Eurovision: Your Decision

Have you seen MF? It's fantastically well produced - and most of the songs entered this year are better than the 6 we got to chose from tonight.

BWO have a great track through to the final from their semi last week - and I can't wait to hear Linda and Charlottes songs that went through to the final tonight.

Oh dear, the BBC really don't do this kind of programme well, do they? Stupidly over-complicated, and whoever thought that John Barrowman would make a good judge needs taking outside and shooting. I got really fed up of him (and Carrie as well to a lesser extent), particularly their constant bleating about songs sounding "very Eurovision" (because that's really helped in the last few years, hasn't it?).

Alas, my faith in fellow viewers has been restored though. Andy's song was by far the best song there, I just love it and really hope it does well for us. Really couldn't see how Michelle's screeching mess came second, it was awful and would have done about as well as Gemini did - why the hell did the judges initially pick this over Andy?!

Truly awful show, but at least the right result. Roll on May the 24th!

It's the bits that weren't scripted that were the problem - eg what to do as the two acts are getting ready. Having Wogan ask Claudia who should win just before they're both about the perform again is ridiculous and to someone who's supposed to be the impartial presenter.

The whole head-to-head elimination process seemed to be (understandably) mocked for its over complicated nature half way through and the constant "don't phone or you may be charged" messages were just getting ridiculous.

At least they made a joke out of last year's announcement fiasco.

Surprised no one's commented on the package of clips from the last 30 years of "A Song For Europe" (in its various guises) that was shown near the beginning. I thought this was fascinating, and there was quite a bit of old pres in there too.

It was so formal and serious in its early years - more like Last Night of the Proms!

Well you have to remember that the first contest was held only 10 years after the end of the Second World War - when many of the countries entering had been at war with each other!

The initial concept of the ESC was as a way to unite Europe through song - and it was taken very seriously as a competitive event by all who entered - and this included the presentation. (The BBC were late submitting their entry so didn't take part in the first contest)

There were tighter rules in some areas as well - for instance dancing wasn't allowed in the early days - in fact until the late 60s/early 70s. And ISTR that "groups" weren't allowed either - just singers.

Technically it was also pretty worrying stuff - as just mounting a show that complicated (with live sound from that many performers AND a band) was not easy for (m)any broadcasters, and co-ordinating the live sound links to the various juries across Europ was not trivial stuff. Remember that it wasn't possible to just pick up a phone and dial internationally in those days - there very very limited numbers of international phone links.

Even getting the TV pictures from the host country to all the Eurovision members wasn't easy - this was before TV satellites and required microwave and other RF links to be set-up - and some of them weren't permanent...

All of this made it quite a serious undertaking.

These days - though it is huge and very expensive to mount - the core technology is far more reliable and far easier to use safely - so much of the worry of the show has gone - meaning everyone can relax and have a bit more fun with it.

Of course - times have changed as well!

Really though as much as today it might warrant taking the piss out of, the BBC can't have it both ways and on the one hand treat it as a joke, yet on the other expect viewers to choose a winner.


And wasn't the "joke" much better when the BBC weren't in on it!

i'm sure i read somewhere that one of the reasons the BBC is so involved with ESC, is that no matter where the competition is staged, the BBC distributes the signal to all the individual broadcasters.

i would love to be in the control room watching that one being sorted out!

Ash

The BBC provides the Song Contest with commentary by Wogan to other English speaking countries (e.g. Australia)

ISTR that the ESC is no distributed on EBU circuits - in 4:3 SD, 16:9 SD and 16:9 HD ISTR. This MAY be handled by the BBC, and may be co-ordinated by the BBC.

When it comes to the downlinks for the 40+ country feeds presenting their votes - I'm not sure. The BBC were certainly very involved initially (ISTR that BBC OB Comms helped out when the shows were in Ireland in the 90s to a degree) - but I don't know if BBC ICR/Sat Ops are still integral.

That said - the BBC have historically provided a lot of staff to the EBU - along with Scandinavia.

The main supporter technically and adminstatively is now SVT who really should be awarded 'Big Four' status as a reward for this. The Estonian, Latvian and Ukrainian events would have looked extremely poor if SVT were not involved.

Increasingly Deutsche Telecom are employed to coordinate the international links. The voting is subcontracted to Digame in Germany too.

What do France do exactly? Would their contribution be missed if they weren't one of the Big 4?

At one point the BBC did all the scoreboards - for a few years after Birmingham they all had 'BBC Resources' or some other such at the bottom of them.