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The 49th Eurovision Song Contest

Winner: UKRAINE 280 pts ... 16th place UK 29 pts (May 2004)

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DA
DAS Founding member
chrisb posted:
DAS posted:
Since the Eurovision calls us GB for Great Britain, Northern Ireland isn't there - and the vague humour lies therein.


I was with you up until that point, because the Eurovision doesn't call us 'Great Britain', it calls us 'United Kingdom'.


Yes it does. But it also officially gives us the country code of GB, which stands for Great Britain.

I wasn't making a fundamental point here - just pointing out the fact Eurovision gives us two titles despite the fact both mean different things. And when Marcus asked what happened to Northern Ireland, I hilariously suggested that if the United Kingdom was alphabetically placed as "Great Britain" (which it was), then Northern Ireland has disappeared anyway.
NI
Nini
jay posted:
I am sick of tall this 'oh, we mustn't say this, we mustn't say that blah blah' rubbish.
America are very patriotic about their country and I think it's about bloody time we were too.
A recent example of this is the 'Horse on the cliff' at Folkestone.
The local authorities decided to paint/draw (whatever!) the shape of a horse into the side of the cliff, because it would be quite an attractive thing to see as you enter Britain from the channel tunnel, but some place in Brussels turned around and said 'oh, you can't do that it's not environmentally friendly'.
I'm glad to say the local authorities told Brussels where to get off: 'It's our country and we'll do as we like to make it look attractive to visitors.'
Sorry if I went on a bit there! It just makes me mad.

It's got a bit poltical here of recent times hm? I don't like all this PC bashing and supporting hoopla, I'd rather be in a overly opressive PC place than one with zero PCness. My two pen'eth, I'll be slinking off now.
:-(
A former member
MA
Marcus Founding member
chrisb posted:
Incidentally, why is Switzerland CH? Or have we already discussed that?


Because its full name is Switzerland and Confoederatio Helvetica

chrisb posted:

...and why is the 'Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia' actually called that? Surely if you had just declared independence you wouldn't want to remind people of the past?

That's like having 'Former British Territory of Southern Ireland' and 'Former Nazi republic of Austria' isn't it? Confused


Because Greece objects to the name Macedonia which is considers to be uniquely a part of Greece.

It's like part of Belgium breaking off and calling its self Norfolk. We would probably have a few objections

Infomation on the country can be found at bbc.co.uk
:-(
A former member
DAS posted:
Secondly, I know why the UK is officially GB.


I know. Damn Ukranians. Wink

Oh, that reminds me. While we're being pedantic: what about the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus in relation to Eurovision 2004 as it's not officially recognised by Turkey, the host nation? Who did the Turkish Cypriots 'belong' to when the voting started? Did they even get a chance to vote?
MN
MarkN Founding member
chrisb posted:
...and why is the 'Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia' actually called that? Surely if you had just declared independence you wouldn't want to remind people of the past?


The Macedonian people call their country the "Republic of Macedonia", and would like everyone else to call their country by that name. However, Greece objects to this.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Macedonia#Naming_dispute
IC
iceblue
noggin posted:
Woody_streatham posted:
I have a couple of questions. What's in the rules to stop us entering say, George Michael? (aside from the fact that he wouldn't do it.) As last year Russia had Tatu who already had a number 1 single.

And secondly where do all the other broadcasters take comercial breaks? Do they go three hours with no adverts?


There is nothing wrong with entering a well known singer or a song written by someone well known.

Britain has entered Cliff Richard a couple of times, as well as Lulu, Olivia Newton-John (even though she's Australian) - all of whom were pretty successful prior to representing the UK. (Michael Ball wasn't exactly unknown when he was chosen more recently)

Loads of other countries do this (though their artists are less well known internationally) - Alcazar have competed to represent Sweden, and a number of the entrants this year are really popular in their own countries (Finland and Iceland particularly I think?)

As for the ad-breaks - did you not notice the appalling pauses either side of the tedious green-room sequences?

They were opt-out points for breaks I believe - so only countries that didn't show ads saw the green-room coverage I believe?

There have been ad-break opts since Jerusalem in 1999 I think - there was a break half-way through the songs for the hosts to sing - which a couple of countries have done since (Estonia did in 2002 I think)


Just as we entered a Fame Academy contestant, France entered the winner of their version of Pop Idol. (Click here)
RW
Robert Williams Founding member
jay posted:

Other arguments aside, if the United Kingdom entered as four separate countries, how would you separate out the phone network? How do you stop someone in England simply dialling the numbers allocated for Wales? Or someone in Scotland dialling the English numbers? Or someone in Northern Ireland dialling the Scottish numbers? You can't.

Anyway there are far too many countries wanting to play Eurovision as it is without the four countries of the UK entering separately.
NG
noggin Founding member
Robert Williams posted:
jay posted:

Other arguments aside, if the United Kingdom entered as four separate countries, how would you separate out the phone network? How do you stop someone in England simply dialling the numbers allocated for Wales? Or someone in Scotland dialling the English numbers? Or someone in Northern Ireland dialling the Scottish numbers? You can't.

Anyway there are far too many countries wanting to play Eurovision as it is without the four countries of the UK entering separately.


You can't stop them dialling - but you can stop the votes being counted. You do this by using Caller ID to source the location for votes from terrestrial phone lines.

This is how Great Britons and The Big Read were able to break down the voting by region, and was how Making Your Mind Up (aka A Song for Europe) - were able to report the phone voting regionally

It is more of a challenge with calls from mobile and texts - though I suspect that mobile providers may be able to provide geographical information eventually - so you can source the call location.

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