Eurovision Update

Well I have to say I was pleasantly surprised!

The Russians must have spent a lot of money but they certainly did put on a good show....

The song that won was one I liked. It may or may not have been the best, i can't say, but it was certainly clear that it was the most popular.

There was some political voting but the mix of voting (panel and telephone) meant that it was a lot less prolific. What political voting there was, was less able to affect the outcome. One or two countries received a political 12 but they knew it was without meaning for their song and didn't look so happy.....

We finished on the top half of the board where we belonged! I think the UK is an odd stepping stone in Europe. We don't have the same close ties of say the Scandinavian countries, or ex-communist countries. So we have fewer countries who vote out of friendship or politics. We also would never encourage others to vote for us for the wrong reasons..... It is easy for us to languish at the bottom of the scores.....

The contest is changing. People did not appreciate flagrant abuses of the rules and it showed. One country used the rule that singer had to be on stage and singing live to have a shadowy person at the back while five lovely ladies danced and one of them mimed... The song wasn't bad but people didn't appreciate being played like this. They were pretty near the bottom.

So i think the Eurovision has a future. It is still political but it is back to being a contest again, which is what it needs to be in order to survive.