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!

@BenProudsNeck - because lots of people watch it. The viewing figures are amazing. Articles discussing it get clicked on, parties are hosted for it, twitter goes all eurovision.

Its not your cup of tea, but obviously its a TV ratings hit. If the BBC bowed out, ITV would be biting their hand off to show it.

As long as its popular, it will be shown. As long as it produces high ratings, the BBC will pay for it.

@Spasiba

We fund that rubbish?

Not fully

The contribution of 500K would be made back from the BBC's global network of stations. So it won't cost anything.

The only thing the UK can do is:

Lines are open for you to decide:
VOTE A for paying £5,000,000 and sending Johnny Lydon and PIL to wreak havoc

VOTE B to taking the offer made by Radiohead a few years ago to perform as their only live date for the year

VOTE C to get a song penned by U2 or possibly Coldplay and ride their social networks

VOTE D to pay Snoop Dogg to go on our behalf

Eurovision is such bad taste, gimmicky, spangly trash. Beautiful girls with too much make-up but beefy thighs in inappropriate stage teddies and posturing stage dancers twatting about.

I liked the french singer but generally most of the songs were dull. I would not want to listen to any of them, and the winners performed a terrible, derivative rock song.
I rather like Britain being last with no votes in such an appalling show. As the European country with by far the best international and commercial success with pop songs but with an industry who cannot be bothered to write and perform for this circus, we certainly cannot complain too much.

Sometimes, watching rubbish is quite entertaining but what really ruined it for me was the jumpy video cutting. Too many cameras so the video director kept endlessly switching from one to another to make it 'look exciting' in a very amateurish way; so I was unable to drink in the real awfulness of the performers, dancers, costumes and
routines which was the best thing.

I don't know why the BBC continues to broadcast it and promote it on the radio. It's a load of pish.

Every single time I accidentally catch a glimpse of Eastenders or the football or golf, I always wonder who could possibly enjoy such dull tedium.... but we're all different and I know that millions of people do like it.

We get 8 or so dedicated hours a year on TV (I know Radio 2 has had several special programmes too), compared to hundreds and hundreds (probably thousands, actually) of hours of sport, soaps, cookery and craft programmes throughout the year.

Be glad I don't run the BBC (and am not a pocket dictator) - otherwise the good programmes currently on BBC2 would be rehomed on BBC1 in place of all the sport and soaps, and BBC2 would be renamed BBC Eurovision and broadcast 24/7

@Duckypoohs

He deserved nil points it was cringy and fucking awful, it was embarrassing. Why send a fat nondescript bloke singing a, shite song off key who was dressed as the back seat of a Ford fiesta???

I agree with this. Poor song, badly performed. Cringeworthy. Nothing to do with Brexit. Just very bad.

@UltraMK

The contribution of 500K would be made back from the BBC's global network of stations. So it won't cost anything.

The only thing the UK can do is:

Lines are open for you to decide:
VOTE A for paying £5,000,000 and sending Johnny Lydon and PIL to wreak havoc

VOTE B to taking the offer made by Radiohead a few years ago to perform as their only live date for the year

VOTE C to get a song penned by U2 or possibly Coldplay and ride their social networks

VOTE D to pay Snoop Dogg to go on our behalf

You might run into difficulties trying to get U2 on board with that plan

I say we ask Stormzy lol

Yabu

We wouldn’t send our second or third best athletes to the Olympics would we?

Out problem is not with Europeans hating us. It’s because we spend money as one of the big 5 getting automatic qualification and then thinking we can enter with a half assed song.
The other nations know they have to submit a strong entry to have a chance of even qualifying so they enter their absolute best songs from their best talent

We deserved to lose

This year was a particularly good year. Loads of good songs to choose and ours was rubbish. Some better songs got knocked out in the semi finals that should have got the space before us (eg: Belgium).

Yes we don’t do great and a lot of places in Europe don’t really like us, I think 🤔 still more about the rubbish songs we send. It’s either too cheesy and looks like a piss take (eg: Skoosh - flying the flag, or that teenage life song sung by a 49 year old man). Or we have bands or singers well past their prime that just sound dated.

If we really wanted to win we need to send something decent and a bit different. Look at previous winners like Lordi, or Netta, and this years Italy. All something a bit different.

I had a tough time choosing who to vote for this year - Finland, Iceland, Italy, Lithuania, Sweden, Ukraine, Switzerland, France. All great songs. The U.K. was miles behind all of them.

It is incredibly difficult to get out on stage and sing in front of a live crowd, firstly, and then knowing close to 200 million people are watching, as well. Anyone who hasn't had a lot of live crowd singing experience really suffers on that stage and it affects their vocal tone. You need someone with nerves of steel and/or a seasoned pro whose done the circuits one way or another. If the UK wasn't in the 6, he'd have had the experience under his belt of a semi-final - but would never have made it to the finals with that song.

The poor man surely didn't choose that awful outfit himself, or organise the tragic "staging" of his song. His song last year was also a lot better. Really, he was unlikely to do well, given all that.

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...

It doesn't really, though, does it? It's ended up being mostly about point scoring and silly politics. I can think of better things to spend money on.

Every single time I accidentally catch a glimpse of Eastenders or the football or golf, I always wonder who could possibly enjoy such dull tedium.... but we're all different and I know that millions of people do like it.
We get8or so dedicated hoursa yearon TV (I know Radio 2 has had several special programmes too), compared to hundreds and hundreds (probably thousands, actually) of hours of sport, soaps, cookery and craft programmes throughout the year.

Be glad I don't run the BBC (and am not a pocket dictator) - otherwise the good programmes currently on BBC2 would be rehomed on BBC1 in place of all the sport and soaps, and BBC2 would be renamed BBC Eurovision and broadcast 24/7
Your strategy would meet with my approval

@user1477391263

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...

It doesn't really, though, does it? It's ended up being mostly about point scoring and silly politics. I can think of better things to spend money on.

It does everywhere else! I lived abroad for a while and found that Eurovision was embraced precisely as something cheerful bringing everyone together and entertaining them.

If people think that Eurovision reflects our standing in the international community, I.e no one likes us, then maybe that’s a cause to ask ourselves why that may be 😁

@ThanksForAllTheFish

This year was a particularly good year. Loads of good songs to choose and ours was rubbish. Some better songs got knocked out in the semi finals that should have got the space before us (eg: Belgium).

Yes we don’t do great and a lot of places in Europe don’t really like us, I think 🤔 still more about the rubbish songs we send. It’s either too cheesy and looks like a piss take (eg: Skoosh - flying the flag, or that teenage life song sung by a 49 year old man). Or we have bands or singers well past their prime that just sound dated.

If we really wanted to win we need to send something decent and a bit different. Look at previous winners like Lordi, or Netta, and this years Italy. All something a bit different.

I had a tough time choosing who to vote for this year - Finland, Iceland, Italy, Lithuania, Sweden, Ukraine, Switzerland, France. All great songs. The U.K. was miles behind all of them.

Belgium was in the final! I liked their song. I also liked France and Lithuania so I gave a vote to these three.

I don't think we're disliked, at least not by most ordinary folk on the continent. We just have different tastes and approaches to the competition, and it has always been like that.

A lot of people like it, that's because we don't all have the same taste in things. I have no problem with the BBC spending what is a relatively small amount of money, on this. I just hope we don't win and have to shell out more the following year. It has been quite a burden in the past I believe. Personally I would prefer this to football, neither of which I watch because I am busy watching paint dry.

Australia gave us no points because it was a boring song and awful performance, not because of Brexit. Not all counties in Eurovision are even in Europe.

We need Bill Bailey with his 6 neck guitar!

I watched his performance out of curiosity and felt like I was sitting at a seedy karaoke bar. He was off key and also sounded out of breath. Sorry guys but seriously the dude got the points he deserved. Hopefully he can just own the 0 points with panache, he still looked like he was having good fun.

@PeachyPeachTrees

Australia gave us no points because it was a boring song and awful performance, not because of Brexit. Not all counties in Eurovision are even in Europe.

We need Bill Bailey with his 6 neck guitar!

I would love to see him perform at it!

I hadnt heard our entry. I just googled it and to be honest it was pretty bad. No wonder we didnt win.

Sorry, not read the full thread as there are 18 pages of it.

I think no countries should automatically go through to the final. Also, all the songs should be heard for the first time during the competition ie on the nights of the semi finals and finals, and not before.

The first time I heard the UK entry, I thought it was dull and wouldn't get anywhere. As I heard it more and more over time, it grew on me. I quite liked it but knew it wasn't a winner. If much of Europe only heard this for the first time at the final, it wouldn't have had time to grow on them like it did me, so was destined to fail. Didn't deserve zero points though.

I loved France's song and also Ukraine as well as the quirkiness of Iceland. I don't know why Italy won. Their performance and song were not very memorable.

I feel all the complaints about not getting votes reveal that British exceptionalism. We don’t have a God given right to points. The song was boring, he wasn’t that good a performer in my opinion. Also, the BBC doesn’t specifically pay the Eurovision contest for a finals place. The BBC is one of the big contributors to the European Broadcasting Union and gets many rights to material made in Europe and one of the incidental benefits is the Eurovision place. Tbh this obsession with deserving a place in the final makes me think that if that place wasn’t guaranteed the UK in general wouldn’t watch. Amanda Holdens ignorant and rude comments about being able to tell which languages she was presumably phonically reciting would have decided anyone who was tempted to vote politically that they were right to do so.

I totally cringed at Amanda Holden surely they/ she could’ve scripted something much better to say and less embarrassing and offensive.

I feel we shouldn’t have an automatic right to a place in the final because then we would make more effort, and the song would have equal airtime to all the others and become familiar across Europe.

Either that or the whole semi final thing should be abolished. Just stick all 39 on air on the night

It was a competitive year with loads of really good songs and I’ve added a few to a Spotify playlist actually ... but not the
Uk entry. I really liked Greece , Ukraine and Finland and several others