Eurovision Song Contest?

braxious · 500 Club Member

Eurovision Song Contest?

Darth Mattitude · The Dark Admin

This year of course we have the 'wonderful' Andy Abraham representing us. The Irish have put in a tone deaf puppet that is intended to lose but will probably win and the French are up in arms because their entry is being sung in english....

THe only bit people like is the voting anyways. Personally I think we missed the boat back in the 90's when Right Said Fred were around, they would have stormed it.

My final point is it doesn't matter any of it anyways as its all corrupt now and countries vote for allies and make sure that the UK doesn't win.

Darth Mattitude · The Dark Admin

With Eurovision just a week away now here is a picture of Irelands entry Colin the Turkey leaving for Serbia

braxious · 500 Club Member

with the Euro song contest on saturday here is the funnest songs of last year

and the dreadful UK entry run for your lives

come on guys there is over 40 years of this contest to find good bad and OMG did they really do that songs.

-- Edited by braxious at 07:45, 2008-05-13

-- Edited by braxious at 07:59, 2008-05-13

-- Edited by braxious at 08:00, 2008-05-13

Man In Black · Anime Mod

Yawwwwwn.....

Darth Mattitude · The Dark Admin

I have to say in the last few years this has become worse than Big Brother, even with the ever funny Terry Wogan. It's a bit stale. And how much money exactly do we invest in this rubbish, which I believe comes out of the UK TV leicence holders money.. Time to petition the BBC.

Man In Black · Anime Mod

What has made it worse is that the UK has clearly been the victim of political voting since the Iraq War fiasco so why bother to subject ourselves to that annual humiliation?

The spirit of competition and the original idea concept behind the contest - to unite the countries of Europe - has long been lost. Just ask Cliff after Franco screwed him out of a win in 1968!

braxious · 500 Club Member

the uk pay 5mil to the euro song ( thats why even when we come stone cold last we get to the finals )

as for the voting they MUST stop the semi finalists voting in the final thats where alll them eastern block neighbours get in on the act.

still im going to watch just for the fact its kitch and fun and see how bad we do and see if the Irish turkey wins

VOTE FOR IRELAND VOTE FOR IRELAND VOTE FOR IRELAND VOTE FOR IRELAND VOTE FOR IRELAND

braxious · 500 Club Member

the only bad thing about this years eruo song contest is Doctor Who is being shelved for a week.

VOTE IRELAND VOTE IRELAND VOTE IRELAND VOTE IRELAND VOTE IRELANDVOTE

Darth Mattitude · The Dark Admin

The Irish entry will hold novelty value for about 5 seconds. I think I will not be watching this this weekend, although the wife probably will be... Meh....

braxious · 500 Club Member

Sweden's Eurovision entry has emerged as the favourite to win this year's contest in a Europe-wide BBC vote.

Charlotte Perrelli, who won the event in 1999, was the convincing victor with her song Hero, ahead of Ukraine, Switzerland and host nation Serbia.

The United Kingdom's Andy Abraham polled only enough votes to finish in 33rd place in a field of 43 songs.

One Eurovision fan from each country chose their Top 10 songs ahead of tonight's first semi-final in Belgrade.

BBC EUROVISION VOTE - TOP FIVE

1 Sweden - 245 points

2 Ukraine - 183 points

3 Switzerland - 159 points

4 Serbia - 152 points

5 Russia (pictured) - 122 points

Eurovision vote: Top 10

The final scoreboard

Their choices were awarded Eurovision-style points, with one point for 10th place, up to a maximum of 12 points for their favourite songs.

The points were combined to create the final standings, from 1st to 43rd place. Montenegro came last with just two points.

The Swedish star finished 62 points clear of Ukraine's Ani Lorak, and was awarded maximum points by several fans from all parts of Europe.

Perrelli - who won Eurovision in 1999 as Charlotte Nilsson - would secure Sweden's fifth win if successful, and become the first woman to win two contests.

Ireland's Johnny Logan is the only singer to have won twice in the competition's 53-year history, in 1980 and 1987.

For the first time this year, two semi-finals are being staged - and most of the 43 competing countries will have to fight for a place in the final.

The only automatic finalists are the host nation and last year's winner Serbia, plus the UK, France, Germany and Spain - the biggest financial contributors to the event.

Nineteen countries will take part in both Tuesday and Thursday's semi-finals, with a public vote determining nine qualifiers from each pool.

'Neighbourly' voting

A jury will choose one more country in each semi-final to pass into the 25-strong grand final.

The biggest change to the contest since 2004 has partly been made to accommodate the growing numbers of song contest participants.

Cyprus will be without Greek support in their semi-final berth

But organisers have responded to severe criticisms of the 2007 semi-final, which resulted in only eastern European countries making the final cut.

Semi-finalists have been divided into two groups based on their usual voting preferences in a bid to lessen the impact of "neighbourly" voting.

Traditional voting allies Greece and Cyprus have been split up, the former Yugoslav, Baltic and Scandinavian countries have been separated, while the UK will not be able to vote for Ireland.

The UK has been given voting rights in Thursday's semi final, while both preliminary competitions are being screened on BBC Three.

Organisers hope a broader range of countries will contest the final.

The outcome, however, will rest solely on public voting, as in previous years.

The Eurovision Song Contest semi-finals take place on 20 and 22 May and will be shown on BBC Three at 2000 BST.

The grand final is on 24 May and will be screened on BBC One from 2000 BST.

Man In Black · Anime Mod

Eurovision means no Doctor Who so they can get stuffed.

And is anybody surprised that our entry has tanked again? Talk about holding grudges...

Totoro101 · Movie Executive Producer

Mib who cares really? Its a nothing competition ^-^.Quite surprised its still going after all these years, the quality of music is appalling every year and even i know that and im hardly an expert on any kinds of music myself.

braxious · 500 Club Member

no one in the UK watches the Euro song for the songs they watch for Wogans commets and the voting scamms

Darth Mattitude · The Dark Admin

Bad news The Irish Turkey failed to qualify...

Ireland will not appear in this year's Eurovision Song Contest final after its entrant, Dustin the Turkey, failed to qualify from the first semi-final.

The glove puppet was not among the 10 successful countries, which included Greece, Romania, Armenia, Finland, Israel, Poland, Russia and Bosnia.

Norway also succeeded, along with Azerbaijan in its Eurovision debut.

A second semi-final on Thursday will determine another 10 countries to proceed to Saturday's final in Serbia.

The line-up will include Sweden's former winner Charlotte Perrelli, who emerged as the favourite in a Europe-wide vote of fans carried out by the BBC News website.
Dustin the Turkey, who sang Irelande Douze Pointe, has previously recorded six albums and performed with artists including Bob Geldof and Chris De Burgh.

Keith Mills, editor of Irish Eurovision website All Kinds of Everything, said: "It was a three-minute joke that wasn't especially funny, didn't work for an international audience and looked very messy on screen."

The number of points Dustin picked up in the semi-final will not be made public until the overall winner has been chosen on Saturday night.

In both semi-finals, the qualifiers are announced in random order and the number of votes for each is not revealed until the contest is over.

Voting overhaul

A new voting system has been introduced in response to severe criticisms of last year's qualifier, in which no western European countries progressed to the final.

Semi-finalists have been divided into two groups based on their usual voting preferences in an attempt to lessen the impact of "neighbourly" voting and allow a broader range of countries to reach the final.

Traditional voting allies Greece and Cyprus have been split up, while the Baltic, Scandinavian and former Yugoslav countries have been separated.

The 20 successful countries from the two semi-finals will join last year's winner Serbia as well as the UK, France, Germany and Spain - the four biggest contributors to the event - in the final.

The UK will be represented by former X Factor runner-up Andy Abraham, who will perform second in the running order.

It also seems as we came 33rd that Andy Abrahams has no hope of getting close. Looks like a win for Sweeden. See we should have gone with Michelle Gayles Euro Pop nonsense...

braxious · 500 Club Member

boooooooo booooooooo booooo

I wanted the turkey to win.

oh well im still goling to watch and laugh at the rubbish.

Darth Mattitude · The Dark Admin

Well Russia won we come dead last and Terry wants to quit...

Sir Terry Wogan said he may quit as the BBC's Eurovision commentator, as the UK entry sung by former X Factor finalist Andy Abraham finished in last place.

Sir Terry cast doubt on his role after saying this year's results showed it was "no longer a music contest".

Abraham received 14 points for his song Even If, as Russia won with 272 points.

Sir Terry, who has commentated on the competition since the 1970s, said: "Russia were going to be the political winners from the beginning."

He told viewers: "I think it's tremendously disappointing from the point of view of the United Kingdom.

"Andy Abraham gave, I think, the performance of his life with a song that certainly deserved far more points than it got when you look at the points that Spain got, that Bosnia-Hercegovina got - some really ridiculous songs."

Sir Terry said his producer, Kevin Bishop, was stepping down after this year's contest.

"He and I have to decide whether we want to do this again," he said.

"Indeed, western European participants have to decide whether they want to take part from here on in because their prospects are poor."

Abraham received six points from San Marino - who were taking part for the first time - and eight from Ireland.

Germany and Poland also received 14 points each, but they officially finished above the UK because their top scores in a single round were higher.

Russia received the maximum 12 points from former Soviet states Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine, Belarus and Armenia, as well as Israel.

But Sir Terry was generous about the Russian song, Believe, performed by Dima Bilan.

"Let's not take it away from him, let's congratulate him," he said.

The UK has only finished in the top 10 once in the last 10 years - but has finished outside the top 20 four times in that period.

Man In Black · Anime Mod

Are you surprised? There has always been tactical and political voting for years but lately it has got worse. And they are still hold a grudge against us for the Iraq War. I was going to say that they don't hold grudges towards Germany for Hitler but they came joint last too.

The fact is that we could have The Beatles in their prime representing us and they would still overlook us in the votes. It's not about the music at all - judging by some of the winners over the past 10 years (Lordi aside of course).

But I must say when I saw the recap part there were some seriously hot babes performing this year!

Totoro101 · Movie Executive Producer

Sounds like it was another farce as usual...Also its a bit sad that for a musical competition,that people vote politically instead of just voting for the best songs they enjoy most...Whats the point in doing that?

-- Edited by Totoro101 at 12:22, 2008-05-25

braxious · 500 Club Member

the Euro sonh has always been a forum for political voting, i remember before teh Eastern Euro countries plied in the vots would be prfedictable all the scandinavian countries would vote for each other, malta would give us 12 points, ireland would also vote for us.

The only way is to stop the semi fininlists voting on the final song that waythe result is better.