Watching Eurovision 2008

[Theatre of Trees]

They should scrap the semi's and bring in regional based qualifying groups.

That would eliminate the voting for your neighbour aspect as you would be competing against them to get into the main show.

Either that or scrap phone votes and have a panel.

I was thinking along the same lines regarding regional qualifying groups and I'd add that only the qualifying countries can vote in the final. Though phone voting is fairer than the old panel system which was usually filled with government nominated dignitaries who often did base their decisions on political rather than musical considerations.

 

[sod1]

Let's face it, the Balkans, Baltics and eastern Europeans tend all to stick together. It's no longer a competition. However, whilst I think we should still enter, I don't think the BBC should be stumping up a large proportion of the funding. If we didn't bankroll the event then it might just fade into history, especially as old Wogan is now threatening to quit.

Who in this country would watch the programme without his commentary.

i probably wouldnt watch it if Wogan left, but then who is there to take over ? Johnathan Ross maybe

 

[Gully]

i probably wouldnt watch it if Wogan left, but then who is there to take over ? Johnathan Ross maybe

Fair comment, but would you want to hear an evening beset with innuendo about Wussia, Womania and Gweece....in fact, you might have just found a solution, it would certainly add entertainment value to the whole show.

I have another one, why don't we enter a folk song sung in a mixture of Serbo Croat and Russian...that would really test the loyalty of the Baltic, Balkan and former Soviet voters.

 

[garyoke157]

It's time to pull out

Living outside the UK and watching the BBC's transmission of the Eurovision, I was fortunate enough to here Terry Wogan's comments.

Let's face it we just can't win! There was only 1 western european song in the top 10, Norway which, in my opinion was a good song but there were much better including ours.

Britain has few friends among the general public throughout europe so televoting will always work against us.

I say pull out now and form a new competition using professional musicians as the judges. That way it would be about the music and not the politics.

 

[coventrygull]

To be honest the British entries over the past few years have been poor. Yes there is political voting and I suspect last nights competition was all about launching the Russians international career but at the end of the day its all harmless entertainment

 

[Gully]

A solution might be a mixture of the two...have professional judges who vote on each song, the tele-vote still takes place but only counts as one vote...the team finishing top of the phone vote would get twelve points, the second gets ten, etc, etc...this could pretty much nullify the effect of political voting...good songs would naturally rise to the top with the opinions, and votes, of the professional judges.

 

[coventrygull]

A solution might be a mixture of the two...have professional judges who vote on each song, the tele-vote still takes place but only counts as one vote...the team finishing top of the phone vote would get twelve points, the second gets ten, etc, etc...this could pretty much nullify the effect of political voting...good songs would naturally rise to the top with the opinions, and votes, of the professional judges.

Whats to stop the record industry just promoting their songs through the professional judges?

 

[Icy Gull]

That's the last Eurovison I'll bother with, an ex Eastern Bloc country is gonna win this for ever from here on in. Wogan is threatening to quit as well, which would remove the last vestiges of interest I'd have in t.

 

[Gully]

Whats to stop the record industry just promoting their songs through the professional judges?

Nothing at all, but it would at least be fairly obvious...if for say a band of Azerbaijani goat herds playing nose flutes won with a song that was about as tuneful as a fart in the bath.

 

[coventrygull]

Nothing at all, but it would at least be fairly obvious...if for say a band of Azerbaijani goat herds playing nose flutes won with a song that was about as tuneful as a fart in the bath.

I wasn't surprised when Russia won last night as the guy has just got a contract with a western record company. Thats not saying that the song was bad. I just didn't think it was all down to political voting especialy as Russia is hardly popular amongst eastern Europeans.

 

[garyoke157]

Hehehe,

I agree the UK entries in the past have been crap. Unfortunately I'm a bit of a sad eurovision fan but I won't bother with it again if they don't change something.

 

[Cheeky Monkey]

What amazes me is how the countries' representatives dish out the points to their 'allies' without any hint of irony on their faces. As said above, Blighty has no real 'allies' and if we pulled out it might prompt others to follow, which would devalue the whole thing and may force a re-think on voting. What is the point of going through the whole system of choosing acts to represent us when even the greatest song in the world (i.e. A Deeper Shade of Blue by Steps) wouldn't win us the frickin' thing!?!

 

[BensGrandad]

I wasn't surprised when Russia won last night as the guy has just got a contract with a western record company. Thats not saying that the song was bad. I just didn't think it was all down to political voting especialy as Russia is hardly popular amongst eastern Europeans.

Most of the Eastern European countries, like the Balkans voted for each other.

I am told that Tery Wogan gets in excess of £150k to present that show whuich is paid for out of our license fee so I would suggest pulling out all together and letting the rest of Europe have it and the Balkans can vote for each other, The Scandinavians can vote for each other Cyprus can give Greece 12 points. It has become a farce but it would help if UK entered a reasonable song not the usual rubbish that we have entered for the past few years.

 

[Theatre of Trees]

How about we actually send somebody who is famous and has a track record? In the 60s and 70s we did (Lulu, Sandie Shaw, Shadows, Cliff Richard, Mary Hopkin, etc) and were successful until after Botherhood of Man we started entering nobodies or groups selected for Eurovision.

Just had a look at the biography of the Russian winner on Wikipedia, he's the current biggest thing in Russia, is constantly on Russian MTV (which in turn can be picked up in many ex-Soviet states and in other countries across Eastern Europe) has won awards in Latvia and Ukraine and is therefore already known both in his country and in other neighbouring countries, whereas most of Britain had never heard of our entry before he won the Song for Europe. In fact Ukraine, Greece and Armenia sent in well known singers from their country and often backed them up with mini tours across Europe to promote their entry.

That is the crux of the matter, get someone famous in who is willing to take the contest seriously and who is willing to go off and promote their single around Europe and we may well get a winner again.

 

[coventrygull]

Hehehe,

I agree the UK entries in the past have been crap. Unfortunately I'm a bit of a sad eurovision fan but I won't bother with it again if they don't change something.

I'm a sad fan too. I will still watch it. Thought the songs last night were the best for some years and for those who cry about Britains entry there were some good songs that went out in the semi's. As for the eastern europeans a lot of their songs were great Eurovision pap and thats what its about. I loved Latvia's song as it was pure eurovision at its best. Should of won in my humble opinion and I'm a big fan of Depeche Mode

 

[Gully]

It is difficult to know what to do isn't it, do we enter something that is so obviously good that not getting votes makes a mockery of the system or just send something in that is outrageously bad to take the mickey.

It used to be that entry to Eurovision pretty much guaranteed success at home, look at Brotherhood of Man and Bucks Fizz, like them or not they both used it as a springboard to fairly decent music careers. Our song wasn't particularly bad last night, but to be honest it was some way from being the best.

I was looking at a maybe slightly more sinister reason for Andy not picking up many votes, could it have had something to do with him being black, many of the eastern nations aren't quite as developed in their attitudes as the western ones...just a thought like.

 

[Icy Gull]

It used to be that you knew that Cyprus would give max points to Greece and vice versa but there was some doubt with the other votes, now I have a good chance of being able to guess at least one of virtually every countries top three votes, without even having heard the songs, as happened last night as the weather where I am was horrendous and I kept losing the satellite signal due to rain and the signal only came back for that dreadful last song and the voting

I really believe that the UK should pull out next year as we have no chance of even getting out of the bottom 10 however good the song is.

 

[Gully]

I'm a sad fan too. I will still watch it. Thought the songs last night were the best for some years and for those who cry about Britains entry there were some good songs that went out in the semi's. As for the eastern europeans a lot of their songs were great Eurovision pap and thats what its about. I loved Latvia's song as it was pure eurovision at its best. Should of won in my humble opinion and I'm a big fan of Depeche Mode

Latvia was pretty funny, found myself singing along with it...ashamed to admit. The French entry was pretty good, though it worked better in the video with the passing of the mike thing. I also really liked the one from Iceland, slightly camp disco with a leaning towards the early 80's electro-pop, brilliant!

 

[coventrygull]

How about we actually send somebody who is famous and has a track record? In the 60s and 70s we did (Lulu, Sandie Shaw, Shadows, Cliff Richard, Mary Hopkin, etc) and were successful until after Botherhood of Man we started entering nobodies or groups selected for Eurovision.

Just had a look at the biography of the Russian winner on Wikipedia, he's the current biggest thing in Russia, is constantly on Russian MTV (which in turn can be picked up in many ex-Soviet states and in other countries across Eastern Europe) has won awards in Latvia and Ukraine and is therefore already known both in his country and in other neighbouring countries, whereas most of Britain had never heard of our entry before he won the Song for Europe. In fact Ukraine, Greece and Armenia sent in well known singers from their country and often backed them up with mini tours across Europe to promote their entry.

That is the crux of the matter, get someone famous in who is willing to take the contest seriously and who is willing to go off and promote their single around Europe and we may well get a winner again.

Didn't know that all very interesting. I did hear that Morrisey was interested in doing a song as he is a big fan. I think we have just got lazy and expected to win without much effort because we stumped up the cash.

 

[Gully]

Just as an aside, could we take the Latvian entry and turn it into a football song, it was pretty catchy!