Eurovision 2007 - Helsinki

The thought that we were given no points from some countries in 2006 because they were disgusted at the paper throwing is fantastic.

Well then I think its time we pull out of the show altogether, and that includes funding...

Depends whether or not next year's UK entry is better than this years.

Let me compare last year's UK entry "Teenage Life" by Daz Sampson with this year's UK entry "Flying The Flag (For You)" by Scooch.

2006 “Teenage Life” by Daz Sampson

Final score: 19th out of 24 with just 25 points.

Just about EVERYTHING was wrong with "Teenage Life", in my opinion. Quite frankly, it shouldn't have been in Eurovision. Let's take the faults one by one.

1) Rap in Eurovision? NO THANKS!
In my experience, rap never does well in Eurovision. Let's look at the following entries, which have included rap, from 1995 to 2006:

1995 UK "Love City Groove"- Love City Groove 10th out of 23 (76 points)
1997 DENMARK "Stemmen I Mit Liv"- Kolig Kaj 16th out of 25 (25 points)
2001 UK "No Dream Impossible" - Lindsay Dracass 15th out of 23 (28 points)
2006 UK “Teenage Life” - Daz Sampson 19th out of 24 (25 points)

Now there's a record for rap in Eurovision, isn't it? If you want to win Eurovision, forget rap, it doesn't work!

2) The girls’ costumes
a) The hats. Hats are a BYGONE in schools nowadays. Is there a school ANYWHERE where the kids wear hats these days? If anyone knows of one anywhere, please name it.

b) The stripy blazers. Blazers too are GOING OUT in schools these days. In almost all primary schools, and many secondary schools, the kids now wear sweatshirts bearing the school logo, not blazers. In fact, the way things are going, it's only a matter of time before sweatshirts replace blazers in ALL schools (primary and secondary), five years time at the most.

The combination of the hats and stripy blazers means that this was surely portraying an outdated image to the whole of Europe . The viewers of other voting countries (whether in the final or not) may well have thought we were behind the times seeing this. Face it, the whole of continental Europe must know what British kids wear to school these days.

Maybe if the girls had donned sweatshirts (bearing the Avy logo) instead of blazers, and dispensed with the hats, that would at least have portrayed a more modern image to foreign viewers entitled to vote for us.

3) The desks
They were the old-fashioned lift-up desks. Are they still used these days? Again, for the same reason as mentioned above, surely this was portraying an outdated image . They should have used more modern desks. On top of which modern desks without compartments below a lift-up lid would have prevented them doing the following bad thing.

4) Tossing the papers into the air
About two thirds of the way through our entry the girls lifted the lids of their desks, took out wads of papers and tossed those into the air to land on the floor. When I saw it at the time, it initially seemed like just a silly gimmick. Thinking about it, I can now state two things wrong with this:

a) The whole principle. If children did this in a real school (UK or anywhere in the world) surely they would be disciplined by the teachers (at least a good telling off). Surely this act was
(i) A bad example to children watching in the UK or elsewhere in Europe – they could copy.
(ii) Suggesting to viewers all over Europe how badly kids behave in our schools.
Maybe countries which gave us nothing were disgusted by this unnecessary stunt.

b) What was on the papers. On the night, I just thought it was papers, I didn’t notice what was on them. When I watched our entry again the morning after the ESC 2006 final, I noticed some of them had flags of other countries on. One could argue that was degrading the countries whose flags ended up on the floor, in effect saying “we hate you”. Did any countries whose flag was treated in that way take offence, and decide not to give us points on the grounds that “They hate us, so nul points for them”?

So you see, just about EVERYTHING was wrong with "Teenage Life".

2007 "Flying The Flag (For You)" by Scooch

Final score: 23rd out of 24 with just 19 points.

Well actually we tied with France on 19 points. The Diggiloo Thrush quotes us as having come 22nd.

In my opinion, a thousand times better than "Teenage Life". It was an ABBA-esque pop song, with Eurovision written all over it. I'll quote the two verses:

London to Berlin
All the way from Paris to Tallinn
Helsinki on to Prague
Don't matter where we are
Yeah yeah yeah...

Flying high in Amsterdam
Why don't you catch us if you can?
(Catch us if you can)
Now we're cruising in the sky
And we're singing it for you

Now LOOK how many European cities had a mention there: London, Berlin, Paris, Tallinn, Helsinki, Prague, Amsterdam. Now surely, that should have meant DOUZE POINTS guaranteed to us from Germany, France, Estonia, Finland, Czech Republic and Netherlands, should it not as Scooch mentioned the capital cities of those countries.

As for the chorus, it was catchy and immediately memorable. You didn't even need the BBCi lyrics up to pick it up. During the reprise on Making Your Mind Up night, after it was announced that Scooch were the winners, I sang along with the chorus. I sang along with the chorus and other parts of the song on ESC grand final night.

So there you are, claims that "Flying The Flag (For You)" was too cheesy are simply not true. It had ALL the essential ingredients to make it in Eurovision:

ABBA-esque pop song
Catchy, memorable chorus
Mentions of all those European cities

In short, it should DEFINITELY have finished top ten, certainly 6th to 10th, though top five would perhaps have been expecting a bit much. I don't think it was quite good enough to win, I felt Slovenia deserved to win (NOT Serbia).

Depends whether or not next year's UK entry is better than this years.

Let me compare last year's UK entry "Teenage Life" by Daz Sampson with this year's UK entry "Flying The Flag (For You)" by Scooch.

2006 “Teenage Life” by Daz Sampson

Final score: 19th out of 24 with just 25 points.

Just about EVERYTHING was wrong with "Teenage Life", in my opinion. Quite frankly, it shouldn't have been in Eurovision. Let's take the faults one by one.

1) Rap in Eurovision? NO THANKS!
In my experience, rap never does well in Eurovision. Let's look at the following entries, which have included rap, from 1995 to 2006:

1995 UK "Love City Groove"- Love City Groove 10th out of 23 (76 points)
1997 DENMARK "Stemmen I Mit Liv"- Kolig Kaj 16th out of 25 (25 points)
2001 UK "No Dream Impossible" - Lindsay Dracass 15th out of 23 (28 points)
2006 UK “Teenage Life” - Daz Sampson 19th out of 24 (25 points)

Now there's a record for rap in Eurovision, isn't it? If you want to win Eurovision, forget rap, it doesn't work!

2) The girls’ costumes
a) The hats. Hats are a BYGONE in schools nowadays. Is there a school ANYWHERE where the kids wear hats these days? If anyone knows of one anywhere, please name it.

b) The stripy blazers. Blazers too are GOING OUT in schools these days. In almost all primary schools, and many secondary schools, the kids now wear sweatshirts bearing the school logo, not blazers. In fact, the way things are going, it's only a matter of time before sweatshirts replace blazers in ALL schools (primary and secondary), five years time at the most.

The combination of the hats and stripy blazers means that this was surely portraying an outdated image to the whole of Europe . The viewers of other voting countries (whether in the final or not) may well have thought we were behind the times seeing this. Face it, the whole of continental Europe must know what British kids wear to school these days.

Maybe if the girls had donned sweatshirts (bearing the Avy logo) instead of blazers, and dispensed with the hats, that would at least have portrayed a more modern image to foreign viewers entitled to vote for us.

3) The desks
They were the old-fashioned lift-up desks. Are they still used these days? Again, for the same reason as mentioned above, surely this was portraying an outdated image . They should have used more modern desks. On top of which modern desks without compartments below a lift-up lid would have prevented them doing the following bad thing.

4) Tossing the papers into the air
About two thirds of the way through our entry the girls lifted the lids of their desks, took out wads of papers and tossed those into the air to land on the floor. When I saw it at the time, it initially seemed like just a silly gimmick. Thinking about it, I can now state two things wrong with this:

a) The whole principle. If children did this in a real school (UK or anywhere in the world) surely they would be disciplined by the teachers (at least a good telling off). Surely this act was
(i) A bad example to children watching in the UK or elsewhere in Europe – they could copy.
(ii) Suggesting to viewers all over Europe how badly kids behave in our schools.
Maybe countries which gave us nothing were disgusted by this unnecessary stunt.

b) What was on the papers. On the night, I just thought it was papers, I didn’t notice what was on them. When I watched our entry again the morning after the ESC 2006 final, I noticed some of them had flags of other countries on. One could argue that was degrading the countries whose flags ended up on the floor, in effect saying “we hate you”. Did any countries whose flag was treated in that way take offence, and decide not to give us points on the grounds that “They hate us, so nul points for them”?

So you see, just about EVERYTHING was wrong with "Teenage Life".

2007 "Flying The Flag (For You)" by Scooch

Final score: 23rd out of 24 with just 19 points.

Well actually we tied with France on 19 points. The Diggiloo Thrush quotes us as having come 22nd.

In my opinion, a thousand times better than "Teenage Life". It was an ABBA-esque pop song, with Eurovision written all over it. I'll quote the two verses:

London to Berlin
All the way from Paris to Tallinn
Helsinki on to Prague
Don't matter where we are
Yeah yeah yeah...

Flying high in Amsterdam
Why don't you catch us if you can?
(Catch us if you can)
Now we're cruising in the sky
And we're singing it for you

Now LOOK how many European cities had a mention there: London, Berlin, Paris, Tallinn, Helsinki, Prague, Amsterdam. Now surely, that should have meant DOUZE POINTS guaranteed to us from Germany, France, Estonia, Finland, Czech Republic and Netherlands, should it not as Scooch mentioned the capital cities of those countries.

As for the chorus, it was catchy and immediately memorable. You didn't even need the BBCi lyrics up to pick it up. During the reprise on Making Your Mind Up night, after it was announced that Scooch were the winners, I sang along with the chorus. I sang along with the chorus and other parts of the song on ESC grand final night.

So there you are, claims that "Flying The Flag (For You)" was too cheesy are simply not true. It had ALL the essential ingredients to make it in Eurovision:

ABBA-esque pop song
Catchy, memorable chorus
Mentions of all those European cities

In short, it should DEFINITELY have finished top ten, certainly 6th to 10th, though top five would perhaps have been expecting a bit much. I don't think it was quite good enough to win, I felt Slovenia deserved to win (NOT Serbia).

RTÉ are pleased to announce Ireland's participation in the first Eurovision Dance Contest. The event is organised by the EBU and will be broadcast live from London on Saturday, September the 1st and will be produced by the BBC.

Yes it should be a very good show. Can't wait to see what the Beeb do with it! Coming from Television Centre and to be presented by Graham Norton if I'm not mistaken.

Yes it should be a very good show. Can't wait to see what the Beeb do with it! Coming from Television Centre and to be presented by Graham Norton if I'm not mistaken.

You are Paul Gambaccini and I claim my £5.