The Stork, The Guinea Pig & The Elephant

I have read in different newspapers today, that you are thinking about retiring from the Eurovision Song Contest. Being as it is that you are the longest Eurovision commentator (since the 70s!) that any country has ever seen, I understand why you would like to step away from it and relax. Thing that bothers me is that, it is not because you are in needing of new pastures, or that you have become tired of it, but because you believe in this East European voting alliance that will make it very difficult for any Western European countries, or old favourites, to ever win Eurovision again. There has been speculation of taking away its Eurovision funding (though the BBC won’t do it, seeing as Eurovision might well be its biggest show on the yearly-schedule), as a ‘punishment’ for this alliances. It has also been mentioned that Eurovision should re-think itself, its rules and its ideals.

Although I see your point, and I share the ‘annoying-ness’ of the situation, I don’t think the UK, or any of the four major sponsors of Eurovision (France, Spain and Germany) should leave in a huff, or should dictate ultimatums. Maybe, just maybe, for these countries that have been longer in the competition to win again the solution isn’t to create a fear factor (if they don’t sponsor it, Eurovision can not subside itself) but to send better songs to a competition that evolves as the years come. See, this year’s entry was (in Eurovision terms) utterly forgettable. Without wanting to insult Andy Abraham as a person, as a Eurovision contestant he had no charm, no charisma. He was flat, boring, and the song didn’t deserve more than the three minutes it got on stage, and the 14 points it got in the leadership board. In fact, I would even venture to say, that one should have complained about last year’s entry, Scooch’s Flaying the Flag (For You), not getting a better position! It was exactly was Eurovision is about these days, and it still failed to make a mark.

So yes, the Eastern countries are bloc voting each other in the past 5-10 years. But so did we till they all came along. France-Spain-Portugal voted each other. Ireland and the UK went hand in hand. And so did the Scandinavian countries. Fair enough, it is a lesser number of countries voting each other, but it happened and still happens anyways. Maybe the solution is not to take away all funding, but to send a worthier and better competitor than year’s past! Maybe the idea is not to look at yesteryear and sigh at past good contenders, but to work towards the future and create memorable performances! Even more, Mr Wogan, it has only been ten years since the UK won its last Eurovision contest. Surely there have been countries which haven’t had a winning entry for longer and are not moaning. If anything, countries like Denmark, Sweden or Switzerland (who didn’t even get to the final) have more reasons to complain than the UK does, seeing as their songs were pure-Eurovision brilliant-ness, and didn’t get a very good reception either.

It could very well be that, 3-5 years from now, the Eastern countries calm down, decide to stop voting each other, and the competition is open to anyone again. It has been the Western countries reign for over 40 years, maybe we should let the Eastern countries reign a bit longer. I tell you what though. If the UK sends better songs (same with Spain, Germany and France, who, let’s face it, had appalling entries this year) in the next couple of years, and it still gets ignored in the voting; if the UK works hard on providing us with artists that are worth remembering and songs that are worth buying the single and it is still the Eastern European countries those that win; then, and only then, I will agree with you that Eurovision has turned into a farce. But we cannot blame other for our failures, if we don’t try hard enough to succeed.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 26th, 2008 at 4:29 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.