So this year the competition has gone beyond being just ludicrous. The songs were not just mediocre they were bizarre, incomprehensible or just stupid. Andy Abraham sang a reasonable song and certainly didn't deserve to be last. The great Sir Terry Wogan is now considering his position, and all Western European countries need to accept the fact that they will never be winners, or leave the whole thing. Where did it all go wrong - well maybe the enormous proliferation of countries taking part didn't help, but it is the new 'political' voting that has taken over in the past few years that has nailed the whole contest. To the Eastern European bloc (and here I include the former Soviet republics and the Balkans) this contest is a big deal so all the populations of these countries who find themselves 'abroad' get voting in massive numbers. Germany always awarded maximum points to Turkey because of their large numbers of 'guest workers' but now the huge emigre Russian populations always vote for Russian, and the Balkan states vote for each other (because there are Serbs, Croats, Albanians, and Bosnians scattered throughout so many countries). This year the large Romanian population in Spain voted en bloc. This isn't going to change, and no tinkering with the voting system will solve the problem. The only alternative is a series of local contests for each area and then a fixed voting system for the 'finalists' otherwise the UK should withdraw from the whole thing.
2 comments:
What do you think of Terry Wogan's comments regarding the racism which also prevented Andy Abrahams from winning?
It seems to me that the UK just wants a fair crack of the whip when it comes to Eurovision. Obviously we don't expect to win it year on year, but we do want to have a fair chance. When we sit there and mark the songs (like I'm sure many Brits do) we mark on the quality of the song, not on who our friends are.
I think both Terry Wogan and you are right - I somehow knew the moment Andy Abraham was chosen that the song was going nowhere. Although we shouldn't generalise the Balkan/Baltic States do not like non-white artist/singers/footballers - and so could be assumed to be unlikely to vote for the UK entry. I just think Eurovision is a big deal and winning is a big deal in Eastern Europe, and because of the system of voting - Russians abroad are always going to vote for the Russian entry - hence the paradox of the Baltic States voting for Russia even though the Russian government is disliked by the majority of the population of the Baltic States. Not sure how the voting system can be changed though.
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