To think that the Eastern Bloc have ruined the Eurovision Song Contest?

[CelticPixie]

Call me sad but I have always loved the Eurovision and indeed look forward to it each year. Its always been good fun, but in the last ten years or so since the former Eastern Bloc nations were allowed to enter its changed and not for the better. The fun has gone now.

There has always been some political and neighbourly voting but now its got to the stage where the Western countries are at a massive disadvantage and struggle to get the points needed to win.

Is it wrong the hanker for the old days?

[TheHerringScreams]

I'm not sure but maybe it's to do with music styles? I've lived in Sweden, Poland, Russia and now the UK and spent time in Norway and studied in Denmark. Sweden and the UK have different music preferences, as does Poland (different to Sweden) and so on. This often goes in area, so our preferences may be more similar to say, that of Ireland, and vastly different to Romania, but Romania may have similar preferences to Moldova as, due to region, the culture would be more similar and therefore would have developed along more similar lines. Or something.

[FryOneFatManic]

SolomanDaisy YY to Iron Maiden for our entry, although I suspect they would decline in case it ruins their street cred

[Bunbaker]

Am I the only one who actually liked our song? I heard it on the radio before I knew it was our entry and thought it was a nice little ditty.

I did like the winning song though.

[FryOneFatManic]

I did like the song from Greece, it really made me smile. DD fancied Denmark, she's happy now. I hadn't heard Bonnie's song previously, but as we can't vote for our own country maybe that's why they don't bother to promote our song in Britain. I understand it did get some promotion in Europe.

DD and I were a bit by the chap who sang just before Bonnie, especially when his vocals soared into the stratosphere.

I did notice the person reading votes out from (I think) Slovenia had a flashing badge that read "songs not flags" so I guess some people are beginning to realise bloc voting is ridiculous.

And I was glad there was only one presenter this year, none of that stupid scripted banter we frequently seem to get. And the song she did was really fun to watch.

[redexpat]

Has anyone read this on the beeb?

Eastern Europe brought some badly needed energy to the contest. And as everyone else has said, it's usually about similar tastes in music than politics. Plus, according to the article, the individual countries had to pay for their own effects this year, so there were fewer gimmicks and what not. I have to say that there weren't any songs I thought were absolutely terrible. And the timing has improved massively.

Bonnie TYler didnt do very well because she was straining to hit the bottom notes.

[Ilikethebreeze]

I thought is was yawnville.
I dont watch it every year, but I think this was the first year, having watched bits of every song, that I didnt care who won.

[HazleNutt]

YABU. People always remember the "ooh look at the bloc voting!" examples when there's someone else doing it. Take the complaint earlier that Norway doesn't have such neighbourly relations - guess what countries Norway has received most points from? Sweden, Iceland, Denmark. And given most points to since the eastern bloc joined? Sweden, Iceland and Denmark.

In the past decade, we've had winners from Sweden, Azerbaijan, Germany, Norway, Russia, Serbia, Finland, Greece, Ukraine and Turkey - not exactly eastern europe only.

[Jan49]

And Israel has won 3 times.

I think the Eurovision is quite appealing when you're about 9 years old and like jigging around to music. After that it is all very forgettable. I didn't watch it but I played the winning entry and the UK entry using youtube and I thought they were both very so-so songs.

[jellybeans]

I like it. The politicial voting has always been part of it. I did miss Terry Wogan but Graham was on form this year. First year I have liked him. We need a good entry though. What about Gary Barlow?

[honeytea]

Yabu, here in scandinavia the radio plays eurovision songs, so we are very familia with norways and denmark's song even before the night, I guess maybe it is the same in the eastern countries.

Is scandinavia ruining it also?

[AintNobodyHereButUsKittens]

UK have finished top 5 twice in the past decade or so - we could definitely win with the right song, just like Germany did. Belgium and the Netherlands have done disastrously over the last few years, not even making it to the final, but this year they both had attractive songs with charming singers and did pretty well.

The blinkered insistence that the song and the performance have nothing to do with it is what made me want (the otherwise lovely) Terry Wogan retired with extreme prejudice for decades. It's hardly surprising that if we are one of 39 rather than one of 16 or so like in the old days, then it will be more difficult to come top.

[RedToothBrush]

YABU

The countries that were the best yesterday, almost without exception, were at the top of the leaderboard.

The shit ones - like ours - were at the bottom.

So even if there is tactical voting going on, how come the better songs are still fairing much better?

Or are you just bitter that we aren't winning? Or just utterly blind to the fact that we've not had a decent song in years?

[GalaxyDefender]

YABU, but I think you know that.

Though last night's result made me make this face as the popular choices were barking. Azerbaijan managed to get points for the man-in-box gimmick, which was admittedly cool, but the song was shit. I can't even remember Ukraine's song tbh, which shows how good it was!

If it was done purely on song quality, Malta would have won. That song was amazing, even if Mr. Singing Doctor kept pulling some rather odd faces

[Decoy]

It's a load of Eurotrash. It's very rare you get a good song on Eurovision.

[ImTooHecsyForYourParty]

It's only a singing competition. I don't think it matters at all.

[spanky2]

There is no way I want them excluded after the Romanian entry . Graham Norton - just because you can doesn't mean you should . Fantastic !

[clicketyclick66]

I thought Ireland's song was the best, but it came last!

[PimpMyHippo]

When I was six I hid under the table and refused to go to our neighbour's Eurovision party because I'd somehow decided that it was going to cause a war and we'd all be bombed.

[PiggyPlumPie]

I don't think we can complain about the political voting as we have historically been guilty of it ourselves by giving Ireland 12 points.

We, as a country, seem to be voting along similar lines to the rest of Europe so it seems that we are just putting in shit songs!

I also thought Eurovision without Terry would be awful but am loving Graham Norton. He doesn't take it personally.

[DontMeanToBeRudeBut]

I used to think that everyone treated Eurovision as a bit of a joke. Then I -(briefly) moved to Sweden. They took it so seriously! It was huge news, everyone was talking about it for weeks, everyone watched the actual contest. I just couldn't understand it. So it's no wonder the UK never wins really is it?

Last year I did wonder whether Spain would send a rubbish entry this time to make sure they didn't have to pay to host it twice :o

[Mimishimi]

The singer from Spain was awful but they had a bit of my sympathy when our pig-ignorant TV commentator here in Australia said sarcastically "Because nothing says Spain quite so much as a bagpipe does it?". Well, actually, you idiot, Spain has one of the oldest continuous Celtic cultures in the world in the northwest (Galicia mainly) and it is thought they introduced the pipes to the British Isles. It annoys me that everyone just sees Spain as the land of castanets and guitar culturally and musically (as lovely as they are).