To think the UK should not fund the Eurovision Song Contest?

[NowIsTheSpringOfOurDiscontent]

Or bother entering obviously.

It’s a humiliation and everyone hates us so we hardly get any votes. None this year due to Brexit and the Covid vaccine probably.

Poor James . He certainly didn’t deserve NIL points!

The song was utter shite let's face it, completely bland.

Also, what was that outfit? It looked like he could have opened up his coat and it would be full of dodgy Rolexes!

There was a show just before eurovision in Ireland and it showed our 'golden years' and every year the UK was in the top few acts too. It did turn political for a while but to be honest I thought mostly it was heading away from that but we did say the UK zero points might be a bit of a fingers up at UK leaving the EU. I liked Switzerland but then as more songs came on I forgot it a bit so was surprised it was so up front. I always thought it was a bit annoying that the five contributors got through no matter what every year, in Ireland we've got in some years and not others. I agree about Amanda Holden, she was a bit hyper but then that's Eurovision. When the Irish guy came on a nd spoke in Irish you could see the presenter going what the eff is he saying? (we didn't have a clue either

@Duckypoohs

We could win if we sent a decent song.

Would we though?

Do you think if we could persuade someone who sells millions of records around the world to represent us, they would definitely win? In theory Coldplay or Adele would walk it, because objectively their music is much more popular than any of the other acts, but I'm not so sure.

Mind you, I wasn't crazy about the winning song either.

I don't think anything has come close to Euphooooooria since 2012 tbh - what a tune, have just been watching it again on YouTube!

I don't really think Eurovision would give a shit. The British superiority complex is stunning sometimes.

ps we use the 'at least we don't have to host it again, it's so expensive' line too. Everyone knows the country would grab it if they could, the tourism it beings is huge!

Honestly I don’t think the UK is popular but the act this year wasn’t great. It was a bit dull compared to the other acts and it felt like we didn’t put the effort in.

@NiceGerbil

I thought he was really good!

I enjoyed the whole show and the voting was v interesting.

Of course we weren't going to get votes- did anyone think otherwise? Even Malta gave us nil!

So the solution is to flounce off from Eurovision? That's been going since the 50s and was started with the idea of bringing something cheerful to bring Europe together after the war etc...

Yes good idea. Let's burn all the bridges! Huffily because there was a predictable reaction to us sticking 2 fingers up to the EU.

I think blocking the channel tunnel would be good as well. And why are we teaching German and French in schools? It needs to stop.

Clearly Amanda Holden managed to skip all her language classes...

She was the real embarrassment of the night for the UK

(and yes the UK entry was dire - instantly forgettable)

I think they need to drop the judges and public votes. Use just one of them - I don't care which. I wasn't expecting James to win - the song was OK, he was OK but that was the problem. It was just 'OK'.

Italy's song was a piss of shite. Absolutely a crock of rubbish. I didn't like the Swiss entry and France's one annoyed me by the end with the repetition. BUT to be in those countries, see the judges battling one up, then the other and to be overtaken by Italy because of telephone votes seems so unfair - and all this 200 points, 63 points because of percentages or however they work out the public votes. That must be heartbreaking. To think you've done it and some Joe Public vote snatches it away. It needs to be either judges or public. That way you know what you've got without another round of smiley presenters dragging it out.

There were some excellent songs there which got no points from the public - Netherlands and Norway in particular. The presenter's face when he gave the public vote of Nil points to the Netherlands said it all.

In future I'm going to watch the songs, have a laugh and go to bed before the voting. I said to my son, before the programme started 'watch Cyprus and Greece. They give each other 12 points in almost every contest'. Up comes Greece - giving 12 points to Cyprus and then Cyprus giving 12 points to Greece. Both sang in English I believe so it's not a cultural thing and both were 'pop' style songs so nothing cultural there either. France gave 12 votes to Switzerland (another French speaking country) - predicted by DH. It's blatant points going to country mates. Nothing wrong in that as it's predictable and a laugh when it happens (one of the presenters even said 'Greece' before the Cyprus judge gave his points). But let's not kid ourselves that political (or mate) votes don't happen. Because they do. We proved it last night with our predictions.

Personally I'd have liked to see Norway, the Netherlands or Cyprus win. But Italy...really? Good God.

Well I think Eurovision is a brilliant night's TV and I would be horrified if the UK flounced. Surely we are long past expecting to win the thing, or even get on the left hand side of the board.

As others have said, we don't do well because we tend to send someone unmemorable. It isn't that hard to get nil points. Someone only votes for you at all if they think you were the best and surely nobody thought our entry was the best?

However, it is easy to say "Send somebody good" but you can't compel a popular and successful artist to put aside their other engagements and compete for us.

Also, I don't think it is as political as people would claim. Yes people often do vote for their neighbours. But isn't that often likely to be because they have culturally similar tastes or are familiar with the artistes that there neighbouring country has representing them?

I thought last night's final was one of the most entertaining in years. I loved it. I am glad that dismal shite from Switzerland didn't win, mind.

Oh and Amanda Holden...in the old days it was Katie Boyle or Angela Rippon. Now we have Amanda 'please look at me' Holden. Who was followed by a 10 year old kid from Greece speaking perfect English. Talk about out of the mouths of babes (and I mean the kid, not plastic Amanda).

It's the first time I have watched the whole thing in a long time, and I loved it! We can't leave!

@Stressybetty

If we are paying £500,000 membership it works out as about £0.008 per person in the UK!

All funded by licence payers. Add that to the million or so that the BBC will pay Graham Norton, production staff, and all the hangers on in the host country and UK.....

The 3 hair flicking Beyoncé tribute band were the worst. I was waiting for some hair extensions to go flying across the room.

The thing is, going back to my previous point is that this is recognisable to many people from some of the participating countries - where my dad is from summer anthems are made exactly like this, so I recognise and like them so I might vote for them.

Even, thinking about pp and Coldplay/Adele - are they objectively more popular everywhere by everyone? That’s not a challenge, maybe they are, I recognise Adele but maybe recognise a few songs, Coldplay I’d have no idea. But over the years I have occasionally recognised some of the other countries because I have listened to them and I think UK underestimates the domestic pop music scene that crosses borders. That’s not to say that English language music isn’t popular, of course it will be in some places but they is also recognisable trends that parts of Europe have that Britain isn’t involved in.

E.g. there is a Turkish mega star who sells out massive venues on huge tours all over Europe, Middle East and even Latin America. His concerts aren’t only attended by diaspora, except in UK where your average person wouldn’t know him. So if he did Eurovision he would likely garner lots of votes because he would be recognised and his music recognised. (The UK’s only exposure was Holly Vallance producing a mediocre version of one of his songs).

I loved the winning song, I thought Italy were very worthy winners, an opinion shared by many voters obviously.

@bagsofshite
Sorry I obviously missed your point earlier as we seem to be in agreement 😁
The UK wasn’t Eurovision enough, Germany was too Eurovision, hence their places. I’m originally from Norway and while I love TIX, he was also a bit too Eurovision for me 🙈

Well we did win with the slightly cheesy katrina and the waves song

Yeah I agree that song was fucking awful and somehow won. I thought the Italian entry was crap. James' song wasn't that bad. We were always going to get nil points regardless of who was put up.

Having said all I said I don't think we should flounce off. Kudos to James for getting up and taking a bow when the public also gave nil points! We need to treat it as a joke, fun and very spectacular event that we've no chance of winning and just enjoy it.

But they can cut a good hour out by losing the inane chit chat with half cut performers (take us for a drone trip around the country or something - bit of a selling point for their tourism) and drop one set of votes or tally the judges vote and public vote together then announce. It's brutal to watch a third, fourth or fifth place country zip in front on the whim of a telephone vote.

@Definately

UK just needs to produce a banger like Euphoria and stop sending nice but safe and a bit dreary songs that haven't a hope.

Heck yes! I loved that song!

@WickedQueen

I’d sack it off on the basis that they didn’t play Ja Ja Ding Dong. I really thought they might!

YYYEEEESSSSSS!!!

@LondonJax

Having said all I said I don't think we should flounce off. Kudos to James for getting up and taking a bow when the public also gave nil points! We need to treat it as a joke, fun and very spectacular event that we've no chance of winning and just enjoy it.

But they can cut a good hour out by losing the inane chit chat with half cut performers (take us for a drone trip around the country or something - bit of a selling point for their tourism) and drop one set of votes or tally the judges vote and public vote together then announce. It's brutal to watch a third, fourth or fifth place country zip in front on the whim of a telephone vote.

It's way way shorter than it used to be! When they'd call every international jury and have them give votes from the bottom to the top, one by one.

There was also a flurry of years with jury-scandals which is why the public vote was introduced.

As others have said, there was much less political voting last night than usual. San Marino didn't vote for Italy, Portugal didn't vote for the UK. Not all the Balkan states divvied out the votes between themselves. Austria didn't vote for Germany. Etc etc.

Are you quite young? You don't seem to know very much about it.

Somebody on another thread said that the UK doesn't take Eurovision seriously enough and other countries send really top singers etc.
I don't think it would make the slightest bit of difference if the UK sent Coldplay or Adele or some other top act, as the political voting is so rife.

Since 2003, we have finished outside the top 20 on 10 occasions and finished last 5 times. It is political and it isn't because of Brexit. Time to pull the plug on it. Is it right that foreign countries singing in barely legible English should beat perfectly good efforts (bar last night which was rubbish) by UK acts?

@RaraRachael

Somebody on another thread said that the UK doesn't take Eurovision seriously enough and other countries send really top singers etc. I don't think it would make the slightest bit of difference if the UK sent Coldplay or Adele or some other top act, as the political voting is so rife.

How about we try it first , and then moan?

Totally agree, can't believe that this dinosaur is still going, it was bad when it first started in the stone age.