The Spectator has a pretty article on why we keep losing Eurovison
www.spectator.co.uk/article/politics-or-neglect-why-the-uk-came-last-at-eurovision
Some excerpts: James Newman........was good. But being good is not enough for Eurovision, now the world’s most-watched cultural event with millions voting. To wow this multinational, multilingual, multicultural crowd takes the kind of imagination and effort that the BBC is unwilling or unable to provide. Its speciality is news and drama: schlager is not its thing.
UK entry goes straight to the final: most others have to go through semi-finals.
The first time James Newman had the chance to perform in front of a live audience on live television was last night. (( something I find quite shocking))
The BBC always skimp on staging and choreography - and that neglect showed.
And a very pertinent point I think very worth considering:.
ITV is also a member of the Eurovision Broadcasting Union, the organisation behind Eurovision: maybe it could choose the UK entry next year. The BBC has picked duds for 20 years now.
Article goes on to talk about massive music exporting industry in Britain.
Yes why not let ITV do it?! The BBC perhaps just aren't..... trendy, campy or urban enough in their thinking to pick winners and they turn miserly on the money.
We went through a period of being poor Olympic medalists, until we focused on the issue and poured more (admittedly a lot of lottery) money on our athletes. Now we always come away with a decent cache of medals. The talent was always there. The same is true of our musical talent. We need a better approach, it's not just 'finding the right person'.