A rhetorical question: why do we whine about Eurovision in Britain?
Is it any wonder we do badly when we're caught in this curious neverland between simultaneously declaring that we don't really take it seriously while complaining that nobody loves us and it's all political block voting.
On the first point, is it any wonder we do badly when we pick such utterly shite songs, and have recently picked acts that are almost as shite (though note that picking Bonnie Tyler to perform isn't
totally stupid; she may be a has-been here, but Ms Tyler's last 8 albums have been top 40 hits in Scandinavia, Germany, and France, so there's some method to the BBC's madness).
On the second point, what makes us think we're unique ? France haven't won since 1977; Spain haven't won since tying for 1st in 1969; Italy haven't won since 1990 (though didn't enter for a longish while). In fact, since the expansion of the contest in the wake of the collapse of Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union, and the introduction of pre-qualifying in 1993, the only two "big five nation" winners have been the UK in 1997 and Germany in 2010 - when Germany had what was clearly the best song on the nigth. Since Israel's victory in 1998, Germany have been the only winners from outside the Balkans (including Turkey), Scandinavia (including Finland), or the former USSR. So there's absolutely no grounds for thinking we're in any way uniquely unpopular.
So we pick crap songs, we generally send crap acts, and every other non-Scandinavian Western European nation is in precisely the same boat as we are.
So again, what are we whinging about?
Edit: And block voting clearly only gets you so far....
Acts representing Austria, Montenegro, Croatia, Cyprus, Serbia and Slovenia were knocked out of the competition.
Well, there goes most of the usual former Yugoslavia block vote, which someone manages to transcend political differences every year.
Posted: Wed May 15, 2013 7:46 am
It's what we're best at right now.