View Single Post
  #1  
Old 05-26-2015, 05:48 AM
FuzzyPlum FuzzyPlum is offline
Addicted Ledgie
 
Join Date: Jun 2014
Posts: 3,386
Default Eurovision Song Contest

Okay, so it's several days after the event but I feel I need to have a rant...

I've always loved the Eurovision Song Contest and await its arrival with great anticipation every year. Every year though for the past ten years or so I've vowed never to watch it again. In the UK we used to be so proud of our pop music- it was a given we'd do well in the competition and we tended to laugh a lot at many of the offerings from some of the other European countries.

How things have changed. Now its annually a question of how close to last we will finish. The rest of Europe has moved on. In the UK we seem to have forgotten its a song contest. Now we just put forward kitsch dirge that nobody in their right mind would genuinely like. This year's UK song was truly awful. It would never score highly on the British single chart so why do we seem to assume the rest of Europe would ever think it was good? Honestly, I know it's shallow of me and it shouldn't be about how people look but compare our pasty man with buck teeth with some of the other acts. Not only was it a bad song but it was aesthetically painful too.

The voting in Eurovision still brings up some really odd scoring but in general the best songs rise to the top. This year's winner was well deserved- a great song from Sweden that was beautifully and cleverly staged.

Now, there are so many 'European' countries involved there has to be a semi-final system. Yet the 'big' countries like the UK automatically get a place in the final. As a Brit I find this rather embarrassing and wonder whether people in other countries deliberately fail to vote for us partly due to the sheer arrogance of our automatic place in the final. Is it any coincidence that of the 'Big 5 countries', the UK, Germany, Spain and France all ended up in the bottom 5? The brilliant German song this year failed to get any votes despite it being one of the best songs IMO.

Enough of a rant. I feel I don't want to watch Eurovision next year as I know in advance the UK will do badly. I know after Christmas I'll start looking forward to it though and will, sure enough have my bottle of White Zinfandel and tube of Pringles ready.
Reply With Quote
.