That’s Putin told.

As a closet Eurovision fan for many years I have to say that last night was rubbish.

Next year I’m going to enter with this.

Putin is a **** (lyrics and music by Harry the Spider)

Putin is a ****
Putin is a ****
Putin is a ****
Putin is a ****[/I]

He’s a ****, he’s a ****, he’s a great big ****

Putin is a ****
Putin is a ****
Putin is a ****
Putin is a ****[/I]

He’s a ****, he’s a ****, he’s a great big ****

Putin is a ****
Putin is a ****
Putin is a ****
Putin is a ****[/I]

Well, I think it’s fair to say, the people of Europe have spoken and our popularity remains low.

If we now follow this and leave the EU, would this now also mean we can stop bank rolling the event too? Or would that mean we would never ever get past the qualifiers, ever again?

We should definitely stop paying for the bloody thing. Even if they didn’t hate us already, the fact we can just waltz into the final without qualifying will make sure they do.

The over-production of the music and staging (as well as the near-universal English lyrics) is robbing the Eurovision of the very thing that made it entertaining. I want to see some bloke dressed as a heron singing a Greek lament.

Instead it’s just a boring procession of sub-par anthems, most of which have the same fake uplifting themes, with dull songs disguised by computer wizardry or pyrotechnics – the Russian entry was a prime example there.

The best song was the one the presenters did in the interval before voting – and that was supposed to be a parody.

@martin we go straight into the final as we pay a large amount of money to put the show on.

@theother – just an error from me, it was about 2am here when I posted. If I may say so you should take on-board I am never trolling. I am not big on political correctness and I may make the occasional poor attempt at a joke or be insenstitive but I am never trolling.

They tried singing in national languages but it was rubbish. English is the common language so that makes the most sense.

@martin we go straight into the final as we pay a large amount of money to put the show on.

I know that. My suggestion was that buying our way into the final doesn’t help our general popularity in the contest. Then again, neither does our general demeanour, crap song and standoffishness about the whole thing.

I’d much rather the BBC spent the money on something useful, even if it meant we failed to qualify. It’s not like our presence in the final adds anything, really.

They tried singing in national languages but it was rubbish.

What’s wrong with that? Hilariously crap is better than bland as hell.

@martin I think we can agree the bbc shouldn’t be using our money on Eurovision. A commercial channel should put it on

Put it this way, if things back in 1945 had turned out differently, we’d all be speaking German.

Nah, we’d be speaking Russian.

@theother – just an error from me, it was about 2am here when I posted. If I may say so you should take on-board I am never trolling.

I knew that, I was just amazed that anyone didn’t know it was Sandie Shaw hence I though it had to be a deliberate baited hook.

Although me calling you on it makes me seem like a Euro-spod, I need to point out here that I had to look up to check Petula Clark hadn’t been an entry back in the day, which is where the Cliff and Bonnie Tyler info came from. I didn’t need to look up Sandie Shaw though, I’m certain of that. Some other Sandie Shaw facts:

1/ She was gorgeous
2/ She still is
3/ She created my favourite TOTP moment. My Dad heard the presenter announce her in about 1984, glanced over his paper announcing ‘at last, someone decent’ only to see her writhing about on the floor doing Hand in Glove with the Smiths, who remain the best band in the world, fact.
4/ Her cover version of Jeane is even better than the Smiths original. So in some ways, that makes her the best artist in the world as well.

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmzz2nfznw0[/video]

Look at all the countries that didn’t have to pre-qualify, they all did pretty poorly (France and Sweden the exceptions). We need some reason to get a sympathy vote to do well I think, maybe we’re just better off not doing very well.

If things turned out differently in 1945 we’d still be speaking English. Very few of the Eastern European countries effectively controlled by the USSR for all those years speak Russian (although they might have an understanding). In the years the Germans invaded the rest f Europe there was no wholesale programme to get the natives speaking German.