you want to sit right at the very front, those tickets are$150 US.
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Or if you don't mind a few little heads in front of you, you can get it for$75 if you want to sit in the nosebleeds.
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Of course, all those prices are USD.
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And for those who need them, there are still accessible seats available.
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There are three! And they are$75 USD as well.
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So you know what?
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Hey, if you're able to get a cheap flight between now and then to Bangkok, I say book it in and you can still have the time of your life.
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But hey, I'm just a lady boy standing in front of a song contest, asking it to love her.
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Now, for those interested, you can actually find all of the country's selection performances online.
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You might want to measure your enthusiasm on that.
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One of the criticisms has been with basically I'm most of the live shows, is there has very much been some technical, mainly sound quality issues.
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Not a reflection on the performers or the singers themselves, but there were definitely some mic and sounding issues.
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They've assured us that all of this is gonna be worked out before the main event.
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Now, over the coming days, we are pretty much gonna divide one episode to one country.
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Have a little bit of a deep dive.
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That is some of these countries.
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That's a lot of history to compress into a couple of minutes, but because I am a nerdily cool person, I am gonna do that for you.
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We're also gonna go through some of the songs I've actually put up on Spotify.
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Dispoir podcast Asia Vision.
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On there, I've put the songs that will be in Asia Vision.
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I've also included some of the biggest hits from some of the performers, just to give you a little bit of taste of what they'll be bringing.
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Now we are gonna discover all of these songs.
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Again, what I'll do is I'll put the actual song discussion at the end of the episode.
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So if you just want to learn a little bit more about the country, its origins, its history, how it treats women and the gay community, you can listen to that first.
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It gives you great conversation points around the cocktail tray, and then you can decide whether or not you want to hear more about the performer and the song.
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Now, I've actually listened to all of these songs, and honestly, I'm not just saying this for the five people listening.
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You are gonna be so surprised.
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There is some genuine surprises, there is some absolute bangers, and I'm so excited to be here for the very first Asia Vision.
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Also known as Eurovision Song Contest, Asia 2026.
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Grab your wet towel it's it's time.