Well I could say that about the World Cup, or Wimbledon or any of the other tedious sporting events we have to endure from time to time, but I accept that sport is important to some people so I suppose we put up with it.
But for many of us Eurovision is one of the years highlights and the fact we were hosting, well of course, there will be lots of excited coverage.
I loved it. It's interesting even on here how opinions differ on the songs and presenters. I thought Mel did OK. I thought Germanys song was awful. I voted for Austria, Switzerland, Finland, Moldova and Norway.
I thought they did an amazing job of putting on the show. I went to one of the semifinal shows and the atmosphere was fabulous.
There is an awful lot of shite on TV but Eurovision is a diamond
Perfectly expressed. There are so many entitled people - probably including many who take the endless sport programmes as 'essential' and a given - who genuinely don't seem to understand why other people should be allowed to have what they love as well - just for one week a year.
Two things guaranteed with Eurovision each year - bonkers songs and an influx of people who feel the need to tell you it's shit (but also watch the whole thing!). I hate football, so I don't watch it. Nor do I feel the need to tell everyone I hate it...
Yes, again, it's very arrogant how many people who either never watch it or do watch it, but feel the need to dismiss it as "Oh, I caught a bit whilst channel-hopping", think that their opinion is so important - any more than anybody should listen to my proclamations about the way the Premier League is run, when I don't have a clue and even less interest. Oh, all the 'experts' about how it supposedly works who then tell you they haven't seen it for 25 years - goodness, how tedious they are.
I think the staging is a large part of what lets down the UK - when the other countries have waterfalls, fire and all manner of spectacular visual displays, we have something that looks like a 1990s website. Those trumpets for James Newman the other year were so embarrassing. We massively upped the staging game for Sam Ryder last year and look what happened. Of course, it was also a great catchy song and delivered with power and energy that captured the arena.
Sad to say, beautiful young people in revealing clothing also have a big effect in success. We don't do that, which is to our credit, but also reduces our chances. Israel's entry would have been considered quite meh if it had been performed by an average-looking woman in her 40s, wearing an evening gown.
SloMo - Spain's entry last year - has had an immense amount of streams; but I wonder how many of those viewers have been truly interested in the song itself and the musical dynamics of the performance and nothing else....
Incidentally, regarding the rap bit in the middle of Mae Muller's song, does anybody know why:
A - they only seemed to play a version on the radio that excluded it;
B - she changed it to different words on the night?