No obvious winner. I like SLOVENIA and CYPRUS. Favourites are Sweden (too obvious for me) and Italy (OK) with Australia looking healthy though, again, a bit obvious for me. United Kingdom not favoured by most - I quite like it but suspect it would have come fourth out of six finalists if JK was running the UK end.

So my two outsiders are still in and made it through the semi final. Sadly they are very early in the final; usually a massive disadvantage. Fingers crossed for Slovenia - opening the show.

JK2006 wrote:
So my two outsiders are still in and made it through the semi final. Sadly they are very early in the final; usually a massive disadvantage. Fingers crossed for Slovenia - opening the show.

Apparently Brotherhood of Man opened the show in 1976 when they won it and became the most successfull ever winner.

It's hugely entertaining, great fun, with good, bad and mediocre music and acts but gets massive ratings (since I single handedly revived it from 1995, to Alan Yentob's annoyance) and is perhaps the biggest success of the TV year. Considering it's been going for 60 years, that's quite an achievement. I wonder whether The X Factor will still be around in a few years.

Message to all the people announcing the votes: we know you love the show, we know you think the presenters are doing a really, really, great job, so just shut up and give the results. How they tolerate such tosh and still claim this is a well-produced TV show is a mystery.

One new thing that I don't like about the voting is how they instantly reveal the first few scores and then just read out the 10 and 12 points. It takes away a lot of the tension.

Oops - surprise serious contender - Russia! Really good.

Once again: when they say, 'May we have your votes,' that means, 'May we have your votes,' and not, 'Can you say where you are even though it's already been said where you are, waffle on to the presenters, tell the audience to cheer, do 'comic' pauses, sing a line or two, etc etc. It means just give the votes and go away!!!

Well I thought Russia was the better song but wasn't impressed by the winner. Might make it to Stockholm next year though.

Russia suffered from Putin's annexation of Crimea, Russian troops fighting in Ukraine & Russian attitudes towards homosexuality. Putting forward a song preaching peace and tolerance could not overcome all the negative opinions on what Russia has done in the past year.

Interesting that Germany (whose winner pulled out so they sent the second placer) got no points. A lesson for the UK - go back to a public vote for our entry.

"A lesson for the UK - go back to a public vote for our entry."

.... and select another loser from six pieces of dross chosen by committee.

If this method recommenced, however, the committee(s) should make their selections from the highest quality songs submitted, examples of the UK's consummate artistry, and not fret over finding a formulaic winner.

When I ran it I tried to find great songs and put the best 4 or 6 to the public to vote.

BBC4 ran an excellent documentary last Friday night on 60 years of the Contest. A number of prominent background individuals from its history interviewed.

Did you refuse JK?

No strangely not requested. I wonder why.

I've only recently started subscribing to the Spectator, only to find a couple of interesting posts from the editor on their website, Fraser Nelson, regarding Eurovision. Fraser wrote a post in an early March praising Sweden's Melodifestival and how it takes pride in selecting a great competitor. He said how brilliant he thought Heroes was but didn't know how well it would do. I hope he had the sense to go to the bookies.

It turns out that there was a post mortem at the Swedish Embassy in 2013 on why the UK just fails in Eurovision.
The Article
Without any "vile pervert" digs there is a particularly interesting paragraph:

'In May 2013, a discussion was held at the Swedish Embassy in London about where Britain went so wrong. I had the honour of moderating the talks. The panel included Kevin Bishop, a BBC man who produced the Terry Wogan’s Eurovision evenings and Svante Stockselius, who rescued Sweden’s equivalent from similar ridicule ten years ago. The keynote speaker was Katrina Leskanich, the singer who with her backing group the Waves won for Britain in 1997 by the highest margin in Eurovision history. She put her success down to Jonathan King, the pop impresario who was perhaps the last person the BBC hired who knew how to win competitions. The corporation now seems -utterly lost.'

I always liked Katrina. She impresses me more, now I know she sticks by her mates. I remember a webchat on the BBC with JK in 1998 when I accused the BBC of sabotaging our chances of finding a good entry by having the pre-selection on a sleepy Sunday afternoon, as they were doing then, in spite of being the hosts.

Thank you Neil. Katrina does indeed remain a loyal supporter and a good friend.

I would include singing the Eurovision song as part of the prize for winning the Voice. Get six songs written specifically for the winner, using top songwriters (including songwriting Voice judges), and put the final choice to the public vote. The winning entry should be produced by the likes of Will.I.Am who knows how to turn out successful hits. It certainly could not perform worse than we have done in recent years, and might actually give us something which stands a chance of winning.

Get ITV to organise a X factor style competition of heats. Why should the BBC have the monopoly. They take the Eurovision with a heap of cynicism.

I don't go along with the BBC conspiracy theory; incompetence beats cynicism every time. They just simply haven't got a clue.