Why Is Britain Bad At Eurovision?
It's not just members of the Labour party who wish they could go back to 1997: May of that year was a glorious one for British lefties and Eurovision fans alike.
Just www.noticiashoy.info two days after Tony Blair swept Labour to power after 18 years in the wilderness, Katrina and the Waves romped to victory in Dublin with "Love Shine a Light." Ah, 1997: New Labour, New Britain.
The comparison continues, for as Blair turned from fresh-faced to war-weary, the UK tumbled from Katrina's winning perch. The past 18 years have seen Gina G fail, Jemini score nil points and a reformed Blue leave Dusseldorf empty-handed in 2011.
Katrina's victory in 1997 was ground-breaking for another reason: televoting. The UK, along with Austria, Switzerland, Germany and Sweden, allowed viewers at home to vote on where their country's points were allocated. The next year, the Eurovision authorities encouraged all countries to embrace telephone voting and a whole new crop of countries began to triumph.
Between 2001 and 2008, all the winners were first-time champions: Estonia, Latvia, Turkey, Ukraine, Greece, Finland, Serbia and Russia.
Soon, cries of tactical voting from eastern Europe and Scandinavia meant the British public saw the competition as the petty, pop arm of European politics. This political conspiracy became the perfect ammo for the likes of Terry Wogan and other critics to trash the Eurovision brand.
The Eurovision powers have now changed the rules, with countries awarded points by combining the public vote with that of a music jury.
read more: When are the semi-finals and final taking place
BBC cuts gay rights protest from greatest hits show
The Eurovision flops that became top of the popsDaniel Gould, a professional gambler and co-founder of sofabet.com, argues that the contest has moved away from being a political battle and towards a competition about "creditable songs sung by creditable artists." He also says that the UK only has itself to blame for its recent failures.
Gould should know; he makes his living betting six-figure sums on the competition.
"These days what it takes for a country to win Eurovision is the opposite of the traditional British notion of what wins Eurovision," Gould told The Independent. "The British think you need: one, a gimmick, and two, political voting.
"They changed the rules so that the juries now rank every country from one down to 26 or 27," Gould explains. "That means if you
Just www.noticiashoy.info two days after Tony Blair swept Labour to power after 18 years in the wilderness, Katrina and the Waves romped to victory in Dublin with "Love Shine a Light." Ah, 1997: New Labour, New Britain.
The comparison continues, for as Blair turned from fresh-faced to war-weary, the UK tumbled from Katrina's winning perch. The past 18 years have seen Gina G fail, Jemini score nil points and a reformed Blue leave Dusseldorf empty-handed in 2011.
Katrina's victory in 1997 was ground-breaking for another reason: televoting. The UK, along with Austria, Switzerland, Germany and Sweden, allowed viewers at home to vote on where their country's points were allocated. The next year, the Eurovision authorities encouraged all countries to embrace telephone voting and a whole new crop of countries began to triumph.
Between 2001 and 2008, all the winners were first-time champions: Estonia, Latvia, Turkey, Ukraine, Greece, Finland, Serbia and Russia.
Soon, cries of tactical voting from eastern Europe and Scandinavia meant the British public saw the competition as the petty, pop arm of European politics. This political conspiracy became the perfect ammo for the likes of Terry Wogan and other critics to trash the Eurovision brand.
The Eurovision powers have now changed the rules, with countries awarded points by combining the public vote with that of a music jury.
read more: When are the semi-finals and final taking place
BBC cuts gay rights protest from greatest hits show
The Eurovision flops that became top of the popsDaniel Gould, a professional gambler and co-founder of sofabet.com, argues that the contest has moved away from being a political battle and towards a competition about "creditable songs sung by creditable artists." He also says that the UK only has itself to blame for its recent failures.
Gould should know; he makes his living betting six-figure sums on the competition.
"These days what it takes for a country to win Eurovision is the opposite of the traditional British notion of what wins Eurovision," Gould told The Independent. "The British think you need: one, a gimmick, and two, political voting.
"They changed the rules so that the juries now rank every country from one down to 26 or 27," Gould explains. "That means if you
