Eurovision 2015 - 60th Anniversary Edition

Yeah Ed Sheeran and Ellie I imagine are dying to do Eurovision
A desperate reality check is needed for some on here RE Eurovision.

For the right money they would.

What's the right money? It would need compensate for killing off a career.

The act isn't the issue. The song is. There are plenty of great unknown singers out there that could do a good job given the right material.

The problem is the BBC are terrible at picking the song.

We're not going to get stars of that level, but the BBC simply MUST try harder. As a publicly funded organisation needs to listen to its audience. Eurovision consistently performs well in BARB in the UK and every year the newspapers and social media call for the BBC to put more effort in. The only explanation can be that the BBC doesn't want to host the show. To avoid quite so much criticism, it should at least bring back a public vote for candidates. Doing everything behind closed doors just seems a little corrupt and weird in 2015.

I visit Eurovision fan sites a lot and the people on them aren't as deluded as the posters on here!!

I don't think the public at large are bothered how we do though most just enjoy spectacle. The press bash the BBC because the press bash the BBC they'd be a similar level of critism from that lot if the BBC increased it's budget for our Eurovision performers.

I don't think that is entirely true. As I've said before I don't think the UK act is the reason people watch but the UK act hasn't given the public any reason to watch for years. That doesn't mean the public don't care at all though - the BBC might get away with putting any old dross out on Saturday nights most of the year but for that three minutes the public certainly think they should be doing better.

I don't think a big name is the key - as Square Eyes said the song is the important thing as after all most of the performers at Eurovision are unknown in most of the countries watching. It is giving fans ownership of the process though and just admitting their current selection process isn't working at all. They dropped the previous one because that's not working and this isn't doing any better at all - we've had absolute stinkers three out of the five years the BBC have selected them.


Blue didn't do too badly and that's the sort of act the BBC should be able to get - established, but needing a boost. Molly had a great song but gave a dire performance on the night - had she gone through even just a one-off UK live selection process that could have made the difference. Indeed in recent years have our entries even made a performance live on Briitish TV prior to the contest?

Perhaps going back to the process of the early 90s and having the BBC pick the singer and the viewers pick the song might be worth a shot.

Because it ended the careers of Abba and Celine Dion didn't it?

Spot on Brekkie! There are some crossed wires on this forum. 99% of us are well aware that we will not get a global superstar to perform, but that should in no way be an excuse for sending some absolutely appalling entries over the last few years. The BBC already has a selection show. It's called The Voice! Why not make the prize for the winner Eurovision? Israel did this last year with a show that's very similar to The Voice. The result was they selected a song which came 9th in the finals. It's the first time in years that they've performed so well. Before that, the selection process was regarded by many Israelis as a bit corrupt, inward looking and outdated. Many Israelis who had switched off a few years ago are now interested again and the performer has had a massive career boost in his home country. It certainly hasn't 'killed off' his career.

Perhaps my taste is a bit different to everyone else's, but I thought that this year's entry was the best performance on the night we have given since Blue in 2011. It was the best staging since then, too. Yes, the song was a bit quirky and different, but I didn't think it was too cheesy and Eurovision-y (in the bad, cliched way that British entries have been in the past - like Scooch). Obviously it didn't go well in the end, but the performance had lots of energy, and I thought that sending something up-tempo and a bit quirky was not a bad thing.

Last year, I was really disappointed that the strongest song we had sent in years was given a lacklustre performance, staging and shooting script, and that robbed it of a top-half finish, I thought that this year's performance deserved top-half - although that I can accept that the song itself is a bit 'marmite' and many British people slagged it off before it went.

I don't think that a selection show will help, though. As I've said before, what ends up happening is either that 6 crap acts are worked up half-heartedly for the selection show, with 6 different songs and none of them are very good, because the Beeb have commissioned 6 songs and 6 performers and they can't afford the time/effort to make any of them at all decent, or you get a single song that none of the 6 singers can perform effectively, as it hasn't been written with any of them in mind. I would far rather the BBC's budget goes towards developing a single act well. I genuinely think that both last year's and this year's songs and performances have been *far* more credible than a single entry in the 2003-8 period, and also Josh from 2010, Engelbert Humperdinck and Bonny Tyler.

Did we do well in 2009 because there was a selection show, or because Andrew Lloyd Webber appeared in our act and (probably as a result of the ALW involvement) the song was well promoted across Europe prior to the event? I think I know the answer. Similarly, Blue did pretty well (and don't forget - we'd have come 5th if it was just down to the televoting that year) because they were big across Europe and therefore the UK entry got promotion across the continent prior to the night. Sending new acts, whether through a selection process, BBC Introducing, or similar, will not have this effect - the BBC will need to work on the promotion across Europe and dripping the song into, say radio airplay on the continent. I still consider last year a huge missed opportunity. I sensed it as the performance was going on - it was such a disappointing staging as I am still convinced that the song should have gone at least top-half, if not better.

I think that if anybody thinks that what the BBC are doing with Eurovision now is worse than what they did between 2003 and 2008 (and I guess 2010, too), then they are mistaken.

Electro Velvet weren't at fault at all on the night and gave it everything they could - but it was never going to win votes. Look at the songs that did and most of them would fit rather seemlessly into any radio playlist - Electro Velvet wouldn't, and that's why it flopped.