Eurovision 2007 - Helsinki

Don't know who coined that phrase or when it originated, but it refers to a country which finishes with no points at all.

The first appearance I know of is in an episode of Father Ted from (?)1996/7. However it probably originated much earlier.

"Cry cry baby . . ." springs to mind. In last place the UK with 'nil pwa'. Who remembers the headline on The Sun the next day?

Well I wasn't buying The Sun, and still don't. However I remember seeing the news on BBC1 the morning after the 2003 Eurovision Song Contest - "The UK has come last with nul points" (worded something along those lines anyway).

I felt ashamed to be British when Jemini finished last with nul points at the end of the 2003 Eurovision Song Contest.

Why would you be ashamed it's a lousy contest anyway?

Awaits a barrage of bricks been thrown his way from fans of Eurovision

Ditto. It always seems to be something the country enters into as if it's drunk and is about to attempt to record a cover version of My Way in the local pub's paddling pool through fourteen shots of Tekela.

In other words, I don't think we're incredibly good at picking good songs to go through to the finals.

Because Jemini was representing the United Kingdom (my country) in the Eurovision Song Contest 2003. As a Briton, I felt the UK had been let down, having had such an excellent track record in the past (five wins and a large number of second placings).

I'd like to see a return to just the countries who are taking part, getting to vote in the final. Remember in the late 80s / early 90s, we are always favourites to win, no matter what the song. Jemini's performance was shocking, and I do agree with the previous posts that sometimes we don't always pick the best song.

I remember Six Chix singing " Only Woman Know " - IMO a great song ( 2001 ) and us choosing " Don't Play That Song Again " which sounds / sounded like a reworked " Y Viva Espana ". I think we've also really suffered since the introduction of the phone vote in most countries and not relying on " panels " in each nation.

Having said that IMO it's so unpredictable - the years we entered ballads such as " Why Do I Always Get It Wrong? " we did really well, even though they weren't strong pop type songs, and the year we enter IMO a fab pop song ( Gina G of course! ) we don't do fantastically. Last I read Scooch is sitting at 25 / 1 with the bookmakers, but I think everyone is just expecting us to do badly, no matter how good or bad you / I think the song is.

Early evening on Boxing Day 2006, I was channel hopping and, in so doing, accidentally caught the end of an edition of "Boogie Beebies" on CBeebies (Freeview 71). I happened to land about a third of the way into the big video "Brave Prince".Here is a snippet of the song

Since I was a kid, I've been a keen fan of the Eurovision Song Contest. As soon as I started hearing the said Boogie Beebies song "Brave Prince", it immediately reminded me of a past Eurovision Song Contest entry, but I couldn't think for the life of me what song or what year it was. From distant memory I had a vague inkling some past entry for Greece, Cyprus, Turkey or Israel, possibly during the eighties, sounded decidedly similar to "Brave Prince".

Keen as I was to know, I trawled through song lyrics for various countries on eurosong.net and The Diggiloo Thrush, but that didn't help much. I've listened to my album "This Is Eurovision" that I bought eight or nine years ago, that didn't point me in any direction either. Listening to sound recordings of songs from contests 1988 - 2006 has been to little avail either. About the closest match I can come up with so far is Cyprus 2000 - "Nomiza", but I'm sure there was some closer match than that.

Since Christmas, I've not been able to get this off my mind. I'm still pondering over that. Does any other keen Eurovision fan know of any songs whose melody sounds similar, and if so what country/title/year? If anyone can match the snippet in the hyperlink above to a Eurovision song, I'd like to know.

For your information, "Brave Prince" was used again in Boogie Beebies on CBeebies 3:15-3:30pm this past week (9 to 13 April).

Yes but surely the UK are not likely to win again for many years due to political voting . Jemini despite not being the best were not bad at all.

We can see from last years winners that talent doesnt come into it.

Exactly. We could have had the likes of Razorlight, Snow Patrol or Morrissey (who was rumoured to be taking part) as our entry with a great song and we still would get nowhere, we'd get the same result if we had entered Crazy Frog (although I know he isn't British, thank God)