Here's what I would do to maximise UK success in the Eurovision.
Firstly use the best of British pop song writers:
Guy Chambers, Gary Barlow, Cathy Dennis, Nik Kershaw, or Rob Davis.
Next Select established pop artists to perform the song, Girls Aloud, the Saturdays, Alesha Dixon, Take That, The Sugababes.
All britain's previous winners (except Bucks Fizz) were established artists, and we came 2nd 13 times, with mainly established artists like the New Seekers, The Shadows, Cliff Richard, Mary Hopkin. If foriegners are already familiar with the artist they will forget about political differences and just vote for a great song (They're probably already buying their records anyway.)

Lastly don't let the British public decide. Early evening saturday audiences that vote on phone polls, mainly consist of middle-aged women who mainly go for soppy ballads or R & B tracks.
The only problem with this idea is persuading the artists and songwriters to take part and lose creditablity. I'm sure a fat cheque might resolve that.

Kaiser Chiefs

Pay them £1 million.

I predict a hit !!!!

sadly Robbie, early saturday evening audiences who vote on phone polls, tend to vote for the country they were born in as has been shown time and time again in this contest since televoting began. Portugal doesn't happen to just love the Ukrainian entry every year, likewise the Belgians with whatever represents Turkey.
What used to be a joke with Cyprus and Greece is sadly now a huge joke with 35 countries.

All those second places happened before televoting was introduced and before the iron curtain lifted and 25 new countries were born. Plus countries were not mostly singing in English as they do now so we no longer have that advantage. Back in the 70s it was usually UK against a French speaking nation and less than 20 countries took part each year.

You have to do what Finland did. Find something very different and instantly memorable and then you can pick up the 6 and 7 points from the countries whose 12 10 and 8 points are already spoken for, plus a few 12s and 10s from those without a diaspora.
Only under 100% juries could the UK win. Under televoting or combined voting, it needs something radically different and more adventurous than the dated ditty the good lord has bestowed upon us.

With the exception of Lordi every contest since 2002 has been won by a country with vast amounts of diaspora and the scoreboards showed it.It's just luck that it's 5 different countries and those 5 countries never seem to finish out of the top 8 places however poor their song may be. It's got so blatant that last year I was able to predict all but 1 of where the 12 points would go (I hadn't realised one of the German group was Bulgarian).

Until a system votes for a song and not a country, nothing will change. The last 6 winners have all been good pop songs but had they been representing Belgium, with the exception of Lordi, it's unlikely that any would have finished in the top 5 let alone won the contest.

When a western European nation puts in an entry as good as the last five winners, and it fails, I might start saying the same thing, but until they do, the theory is untested.

People don't think too hard about what they vote for. Neighbourly or political voting doesn't come into it. Diaspora does, I agree, but that can easily be overcome. Not only a fantastic gimmick like Lordi but also a piece of class, or anything which stands out in a positive way can still win this contest. Certain countries have an advantage, but far from an insurmountable one.

It is impossible for any competition in which all the participating nations have a vote not to be affected by demographics. In the old days good entries from Turkey, Greece and even Morocco once were squeezed out by the western majority. Nobody complained then.

It defies logic that the general public gets so wound up about recent UK failures. Why does it matter so much who wins, as long as it is a good song? Subjectively speaking the last crap winner was Ireland in 1996, with an all jury vote.

Paying big money to tempt British stars into Eurovision is hard to justify. Is that what Joe Soap wants his licence money to be spent on? I'll be in Moscow, and I'll love every minute of it, whoever wins.

looks like you have spent a fair bit of time studying the contest
i agree that lordi would have won whoever they represented
however i believe the same about ruslana even though she finished second in the semi to serbia, the reason being it is a different and larger audience on a saturday also it is a live performance and these can vary from day to day
i also believe the greek lady would have done the same, we will never know
the issue about predicting where the 12's go does not predict the winner
the winner will average over 6 points per country, that is some going
it is not just about getting 12's but scoring consistently from other counties, the winner or even the top 3 or 4 will get votes from over 80% or more of the countries
like jk said 14 years 14 different winners tells a story
even if a country is garuanteed 8 12's from 8 various participants
it will still have to pick up around 170 points from the rest which means that it must be a pretty good song and probably a deserving winner
finally there will never be a perfect voting system, why shouldn't people vote for whom they like whether it is the song, the stage act, the country or even if it's for the lady with the biggest cleavage, it is a bit of light entertainment, unique and special and not to be taken too seriously, sit back, preferably with alcohol, and enjoy

Anthony wrote:
When a western European nation puts in an entry as good as the last five winners, and it fails, I might start saying the same thing, but until they do, the theory is untested.



You'll be telling me next that Armenia only get points for having great songs and singers and thy have no diaspora.

Ok, so who won it last year? Russia yes? what was the name of the song? yep not many of you remember that?. It didn't trouble the top 30 in England, as has every winner in the last 10 years.

For god's sake either we bring in juries to vote for the winner. or we just give up and put in a joke entry like Ireland, with the turkey puppet last year.

I think we should go for it big style one year with a great song and established act, if that fails then, then treat it with disdain. We all know that Britain is the best producer of pop music in Europe, if not the world. How many hits by Croation artists do you know? Exactly, so lets give it our best shot and make Britain proud?

robbiex wrote:
We all know that Britain is the best producer of pop music in Europe, if not the world. How many hits by Croation artists do you know? Exactly, so lets give it our best shot and make Britain proud?

Sadly I don't think that's true anymore. I would struggle to name you many British artists now and I'm only 30.

as music is very subjective, how arrogant to say we are the best pop music producers in europe if not the world
even if we were and entered the best song in the contest we will not win as long as we send people with very limited ability
a great singer will give a song a great performance
an average singer will give it an average performance
a poor singer will murder it - remember jemini