Eurovision - why pick someone this generation doesnt know?

[Emmielu]

Why on earth do we get stuck with a crap representative?? Why couldnt we have someone like Adele or someone more recent to us? I have no idea who Englebert Humperstink is?? He was awful. I rooted for sweden. More shameful......the swedish song was number 1 yesterday on the radio.

Why would Adele do it? She doesn't have the time nor would she want to risk her reputation.

Engelbert was great, the perfect choice, to show that we don't take it seriously and don't want to win.

I'm afraid I'm the opposite, I've heard of Engelbert, but not Adele.

You don't know the Hump? I'm not 500 years old but I know who Shakespeare is on account of having eyes and ears.

NB I am not comparing Engy to Will in any way, shape or form.

It's not a singing competition anyway, it's a popularity contest according to which wars you did or didn't recently start.

Adele was a suggestion. I just think it was pointless putting someone up for us when this generation has no idea who he is. If we're not going to take it seriously & dont want to win then why do we bother entering? I know its all about taking part but surely we'd like to be higher than 2nd from last.

I repeat, it's not a singing competition.

And which generation are you talking about? So far it's only you who hasn't heard of him.

Who is "this generation"?

i should have spoke in more detail lol. By "this generation" i mean teens who see this show as similar to x-factor etc. Look at who Ireland had to represent them.

Are teens the most important demographic then?

And Ireland fielded Jedward because they can't afford to host it if they win, so they made damn sure they wouldn't win.

We don't want to win anyway . Bit bloody expensive .

Spain made sure they wouldnt win too. They cant afford it. I didnt mean for this thread to turn into such a serious one. Because its Eurovision i thought it would be quite lighthearted.

The UK keeps entering duff acts because they don't want to win and have to host the contest. Seems fair enough to me.

The voting is so obvious and political that I don't think it would matter who we had representing us!

Teens don't watch Eurovision!

Even I didn't watch it as a teen.

The Uk keeps entering duds because no-one not utterly desperate and clinging to the last vestiges of onetime fame would be seen dead doing it.

(and I speak as a Eurovision whore who is the proud owner of boxsets and everything)

Didn't we enter Blue last year or the year before - someone this generation are more likely to know - and they came nowhere either. As DiscoDaisy said, it doesn't matter who we enter, without a block of political allies and neighbours, we're never going to win it again!

Agree with many of the above. We could have entered the finest, most popular, best ever singer with a great song and we would NEVER win.

Politics.

The idea of entering a crap song so the country doesn't win is not new.

Father Ted did it for Ireland years ago.

"My Lovely horse" was nothing if not memorable.

''see this show as similar to x-factor etc''. - yeah right !

What generation are you talking about? My DDs are 10 and 14 and knew who he is because I play his greatest hits cd of the radio.

We could have Michael jackson Madonna and fucking Elvis singing our song and we'd still come last. Most of Europe hate our guts but want to move here

Why are we so hated?

It would be interesting if we did enter someone well known and fabulous because it would just show up how biased the judges are.

Also, why do we pay so much money towards it? Perhaps we could withdraw our funding and quietly slip away unnoticed. After all the judges haven't exactly made us feel welcome. I bet they would miss the money though.

Bunbaker - But the general public comprise "the judges" these days, not as in the past when there was some kind of panel. So, while you can say the judging is "political", don't you think it's more related to the size of the diasporas in each country and whether those people take the competition seriously? For example, there are lots of Serbs in other countries who might be more up for voting than the many millions of Brits who live overseas; lots of Irish in the UK as well as people who know Jedward, hence the high Irish vote from the UK. Sweden won because Loreen was already well-known, but lots of the other voting is neighbours voting for one another because they know them best and/or have large populations of those nationals living there.

Thanks jk. I didn't think about that.