Eurovision, nobody likes the British!

The other myth is that you can win just by neighbours voting for you.

If you actually analyse the high, and mid, scorers this year - they got votes from the vast majority of countries, not always the top votes, but they get something.

If you look at some of the "neighbour" voting - you end up with songs getting a couple of high votes from their neighbours (or in the case of Malta giving 12 to Switzerland - because their was a Maltese singer in the Swiss band, along with lots of other nationalities...) - but this didn't massively alter the winner or even the top 5 massively.

Sweden got votes - not always that high - from a very high proportion of countries. (But Denmark and Norway scored it highly - it is true!)

Bosnia & Herzegovina didn't just get votes from Balkan countries, it got good marks from Belgium, Denmark, Monaco, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and Turkey. (It got VERY good marks from a lot of Balkans as well)

Romania is interesting - it got high votes from Cyprus, Israel, Malta, Portugal, Spain - possibly because it had a high-energy style that is popular in these mediterranean club climates?

The trick to getting reasonably high up the leader board this year seemed to be :

1. Be in the semi-final - of the top ten finalists only Romania and Greece weren't also in the semi-final.

2. Get mid-range votes from lots of countries, rather than high votes from just a few.

An accurate assessment. You need 6-8 votes from most countries, coupled with the odd 10 and 12.
And the semi most definitely helps matters - I imagine Russia in particular did well because of this. Very memorable second time round.

Its not just Britain which is suffering, Germany, France and Spain also have had a poor show lately, mainly due to the lack of expats of these countries in Europe, and perhaps a resentment of these countries by the eastern Europeans due to their control of the EU. However, from what I have heard, the eastern Europeans take this contest extremely seriously, they send their best people!

And we send Daz Sampson. Honestly, we can never win Eurovision. The last tme we did, it was an American that won it. The previous year, we had an Aussie (though we didn't win, though we scored highly. 6th IIRC).

I disagree. Where as Yugoslavia used to have a single vote, they now have 5, and are often supported by other slav states (Romania, Ukraine, Poland). Similarly, former USSR states now get an increased number and all vote for each other. All Scandinavian countries (and Iceland) vote for each other.

Perhaps it's time we sent in 4 entries, one each for England, Wales, Scotland and NI, at least we could all award each other 8, 10 or 12 points and stand a chance of getting somewhere.

Furthermore, countries not in the final should not be allowed to vote. They obviously have bad taste in music, otherwise their entry would have got through the semi-final anyway

It doesn't matter how good our entry is, voting is 99% politically based, and we don't stand a chance!

Absolutely spot on noggin. You've debunked a few urban myths there! Another thing that annoyed me is when countries voted for Finland who happened to be near Finland, it got tarred as 'political voting'. Even those who have no history of doing it were being criticised because they gave 12 points to the best song!

And we all know those countries are famous for their good neighbourly relations.

Yep - but that also means the "new" countries can split their vote with regard to the "single" country situation.

Look at the semi-final : Bosnia/Herzegovina gave Turkey 12 points and Fyrom gave them 8 points, but Croatia, Serbia/Montenegro and Slovenia, gave them nothing... It isn't as simple as it sounds. Now that Montenegro have voted for independence for Serbia it will be interesting to see if they finally split in Eurovision terms!

It is true that there is neighbourly voting - and lower down the score table this can cause issues. However higher up the table - in the top 5 at least - you have to appeal to a far wider audience than your previous country-mates, or neighbours.

Look at Romania - did very well by appealing to other Mediterranean countries - but not other Eastern European countries



That wouldn't help - this year to win you had to get votes from LOTS of countries - not just your neighbours. It might have pushed us up the table a couple of places - but not hugely, and by splitting the UK vote, we would probably have given Finland 48 points not 12! (And Lituania 40 not 10...)



That would be totally unfair - and TV ratings suicide. Why bother watching if your country isn't in the final AND you can't vote?



But look at this year, carefully, and you'll see it isn't...

The issue is far more that the UK, France, Spain and Germany don't actually enter anything approaching their best singers, or their best songs. Other countries do. We come low in the competition because we enter rubbish, not because of politics.

We also have to try and deliver something that has a wide appeal.

What is becoming equally clear is that Eurovision fans aren't actually that good at selecting good Eurovision songs, or more accurately Eurovision songs that score highly. The fans like the camp, high-energy EuroDisco stuff, like Slovenia, Belgium, Romania etc. The wider public who televote don't - well Romania did quite well - but Belgium and Slovenia didn't get past the semis.

Vaguely interestingly, demographically the former-Yugoslav countries are very "mixed up" for lack of a better term- I believe only around 40% of Bosnians (in the nationality sense) are... erm, Bosnian (in the ethnic sense)- they're just the minority. So all over former-Yugoslavia you're going to have people voting for their "home" country.

Disclaimer: I could be talking rubbish.

You can say that again. I mean - Daz Who?

Some next-old cockney (...or whatever) from the streets, thinking that he can win the Eurovision Song Contest for Britain.

He needs to wake up and smell the coffee. Rap like that ain't going to win the contest.

Hopefully the country can have someone more descent next year.
I know who I'll want and it's defiantly not him again.

I'd love to know what your problem is. You seem to be incredibly up your own arse in every single post of yours I've read.

First of all, perhaps you should try knowing what you're talking about. I didn't like Daz's song but I thought he gave the song the best he could and put lots of effort into his performance. Not forgetting, of course, that it was the British public that sent him to Athens, not just him alone. So you should really be saying that the public need to "wake up and smell the coffee" as they're the ones who voted.

Secondly, your point about him being a "next-old cockney" (which makes no sense anyway) - what does it make a difference where he's from or what his background is? Why shouldn't a working-class (and I hate using these phrases) person/group have as much chance in Eurovision as a middle-class toff singer (who probably didn't write the song themselves)? Also, of course he "thought he could win Eurovision" - that's the whole point of entering. You enter with the thought that you're going to win, otherwise your performance will be shìt.

Thirdly, did you vote in "Making Your Mind Up"? Don't complain if you didn't - if you wanted to see someone else, why didn't you vote for them instead of not voting at all?

And finally - "you know who you'd want" - and who would that be? Brotherhood of Man perhaps? Cliff Richard? Maybe Katrina will pop over and do a bit for us again? Get real. You want to make a difference? You enter. See how far you get.

Could you also buy a spellchecker? We're not going to get someone going down next year, and why do you stand by your decision that it's not going to be him? (cf. "descent", "defiantly")

Daz got to Europe - the other four didn't. Ipso, fatso.

Daz a cockey - no way he is from Stockport in Cheshire (the richest county in the UK!), or as some now say Greater Manchester but historically Cheshire (and he is not a manc - that tag is for people solely from Manchester and not the surrounding towns!)

Another interesting fact if we had four entries would England get 36 points (remember England is not allowed to vote for themselves!) - I somehow doubt it. I would be surprised if the Scots gave us any points, same with the Northern Irish. The Welsh would only give us about 5 or 6 points.

Also, why do we tend to go for people/groups in the style of the previous winners and not try something new. I bet we get an Ozzy Osbourne lookalike next year - due to the fact it is rock/metal music like Lordi of Finland. Rap music doesn't work, neither does dance, hiphop, garage etc... It does have to be Europop, i.e. Vengaboys style!!! Only then will the UK have a slim chance.

Taste in music have a great variance between ourselves and the so-called distance part of EBU empire -Israel, so neighbourhood voting does go on although there is a BIG influence in political voting no matter what anyone says - again down to common theories and practices of neighbouring countries.