Should I feel bad for actually liking, Daz Sampson and Scooch's Entries? :heehee: :blush: - You cant blame me for getting them through because i didnt vote i never vote in these things coz everything to do with the public phoning in to vote is a whole con IMO! -_-

I agree with big part what RabbitFurCoat said. I only questioning the voting system. I never understand it correctly:

 

Am I right the from coutnry to country you send an sms with your fave to a number. Some people should collect the votes and so, a country has a top 10 of the entrants.

 

I watch Eurovision, but in Hungary I've never seen a results table, like 1689 votes for Russia, 1542 to Romania etc. They just tell in the end the results. The votes can be manipulated if I'm right, because no one can control it, or see if it was legally collected.

 

I hope I'm not right.

because the UK finish last with a dated song that is a very inferior rip off of Sydney Youngblood's If Only I Could,

 

spot on... we noticed that too...

I agree with big part what RabbitFurCoat said. I only questioning the voting system. I never understand it correctly:

 

Am I right the from coutnry to country you send an sms with your fave to a number. Some people should collect the votes and so, a country has a top 10 of the entrants.

 

I watch Eurovision, but in Hungary I've never seen a results table, like 1689 votes for Russia, 1542 to Romania etc. They just tell in the end the results. The votes can be manipulated if I'm right, because no one can control it, or see if it was legally collected.

 

I hope I'm not right.

 

Your country's great song finishing last is a proof of the joke voting system.

I agree with big part what RabbitFurCoat said. I only questioning the voting system. I never understand it correctly:

 

Am I right the from coutnry to country you send an sms with your fave to a number. Some people should collect the votes and so, a country has a top 10 of the entrants.

 

I watch Eurovision, but in Hungary I've never seen a results table, like 1689 votes for Russia, 1542 to Romania etc. They just tell in the end the results. The votes can be manipulated if I'm right, because no one can control it, or see if it was legally collected.

 

I hope I'm not right.

the full televoting (from all countries combined) is monitored by a german telecom company!

so they have all of the results (which country got how many televotes in each country)

so no chances for manipultaion of the televote ;)

 

And as someone has pointed out at an ABBA Forum - parts of the 'Believe'

Song, that Won, are like 'Wild World', by Cat Stevens.....

 

So, what if the UK Entry sounds like something else - so does the Russian

Entry!

 

Just as the Swedish Winner in 1999 - 'Take Me To Your Heaven' - owed a lot

to ABBA.

 

 

 

Also - What does it matter WHY the UK, etc. may not do very well in The

ESC in future? (After not doing very well for 9 out of the last 10 Contests, as it is).

 

It may well be that with so many 'Eastern' Countries in it, they have similar

tastes, so they will like each others Entries more than the UK's etc.

 

The RESULT would still be the same - the UK - and many other 'Western' Countries

- not doing very well - or not as well as they used to do.

 

So - why would we want to stay in such a Contest? If 'Cultural Tastes' are against

us?

 

To me, it is like someone saying:,

 

'Oh! It's OK Colin! He never hit you because you are Gay! He hit you because

he does not like people from Manchester!'.

 

Why would the REASON bother me? The RESULT is the same - I got Hit!

 

So, what does it matter WHY the UK will struggle to get high Points at The ESC?

ALL that matters is that the UK WILL struggle!

 

It is hardly a good:, 'The UK ought to stay in Eurovision', argument!

Also is it true that some countries don't actually vote? A group of juries sit and decide which songs get what points? If so are any of these countries that do this eastern? I remember hearing Albania did this last year?

Also is it true that some countries don't actually vote? A group of juries sit and decide which songs get what points? If so are any of these countries that do this eastern? I remember hearing Albania did this last year?

those are back up juries!

every country has them just to have a back up votes if the televote system fails in that country!

also those jurys choosed the 10th country from each semi this year!

Albania and Andorra used a back-up jury last year, and San Marino did this year.

Your country's great song finishing last is a proof of the joke voting system.

 

Yeah and what you say about the Portuguese song being near the spanish??

 

Bosnia's song wasn't so powerfull as the portuguese one and it was high top,sincerly,this shows that what counts is the neighbours even the song is really bad as the lyrics of Greece song,really dont understand why the most quality song doesn't won.

I was surprised Portugal did so averagely... I reckon Serbia overshadowed it though tbh. It benefitted very heavily in the semi-final from an excellent performing position.

Also - What does it matter WHY the UK, etc. may not do very well in The

ESC in future? (After not doing very well for 9 out of the last 10 Contests, as it is).

 

It may well be that with so many 'Eastern' Countries in it, they have similar

tastes, so they will like each others Entries more than the UK's etc.

 

The RESULT would still be the same - the UK - and many other 'Western' Countries

- not doing very well - or not as well as they used to do.

 

So - why would we want to stay in such a Contest? If 'Cultural Tastes' are against

us?

 

To me, it is like someone saying:,

 

'Oh! It's OK Colin! He never hit you because you are Gay! He hit you because

he does not like people from Manchester!'.

 

Why would the REASON bother me? The RESULT is the same - I got Hit!

 

So, what does it matter WHY the UK will struggle to get high Points at The ESC?

ALL that matters is that the UK WILL struggle!

 

It is hardly a good:, 'The UK ought to stay in Eurovision', argument!

 

yes of course it matters!!! whats the point in entering a contest when the odds are stacked against you..

 

every entrant should have an equal chance of winning, it should be the quality of the song that matters and not how many neighbours you have.

and San Marino did this year.

Yeah but surely San Marino would be so small the number of votes for the top country would be VERY low?

it should be the quality of the song that matters and not how many neighbours you have.

 

Well, yeah, totally correct... And the quality of the British entries for about the past five years have been utterly PISH..... Not even half-decent commercial Pop... We stack the odds against ourselves by wheeling out the seemingly endless bunch of no-hopers that we do.... Andy Abraham was the Eddie "The Eagle" Edwards of music......

 

We'd may as well have sent "Shazza and Wayne" from the Dog and Duck Karaoke team on Saturday.... Hell, even Jordan and Peter fukkin' Andre could've done better..... THAT is how sh!t we were mate.....

.... Andy Abraham was the Eddie "The Eagle" Edwards of music......

 

no he wasnt.... we liked eddie the eagle edwards! :lol:

 

to be fair, i couldnt really knock andy abrahams performance, he performed the best he could ... but the song was godamn awful.

 

Ok, i'm not gonna be some people's biggest fan after this post but here goes..

 

After reading this thread, which has made very interesting reading, i can agree that the UKs failure is down to a combination of factors. But the idea that political factors have little influence is, imo, pure codswallop. We can see in the results (ie Sweden 12 points to Norway and Norway 12 to Denmark this year) that certain boundaries tend to stick together. The scadinavians referenced there are one example, but you also have to note how the eastern european countries tend to do best. The former Yugoslavian countries and USSR countries tend to stick together. Not to mention the fact Serbia received 12 points from former joint-country Montenegro. On the night, my friend and I were able to predict to which country nearly every country gave their 12 points too based on their political interests/neighbours. It was obvious for example, that Turkey would receive 0 points from Cyprus and we would receive 0 from countries such as Germany, France and Spain. The only countries who GIVE us points are our neighbours (Ireland) and this year we got some fron San Marino. Last year, Malta (a former British colony) gave us 12 points for SCOOCH of all acts. Coincidence? I think not.

 

So am i saying this competition is totally political? Not at all, don't get me wrong. Andy Abraham was to be frank an absolute $h!te choice, and maybe if the UK cared a little more about Eurovision then we would have more chance of sending a better act. We could send someone with European success and im SURE that would improve our chances, but with the Irag War, our history, our nations typical xenophobis attitudes to the 'weird' former communist states, the state our country is in with government etc, our former war history etc. i really think it wouldnt do us complete justice. Now im not one of these people who just watches the voting and believes what Terry is telling us, i watch all the acts, get excited in the build up etc. and watch the show right through. I dont listen to Terry, i find him a complete tosser, but blanking out the idea of political influence is utterly ridiculous.

 

Im sorry if i sound like im ranting or offending anyones opinion, it's just how i see it tbh. Another reference here, we had a little 'game' where we all picked a Eurovision country to support and my friend picked Ukraine. Why? Because of their Eastern European heritage and former USSR status. And whatta ya know, they won our bet and Ukraine came second overall. All in all, we are going to be very unlikely to be seeing Eurovision back here in the UK anytime soon. Why? Because we send $h!t acts, the country doesnt particuarlly care that much, but mainly because of the political influence the competition does have.

I completely, 100% agree, James. Very well worded. We could send Cant Get You Out Of My Head and still finished behind a watery Ukranian ballad or a topless Russian.

I don't think many people in the thread deny that political voting DOES occur. But, as you rightly acknowledge, a lot of people vote for the favourite song aswell.

 

Take Finland, for example:

 

As far as I'm aware, they've have little political activity over the last 5 years which affected anyone else - nothing revolutionary anyway. They won the contest in 2006, and were given points by 23 of the countries (I believe 24 competed that year). Of their score, 8 voting countries gave them the top score of 12 points.

 

This year, two years later, they came 22nd. They were given points by 7 countries. What did they do POLITICALLY in these two years to make 16 countries mad enough at them not to vote for them, not even ONE point? Not much. Did they send a rip off of their winning song this year? Yes. And in 2007 with Hannah Parkaninen's 'Leave Me Alone'? Much as I love it, (and actually prefer to their winner from 2006), yes, they did. Over these two years people became bored with Finnish Goth Rock, and didn't vote for it this year. No other reason as as far as I can tell (and certainally no political activity which would turn 16 countries 'against' them) but a rubbish song choice.

 

The same happened with Sweden: as has elsewhere been discussed, they've sent very similar songs in 2004, 05 and 08. People responded well in 2004 (coming 5th) - they ranked 18th this year, purely because people are bored with them sending the same song year after year. This years Swedish entry won in 1999 - but this year flopped out (:() at #18, not because Sweden are particularly controversial, but because the song wasn't exciting enough to compete against some big guns in 2008.

 

The point I'm making is: sure, neighbourly voting does occur, no-one can deny that it doesn't have ANY impact. BUT, I'd suggest that knowing Russia, Serbia et al are likely to make the top 10, surely we need to combat this with an EVEN STRONGER song than we would usually settle for? Or, we can use the other option and take the p***, then get mad when we lose.

 

I'm also confused as to why people think Hungary, Croatia, Latvia, Estonia, Greece etc give a damn about UK/Iraq relationship? They're not affected in any way? And surely if it's the reputation of the country's political image which affects votes, Russia wouldn't get a single point after years of Putin :o

Edited May 27, 200817 yr by Andrewy

There is some political aspect to the contest, such as Cyprus never giving Turkey any points, but I think to say that we don't get any points because of our history and the current Iraq war is a load of rubbish tbh. I mean, look at Israel. Constantly at war with Lebanon, always threatening Palestine or whatever they're doing (my knowledge of that is actually rather limited, but Israel are always portrayed as being in the wrong), yet they got a comfortable top ten finish with a very good song.

 

Malta gave us points last year as a protest vote at not getting into the final, and I think it might've been a jury vote actually.

 

And had your friend who chose Ukraine heard the song? Well, whether they had or not, Ukraine's song is absolutely fantastic and deserved to do as well as it did. That's exactly the sort of song the whole of Europe loves - I think we gave it five points? - and their runner-up position was well deserved. Lithuania are in eastern Europe and are a former USSR country, as are Latvia and Estonia - two crashed out in the semi-finals and the other severely under performed in the final. And Ukraine certainly aren't guaranteed to do well. Their 2005 song, when they hosted the competition, finished in 20th place or something. Pretty bad.

 

I think if we send a credible act with a decent song that is European friendly and still finish bottom four, then you've got a decent argument. However until we do that, which we've not done since 2002, I refuse to believe that the United Kingdom's political position affects our results...