To be annoyed at how bad our Eurovision song is?

[AngeloMysterioso]

We have any number of really talented songwriters, singers and musicians in the UK. And yet the best we could come up with is a few minutes of what I could only describe as sonic chaos with three girls yelling
what
the
hell
just
HAPPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEENED
over and over again.

It’s not even that it’s boring, or not fun or quirky enough. It’s actually annoying, and I find myself getting more and more irritated every time I hear it which thanks to Radio 2 playing it every hour or so is distressingly often.

How have we gone from the fab Sam Ryder to Olly Alexander cavorting in a dirty toilet and now this crap??

It's insanely cheap for the BBC though, for what they get. The per hour cost is comparable to a cheap quiz show or a daytime format like Homes Under The Hammer, but for primetime entertainment.

Exactly - which is why we’ll never opt out.

Oh, I agree that there is some political element to it, with some countries voting for their neighbours - whether just to instinctively show favour to those of a similar culture, people from one country who have crossed the border to live in a neighbouring country voting for their own (original) country, or because a particular musical style is popular in one specific region straddling two or three countries.

To be honest, I wonder how unnaturally awkward it must have been/be for our two Irish hosts to be saying "them" (Ireland) and "us" (UK) and not show any instinctive allegiance.

I just think that it's blown up out of all proportion - to the extent that, even in the Jemini year, some Brits were actually still claiming that we got no points "because it's all politics and they hate us"!

Yeah, I always thought that about Terry and Graham. It's not been so much of a problem for Graham, because Ireland haven't even made it to the final on quite a few occasions, but Terry was presenting during Ireland's winning years, and it must have been weird to say 'we didn't do very well' when Ireland won it.

I do agree, though, that we can't blame UK losses on politics. Some have even suggested Sam Ryder's second place was owing to everyone knowing the Ukraine were going to win and nobody wanted to host it on the back of second place, but I think it was just a good Eurovision entry. The public voters make a lot of difference now, and I don't imagine for one minute the public are all thinking about hosting costs.

I must say, I was like most other people when the song was first publicised: open-mouthed and wondering what this mad concoction was all about.

But yesterday, in the context of actually being performed live at Eurovison, it really did make a lot more sense. I think they did very well indeed.

I didn’t see the performance by UK last night but I keep hearing it was good and dammit it’s giving me that hopeful feeling I get every year that we could do well only to watch on the night and see nobody give us any points.

It’s such an ear worm! I really love it and hope they do well

I think we can find anything we like crap. So I'm with you - I thought last year's winner was crap. I found it tuneless and dull and couldn't understand how it was a winner. This stuff is subjective and I, like you, thought it was crap.

And Phoenix was utterly epic. I still listen and have been a Conchita fan ever since. I particularly love the concert he did in Vienna. And if you haven't seen his version of Summer Wine from that concert you really should.

I thought the UKs performance was spectacular last night, staging was excellent and the vocals and song came alive last night on the stage. It surprised me.

So disappointed Milkshake Man didn't get through!

But cannot get the swedish song out if my head. Going through a bit of a tough time and every time I hear it it just makes me feel happy. Kaj have some great stuff going on on Instagram, which have been cheering me up. They are very funny (and very clever).

I’m convinced they deliberately choose terrible artists for Eurovision as it gets people talking. We have so much talent here, why else would they always choose clown acts

The song itself is obviously somewhat 'Bohemian', shall we say; but I really don't think you can call the group terrible. They're accomplished singers - and very talented.

It's certainly not the worst song in the contest. I expect it will do respectably in the jury vote and bomb in the televote.

I don't know why people said that in the Jemini year as we'd done ok up until then in previous years. It was a terrible song and they performed it awfully. Simple as

I think an element of politics comes into it but I also think Ireland and UK just have different taste in music to their European neighbours. Our artists also don't tend to do much promotion pre Eurovision where other countries artists do and get loads of radio plays on different European stations and are well known even before Eurovision starts. In saying all that I do think the best song does tend to win in the end. I think the semi finals are a mess and that format needs to change

I thought our staging was terrible- 3 girls prancing round a wonky chandelier 😂

I thought we performed brilliantly last night. I was worried about how the complex harmonies would work live and whether their voices would be good enough - I was so impressed.

I never expect us to do well because there is an element of political voting that’s hard to overcome (not impossible). Certain countries ALWAYS vote for each other, regardless of what the song is, so there’s definitely some favouritism. But that doesn’t mean we can’t win, and I think our girls put up a great performance! I loved their voices and the energy of the song.

I have to say though - I think Denmark is going to be hard to beat. I am terrible at predicting winners though 😂

I’m not quite getting the love for Australia - I thought it was truly awful! And those tight-fitting trousers even made my teenage DD say “is there any need to see everything” 😂😂😂 I usually like the silly songs but that one felt like a try-hard, almost a parody!

I agree Australia was awful. I can't even remember Denmark tbh

This was Denmark. It was a bit of a dance-type track but it built up well to a big crescendo type finish. It just sounds instantly like a Eurovision, if you know what I mean.

It wasn’t my favourite but I thought that it could score well.

Also, I forgot to say, what’s with all of the acts removing clothes this year 😂😂 I know it’s been done forever - cough Bucks Fizz - but it seemed that every other act this year was whipping something off 😂😂

Oh my god it's awful!

I didn't like Denmark at all

Sweden should walk it if the bookies are right.
My personal winner is Finland all the way. She owned that stage in a way no one else did.

I enjoyed Finlands one too. She was a force of nature !

My Sky cut out just before Finland started

Because we are arrogant and think that we are better than eurovision. So, we choose a song we think is eurovisiony rather than a good song.
It’s utter arrogance nothing more.

I was disappointed with the staging too. There is so much more you could do with a morning after the night before theme, than walking up to and then inching around the edge of a static chandelier.
It's better than the year we just had a big trumpet but could have been so much better.

Even Scott mills admitted to the girls that it probably won’t win.
He was nice about it, but that’s what he meant.
They can sing and look good, but the song is a mess