Eurovision!

[Drewmidorn]

I love it!... and how angry it makes people!

[Simon-JG-hr]

I love it too! It's a great 'institution' (if I may call it that).

My only observation thus far is how truly pathetic our entry was. I've seen young girls in school plays with more authoritative singing voices than that numpty. How on earth did he win that silly competition...

[Simon-JG-hr]

Good heavens! I know the voting hasn't finished, however...

We deserve nil-points. No-one can realistically argue otherwise.

That said... Israel deserve about minus-fifty. Their performance was truly horrific. It was singularly the worst thing that my ears have ever had to endure - even worse than when I heard them announce on Sky Sports "And so Bath have topped the Premiership table..."

[Drewmidorn]

For the first time in a while we really deserved to do dreadfully... Interestingly the german song was written by two writers with very english names... one lives in germany and one in the USA... so I'd like to think of a German win as being our own (for once).

[Paulie]

The Eurovision is a waste of time. How anyone can take it any more serious than a silly spectacle is beyond me.

Ok, I agree that a reasonably good song normally wins, but it is so so political and geographical it is painful.

Are you seriously telling me that if Germany did not cough up the biggest share of the European rescue package (148bn - 20%), they would of won with a song like that?

Or ever since the UK backing and involvment in Afganistan and Iraq the votes plummeted for us.

If Pavarotti himself sang Nessun Dorma for the UK, we would still come last!

[r0lan6]

Going to have to agree with Paulie here! I think Eurovision has become way too political, though that is at least the icing on the cake for this awful contest. I mean it isn't about being good at singing, particularly when you look at the entries this year! Ever since the expansion of the EU, the highly politically charged wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan, and the fact that the winner this year was the one country that bailed out an entire nation... Why are we still financing this questionable contest?

Who on Earth chose our entry for this year?

[Simon-JG-hr]

The public...

As Churchill once said: "The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter."

As evidence consider this Eurovision entry and John Sergeant's farcical run in Strictly...

[Lascaux]

what really bugs me is that european music for centuries was sublime. and dig deep and it still is. eastern european folk... flamenco... portugeuse folk... incredible.

but on a whole europe just doesn't understand pop/rock or music style at all!??! it's just one thing they haven't got the knack for.

i was actually minorly traumatised and misaligned when i saw a pop band in poland a couple of years back. i couldnt sleep that night or get the trauma out of my head for a day! no word of a lie, the music was so far away from the point it took me with it.
i get a similar feeling though less intense when watching eurovision, or listening to local popular radio when abroad. it fucking scares the shit out of me!

[r0lan6]

A good point, though the votings for the Eurovision, like Strictly, are heavily biased towards a segment of the population. A segment who arguably enjoy that type of music, or perhaps enjoy the idea of what the Eurovision stands for. A segment, there I say, whose taste in music is questionable, or most likely have adapted their taste (hence voting) to conform to what they think Eurovision is suppose to be about.

Of course I don't put any blame in them mind you, nor the people that did not bother to vote, let alone subject themselves to such fun. I've just learnt to simply dislike the darn thing. My own view.

[Simon-JG-hr]

It could have been worse though I suppose... The voting programme could have been shown on ITV... One has to shudder at the thought of what an ITV audience would have lumbered us with.

[r0lan6]

True. Though I'm still having difficulty as to why the BBC decided to screen Eurovision on BBC HD!? I was hoping they would have chosen to slot a nice little documentary on last night!

[monkey66]

Probably we need a step-shift in our perception of the event, it is now irrelevant for the UK and our lives would be happier if we withdrew permanently. It's like we keep trying to join a gang the has no interest in us and we keep sacrificing our pride even though there will never be any acceptance. Eurovision has moved on and we need to too.

...perhaps the eurozone will be next?

[EugeneSax]

It could have been worse though I suppose... The voting programme could have been shown on ITV... One has to shudder at the thought of what an ITV audience would have lumbered us with.

How could it be worse than picking the song that came LAST?

The bookies had the odds of the UK winning at 150:1, so it must have been pretty dreadful (not heard it myself).

I hope anyone who had anything to do with the procedure that lead to this song being short-listed will do the decent thing & withdraw from any future selection process.

We need to have a selection process that includes either/both decent artists (Morrisey, or I heard Jarvis Cocker was considering entering) or complete jokes like that Finnsh entry, or the Irish one (didn't the bloke out of The Darkness try to enter a year or two ago?).

But TBH I couldn't give much more than a tinker's cuss. The last time I was even vaguelly aware that it was on was about 6 years ago when we were staying at a non-smoking hotel near the New Forest. The wife sat inside watching it whilst I sat out on the balcony under an umbrella enjoying a very nice RG Corona Extra.

[patrickspark]

bring back Cliff !

[Mr Moore]

It could have been worse though I suppose... The voting programme could have been shown on ITV... One has to shudder at the thought of what an ITV audience would have lumbered us with.

Brilliant.