Actually not bad - best entry since my stint as Boss of the UK contest (I still think my Ooh Aah Just A Little Bit was the perfect entry though it wasn't until we added Katrina to the mix that we won with a lesser song but better performance). But I'm really not a fan of Eunuch Rock; I've never liked Sam Smith's voice. If you're going to sing high, Smokey Robinson is my ideal. Still, Sam should make Top Five.

Does it remind anyone of any other song? Yes it's reminiscent melodically of Love Shine A Light but it's even more identical to something and I can't yet think what. Ed Sheeran might not be the only famous plagiarism defendant in court.

is Glass Animals “Heat Waves” better?

It is horrible. Feeble, and a patchwork of several other songs.
Surely we can do better than this?

Honey wrote:
It is horrible. Feeble, and a patchwork of several other songs.
Surely we can do better than this?

Over produced, harks back to olden days, Euro panels will not go overboard for it. UK needs to listen to what’s happening á ce moment, e.g. the Glass non-song referred to above.

Good luck to the guy though, hopefully he will make a lot of money from it before he and his tune disappear down the mists of time.

Onsker Deg wrote:
Honey wrote:
It is horrible. Feeble, and a patchwork of several other songs.
Surely we can do better than this?

Over produced, harks back to olden days, Euro panels will not go overboard for it. UK needs to listen to what’s happening á ce moment, e.g. the Glass non-song referred to above.

Good luck to the guy though, hopefully he will make a lot of money from it before he and his tune disappear down the mists of time.

Yes, I agree. He seems a nice chap though, and hopefully he can give it some welly and have a good time.

Is the best that the UK can find ?

Sam Ryder reminds of Jimmy Somerville. At least Jimmy pulled of the Tin Tin look back in the day and now he looks like Phil Collins.

The UK had a great metal scene now its vanished.

I'm afraid it's not only metal that has declined - it is ALL music. Because executives have no ability to spot hear or create mass appeal, cross over hits so concentrate on specialist areas which only appeal to fans of that kind of sound and are thus both less commercial and less good.

JK2006 wrote:
I'm afraid it's not only metal that has declined - it is ALL music. Because executives have no ability to spot hear or create mass appeal, cross over hits so concentrate on specialist areas which only appeal to fans of that kind of sound and are thus both less commercial and less good.

It would be good to hear track these days that does not like it has been recorded on a Mac computer.

Everything seems to auto tuned even Trace Adkins on new albums. Even in the 80s pop songs with the electronic drum beats on loops or synth synth did become irritating.


Exception is Modern Talking - Brother Louie.

Green Man wrote:
Is the best that the UK can find ?
They could if they made the effort find the right type of entry. Instead, because they don’t know, they do daft things like choose Andrew Lloyd Webber (years ago) because they think he “knows”, or a funky team (that lost their number one artist) because they’re the type of people who “know”.

There are songs and writers out there, but the business and the BBC (who are clueless when it comes to making selections) just can’t be bothered. They’re too busy enjoying jollies and unjustified salaries to care about good songs and winning Eurovision.

The DG who drops Eurovision from the BBC will be a hero for ever more.

Heinrich wrote:
The DG who drops Eurovision from the BBC will be a hero for ever more.
How ridiculous, where else are you trolling?

As it happens the BBC1 Controller at the time I took over, Alan Yentob, was keen to drop Eurovision and hated that I boosted the ratings so much that it became impossible.

27,000 views to this thread. Who says Eurovision is dead?

JK2006 wrote:
27,000 views to this thread. Who says Eurovision is dead?

Many millions more! If someone came to a commissioning editor today and proposed a show that lasted hours, with a succession of mediocre songs, followed eventually by loads of obvious filler, then a really excruciatingly long voting survey in which EVERY COUNTRY has it's own presenters who comment on what a great show it is, how lovely the host's frock is or suit is, and what a great and super and 'really wunnerful' experience it all is - time and time and time again - and then finally, after hours of this antiquated camp crap, a song that wouldn't normally get anywhere near a UK chart is celebrated manically - the executive, after laughing hysterically, would throw the minion out. Just look at it as a TV show - it's outrageously lazy, bloated, laughably old-fashioned and complacent. If critics hadn't given up complaining about it years ago it would get the savaging it deserves.

Wrong. That's what they said to me in 1995 when I took over; ratings were dropping and it was over. By finding real, mass appeal hits as entries I boosted the ratings back to far higher than they had ever been. It simply is great fun.

JK2006 wrote:
Wrong. That's what they said to me in 1995 when I took over; ratings were dropping and it was over. By finding real, mass appeal hits as entries I boosted the ratings back to far higher than they had ever been. It simply is great fun.

No, it simply isn't.

Your reaction shows what part of the problem is. It's exclusively music-focussed. Yes, it's a music contest, but not every contest deserves televising, otherwise the likes of the Chester Toilet Fitting Speed and Efficiency Trials would be on Channel 5. 'The music is great/could be great/good for the industry/etc etc' - these are not relevant as far as the viewing experience is concerned. As a TV show it is AWFUL. And no account of what good songs you chose will change that fact. It is a very, very bad television format that hasn't been altered in decades.

So why is it still hugely popular with millions watching, parties and other get togethers; it's not just the music - it's the performances, the costumes, the staging, the audience reaction, the sparkle, the silliness, the commentaries... an evening of insane hilarity topped by the results of a contest. What more could a viewer want?

JK2006 wrote:
So why is it still hugely popular with millions watching, parties and other get togethers; it's not just the music - it's the performances, the costumes, the staging, the audience reaction, the sparkle, the silliness, the commentaries... an evening of insane hilarity topped by the results of a contest. What more could a viewer want?

I love it when the BBC twits treat it seriously. It is silly nonsense and the UK are crap at it even do that.

What more could a viewer want?



Something else, judging by the viewing figures. Peaking at about 7m after all the usual dubious add-ons are included. In other words, pretty much par for the course for an ordinary episode of Strictly. And that's when there's barely any decent competition. No, you can live on in white-knuckled denial if you like but as a TV event it's antiquated and sometimes embarrassingly sloppy, and you won't find any genuinely dispassionate critic who'll disagree. Susan Sontag and George Melly did a lot of good with their championing of 'camp,' but, alas, they also handed a rubber-stamped Warholian bag of wind to anyone who wanted to excuse the stupid, the shambolic and the shamelessly lazy, which is not what those two fine thinkers meant at all. Eurovision is the glace cherry on top of the supermarket cake of apologies to plain and simple, and charmless, naffnesss. Not camp.Just crap.