Eurovision 2021

I was thinking Gina G was the last one I really liked.

We tried sending an established band with Blue. We tried sending musical legend with followings in Europe.

The voting system is now so broken, the politics so entrenched that nothing will change without a complete reform of the whole thing.

Was the UK really the worst song of the night? Not by a long mile. Was it the worst vocal performance/staging? Not even close. Did so many countries deserve nil points from the voting public? No way. The EBU could not fail to hear the crowd in the arena call out 'Greece' when the Cypriot guy was asked who their 12 points were going to.

Radical change is needed to return this to being about the quality of the songwriting first and then the quality of the singing.

Yes, it is an entertainment show that has come to rely on spectacle. It needs to retain viewers. But it has to remember the core values of the competition.

If you read the Italian lyrics, there is nothing of interest or value there. It was not a well crafted song that lingers in the mind. It was not a good example of rock/metal or any part of those musical genres. Was it well staged? No. Will it feature on future Eurovision compilation CDs? No. How did it win? I just don't know. There was no hook, no shape, no development.

I knew it was going to be a poor year when the songs had all emerged and there wasn't one that I really wanted to win. There were hardly any songs that I wouldn't have minded winning.

It felt like a collection of B sides.

In the end, France was my winner but even that had a majorly flawed final section that just went a bit manic.

If next year doesn’t have songs that capture my imagination and interest, it might mark the end of my engagement with the whole thing.

See in my opinion I think the UK was one of the worst of the night. Not necessarily the worst song but it was one of the worst performances and pretty forgettable. There was a lack of energy. He sounded out of breath. It just wasn’t enjoyable to watch. I don’t think it deserved 0 points however as we have definitely sent worse.
Ultimately each country can only award points to 10 countries and the UK performance was not a top 10 performance.
It’s not rigged. It’s not a bad voting system. I do think we may get a bit of a harder time than other countries but we have shown that when we put the effort in then we do see better results.
The UK needs to stop playing safe. To win Eurovision you need to stand out from the crowd. You have 3 minutes to put on a show and be remembered. They need to take a risk and try something new and frankly it can’t get much worse.

And also countries voting for their neighbours isn’t necessarily politics. The UK voted for Ireland when it was Jedward. They weren’t the best on the night but they were recognisable faces to the UK audience and they got our 12 points. The entry for Cyprus this year was from Greece and this happens a lot with Greece and Cyprus. There’s a lot of crossover there. So they always give each other points. And you will find this across a lot of the other countries where the acts are recognisable and popular already. I saw somewhere that the entry for Serbia this year was already pretty popular in the Baltics.

We could easily win if we ever again enter anything vaguely decent. The Duncan Laurence win from 2019 has been a hit all over the world and has recently flown-up the US charts. It can be done.

James Newman and his song weren't appalling but it is like the track on an album you always skip.

You have to be in somebody's top ten songs to gain a point. Out of the 26 songs would you have put the UK entry in your top ten? I certainly wouldn't. And neither did anyone else. There's no conspiracy against us. We need to take it away from the godawful BBC producers and get ITV or Channel 4 to rethink the way we approach the whole thing.

There were 39 juries and 39 voting publics - I would have expected that at least one would have liked it enough to put it in their top 10.

I would have expected a far more positive reaction to the Netherlands - I didn't rate the song - but I could imagine why others might.

San Marino doing so badly with the public was another big shock.

I know these things are unpredictable. But it was a very odd set of scores on many levels.

We want it too much too. We need to chill out, not give a **** and stop TRYING so hard to find the magic formula. Some countries have never won or have rarely won. We don’t have a divine right to it just because we have a huge Eurovision fan base and have won a few in the past.

This

Given the strength in the global market of UK acts - including all over Europe - it isn't that we aren't capable as a nation of producing music with broad international appeal.

I don't honestly believe that we have been seeking a magic formula any more than many other countries. We have sent a broad range of styles over the past decade and nothing has landed well.

There is no magic formula (no matter what Love Love Peace Peace might suggest)

What we do see is one song winning or doing really well and a whole raft of countries try to copy the same 'winning' formula the following. With almost no success.

If you look at Italy since they returned to the competition, they have tried all sorts: gimmicky with a gorilla suit, the popular but not popular enough Soldi, the operatic and then they win with faux metal/rock. There is no method in that.

I genuinely believe that we need a voting system that ranks from top to bottom not just a top 10. At present you can come 11th with every jury and every national vote and end up with absolutely no points at all. Then we get a real reflection of how the songs have been received and whilst it will not radically change results, it will be transparent and more fair.

There are those who say that songwriters/performers should be limited to citizens of each nation. There are some virtue in that sort of change. Another call has been for the languages sung to be limited to the official languages of each nation.

But the voting is what really needs to change. Once that is perceived to be more fair, more credible UK acts might be persuaded to enter. This year we sent a very experienced and talented songwriter with a number of international credits to his name. And he will now be more famous for having got nil points.

Blue won the public vote across Europe. They got very few votes from the juries. They've subsequently admitted that they didn't realise that the juries would be voting based on their Friday night performance and so they weren't trying too hard. In particular Lee didn't try for his big note because he didn't think it mattered. They could have done much better than they did. But someone didn't explain to them how Eurovision worked and that they needed to be at their peak on both Friday and Saturday nights. Someone got that wrong. And frankly, that sums up the problem with the BBC's approach to the competition. How could Blue get to the stage on the night before the competition and not understand what they were doing there?

Not sure we should mess around with Steps. Ed Sheeran, Adele, Coldplay or nothing