All Things Eurovision

object>IT is difficult to fathom just what the Netherland ‘judges’ were doing at Sunday night’s national Eurovision selection

But one thing is absolutely clear. And that is the Netherlands has accorded itself another year of self indulgent rubbish with I’m In Love.

This blog asked last year how on earth anybody in their right mind could send The Toppers, given that fans who know about these things had re-named the song Shine, to reflect how bad it really was. In the second semi-final in Moscow only two countries Albania(10 points) and Denmark(1 point) bothered voting for it. Netherlands finished in 17th place.

Yet here we are 12 months on and judging by what went on this time round no lessons had been learnt. How on earth would anybody in their right mind chose to get the king of Smurfdom, namely Father Abraham, to write anything which involves leaving out a barrel organ?

Clearly the Dutch are in serious competition to be more rubbish at Eurovision than the Irish, who followed one turkey in 2008 with a group of out of tune turkeys in 2009!

And to add to the misery of the whole event on Sunday they employed Irishman Johnny Logan to empathise in a distinctly odd way as to how long each singer/group had been kept waiting before delivering their version of the totally naff song.  

Clearly Father Abraham realised at the end just how bad the song was judging from his difficulty in selecting a bad version from a godamned awful version. Maybe that’s Divine providence and the price one ought to pay for writing bad music.

Anyway, they finally decided on seventeen-year-old trainee hairdresser Sieneke, to take the long walk of musical death in Oslo in May!

IT may be approaching February but at long last the lumbering giant known as the BBC seems to have opened its eyes, yawned, taken a look around, and said to a bleary eyed  public, ‘just another ten minutes!‘

Well, the MEN Blog seems to have given the beast a nudge in the right direction a few day ago. And since then eurovision.tv seems to also have been doing a bit of prodding of its own.

But only insofar as it has got a statement of sorts out of the beast’s mouth that goes something like: “I’ll get back to you on that one!”

One can be assured, that the consequences of dropping back into old habits in 2010, will almost certainly come back to haunt the Beeb by the end of May.

In Eurovisionland, the world of one hit wonders, it will be more than a little bit interesting whether the established Turkish rock group manGa will become memorable for all the right reasons.

The wrong reasons might be the over-production of Hadise’s entry last year and judging from some of the maNga offerings on youtube, one suspects it will turn out pretty much the same.

If last year proved one thing it was that individual singers are the ones likely to come out on top. And if Hadise had one fault it was that the song was similar to dozens of catchy tunes and beats, which we have heard endlessly at Eurovision since Ruslana’s win for the Ukraine in 2004. So please no more Dum Tek Tek!

I would respectfully suggest to maNga that is doens’t allow the production company to overdo the production of the Eurovision entry, only for the song to come up short when being sung live in Norway. Also it might be somewhat trite but I would suggest that the lead singer of maNga should be allowed to carry the song alone. Only in that way do I think it might be a success.

Anyway today eurovision.tv has announced that Turkish broadcaster TRT has landed the group after protracted efforts to keep up Turkey’s pedigree at Eurovision.

 The Turks claim that maNga is a Turkish rap rock band and their music is mainly a fusion of alternative rock and hip hop music(not in the British sense), with a touch of Anatolian melodies with electronic elements.

In 2009 the group won MTV’s Best Turkish act and  Best European act.

EUROVISION fans could truly get pigged off with the antics which once again seem to have descended on the UK selection process for Oslo.

It seems like the BBC, after its promising Eurovision selection process last year, has fallen back into old unfathomable habits.

There is simply no group of broadcasters, that I am aware of, which continues to treat Eurovision fans with such disdain as the Beeb.

We are approaching the mid point of January, a period last year when Lloyd Webber and Co were in full selection flow, and still absolutely nothing from the BBC, on precisley what is happening.

This blog believes the sooner ITV or even Sky bids to take the contest off the hands of the idiotic crowd at the  BBC the better.

The situation leaves fans speculating about the likes Duncan James from Blue ,who it was claimed recently was in talks with the BBC by some Eurovision websites.

The chances of that seem slim judging by today’s Daily Telegraph, the fading James, when asked if he had an opportunity to represent his country at an international  competition, the boy band member replied: “tennis!”

BELGIAN broadcaster VRT is fast out of the Eurovision blocks by naming singer Tom Dice to represent the country in Norway next year.

Eurovision Wannabee Tom Dice
The Belgian’s who have only won the contest just once in 1986, decided on Dice after a behind-closed-doors internal selection process.
Like most of these Eurovision biogs, Dice who was born in 1989, traces his prodigious passion for music to the age of eight. When he was 12, Dice composed his first song. He was part of the egotistically named band The Dice, before deciding to go solo afterwards.
In Belgium he is best known for finishing runner-up in 2008 in the country’s X-Factor in 2008.

MAYBE it’s slipped under the radar of many Eurovision fans but the so-called funnyman Bill Bailey claims there is an ongoing online petition for him to write a UK Eurovision entry.

Bill Bailey
And while he paid lip service to this grand request, in a recent interview,from no doubt some crazed Eurovision fan, it begs the question, has one of the most unfunny people on stage and/or TV found his natural habitat at long last.
It is well known that Mr Bailey is an accomplished musician , therefore, I believe it is incumbant on all Eurovision fans out there to sign it, just so we can get him off the stage. Let’s help save comedy!
Having done that however, the next move is somewhat tricky.
What is Mr Bailey going to write for Eurovision? An interesting thought indeed given the undoubted pedigree of his muscial training.
Have Eurovision bloggers any thoughts on the title of Mr Bailey’s Eurovision song and which singer/group would give us the best chance of winning?

A BIT of a fuss seems to be gaining a head of steam over the North Sea as to whether The Netherlands shouid join Eurovision in 2010.

De Toppers Had Disastrous Eurovision 2009
The rumpus follows the country’s dismal displays at recent Eurovision Song Contests, which has resulted in them not even making the final of the competition. De Toppers with Shine failed to get through the semi-final in Moscow in May, and now disenchanted members of the public are questioning whether the whole shebang is worth the effort.
Apparently,RTL 4, a commercial television station in the Netherlands, has conducted a poll in which 86 per cent of the 500 people questioned felt it was time to pull the plug and withdraw from the Oslo contest.
i well remember writing in the MEN Eurovision blog earlier this year that while the group was popular in The Netherlands, the song Shine was “likely to prove cannon fodder” and was faciing a “pasting”.
I added: “Sorry, but this act and song are going nowhere, and an inquiry should be instigated immediately into who is responsible for this insanity!”
Hate to say it but I told you so!

IT’S nice to see songwriters Bill Martin and Phil Coulter being recognised by fellow music professionals before they pop their clogs!

Bill Martin with Gemma from Jemini at last year’s OGAE UK convention
Our sister paper The Guardian, reports that the unsung heroes have been awarded gold badges in a low key celebration behind closed doors among 300 musical industry professionals.
The professionals – from producers to publicists, songwriters to arrangers – gathered at London’s Park Lane Hotel’s art deco ballroom today, with reportedly, not a single A-list celebrity in sight.
Patrick Rackow, chief executive of the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors (Basca), who hosted the event, said: “For every big name, every star, there are tens if not hundreds of people working behind them; today is about celebrating those people,” said One of the most instantly recognisable – if not exactly fashionable – award winners, the television presenter and former singer Aled Jones, said he was delighted to receive an award.
“The Gold Badge awards always go to giants in the industry, so to see little old me up there with them is quite humbling,” he said. “It does make me feel old though – you have to have been around forever to get one.”
The prolific Martin and Coulter are well known in Eurovision circles for their songs – which include Puppet on a String, Britain’s 1967 Eurovision winner, and Cliff Richard’s Congratulations

Songwriting genius Phil Coulter
As the MEN blog reported last year after Martin attended the UK OGAE’s convention:
Songwriter Bill Martin who was responsible for Cliff’’s hit song Congratulations, which finished runner-up at the 1968 event, told an audience of fans in Birmingham last week, that BBC bosses back then did not want to have to host the contest for a second time in 1969, had Richard won in 1968. Instead in a flurry of late voting and non-voting things swung the way of Spain’s Massiel singing La La La, which came from behind to snatch victory from the bookies favourite.
Mr Martin who had co-produced the Eurovision winning entry Puppet on a String with Phil Coulter for Sandie Shaw’s in 1967 explained: “The 1968 contest was held at the Royal Albert Hall, but the BBC and Bill Cotton didn’t want us to win it again. He even barred us from the after show party.”
Mr Martin’s remarks are bound to trigger fresh controversy particularly after it was claiimed earlier this year that it was Spanish dictator General Franco, who had masterminded Massiel’s victory over Richard.
In May a TV documentary claimed: “It was a fix”. Its producer Montse Fernandez Vila, further quotes Spanish television presenter Jose Maria Inigo as saying. “Massiel won Eurovision with bought votes.”
In 1968 Spain only drafted Massiel in at the last moment after Joan Manuel Serrat, who was meant to sing at the London event, refused to perform ‘La La La’ in Spanish, rather than his native Catalan — a regional language repressed during the dictatorship.
In the official Eurovision Song Contest history, John Kennedy O’Connor said on the night of the event: “As the voting neared its climax the UK led with 26 points, with Spain trailing on 23 and France on 20. Germany cast the penultimate marks and when they awarded UK two votes, huge cheers and screams echoed around the hall. When they followed this with six for Spain, the cheers turned to gasps of shock. With only Yugoslavia left to vote, the Germans had put Spain one point ahead..”
In the final round of voting Yugoslavia gave no votes to either the UK or Spain, which meant the favourite Richard lost out to Massiel.
Kennedy O’Connor explains that Richard was stunned by the outcome and half jokingly a few weeks later commented that after the show he had walked over to Massiel and “shook her warmly by the throat!”.
However Martin told his audience that he and his music partner Coulter got on over on the BBC by switching countries for the 1973 Eurovision.
“After the way the BBC had treated us we decided to get our own back on them by switching to Ireland, and we won the Eurovision Song Contest again with Dana singing All Kinds of Everything. in 1970.”
There were other gold badge winners with Eurovision connections including: guitarist Hank Marvin, who with Cliff Richard and the Shadows achieved 43 top 20 hit singles in 10 years, was saluted by Sir Tim Rice, who wrote that his Fender Stratocaster had “influenced a generation of British musicians who conquered the world”. As far as Eurovision fans are concerned Hank performed with The Shadows in 1975 in Stockholm with Let Me Be The One, which finished runner-up.

Shadows at Eurovision
Miranda Cooper one half of the songwriting team Xenomania who have written hits for Girls Aloud, Sugababes, Kylie Minogue and Cher, was also recognised. Miranda was previously a backing singer for Gina G at the 1996 Eurovision song contest which finished eighth in Oslo with Ooh Ah…Just A Little Bit.
ends

THE latest bonkers decision to come out of the European Broadcasting Union’s hierarchy is a plan to start phone voting at next year’s finals of the Eurovision as soon as the first artiste has performed on stage.

There seems little or no logic to the idea other than the fact that the countries involved will make a lot more money from telephone and text messaging during the additional 90 minute timeframe.
Apart from that, it could seriously dent any hopes the later songs have to compete in the competition given that one hour and a half hours will gather an awful lot of votes for the early songs.
It almost seems like these people in their ivory tower insist on tampering with the formula to the point where the TV audience is going to spot it is being taken for one hell of a ride and simply switch off.
I don’t quite understand why if the UK was song 25, it would have any chance, given viewers would have just half an hour or so to cast their votes as opposed to the two hours given to the earliest songs.
As one fan said on eurovisio.tv comments, the fans who know more about these things, than these tampering bosses, were never consulted.
Here is the ridiculous excuse trotted out by the EBU boss Svante Stockselius: “It is more logical to pick up the telephone and cast your vote while hearing and seeing a song, rather than at the end the performances. Experiences from several national selections also show that this extended voting window is being used with success,”
Stark raving mad is what I call it!

NORWAY the winner’s of the Eorovision Song Contest in May has announced the dates and the venues of its 2010 challenge.

Ice Cold Alex – Norway Wins the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow with
Alex Rybak(second left)
The events for 2010 are as follows:
Ørland will host the first semi-final on January 8: however, the city to host the second semi-final on January 16,is to be revealed at a later stage; the city of Skien will host the third semi-final on January 23; and Sarpsborg will host the fourth semi-final on January 30,
The winners of the semi-finals will qualify for the Norwegian Melodi Grand Prix final, to held on February 6, at Oslo’s Spektrum.
Norway won the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest with Alexander Rybak’s Fairytale and will host the 2010 edition of Europe’s favourite music competition in May 2010.