Eurovision 2013 - 14/16/18 May 2013

It surprises me that we can't get a good song. Surely we have talented upcoming songwriters in this country who would have no problem writing for Eurovision?

In fairness we seem to have thrown everything at it over the last few years - novelty acts, talent show winners who can sing, recent boy bands, old respected singers and nothing has worked. I don't think anyone's that fussed about the UK winning (although seeing the BBC produce the show would be very interesting!), just finishing in a respectable position. I can't see that happening again this year sadly.

Ah OK. That will probably affect novelty acts more.

Our best results have been talent-show related in recent years. Jade Ewen did well - but she was selected by a major BBC One multi-week selection show (the nearest we've had to a Melodifestivalen in years) - but apparently this was really contrived as a way of finding a Lloyd-Webber prime-time vehicle when he didn't have a musical to cast. (And if you remember, she was parachuted in and didn't quite go through the full selection process...)

Prior to this we did well with Jessica Garlick (a Pop Idol contestant, who whilst she didn't win in 2002, was a pretty good singer) who came joint-second. I think she had the advantage of a song that suited her, and was pretty memorable. It was also one of the last years of the old, single-competition, format.

Andy Abraham and James Fox were also talent-show sourced, and didn't do so well. Neither had great songs.

I'm genuinely interested to see how Bonnie fairs. I think she's more popular across a wider spectrum of audience than Englebert was. She's playing the game in press terms in Malmö, where she's getting a lot of love (as is the UK unusually for recent years), and it looks as if some serious thought has gone into her staging if the first rehearsal is anything to go by.

For nostalgia factor, it's a name that some people under 30 will recognise, and won't be just a name that you thought your parents made up for comedy effect because of how strange it sounds.

The thing I've never understood about the 'political' argument is - especially when it was a 100% public vote - how are the members of the public in the various countries being coralled into voting a particular way and for particular reasons rather than the song?

It's a little Englander mentality of 'The British play fair and Johnny Foreigner can't be trusted'

While our entries don't seem to reflect it, I think the contest's in much better shape now than it was for most of the noughties. The voting changes in 2009 seem to have lessened the Eastern Europe domination, and I never thought I'd see a day when the winners would go top 10 in the UK charts again - Alexander Rybak #10 in 2009, Loreen #3 last year!

Here are the UK ratings since 1999, and our entry each year (obvs not always directly related but perhaps interesting all the same):

1999: 8.91 million (Precious)
2000: 6.54 million (Nicki French)
2001: 6.98 million (Lindsay Dracass)
2002: 7.81 million (Jessica Garlick comes 3rd)
2003: 7.94 million (Jemini score zero, Tatu represent Russia)
2004: 8.38 million (James Fox)
2005: 7.97 million (Javine)
2006: 8.33 million (Daz Sampson)
2007: 8.77 million (Scooch)
2008: 7.15 million (Andy Abraham; Terry Wogan's last commentary)
2009: 7.91 million (Jade Ewen; Graham Norton's first commentary)
2010: 5.59 million (Josh Dubovie)
2011: 9.68 million (Blue; Jedward represent Ireland)
2012: 7.59 million (Engelbert Humperdinck)

Note the huge boost in 2011 when Blue and Jedward competed, and the total indifference for poor Josh Dubovie's year in 2010 :p Last year's took place during one of the few really hot weekends all year, so did well considering the weather. Would be interesting to know earlier ratings, I know it was 20 million+ right through the 70s into the early 80s, wonder what this year will get...

I managed to find 1998's (when we hosted it) rating about a year or so ago on an extensive website of archive clippings from The Mirror (in fact I'm sure I posted about it on here). It was either 10,000 above or below the 2011 rating which just goes to show how impressive 2011's number really was.

If I remember rightly, Josh's Eurovision debut was also the same evening as a lovely, warm spring day. The ratings might've been down quite significantly due to pubs and BBQs!

Jedward also competed in 2012.

First glimpse of the graphics:

A bit of a departure from the previous two, not massively so though.

Don't forget there is a new home for Live Eurovision Chat. There will be a special chat from 8pm for both semi-finals and the final on ** and Sir Terry Wogan may or may not be a special guest for all or none of them.

http://chat.**/chat