Eurovision 2021

[mikeS]

As a programme it’s a fun event but When you look at what won last night, it just about sums up the quality that’s on offer these days. Bring back Kenneth McKeller.

[box_of_frogs]

We aren’t European. Let the rabble get on with it whilst we dominate the real music industry.

Geographically, what continent would you say we are on? Just wondering.

[GodIsADeeJay81]

Geographically, what continent would you say we are on? Just wondering.

I suspect they're referring to mindset, not geographically.

[Culmclaret]

I thought our contestant had escaped from ‘I can see your voice’. Frankly, he was lucky to get nil.....as they say in Yarkshire

Overall it was pretty good. I liked France, Bulgaria, Ukraine and Belgium.

[dougcollins]

Without doubt the funniest programme of the year - worth the licence fee on its own.

That's my take, some on here taking this way too seriously.

[Billy Balfour]

That's my take, some on here taking this way too seriously.

Still though, it's great to see that the permanently angry brigade actually bought this song and helped to get it into the UK Top 100. Oh, wait a minute, I think I've made a mistake; - it didn't even chart.

[scamander]

As someone who has been watching it for years I do find it a tad annoying that we half poor entries and then blame everyone else for the result.

1.Eurovision is a niche music competition, because we invented the Beatles (and therefore music*) doesn't mean they owe us a victory. It's a bit like T20 cricket, your test players might not necessary make the side. So think out the box a bit.

2. Political voting is said a lot of times each year, but no-one really explains it. Do you mean that neighbours vote for each other? Or fellow EU countries or what? Is it because of the war and they hate us? Two other big EU players finished just above us, Germany and Spain. Did people not vote for them because they voted Brexit?**

Given that Israel didn't do too badly this year and that Russia won it a short while back perhaps, just perhaps, it's not about Brexit or anything else. Perhaps it's something to do with finding a suitable entry.

3. In order to get no points you don't have to be at the bottom of everyone's list, just outside the top 10. We could have been the 11th choice or the last - same number of points. As has been pointed out there were a lot of strong acts this year.

4. Our act wasn't that good. I've heard it described as a possible Love Island montage song. He missed some notes at the beginning of the live performance and it wasn't dynamic. The French act got it spot on, she didn't move but the close up camera and the intensity of it showed through. Perhaps it was harder to take because the guy seems really nice and hats off to him for standing up when the nil-points were announced.

5. Amanda Holden. Want to see why we might not be liked? Have someone announce the results who seemed embarrassed to be there and confessed live on air to not knowing which language was which (thus reinforcing a stereotype). Greece had a 10 year old announce the results and seemed to love it.

France and Italy both showed that you can do well if you aren't in the semis but I think we would do well to be in the semis as well. Means that you have got the song out there and perhaps built up a momentum prior to the final.






*sarcasm
**again, sarcasm.

[Culmclaret]

The political voting problem seems to have been largely sorted by aggregating the popular vote and by and large the jury votes seemed music based with a few obvious exceptions eg Cyprus/La Greece. Even if we had given free vaccine to the entire population of the world our song would still have got 0

[CharlieinNewMexico]

I liked that Ukraine lot. It was sort of Ca Pleine pour Moi meets Finntroll meets Toyah Wilcox

[ClaretAndLube]

We couldn’t have done any worse if we’d entered with The Vaccines singing “Keeping it all for ourselves”.

[THEWELLERNUT70]

In all fairness ours was an average song performed poorly

[Culmclaret]

Our man was the singing equivalent of Steven Reid. Great for the dressing room but his voice was gone....if it was ever there.

[Darthlaw]

Iceland robbed twice in two years.

Finland’s Linkin Park tribute act not bad, either.

Greece won the looker of the competition for me.

All good fun and great that our act just took the **** when we got our standard nil points. As Scamander said, regarding Amanda Holden though, not knowing what language you’re speaking was just downright disrespectful.

Our aim going forward should be to achieve zero points each year. It’ll become like a running joke and show that any ‘political’ points awards are not being taken as such by us.

[Culmclaret]

No one likes us we don’t care....

[Hipper]

Our aim going forward should be to achieve zero points each year. It’ll become like a running joke and show that any ‘political’ points awards are not being taken as such by us.

To do that would take some musical skill though, something I guess that is rarely seen in this competition. Something can be so bad it could become the best - or the worst.

Of course I don't listen or watch it as I like music but out of curiosity (or sense of sadism) I listened to our entry and the Italian winner.

Some years ago in the days of Terry Wogan I thought I'd watch the whole thing through. I didn't realise what a chore it would be. I managed to do it but never again.

[dsr]

2. Political voting is said a lot of times each year, but no-one really explains it. Do you mean that neighbours vote for each other? Or fellow EU countries or what? Is it because of the war and they hate us? Two other big EU players finished just above us, Germany and Spain. Did people not vote for them because they voted Brexit?**

Given that Israel didn't do too badly this year and that Russia won it a short while back perhaps, just perhaps, it's not about Brexit or anything else. Perhaps it's something to do with finding a suitable entry.

"Political voting" is little to do with which foreigners people prefer. It's to do with where your expatriates live. For example, Cyprus always gives top marks to Greece because lots of Greeks live in Cyprus, and they vote. Turkey gets a lot of votes in Germany. Scandinavians are fairly flexible and skip around each others' countries, so there are always Norwegians able to vote for Norway because they live in Sweden. We sometimes get an above average score from Malta because there are British living there.

[scamander]

"Political voting" is little to do with which foreigners people prefer. It's to do with where your expatriates live. For example, Cyprus always gives top marks to Greece because lots of Greeks live in Cyprus, and they vote. Turkey gets a lot of votes in Germany. Scandinavians are fairly flexible and skip around each others' countries, so there are always Norwegians able to vote for Norway because they live in Sweden. We sometimes get an above average score from Malta because there are British living there.

Thanks for the good response. The jury/televoters split sought to negate this and to a large extent has, though Greece and Cyprus did back each other to the hilt. 'Political voting' can also be seen to reflect a cultural tie, I forget which Eurovision but a few years ago there was a band who tied up the block vote from the Balkan countries - perhaps because they toured across them a lot and were a known quantity. The Cypriot entry was popular in the semis and the singer had been working the Greek club scene, another thing we don't do. But in fairness I think that there's always been an expectation of a vote there (you could actually here the crowd shouting 'Greece' when the announcer paused for effect before naming who gave them 12 points).

The Scandinavian countries can be very competitive with each other, so it's not a case of them always voting. Again it can be difficult to disentangle whether votes were just given because they are neighbours or for another reason. Norway received its highest jury and televoter scores from Malta and Ireland, though Denmark and Sweden did give them some points.

I think that the political voting or expected votes can give a good indication the other way. If political voting was set in stone where were the votes from Ireland and Malta to the UK? Point being is that for some countries (e.g. Greece and Cyprus) it's more consistent but it's still flexible and you still need to earn the vote.

I feel with the UK entry and thinking there's the analogy of the manager who, after losing, complains that the pitch wasn't good, that the referee was awful and that everything was against them. The interviewer points out that he only fielded 10 players and never got into the opposition's half once. If we put a good entry in it's easier to find the bias but it's a bit rich for us to be pointing the finger (not saying you are btw) when we don't do the basics ourselves.

[Falcon]

The reason we don't do well is twofold

Firstly, our song every year is a bland, middle of the road, killed by committee meh sort of thing. A generic 'uplifting message' song that doesn't stand out. If you want to win this thing you have to stand out. When half the song is a generic uplifting pop song, the couple of rock numbers (Finland and Italy), the couple of moody ballads (France and Switzerland), the disco number (Lithuania) and whatever the hell Ukraine was (folk-electronica??) get the votes because they are different. We need to concentrate on what we are good at. Send a grime artist, or an Indie band, or something. And someone who is genuine and real - not someone who did well in a TV talent show. Lovely as Newman is, he's bland in a teacup. If you have the 11th best song, you aren't getting any points. So go for something a bit out-there and get noticed!

Secondly, our attitude stinks. We seem to be stuck whether we're just going to treat it as a joke, or take it seriously to the extent that we blame 'political voting' for us not doing well. Weird how a different country wins every year, and some other countries not exactly popular on an international stage have their points go up and down based on, you guessed it, the quality of their song that year. Then you have people saying that because we're one of the Big 5 countries who put the most money in, they somehow owe us a pity-win every so often. Why the hell would you want to win by default just by paying the most. That's some European Super League type thinking and it's ugly! Then you have Amanda Holden coming off so arrogant. Proper cringe stuff.

[WadingInDeeper]

Oddly, I like watching Eurovision. The reason the UK didn't do well though is simple, the song was to rubbish to be a serious song, the singer took himself too seriously so it wasn't a cheesy act, and the singing was not good. I'm just surprised no-one gave us a minus score.

[wilks_bfc]

Bill Bailey offering to do it in 2022

Can't see him coming home with nil points

[Falcon]

I'd love to see Bill Bailey give it a crack to be fair. He'd come up with something a bit different and unique.

[Billy Balfour]

Send a grime artist, or an Indie band, or something. And someone who is genuine and real - not someone who did well in a TV talent show. Lovely as Newman is, he's bland in a teacup. If you have the 11th best song, you aren't getting any points. So go for something a bit out-there and get noticed! Secondly, our attitude stinks.

The contest would be the kiss of death for any Grime/Indie band. This is why we get the dross. The kind of 'performers' who, if they receive more than a handful of points, get to spend a couple of seasons on the cruise ships, and then turn to their hand to the holiday camp circuit, which to be fair, is their level.

[Stayingup]

We have some really good bands and songwriters and yet we have entered cr@p year on year recently. Mind if the Beatles were in their prime now and entered I think we wouldn't win. It seems loaded against us. Bit like the world cup venues.

[yTib]

several posters on this thread still seem to believe the eurovision song contest is a contest about songs.

it ceased being that decades ago.

[Falcon]

Several posters on this thread still seem to believe the Eurovision song contest is not a contest about songs.

Laughable really given half the points is a public televote nowadays, and the other half the juries mostly give the most points to the best songs.