Euro song contest

[marie1234]

How can Russia, Israel etc compete in the Eurovision song contest.When did they become part of Europe. I have never understood.

[Mattk]

i think it all dates back to the beginning of the contest when they were struggling for countries to enter.

[THECORBYLOON]

Countries that are full members of the European Broadcasting Union (there are 56) can enter the song contest as long as they pay the appropriate fee and broadcast the previous year's contest. It's the membership of the EBU that determines the entry not the location of the country.

[andy-hughes]

Corbyloon is quite correct - the criteria is based on countries who receive the EBU broadcasts, and is nothing to do with geography - which is why countries such as istrael and Russia are eligible to enter.

[sheribeee]

The corbyloon...are u actually from Corby??

[LoftyLottie]

But surely Russia Spans two continents, Europe and Asia?

http://wwp.greenwichmeantime.com/time-zone/rus sia/europe.htm

[squarebear]

Irrelevent, as long as they are members of the EBU they can enter.

However, the political voting is now ridiculous and I would be suprised if many countries don't pull out in protest.

[brionon]

Try harder and try not to worry.

[THECORBYLOON]

sheribeee yes I come fae Corby and I'm male, hence ma name.

[andy-hughes]

I heard a feature on Radio Four about the voting for Eurovision.

It is less a matter of 'politics', than the simple mass migration of ethnic populations, especially in the Eastern Bloc countires, where up to thirty per cent of a population can be madew up of migrants, who will naturally vote for their mother country.

What ever the reason, it looks like the UK's chances of ever getting near a win are long gone.

[Whickerman]

Could be simpler than that re the voting - the music in Eastern Europe charts is plinky-plonk pop, and they love it.