to think that we have a chance in Eurovision this year

[Polyanthus2]

news.sky.com/story/eurovision-tiktok-singing-sensation-sam-ryder-will-perform-for-uk-with-track-space-man-12562140

Good looking and a good voice - I'm not on tiktok so this singer is new to me!
Even the song seems ok!

DD used to make us watch Eurovision...
The part of Eurovision I slightly pay attention to is the between-country alliances. Cultural affinity & Politics not glamour can be interesting.

Well I said YANBU because it's a great song and a really great singer - never heard of him before but I ain't the tick tock generation... But yeah the voting is often dubious to say the least.

I also miss the days when every score was read out and it took forever, it a kind of therapeutic

@CuteOrangeElephant

Where does this idea come from that everyone hates the UK? No one gives a shit about the UK. People vote for the songs they like best. Don't want to come last? Start sending better songs.

Quite!

And Europe is a big place! Lots of different cultures, languages and traditions. It's not "the UK v Europe" like some people seem to think

I really think the UK overlooks the fact that lots of countries share some musical tastes/traditions so it stands to reason that those are liked, particularly since public voting. Not just Europe but the rest of the world shares music with each other much more than the UK does where it’s often English-centric. I came across Shakira way before the UK was playing her songs because my other home country actively plays music from around the world. I often have heard not just the songs but also of some of the singers of Cyprus, Azeribaijan, Armenia and Greece when they field someone already well known so I am drawn to their songs. I’m likely not the only person.

I also agree with others that the looking down our noses attitude that is taken probably doesn’t help, even though I enjoy the commentary it is much more serious in other places.

Having listened to it now it sounds like it was a hotly fancied song by Denmark in 2012 which finished a slightly disappointing seventh.

Which makes it roughly twenty times better than anything else we've sent in the last decade*, so I'll take it.

*except Electro Velvet which for my sins I rather liked although it was completely wrong for Eurovision.

No.
We will never win because we've behaved like assholes.

Latvia for the win!

@SheldonsStainedSpot

Ah booo, it’s not all political. We don’t win because we never promote the song. The year we did actually promote it all over Europe, we came fifth. That’s a good result. Nowadays the first time most of Europe hears our song is on the actual night. Meanwhile other songs are hitting the charts in other countries weeks before the final.

I’m so glad you posted this. The people who talk about it being political clearly haven’t watched it in years as that really doesn’t factor as muc( anymore.

The other countries don't get our commentary, they'll have their own commentator, so they don't know if Graham or whoever is taking the Mickey.

The winning entries will not only have been played on the radio in neighbouring countries, but they tour and promote the songs. We don't have the same overlap of popular culture as some of the winners.

It'll be harder to get an established act to represent UK as some will be concerned the reputational damage of doing badly.

I have fun wondering who we'd send from Scotland if we got independence and whether we'd do better. Think we'd do better.

But other countries do have a diaspora - I’ve grown up watching two different commentaries. I agree, it’s probably not the deciding factor. I still think it’s familiarity (via promotion as you and others have mentioned) and familiarity that exists outside of Eurovision.

Ukraine will win this year but the songs that do win normally have an x-factor, something unusual and distinctive about them. Ours never do.

Do people - at least in the U.K. - still watch/care about Eurovision any more? To me it’s been a bad joke for ages.

I’m just old enough to remember when we won it, though - back in the Dark Ages with Sandie Shaw’s Puppet On A String. Though even if we had a song as instantly catchy as that, I don’t suppose we’d still have a cat in hell’s chance - as pps have said, it’s political.

:00Namechangeforthis88

The other countries don't get our commentary, they'll have their own commentator, so they don't know if Graham or whoever is taking the Mickey

Yes of course they do. Doesn't mean they don't have journalists that write about it, SM etc

I agree that the diaspora do have an influence here and there on the televote. For example the days when Poland was in Eurovision the UK would always give them a fair few votes regardless of quality, and nowadays we always give votes for even a terrible Lithuanian song - the UK Lithuanian population is surprisingly large. It's not enough to swing the contest though.

I voted for Lithuania last year because their song was so catchy.

Does Belarus normally compete?
I wonder if Germany might be seen as a bad guy - that whacking great gas pipeline for cheap gas (for Germany) from Russia.
It will be more fraught than usual I think.
Ukraine population won't be able to vote unless this war stops. No phone signals.

Nil points.
We are hated

Yes some years we'd vote for Lithuania anyway, and their songs are normally quite good and fit the UK's taste, but some years they send dodgy entries and we vote for them anyway.

Belarus usually compete but won't this year, they were kicked out last year for submitting two songs with dubious political lyrics.

Nowhere near enough gimmick for this to win.

I don't think we will win but I think we have a chance of not coming last.

I really like our entry this year, the first of uk entries that I'll add to Spotify playlist and actually listen to for fun.

I also just listened to the wolf banana song - I like it

@MrsTerryPratchett

Ukraine will win. However the UK is marginally less despised because of our response to Ukraine and so we won't get nul points again

I think Ukraine have pulled out, but they might just win even if they are not there.

It's a shame Russia is banned, it would be awesome for them to get Nil point

A way to look at it, is if you look at our entry from each recent year then compare to the songs that came top 3 in the same year, there's a massive difference in quality.

Obviously it's not all about the music.

But that song is fucking shit.

Every song that does well is hugely promoted prior to the completion, maneskin for example last year were already a really popular band and have done well since. They send interesting or memorable songs, take it seriously and design memorable staging and costumes.

We send an unknown chubby bloke, who no one has ever heard of, give him a bland, boring song, dress him in a car seat cover and put him on a plinth. Then say "pah! It's bloody political". It's so churlish and we never learn