If you’ve ever wondered why the UK puts in such awful songs for Eurovision, the answer could be purely financial: it costs a lot of money to stage the show, which we’d have to stump up if we won. Russia, for example, apparently spent £30m on the stage alone this year (and in fairness it was money well spent).

Eurovision bags the BBC a lot of viewers, so by not winning it, it’s a double win: it gets the audience without having to cough up for the staging. Don’t believe me? Check out the Telegraph for the lowdown on how the BBC hoped to come Rock Bottom in Eurovision Song Contest

[BBC minutes from meetings in 1977] stated: “[BBC governor] Mr Howard said that when it seemed that the UK would win the contest (and have to pay for it again in 1978) BBC faces at Wembley had grown longer and longer.

“But they had cheered up when L’Oiseau Et L’Enfant won the prize. Lord Greenhill thought the set up had been ugly; Professor Thompson regretted that Angela Rippon had lost her poise at one moment and Doctor Hughes’ only comment was that the whole occasion had been one of ‘grasping vulgarity that he could not bear to watch’.”

Source: The Telegraph

If you’re off to a Eurovision party, then food should be a big part of the mix. We all used to be allocated a country from the contest and bring along food from that nation, serving it when its performer was on the stage. A Eurovision Food Contest points us towards another group of bloggers doing the same thing:

“…millions of people will be watching, some may even be throwing parties. One group of food bloggers in particular have come up with a whole new way of dragging some excitement out of the foetid corpse that is the Eurovision Song Contest and, at the same time, conduct an interesting experiment about the multiculturalism of our capital city.

Excellent food writer Andrew Webb has created Eating Eurovision bringing together 25 bloggers whose task it is to eat the traditional cuisine of all 25 nations in the final of the competition, within the M25, within 25 hours of the competition itself…”

Source: The Guardian

The Times has profiled French entrant Patricia Kaas, whose song is very French and very good but not, I don’t believe, a winner. What a shame, then, that the paper’s writer claims that:

If Kaas cannot do well, there’s no hope for the Eurovision contest.

Source: The Times

That rather presupposes that only her kind of music – serious ballads – has any merit, which is patently untrue.

Meanwhile, a word from our entrant: I expect to be in the top five.

“Everybody has been really positive and they are happy and relieved we are finally taking it seriously. I have been really enjoying the build up. I expect to be in the top five and I want to be number one.”

Source: The Guardian

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! She’s so funny.

Actually, the Guardian has done loads of stuff on this year’s Eurovision, and has a dedicated Eurovision section, although the tone can be quite negative in parts, which is a shame. The chart showing Britain’s scores over the years laid against its actions in Europe and world is interesting, but ultimately flawed. It says of Andy Abrams’ deservedly poor showing last year:

Diaspora voting, Balkan collusion, racism and soviet bloc voting were just some of the many excuses offered for Andy Abraham’s disastrous last place finish. They may all have been true.

Source: The Guardian