by johntheclaret » Tue May 15, 2007 5:33 am
Guys, this is how Eurovision works.
Terry Wogan, has been doing it for years, and Wedgie is right, it wouldn't be the same without him. He is a funny Irish guy and a bit of a celeb up here. He has the dj spot on breakfast BBC radio 2 (the most popular station in the UK), and does a lot of awards, specials etc etc. Has his own chat show and has done a lot of game shows etc, including come dancing, blankety blank and others.
Up until about 4 or 5 years ago, the comp didn't have a qualifyer as there were only upto 20 or so countries that competed. Britain was always one of the favs as the Brit music scene is the most dominant in Europe.
From then the comp expanded with the eastern block joining.
I'm sure you know how the voting works, but in a nutshell, every counrty sings a song. Then each country has a jury that votes. 1st 12 points, 2nd 10 points, then from 3rd to 10th 8 points down to 1 point. you can't vote for your own song though.
The whloe shabang has gotten very political. Thats how cr4ppy songs by the Ukraine do well.
The eastern block all vote for each other and as there are now more of them than any other group, they will always win.
Scandanavia always vote for each other, Finland gives Sweden 12 points and norway 10 points, then Sweeden gives Norway 12 points and Denmark 10 points etc etc.
Cyprus always gives Greece 12 points and Greece reciprocates. Neither give Turkey any points since the Turks invaded Cyprus.
Britain dont get any points because no one likes them and even less these days because of Iraq.
This is the reason Wogan seems to know who will vote for who.
Traditionally the winning song went on to be a hit, Abba's Waterloo is a good example, Katrina and the Waves etc, but over the last few years this doesn't happen because the best song no longer wins.
Shame it has become so political. I made a point of watching it every year, mainly for the comedy and Wogan, but have given it a miss recently.
Countries all have to contribute financially and there are calls here, for Britain as the biggest contributor, to drop out as the funding comes from the BBC and with the 'voting so heavily biased on political allegiances' it is not seen as good value for money anymore.