Who Says We Cannot Win Eurovision??

[ichkeria]

[grumpy01]

A decent song and a decent singer would be a start.

[Mamyalynne]

Posted yesterday in Chatterbank, comical.

[youngmafbog]

It's actually very well done.

[ichkeria]

Apologies mamya.
I pass the floor over to those who wish therefore to ignore the video and consider the question. Always gets a good argument going and it’s never too early :-)

In fairness to JRM I suspect he finds it funny too

[Mamyalynne]

No apologies needed, I have duplicated enough times too, I'm sure he does see the humour in it.

[cassa333]

Most people are realistic enough to know we haven’t a cat in hells chance of winning the Eurovision Song Contest.

But some live in hope...

[Jordyboy9]

Cassa 333 if we have no chance of winning would the money spent on this farce not be put to a better use?

[cassa333]

Absolutely Jordyboy.

When we leave the contest do we then get to leave this sham of a show? Let’s hope so.

[10ClarionSt]

Most of the funding for Eurovision comes from the BBC, doesn't it? And hence, our govt and your licence fee. That's why we don't have to qualify, like other countries do. They very kindly don't put us through that because we're paying for the whole shebang. And now that they've got our money, they aint gonna let us win! Does anyone think we should leave? Where have I heard that before?

[maggiebee]

Yes, gone viral on FB.

[Tilly2]

I think that's brilliantly compiled. It's funny too.

[gulliver1]

Very well done , very funny .

[ichkeria]

As far as I know all countries pay an entry fee to the contest which presumably is the same for all countries. However Spain, Germany, France and the UK as four of the so called “Big five” are allowed automatic qualification to the final because thEy are the 4 major financial contributors to the EBU. The fifth member of the big five, Italy, also gets automatic qualification, for reasons that aren’t entirely clear but probably partly due to their also being a big contributor and in an attempt to placate them after they effectively did what some here would like and went off in a huff for a few years. I think Turkey did the same thing for a while in protest at the alleged privileges afforded :-)
The contest like it or not is wildly popular in the UK. With so many participating countries now the likelihood of any one country winning is much smaller. One reason the UK struggles is that the songs it chooses are not really the sort of thing that’ll catch on in an evening and I suspect there is some displeasure that the UK which has such a fabulous popular music tradition continually puts up frankly second rate performers.
Many of the winning entries will have been played for weeks in advance in some countries, and often the performer is a household name in a lot of countries. In 2012 the Swedish entry could be heard it seems in every bar and cafe and not surprisingly won easily.

[youngmafbog]

"puts up frankly second rate performers. "

As good as that ?

[Jordyboy9]

Lulu and Sandy Shaw were hardly second rate performers,but I do agree some that came after them were rubbish,but I still think the money could be better spent elsewhere.

[ichkeria]

By “second rate” I was referring to the unsuccessful (ie in or just outside the relegation zone if relegation still applied) :-)