Why do we put forward such awful acts for the Eurovision?

[StopSayingDueDiligence]

I can't abide the Eurovision but for many years I've wondered why we put through such awful acts and seem surprised when we fail?

Didn't we have Katie price one year?

Why don't we put through people like Adele or Rag N Bone Man, Little Simz or Florence of the Machine?

Why can't they represent us?!

Did anyone catch James Newmans reaction to coming last.. The most British reaction ever 🤣

Not sure why so many people who think Eurovision is crap get so worked up about it . Each to their own.
I absolutely love it. Stems back to my childhood and every year we watch and score and make an evening of it. I love the build up. I don't care that the UK is always shite. I enjoy how over the top it is. And it's once a year. On the other hand, I would struggle with the weekly commitment to a football team. Or, worse still, being a parent having to stand watching countless training and matches in the wind and rain. But I have plenty of friends who do and I respect that choice.

@Pebbledashery

Did anyone catch James Newmans reaction to coming last.. The most British reaction ever 🤣

This . He OWNED that public humiliation like a Boss

It’s got nothing to do with the music, it’s political. James Newman is a successful musician.

This was such a fab eurovision entry for the UK.. It was number 2 in 1998

To be fair to James Newman, he is a successful song writer and has had hits via that.

I don't think it matters who we send, we'll never win again (sadly). Bill Bailey has offered himself up for next year so I'm hoping he gets a shot. H from Steps has also tweeted to say he think Steps should
do it.

I don't think the likes of Dua Lipa or Ed Sheeran would be jumping at the chance though..

The thing with Eurovision is that it’s only the top 10 countries (as voted for by a country’s jury or televote) that get points. Which means saying “the U.K. wasn’t the worst song” a bit pointless. If everyone ranks our song between 11th and 26th then the consequence is nil points.

Last UK one I remember was electro velvet, 2015 - actual singalong tune. We still did really badly and that was even before the Brexit vote.

Sounds like this year's on was really a bit bad, though.

If it was so political then how did Israel win 2 years ago? How does Russia always do quite well?

Believe it or not, nanas in Bulgaria and Denmark don’t sit there thinking about how much they hate the UK, they vote for the song they like. Ours was crap.

In years what we have made an effort we have actually done quite well.

I wanna see Take That, all 5 of them give it a crack.

Failing that, 5ive, Steps or maybe even Misteeq.

Let Alesha Dixon wow Europe with her rapping.

James Newman is a successful songwriter who doesn't sing his own songs. There's a reason for that.

The UK seems to take Eurovision way too seriously.
We should put on a joke act, it's not about the singing anyway.

Brexit is ancient history to most Eurovision countries. They don't give a shit about it anymore. Stop blaming Brexit, our entry was dire so we got Nul points.

AMillionMilesAway

You couldn't be more wrong.

Italy chose a band that's well known across europe and has a huge social media following. That's why they won the public vote.

The Swiss guy is relative new but well known with lots of downloads on Spotify.

@DioneTheDiabolist

Brexit is ancient history to most Eurovision countries. They don't give a shit about it anymore. Stop blaming Brexit, our entry was dire so we got Nul points.

This

I’ve heard the U.K. entry on the radio. It sounds much better on the radio than it did performed live. There has definitely been some fine tuning on the radio edit. James Newman is a songwriter and has had a lot of success writing songs but I don’t think he’s a natural performer. Combine that with poor costume design and poor staging and the whole thing screams we don’t give a shit. There were worse songs but those were so bad that you remembered them. Even the bad songs, the performers still seemed to care about why they were there and actually wanted the chance to perform.

The Icelandic entry have found their songs featured across Europe. They had success in the UK charts with their entry that was meant to be for last year. Still, for them it was all about going to Eurovision. About having that chance. Not being able to perform live because they had to self isolate was a big loss for them, even though their rehearsal was still played. They just wanted that chance to perform. I’m not sure if James Newman had tested positive for Covid and had to self isolate it would have been such a big devastation to him. To other countries and their singers, it matters. For us, it’s just something that might bring a low level singer or once popular artist some visibility.

Politics does play a part in some of the voting. But let’s not pretend our attitude isn’t another reason. We see it as a joke. Or a waste of time. We’re rude about other countries and ‘don’t get’ songs when they’re in a different language. We’re rude and believe we’re so good we can just send low rate singers and still come out scoring highly. If we didn’t automatically earn our place in the final, then I think we might actually put some effort in.

Ach, if Steps, Bill Bailey or Michelle Visage want to give it a shot then let them. The latter would be a decent strategy actually as Drag Race has Dutch, Australian and Spanish versions as well as RPDR being shown on Netflix. We did okay with Blue despite the bum-note on the night but Lena's Satellite was no.1 in Europe pre final, same as Italy's song this year so bound to do well on the night.
Flo Rida is well known - Low was a huge hit - yet the public vote for San Marino was only 13 points.

We had a good song in 1996 imo (Gina G) , I still like that one. Can't think of any more recent though.
It's seen as uncool in the UK though, probably dating back to the Cliff Richard days. No body ever admits to liking Cliff Richard or wanting to be like him. None of of the major British talents such as The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Bowie or Kate Bush have ever had anything to do with it.
So really there's no motivation for most British artists to do it. It won't enhance their career in any way even if they place very well.
The best thing is not to take it too seriously, see it as a few hours of entertainment, and just allow the artists who do do well to shine without being mealy mouthed about it.

UK sees Eurovision as a joke, remember Terry and how he'd just take the piss all the way through?
The rest of Europe knows we take the piss and probably contributes to the voting trends 😁, plus I don't think whoever makes the financial decisions actually wants to have to spend god knows how much hosting the damned thing anyway.

It's light entertainment, why an earth should I "have my head examined"?

I'm Finnish and whilst Finns have a healthy giggle at the completion, they also take the taking part seriously and there's always the hope and optimism that maybe this is the year that they will do well . We and other European countries tend to send their best/most popular artists there, not the randomers that UK (these days) often do.

The disparity between the jury points and public voting was rather telling this year. Jury votes seem to have an element of politics in them whereas it was clear as day the public had voted for the best songs.

I'd love Steps to represent UK! I think they'd be absolutely perfect for the job. My opinion may be coloured because I still have a crush on H since I saw him on Christmas panto about 6 years ago

There are 40-ish countries competing each year, and it’s only 20-odd years since we last won. That doesn’t seem too bad. Especially as it’s over 40 years since France last won. And plenty of countries have never won. If we sent a fantastic song, then we’d do well. I don’t think politics matter if you have the right song and the right staging.

Steps would smash Eurovision.

@ilovebagpuss

I don’t think we deserved nil points but it was a bit rubbish. Agree with the weird staging and outfit I couldn’t get past the long pleather coat that just didn’t suit his build. I don’t know why we can’t have decent singers/bands I always thought they had to be unknown but I’ve probably made that up!

We sent Blue in 2011 - probably the best we've done this century en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Can_(Blue_song)

The booed a lot which was also interesting that doesn't tend to happen.

Our final nil points last place was met with loads of booing.

The whole thing was really interesting.

No of course we shouldn't leave!