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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Eurovision

227 replies

Sometimeswinning · 22/05/2021 23:06

I dont know why I'm watching it! It needs to go really. How are we behind Israel? They're not even Europe!

OP posts:
WickedQueen · 23/05/2021 00:13

It’s all over Twitter. It’s quite damning. I’m not clear on what part of the evening it was.

MrsGulDukat · 23/05/2021 00:13

If Ed Sheran was involved then doubtless yes, we would deserve nil points.

Yep!

petridishmystery · 23/05/2021 00:13

Feel bad for the chap! Going into it as a UK contestant you’ll obviously be aware of the high chance of getting no points but surely hope you’ll be the one to buck the trend. Think the only way UK could do well at this point is if they got someone so beloved by all that the rest of Europe’s love for them would win out over their disdain for us.

ForgedInFire · 23/05/2021 00:18

Why are we still part of the "big 5" funding it? What are we actually getting out of this- especially now that we have burned our bridges with Brexit?

TheLovleyChebbyMcGee · 23/05/2021 00:20

Anyone else see the Italian singer actually doing Coke on tv?? His pal next to him giving him the nudge??

Not at the time, but on YouTube it looks bloody well like it!! Good spot!

Viciouslybashed · 23/05/2021 00:21

There must be money made from it for someone in this country for us to carry on in the show. We are not that bloody altruistic to fund it to be humiliated.

Teenagehorrorbag · 23/05/2021 00:21

Our song was perfectly fine, but we should know by now we never get points from anybody. I think it stems from the Eurotrash shows of the 90s where we took the mickey out of our euro-neighbours and they've never forgiven us.....Grin.

Some of the songs would have been worthy winners (France, Malta, didn't see many others) but personally I thought the Italian entry was beyond awful....Shock!!!!!????

I love heavy metal and rock and roll, but this was neither! The outfits were Bay City Rollers in vinyl and the act was cringy, and if there was a song along with it I can't remember it now! Dreadful!!!

petridishmystery · 23/05/2021 00:21

@WickedQueen

Anyone else see the Italian singer actually doing Coke on tv?? His pal next to him giving him the nudge??
Just looked on Twitter! He couldn’t have waited till after?!
CaptainCarp · 23/05/2021 00:21

What have Germany & Spain done to the European public?
I mean 3 points for Germany is pretty bad although there song was shit. Definitely worse than ours, giving the finger in that wierd costume.

Thedogscollar · 23/05/2021 00:22

We could send the bloody Queen to sing for us and we would still get f**k all.
It's a yearly comedy show. We will never win again.

WarmAndFluff · 23/05/2021 00:27

We're still part of Europe, just not the EU, so no reason to come out of Eurovision. If it was about the EU then why would places like Switzerland, Norway and Russia be in it?

The UK song was really bad, and the singer wasn't brilliant. It wasn't terrible, but just hugely forgettable.

APJ1 · 23/05/2021 00:35

We have been losing big time since the around the year 2000.

We have had the odd fairly good (for us) result since then. Third in 2002, which was of course the year before the infamous Iraq war backlash nil points; in 2009, when the jury vote was introduced, we came fifth and we would have been fifth in 2011 if it were still on the public vote alone.

Definately · 23/05/2021 00:42

Can anyone actually remember any of the British entries from the last 20 years? They haven't exactly been memorable.

RedToothBrush · 23/05/2021 00:46

Could it be that our song and performance was just not as good as the other entries?

How is this difficult to admit?

He was tuneless, flat and danced like a spud in a bin bag.

And someone thought two big trumpets that did nothing would somehow cut it for the staging.

Now if they had spouted fire, there may be an arguement here.... but they were utterly shit and pointless and added nothing.

RedToothBrush · 23/05/2021 00:50

Can anyone tell me they would honestly buy a copy of our entry or play it after tomorrow?

I'm a eurovision nerd. I have albums for the last few years that I play in the car in months other than May.

I skip the dull tracks...

WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 23/05/2021 00:50

How do people feel about the U.K. being one of the big five that have the biggest financial contribution to Eurovision?

Why are we still part of the "big 5" funding it? What are we actually getting out of this- especially now that we have burned our bridges with Brexit?

The EBU is way, way more than just the (wonderful) Eurovision Song Contest. All member broadcasters have to pay a percentage of their 'turnover' to remain members; therefore the richest countries, with the biggest populations and most respected/profitable international reach pay far more than the smaller, less prominent ones.

Even when they flounced from Eurovision for goodness knows how many years, Italy still had to pay a boatload of subs money to the EBU every year, as their media output is very prominent and profitable; hence, from when they decided to come back (and tonight suggests that they won't be hurrying away again anytime soon), the Eurovision Big 4 instantly became the Big 5 to include them as 'pre-qualifiers', because of their ongoing high-level subs payments - they didn't just send a massive brown envelope to the contest organisers as soon as they decided to participate again and dodge the semi-finals that way.

Hippopotas · 23/05/2021 00:52

@RedToothBrush

Can anyone tell me they would honestly buy a copy of our entry or play it after tomorrow?

I'm a eurovision nerd. I have albums for the last few years that I play in the car in months other than May.

I skip the dull tracks...

Same. His entry for last year was a grower this years was shite

Re the Italian guy you can see he has both fists clenched and I believe he was just celebrating nit taking coke.

OrangeSharked · 23/05/2021 00:53

UK used to do well until about 2000. We never placed in the bottom half of the leader board. 2002 was pretty much our last good year. (Wonder what happened in 2003 Grin)

I think its a combination of having no friends and also not very memorable songs. I think we are a bit behind the times with eurovision really, we are still in a 00s cheese rather than a 2020 cheese.

RedToothBrush · 23/05/2021 00:53

I like the fact we are part of the big five. Simply because we ARE in the final even if we have an utterly shite entry (which seems to be most years!).

The whinging about it being on the tv if we weren't in it would be awful.

I think its culturally good for the uk to have one day a year where we have more than English on prime time british tv.

ResIpsaLoquiturInterAlia · 23/05/2021 00:55

I Eurovisxit long before Brexit as I understand it’s not been a European song contest for years and that is not because it’s intercontinental but more because it’s an annual entertainment circus with some political and woke activism with varying agendas and block voting trends. Each to their own as like other beauty contests the best and by definition popular and established don’t complete in this spectacle as it’s more overall for second rate unknowns than top flight musicality. Admittedly it’s usually good entertainment and works well for social gatherings etc listening to other languages with occasionally some refreshing aural delights in a language one does not understand but resonates well emerge.

WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 23/05/2021 00:59

Can anyone actually remember any of the British entries from the last 20 years? They haven't exactly been memorable.

Jessica Garlick: Come Back - that got to number 3 in 2002;

Scooch: Flying The Flag (2007) - didn't do very well, but it was really catchy and very Eurovision, no sillier than some others that have done really well.

Bonnie Tyler was thoroughly wasted, although I seem to recall she had a sore throat. The song was dull and didn't go anywhere - if somebody could have got Diane Warren or Jim Steinman to have written her a belter, and her voice had been in its normal condition, it could have instantly been several leagues above the other entries that year and a very clear winner.

RedToothBrush · 23/05/2021 01:03

The thing in terms of the voting is the UK itself always votes in a similar pattern to the overall result. We usually will place the eventual winners / top 5 generally high in both the public AND jury vote. We aren't that out of step with the result.

Indeed if you look at other countries there are few which are wildly different too.

We also have to remember that music taste is regional - and that might be driving things not block political voting.

We aren't terribly big on techno folk in the uk generally. But go to Eastern Europe and you'll find it all over the place.

We are the outlier culturally - precisely because we only tend to speak english - thats not political. We blame it on politics rather than the fact we are too ignorant to learn other languages and are rarely exposed to music outside our english language bubble.

Its kind of sad that we feel the need to blame it on the voting system being unfair or politics rather than having a good hard look at ourselves and the shite that we are putting up.

We don't get it. We try and manufacture a winner rather than pick something for the pure joy of it. Thats where we fail most.

UrAWizHarry · 23/05/2021 01:04

Well, there was Jemini but that's only memorable for the fact that they came in completely off-key

Grin Grin Grin

RedToothBrush · 23/05/2021 01:06

2010 "That Sounds Good to Me" Josh Dubovie
2011 "I Can" Blue
2012 "Love Will Set You Free" Engelbert Humperdinck
2013 "Believe in Me" Bonnie Tyler
2014 "Children of the Universe" Molly
2015 "Still in Love with You" Electro Velvet
2016 "You're Not Alone" Joe and Jake
2017 "Never Give Up on You" Lucie Jones
2018 "Storm" SuRie
2019 "Bigger than Us" Michael Rice
2020 "My Last Breath" James Newman
2021 "Embers" James Newman

I'm struggling to remember most of these. And I love Eurovision.

They also didn't chart in the UK. Why was that???