There is a bitterness towards us which to be fair we bring on ourselves to a certain degree. When you are perceived as a nation to dislike foreigners, foreigners may not like you back. There are also different musical tastes which we will all struggle with. That song with the woman screeching felt like being nagged, but a lot seemed to like it. Cyprus and Greece sang songs that were not really of a Greek style, but they still gave each other 12 points. Ultimately, do we care if we get nil points? I care more that a song that I thought was clearly in the top four (Cyprus) and I bet on wasn't appreciated as such. The Swiss song was crap and the French one so generic and bland it was unreal.
All your points on Eurovision accepted BUT what evidence is there to suggest we are perceived as disliking foreigners??
I don't want to get into politics, it was an explanation for us getting nil points, but I think we all know if we had John Lennon entering with Imagine we would be near the bottom. Do you think they don't vote for us because they like us? Why do they dislike us?
I enjoy it. A bit of fun not to be taken seriously. I bet the wife £10 we would come last. I do think we should not be one of the main funding countries and take our chances in the semi finals. If we ever qualified then we would have a chance of winning.
Also we need to get over our own self importance. I don't see them as being anti UK, they are pro themselves.
Ed sheeran and Chris Martin would make me want to stab myself in the face. Also, why do the right have to get so pissy about everything? Eurovision is a bit of camp fun... not a row over fishing rights.
Jesus christ, I thought us liberals were the snowflakes
I do think the funding model should be changed. Make it so the top 20 countries for each event pick up the bill for the next one.
We should be relegated and made to qualify.
Seems a very fair proposal that shouldn't make anyone froth at the mouth. Neither mouth-breathers, whether they be angry righties or self loathing lefties, could have any gripe with it.
I wonder what the reaction in Germany is to their massive 3 points? I thought their little ditty was a fun number - just what Eurovision was supposed to be about.
Are they blaming it on the annexing of the Sudetenland?
I doubt it but maybe, after a decade of it happening, and if they took it as seriously as we seem to, they might spend 5 minutes to reflect why it is their neighbours use it as an opportunity to have a bit of a pop at them?
Or we can just pretend that they are ignoring us on the merits of our entry alone (poor though they often are).
I think the reason we fund it to the extent we do is the popularity of the show here and the perceived need to have a song in the final, even if it does badly. People moan about it but most probably don't know how much we put in. In terms of viewers it is probably considered money well spent.
There is a bitterness towards us which to be fair we bring on ourselves to a certain degree. When you are perceived as a nation to dislike foreigners, foreigners may not like you back. There are also different musical tastes which we will all struggle with. That song with the woman screeching felt like being nagged, but a lot seemed to like it. Cyprus and Greece sang songs that were not really of a Greek style, but they still gave each other 12 points. Ultimately, do we care if we get nil points? I care more that a song that I thought was clearly in the top four (Cyprus) and I bet on wasn't appreciated as such. The Swiss song was crap and the French one so generic and bland it was unreal.
All your points on Eurovision accepted BUT what evidence is there to suggest we are perceived as disliking foreigners??
I don't want to get into politics, it was an explanation for us getting nil points, but I think we all know if we had John Lennon entering with Imagine we would be near the bottom. Do you think they don't vote for us because they like us? Why do they dislike us?
I don't buy this either, if you put a decent song in, do decent promotion as the Italians did (30 million downloads, European wide radio and streaming play) and do decent staging, you'll be competitive.
For those who think it’s a conspiracy, if the song is any good, why isn’t it in the Top 100 chart? Why won’t either of the BBC pop music stations play list it?
its shit, we treat it as a joke, when it could be won on a regular basis. Decent acts want to do it, the BBC have a problem with treating as a music event
The song was average but certainly no worse than plenty of those in front of it. James Newman has written plenty of songs for other artists so he's got some history.
That one I actually caught - it was arse clenchingly bad. Given some of the music we've given to the world, the idea that a song that looked to be aimed at seven year olds, and written by nine year olds, would get anywhere, was bizarre. I don't watch this any more (and that song is part of the reason) as my musical tastes don't go near this, but if it's important to win, we could maybe write a good song and give it to decent performers to perform.
I do think the funding model should be changed. Make it so the top 20 countries for each event pick up the bill for the next one.
We should be relegated and made to qualify.
Seems a very fair proposal that shouldn't make anyone froth at the mouth. Neither mouth-breathers, whether they be angry righties or self loathing lefties, could have any gripe with it.
What was the parody of this where they were trying to deliberately find the worst song so they didn’t win as the winner had to foot the bill? Was it Father Ted?
Slightly interesting that the presentation is still in English, unless some viewers see a different host or something. It's a fantastic technical presentation and shows what can be done on broadcast TV.
Even if we had say Justin Beiber, Taylor Swift or Ariende Grande singing for us we'd get nowhere near winning. We'd get more points but we basically do very badly because the rest of Europe dislikes us. Why I'm not so sure but it doesn't really bother me. I'd admit that this year our song was poor and poorly performed but it deserved more than nil points. It baffles me though why both the Cyprus and Norway songs failed to make an impact, are they disliked too? Are Norway in the cold because they are not in the EU? It's a bizarre contest but I love it.
Even if we had say Justin Beiber, Taylor Swift or Ariende Grande singing for us we'd get nowhere near winning. We'd get more points but we basically do very badly because the rest of Europe dislikes us. Why I'm not so sure but it doesn't really bother me. I'd admit that this year our song was poor and poorly performed but it deserved more than nil points. It baffles me though why both the Cyprus and Norway songs failed to make an impact, are they disliked too? Are Norway in the cold because they are not in the EU? It's a bizarre contest but I love it.
Out of curiosity I just watched the winning Italian offering on YouTube......well, about a minute or so to be precise. Did that actually win.......FFS, it was absolutely rubbish. 😲
Very late to the thread, but thought Eurovision was a lot of fun this year - even the 'worst' song in Germany's was pretty catchy and enjoyable.
Our guy's vocals, certainly on second listen, were regrettably probably the worst out there - so flat, but the actual song wasn't too bad. We do our own (dumb/drunk/fun) scoring which is almost all personal preference and I had us bottom 5 with Moldova, Ukraine(!), Albania and Azerbaijan. We all thought that the trumpets were the best bit of our song, which probably isn't great.
Pretty glad France didn't win with that as well, good singing but scored low in "Eurovision spirit". Overall was a great spectacle though, and am semi-ashamed to say I do love it - stinky voting politics and all.
Very late to the thread, but thought Eurovision was a lot of fun this year - even the 'worst' song in Germany's was pretty catchy and enjoyable.
Our guy's vocals, certainly on second listen, were regrettably probably the worst out there - so flat, but the actual song wasn't too bad. We do our own (dumb/drunk/fun) scoring which is almost all personal preference and I had us bottom 5 with Moldova, Ukraine(!), Albania and Azerbaijan. We all thought that the trumpets were the best bit of our song, which probably isn't great.
Pretty glad France didn't win with that as well, good singing but scored low in "Eurovision spirit". Overall was a great spectacle though, and am semi-ashamed to say I do love it - stinky voting politics and all.
Very late to this, but having given up on the debacle of Glasto’s livestream (not the festival’s fault as I understand it), my family turned on Eurovision. Thought it was really entertaining, some of it quirky and right out amusing.
UK were in for a hard time Brexit considered anyway, but I thought both song and performance were dull and pretty unimaginative. We punch so well above our weight globally in music terms and need a top songwriting team to write a proper banger and then stick a chart topping artist/band to make a statement. Would be one way of at least proving what a politically biased show it can be, while reminding all those watching how brilliant we are at producing top top music.
We did have Blue do one a few years back, but that did crap. It wasn't great though. I do wonder how we dig up these bang average songs and artists to represent us. But as you say, bang average isn't nil points.
I was speaking to my cousin in Italy whether we (The British) are liked. I think from the discussion pre Brexit there is a stereotype of the British i.e. we don't bother to learn any other languages, we are drunkards, we are hooligans and we think we are better than other countries. We were doing badly in terms of perception before Brexit, but maybe Brexit re-enforced the stereotype a bit more.
Of course we are not that stereotype British person. We are all individuals, but there is a negative perception of us, in the same way the Germans are seen as having no sense of humour and get their beech towels by the pool early and that the Italians are lazy. A lot of British people use stereotypes in terms of foreigners so I can't understand why people are so sure it doesn't work both ways.
Whatever we put out will score poorly. It’s not because everyone hates the UK. It’s because it’s funny to watch all the entitlement / crying afterwards.
Certainly a bit of both the above for why we do badly, I thought the Blue one was pretty good though - came 5th in the public vote but 22nd with jury (but partly because they had a problem with their mics/sound so the singing was a bit off if I remember correctly).
I think if we entered a genuinely very good song we could get top half, but it'd have to be earth-shattering in the current climate to get close to winning it - even then I'm not sure it'd be possible to get top 3.
Comments
I do think we should not be one of the main funding countries and take our chances in the semi finals. If we ever qualified then we would have a chance of winning.
Also we need to get over our own self importance. I don't see them as being anti UK, they are pro themselves.
Jesus christ, I thought us liberals were the snowflakes
We should be relegated and made to qualify.
Seems a very fair proposal that shouldn't make anyone froth at the mouth. Neither mouth-breathers, whether they be angry righties or self loathing lefties, could have any gripe with it.
Or we can just pretend that they are ignoring us on the merits of our entry alone (poor though they often are).
I don't watch this any more (and that song is part of the reason) as my musical tastes don't go near this, but if it's important to win, we could maybe write a good song and give it to decent performers to perform.
Was it Father Ted?
My Lovely Horse
Did that actually win.......FFS, it was absolutely rubbish. 😲
Our guy's vocals, certainly on second listen, were regrettably probably the worst out there - so flat, but the actual song wasn't too bad. We do our own (dumb/drunk/fun) scoring which is almost all personal preference and I had us bottom 5 with Moldova, Ukraine(!), Albania and Azerbaijan. We all thought that the trumpets were the best bit of our song, which probably isn't great.
Pretty glad France didn't win with that as well, good singing but scored low in "Eurovision spirit". Overall was a great spectacle though, and am semi-ashamed to say I do love it - stinky voting politics and all.
I just feel sorry
So you can wiggle with that middle finger, it'll never wiggle back at you...
I'd forgotten about this - this genuinely has to be our worst ever entry.
Jemini - Cry Baby
I was speaking to my cousin in Italy whether we (The British) are liked. I think from the discussion pre Brexit there is a stereotype of the British i.e. we don't bother to learn any other languages, we are drunkards, we are hooligans and we think we are better than other countries. We were doing badly in terms of perception before Brexit, but maybe Brexit re-enforced the stereotype a bit more.
Of course we are not that stereotype British person. We are all individuals, but there is a negative perception of us, in the same way the Germans are seen as having no sense of humour and get their beech towels by the pool early and that the Italians are lazy. A lot of British people use stereotypes in terms of foreigners so I can't understand why people are so sure it doesn't work both ways.
I think if we entered a genuinely very good song we could get top half, but it'd have to be earth-shattering in the current climate to get close to winning it - even then I'm not sure it'd be possible to get top 3.
Middle of the pack from half a dozen juries. (Poland almost gave us a point lol)
Only one set of public results (Malta, 14th) inside the top twenty (of 26).