Eurovision

[CraigC]

Bottom three?

With a choice between the Revelations 60s poppy Eurovision sound (who looked good too, potential top third) or Simona Armstrong delivering quirky-rock (exactly the sort of thing that scores well nowadays, plus guaranteed maximum from the Romanian jury) the Great British public opted for the ex-Eastenders actress vs the X-factor runner-up.
Andy Abraham's bland sub-Lighthouse Family number that won is exactly the sort of thing that fails at Eurovision. As I said, bottom three.

Fortunately the whole spectacle is a total farce so it's difficult to care too much.

I have to agree there, Craig.
I've heard that the Irish entry is to be a singing turkey. :o

My bet is that Andy Abrahams' bland effort will prove to be an even bigger turkey and finish below it.

Bottom three for definite. ::)

[NigelS]

I did watch it, as you know from my Eurovision quiz i like a bit of Eurovision.

I thought Andy's song was good and he is a great singer, but agree it may not be Eurovisiony enough to make an impact, and propably Michelle Gayle's effort may have done better (even though I think the song had only three words - woo, yeah, woo)

Yes Ireland is to be represented by a Turkey, there was a clip of it on Saturday.

And Wogan got the winner right this year, and Claudia Winkleman looked great!

[Chris_Sav]

It doesn't matter how good the song is, the partzan voting system, with the large number of voing Eastern countries that used to be states of the same country, means that we will be in the bottom few on the majority of years.

Not of interest to me nowadays.

Sav

So how do we ever win Eurovision again (if ever we want to really try rather than perpetually going through the motions) ?
And while we continue to be so half-hearted about it, why bother at all as all we get is perpetual humiliation ?

We know that years ago genuine talent did win - eg Abba, Celine Dion, and the visual Bucks Fizz (though musically they didn't amount to much).

But as Sav says, the goalposts have been changed with the fragmentation of the USSR and Yugoslavia into extra countries which providing they are not actually at war with each other are going to vote for each other.

I'd like to see us give it one last shot: Someone could research which UK acts have had regular success in continental charts, then we should sponsor that special act to write a really foot-stomping song that Europe would just have to vote a winner.

And if they didn't we could call 'foul' and take our ball home for ever.
>:(

[Martin Leach]

Just a thought - Finland isn't an eastern eurobloc country - but they won last year.

(It never really was about the music anyway. I'll watch it this year, and laugh along with Wogan at all the crummy acts as usual.)

:D ;D :D :) :D ;D :D :) :D ;D :D :) :D ;D :D :) :D ;D :D :)

[Colemanator]

That's all it is though a laugh ;D. Do people actually watch it? I mean really look forward to it :-/

[CraigC]

It is obviously not a serious contest, but it is annoying when Britain, the second largest exporter of popular music in the world, is subjected to ritual humiliation each year when we (along with Germany and France) pay for the whole thing.
They won't even relegate us. :-[

Just wish they would select the best song for Eurovision, rather than try and select a best song - the only way to do that is give it to a panel to chose with no public vote.

[Hon Vice President (R.I.P.)]

I gather that we are excempt from relegation - the BBC is vital to the running of the thing, so we suffer the indignity of being trashed year after year, while paying a small fortune to enable the good UK public to watch. All rather masochistic really.

Mr & Mrs Honchair are avid watchers, to the extent that as the contest coincided with the middle weekend of our honeymoon last year; we stayed in and sat with Wogan as it all went bits up again! ;) :D

Getting a real top performer to enter is not going to happen any more either. The kudos has been replaced by stigma; it's career suicide. Just look at the has-beens and wannabes lining up to have a go! can you imagine Take That, The Stones - or even, bless 'im; Sir Cliff taking it on?? ;D ;)

Tonight's the night !

No self-respecting established star of the pop world will set themselves up for ridicule - the Europeans don't understand our music - so we get lumbered with.... the singing dustman. ???

Being discussed on Jeremy Kyle's radio show this morning: Andy is already resigned to the fact that he won't do any good, but is hoping to turn it into a positive as it coincides with the release of his new album. :-/

I'll be watching it with a few beers and a chinese as usual, but only for Wogan's wry comments: when the acts are on I'll probably have the sound down. ::)

[The Bullet]

Agree with Tommo it must be the only program that you turn the sound up when the adverts come on ;D (apart from TW comments).
On no its on BBC with no adverts :'( even worst than I thought

I'll be interested to see how t'turkey does: no, not our entry, but the Irish one. And will Turkey give it any votes ?

(In-joke note to Dave Hampton: it's probably only a single-wattled one)

Margo has promised me something if it wins. :o

Wogan's on good form already:
The first entry's from Romania, a little ditty sung by Nico and Vlad...........
but I'm not sure which one's the Impaler !



............and Andy was on second, and didn't give a bad performance, all told. And he incorporated a little Cliff Richard dance into his act. :o
He deserves to get a few points. 8-)

[iang]

The Turkey got knocked out in the last round & wont be in tonight's final so no fun there.
Do I get tart points for knowing he's called dustin !!!!!!

I'm enjoying this. Well, Wogan, anyway.
He introduced the Armenian entry thus "keep a look out for the old Mongolian nose flute and the three gyrating eejits !"
........and the Polish entry thus "you haven't seen teeth like this since the Osmonds !"

The Icelandic and Turkish entries were actually quite good. With the event staged from Belgrade, though, I think the really wacky entries from Bosnia Herzegovena and Croatia stand more of a chance of winning. Azerberjan deserve to do well for their big production number with angels and demons. A sort of Robbie Williams meets Deep Purple. :o

Finland and Sweden played to their own strengths but we've seen it all before................

....and that's about it, everything else was pretty ordinary - except from the shockingly bad entries from France and Spain. Nil pointers if ever I saw them ! :o

Tommo's top tip for the winner: Latvia's Wolves of the Sea by Pirates of the Sea.

[NigelS]

Greece and Ukraine are my favourites Tommo. If you watched them you will probably see why ;)

[JB]

And i thought it was a song contest Nige

Think the pirates willl win !!!!

Looks like Nige is going to be top of the tipsters again with Greece.
Hearing it again, it's quite a catchy number. Reminds me a bit of "Ooh ah just a little bit".

Craig's prediction of bottom three for us is coming true, too. ::)

[Chris_Sav]

Only glanced at it a couple of times during the evening, but the fact that even the Spanish 'Silly Song' got more points than us shows that the quality of the song has little to do with the result.

Poor old El Tel is talking about quitting.

Best thing is to devolve the UK!! we might get inot the top forty then.

Sav.

[CraigC]

Was hoping Greece would win (although they still benefit from local Balkans voting). Difficult to see how it can ever now be won outside either ex-Soviet nations, Balkan nations or Scandinavian nations (especially Finland and Sweden who seem to gain Baltic votes too). Amusing how Scandinavia have gone for the whole political voting thing - if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

Very predictable GB finishing bottom three, although the best we can hope for is mid-table, but the right song has to be selected. And Ireland gave us 8 points too, nice piece of neighbourly voting!

Ominous at the end Wogan's words - will we be bothering next year etc. GB and Germany joint last, and France 7th from last - the nations that fund the thing - could be significant. Wogan's last word were hello next year to Moscow, and maybe goodbye from western Europe.


nb Italy withdrew 10 years ago (seeing the way it was going), Luxembourg haven't entered for a decade, and Austria did not enter this year. A trickle that is gathering pace, perhaps.

[NigelS]

May 25, 2008 7:30:24 GMT Chris_Sav said:

Poor old El Tel is talking about quitting.

Best thing is to devolve the UK!! we might get inot the top forty then.

Sav.

Yes it did sound as if Wogan had enough at the end of this years contest :(

Yes we could split up into Wales/England/Scotland....however I don't think we would benefit from Scots and Welsh votes ::)

May 25, 2008 7:30:24 GMT Chris_Sav said:

Best thing is to devolve the UK!! we might get inot the top forty then.
Sav.

Wash your mouth out Sav ! :o

If you'd said 'pull out of Europe altogether' I'd have agreed with you. ;)

[Sir Chancelot]

May 24, 2008 16:19:18 GMT The Bullet said:

Agree with Tommo it must be the only program that you turn the sound up when the adverts come on ;D (apart from TW comments).
On no its on BBC with no adverts :'( even worst than I thought

When did you ever have good taste in music Bob ?
You were more interested in "other pursuits" when there were decent bands on at The Tavern !

[The Bullet]

When did you ever have good taste in music Bob ?
You were more interested in "other pursuits" when there were decent bands on at The Tavern ![/quote]

Don't let all my secrets out. I did appreciated the lifts to work in the morning though (didn't have the energy left to walk ;D).

[fazza]

Glad I missed it all then

[DA-DM]

i'm still singing latvia's wolves of the sea...........it's blinking annoying but soooooo catchy. >:(

[WolfLord]

DA, my son keeps singing it as well. And being WOLVES I had to vote for it!!!!!

[vinny]

Add me to the list of those that felt the Latvian pirates should have won.

Couldn't believe that they were 50/1 so lumped it each way. Had a side bet on the night with a mate who had bet on Bosnia and even managed to lose that. Should have remembered that the whole thing is as bent as a fiddler's elbow.

Thank god I didn't bump into a one-legged bloke on the way home. ;D

[DA-DM]

so eurovision, so poppy, so cr*p, so catchy, so perfect.......i love it. :'(

www.eurovision.tv/event/artistdetail?song=24514&event=1470

8-)

[fazza]

You have all spoiled my fun. I was away and took the trouble of recording it. Now you have spoiled the "ending", I will have to wait till all these details are out of my mind before I can sit down over a weekend and laugh, laugh and laugh again. I was longing to see the Irish thing and have just found out that it did not even qualify from those pathetic semi-finals. Don't you think they should make it a marathon of all 80 songs next year? That would certainly improve everyone's sleep patterns. Please do it Eurovision!!!!!