2004 Eurovision Song Contest

And another note - it is the Eurovision Song Contest's 50th birthday next year - and apparently the EBU is planning a special 3 hour programme to be broadcast in 2005 on Song Contest host broadcasters that will feature a special history of the contest. Do you think they'll bring out the full Eurovision theme and halo for it?

Nul points? Never again. The BBC is to give the kiss of life to the torpid selection process for the Eurovision song contest in an attempt to avoid a repeat of 2003's humiliating defeat, and to reignite the fading British interest in the long-running competition.

Learning from the success of shows such as Pop Idol, the corporation is to turn the little-watched Song for Europe programme - currently consigned to the graveyard of Sunday afternoons - into a big-budget Saturday night special.

It is to be renamed Eurovision: Making Your Mind Up, in homage to the smash hit Bucks Fizz song that won the contest in 1981. Terry Wogan, whose gently cynical commentary has been associated with Eurovision night since the contest began in 1956, will be joined by a young female presenter to bring in a youth audience and to inject greater enthusiasm into the event.

The motivation to revamp the selection process came when Britain scored zero for the first time in the contest's history in 2003. The result was partly due to the poor performance on the night of Jemini, the previously unknown duo whose song was written by Martin Isherwood, the head of music at Sir Paul McCartney's "fame school" in Liverpool.

Britain last won in 1997 with Love Shine a Light, performed by Katrina and the Waves. But recent entries have been characterised by a middle-of-the-road blandness that has proved too asinine even for the notoriously conservative Eurovision audience. Much of the blame for this lack of ambition is laid at the door of Song for Europe's place in the television schedule, and the resulting age profile of those who vote for the winning entry: the Sunday afternoon BBC1 audience is older on average than the typical audience for Fame Academy, Popstars or Pop Idol.

The format of Eurovision: Making Your Mind Up, will be familiar to viewers of such shows. Six bands will each perform a different song, and a panel of judges will provide commentary on the entries; then viewers will be invited to vote for their favourite by phone or SMS text. The winner, who will represent Britain at the 2004 event in Turkey, will be revealed on the same evening.

Cat Deeley, Zoe Ball, Claudia Winkleman and Laurene Laverne are among the names being considered by BBC bosses to front the show with Wogan.

Further details are still being worked out between the BBC and the Sony record company, which will release the winning song on CD, and it is not yet decided whether any well-known bands will be involved. It is thought that a number of bands have already been approached.

A BBC source said: "The British public might have secretly loved the fact that we got nul points last time, but we think the joke would wear a bit thin two years in a row. There are lots of talented songwriters out there and it's just not good enough to rest on our laurels, treating it as a national joke."

EUROVISION!!!

Will Terry Wogan still be commentating on the entries?

EUROVISION!!!
What did you think of our 'nul point' escapade?

Interesting idea - what about a swing song?
Swing music like Frank Sinatra has become popular again recently . . .