For me, the Spanish entry, which is produced by Keith Harris (the highly-regarded American record producer, not the guy with his hand up Orville's bum), looks to be certain of being well-placed this year:
Since then, the two Russian broadcasting organisations that were members of the European Broadcasting Union have both pulled out of the EBU. Unless they rejoin at a later date, Russia won't be eligible to compete in the contest in any future years.
I never watch it - the last time i did so, i was with my mum and dad so i must have been a kid and had no choice in the matter. Though i did have a crush on Sandy Shaw so i most likely watched that one voluntarily:-)
The only reason i came across the Ukraine entry was because i was looking at the betting (not watching doesn't prevent me from having a punt on it) and was surprised to see an odds-on fav. Then common sense kicked in and i thought, "How many countries are going to be brave enough not to give the war-torn Ukraine 12points?"
If the contest were to be decided on singing ability rather than political geography, the Australian's would show up quite well - actually considering having a small e.w. bet on them @ 150/1 - and we might even finish in the top 10.
If you’ve not watched for a few years Ken you won’t know that the voting system has changed a few times.
Juries were replaced by phone votes, but after complaints that (inevitably and understandably) this was maybe too partisan, they switched to a mix of jury and phone with each country announcing the combined totals.
Then they switched again to make it more exciting: the juries now only declare their votes and at the end all the votes for each country from the phone voting are added together and declared in reverse order from currently last to first.
This means that you know that the jury vote “should” be wholly impartial and you don’t (at the time) know how each country’s phone vote has gone.
It’s a myth that we know “who is going to vote for who” with the obvious and shameful exception of Greece and Cyprus who always always award each other douze points
Ich, i'll rephrase what i said. I haven't watched Eurovision in it's entirety for years. However, in those years when i've had a punt, and there's ben a few, and if i've had nothing better to do, i have tuned into the voting to see where my dosh has gone.
I have done the same with BGT and X Factor. Sometimes i get it right, more often i get it wrong. That's life and life's a gamble :-J
As an aside, i'll be very surprised indeed if Ukraine does not walk it, maybe even setting records along the way. And not because it's a good song - not keen on Rap myself, but each to their own and we did have a sort of heavy rock band win a few years back (Lordi).
This post is the first time I've heard Eurovision mentioned this year! What is our entry and how was it chosen? Why don't we have someone popular singing for us like Cliff or Sandie Shaw (obviously not them of course but the modern day equivalent?). Or maybe yes Cliff - he could knock some of our previous entries into a cocked hat.
We've gone for a social media personality this time around. Apparently Sam Rider became a 'name' through TikTok during the first lockdown, singing 'covers', and has garnered millions of followers. He released an EP which attracted over 100 million streams!
I quite like the UK entry although the chorus is a bit weak.
I'm not sure to what extent the UK promotes its entry abroad.
As I said above, Kalush Orchestra have taken "Stefania" across Europe.