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!

I love eurovision i have since I was a girl. Ita been a while since the UK won (1997) however they are still tied 3rd for most wins (5 in total) so I dont think they are doing too bad.

I didnt think the song was good from thenUK this year and I think the scoring reflects that. I do think James did well in how he took it and the audience responded with their applause.

For me I enjoy the show i enjoy all the stuff around it. Twitter is excellent (especially Innocent drinks and Dave Gorman last night) I love my daughters and friends comments and all together I think it is money well spend as I know I am far from the only family who has traditions around this.

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?

What?!

@Taytocrisps

If it's any consolation, we (ROI) didn't even qualify for the final.

I don’t think the U.K. exactly “qualified” @Taytocrisps - they are one of the “big 5” so they get a free pass to the final.

That’s what GN said anyway.

YANBU. I think the song and the singer deserved better than 0 points.

Maybe we need to be much more theatrical with our staging and have some kind of an obvious theme/vibe. If you look at the top 4 on the board - Italy = glam rock, Switzerland = early 80s pop, France = 1940s Edith Piaf, Iceland = Trekkies with a sense of humour.

Compared to this, our entry = night at local pub plus dancers and trumpets.

Prince George can read out the scores next year too.

I'm pleased to read some sensible comments on here. Our efforts bring to mind men deliberately doing the washing up half assed. So sick of people whining that we could send Coldplay or Adele and still get nil points. Such people do not understand Eurovision. Why not try something other countries have grasped? Send an up and coming/current established artist with a song that charts well in its country of origin?
Off the top of my head; someone like clean bandit, Anne Marie, skepta, Charlie xcx, jake bugg could all get us top 5 spots.
One of our few successful exports in the UK is pop music. It's disrespect to the other countries to send mediocre entries.

@Geamhradh - thank you for the update on Eurovision. Yes I do know all of the back scandals for Eurovision. I do know about the mates votes and I do know it used to take a long time getting all the endless points out.

They can still keep the 12 points announcement then drop the 10 points and descending scores in. But they can add the public votes at that point. Then poor Switzerland and France wouldn't have to watch Italy zoom up from behind.

And thanks for the patronising 'are you quite young' - yes I am. I'm almost 59 years old so know nothing....

In theory Coldplay or Adele would walk it,
I adore both but I don't think they'd score high against a good catchy crazy eurovision tune!

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?

You win this thread for the most ridiculous comment. It’s not a contest about who can sing in English the best.

They only began singing in English because Ireland and the UK did dominate for a time and it seemed that it had to be English to be in with a chance. I’m glad more are going back to singing in other languages, it’s what gave me a love of languages as a child/teen.

I think our music is just so out of sync with Europop that we never stand a chance.

I'd prefer to see us qualify like most other countries, then when we submit a dreadful song we'll just be eliminated in the early rounds and not have to endure this humiliation.

It would be quite exciting to see us actually earn our place in the final and we might even up our game with the entries - our entry this year wasn't good (though not the worst imo either)

I certainly don't think we should be one of the main sponsors anymore.

It wasn't a great song or performance..though think the jury judge during the semi final so just been the public last night. Nothing exciting about it and the staging a bit meh. Maybe his song for last year was better..didnt think worthy of 0 points though. Bit harsh

The thing is that it is a vote.

Apart from the judges, it is from people like you or I. Why did you vote? Was it political? It certainly wasn't from my side - I voted Iceland because I thought they looked like the Scooby Doo kids and felt sorry for the person that got Covid. I voted for France because the song was fantastic. Do you seriously think there are loads of people sitting on their couches throughout Europe going "oooh, not going to vote for that UK, as they left the EU. That'll get them..". Really...?

Basically we came last as the song & the performance were just mediocre wallpaper music - it just didn't compare with far better, much more polished and basically more memorable performers. Italy won as their brand of rock has a huge following in Southern Europe. Twitter was all over them - it was clear they were going to win the public vote. I agree that it's not just abut the song, but it's certainly not thousands of Europeans refusing to vote for us out of some sort of Brexit based prejudice!

Wow. Talk about a sore loser OP! It’s not by value for money for the BBC given the audience etc it gets - that’s actually not a lot of money for a programme.

Time to say goodbye to Eurovision I think (and, no, I didn't watch it).

@StColumbofNavron

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?

You win this thread for the most ridiculous comment. It’s not a contest about who can sing in English the best.

They only began singing in English because Ireland and the UK did dominate for a time and it seemed that it had to be English to be in with a chance. I’m glad more are going back to singing in other languages, it’s what gave me a love of languages as a child/teen.

Me too! I'm a Eurovision purist and I love it when I hear other languages. It fascinated me as a child, as it does now.

@Crinkle77

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.

We won in 1997 just days after Blair was elected, on a mood of optimism and a genuinely global outward-looking Britain.

It's easy to forget that the UK wasn't always as selfishly inward looking as it is now. We once played a serious and responsible role in international politics. And that's reflected in international popular opinion. Do you think we'd have got zero votes if UK policy wasn't anti-Ireland and anti-Europe, and we hadn't tried to deny other countries the Covid vaccine?

You don't get sympathy votes for a mediocre song if you've got no sympathy for others yourself.

@andyoldlabour

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?

Might want to check the meaning of certain English words before you disparage other countries.

Please. James was dreadful. Dreadful song, dreadful singing, dreadful staging. There's a reason it didn't even crack the top 100 in the UK ... complete rubbish.

@andyoldlabour

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?

@andyoldlabour - you do realise that English IS a foreign language to all but Ireland, UK and Australia (I can't think of any more so sorry if I've missed them). So we're singing in a foreign language to many people in France, Russia, Spain or wherever and some people watching can't understand a word we sing.

Maybe we should try singing in Spanish or German (like the barely legible English you mention) and see how well we mangle those languages.

@AccidentallyOnPurpose - ^ this

People should enjoy the annual entertainment spectacle for what it is ie essentially a select geographic (Europe to Asia to Australia) cheesy cringe spread of geopolitics with neighbours guarantee to support each other in tone deaf predetermined block voting hence nul points without Ireland etc. The Royaume Uni entry was “crap” and off key by all accounts. This event allows off radar tiny nations (San Marino et al with imported acts) a “level” playing field and oh occasionally actually some decent memorable tunes periodically. We have Adele and Coldplay etc so by default appreciate world beating British musical talents. I also believe many continental European languages and cultures including French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese (eg Camila Cabello) have amazing popular world music styles but again in recent years tend to also like UK not take this seriously as a competition and send in likewise B side clown acts in keeping with the trend of soft diplomacy playing it down to blend in and perhaps not necessarily wishing to be obligated to host the next event should they unexpectedly win.

Talking about an over reaction and unnecessarily looking for offence playing the victim card:

Eurovision POLL: Should the UK boycott the song contest after 'Brexit payback'? VOTE
UK POLITICIANS are blaming Britain's crushing defeat in the Eurovision Song Contest being partially down to Brexit, so Express.co.uk asks readers should the UK boycott the event?
By RICHARD PERCIVAL
10:00, Sun, May 23, 2021

www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1439995/Eurovision-song-contest-UK-boycott-poll-vote-James-Newnam-reaction-latest

@NowIsTheSpringOfOurDiscontent 100% agree.

To the ones voting YABU (aka the ones who voted for remain in the EU referendum,) and who believe the UK SHOULD fund Eurovision; WHY? Why the fuck should we even have anything to do with it anymore?

We have done SO shit in it for the past 20 years. Most of the countries just vote for their neighbouring countries, and have done since the late 1990s. We will never win again.

Some of the comments from some people on twitter - and a few on here - blaming Brexit - are hilarious! We have been doing badly at Eurovision for 20 years, Brexit has fuck all to do with it.

And if they are not voting for us because we did better getting our citizens vaccinated with the covid vaccine, then that goes to show what pathetic, childish, bad losers they really are.

Other countries DO seem to hate us, and yet we are no worse than many other countries. They are just jealous of us, and downright bitter. And don't anyone mention the fucking empire and how England raided other countries a million years ago, because that has been done to DEATH.

And we are NOT the only ones to have behaved shittily in the past - did you hear me? IN THE PAST!!!

We need to come out of Eurovision NOW. Fuck 'em. And like HELL should we be pouring money into it.

Maybe we should have a public referendum on it?

The UK have won 5 times. There are countries that have never won ,despite competing for 40/50 years.

I don't see them whinging about "hate" and how "it's not fair"!

We need to put some effort in not only choosing a good song, but choosing someone who can actually sing and perform well. The U.K. is not short of good live performers, yet we let some guy found in the back of Wetherspoons have a go at failing to sing the songs he wrote!

UK is never popular in Europe, even more now
Popular enough for huge numbers of young Polish people, and others to come and work here though.

At this rate can you blame not only Europe but everybody for thinking badly of you? Bloody hell will you get over yourselves, we don't give you a second thought. And excuse my not perfect language for not being a brit. Can I suggest you pack away the paranoia and take 20 years singing fluently in a another language.

How about we try it first , and then moan?

I can't think of any top stars who would want to suffer the humiliation. So we're in catch 22 - Send an unknown act who is hoping to enhance their career or try to use an established act (who wouldn't touch it with a bargepole)