Austria have pulled out of the Eurovision Song Contest claiming political voting makes it impossible to win.

That's what everyone said when I took over in 1995.

It took me two years but I brought the UK a winner in 1997 with the largest points margin ever at that time.

They will all vote for you if your entry is any good.

Losers always blame others.

True, most of the artists we sent there were shit i.e. last year with Eric Papalapaya or whats his name. Well the contest always was great fun. I will miss the radio show making fun of the acts on fm4.

Well, JK, Austria pulled out two years ago after a poor showing, only to return in Helsinki last May, so they have a record of throwing their toys out of the pram.

I think their decision is more to do with viewer apathy/poor viewing figures than anything else.

They haven't won the contest since 1966, and haven't even come close in fact, so how they can blame Eastern Europe for their lack of success, I do not know, since, with the exception of Yugoslavia, it wasn't until 1993 that countries from the other side of the old Iron Curtain started to compete.

What's more, the Austrian voters themselves consistently vote for countries on the Eastern side of their borders.

I would say the same to ORF as I would to the BBC. Instead of blaming the Eastern countries, copy them, and put the same amount of effort in!

Good point Anthony. I agree Mr. Wrabetz and the ORF should get better acts. It

Oops, I already did:

www.a-lyric.com/archives/austria-pulls-out-of-eurovision/

JK2006 wrote:

It took me two years but I brought the UK a winner in 1997 with the largest points margin ever at that time.

It is still the largest points margin ever, JK. I have just checked to make sure.
I really must get out more.

The difference in 1997 was virtually all were closed juries. Now with televoting, 20 countries do vote the same every year. You know exactly where the 8, 10 and 12 will go to from Belarus, Ukraine, Russia, Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, Croatia, Macedonia, Slovenia, Estonia, Montenegro, Moldova, Bosnia, Romania and Armenia. Then Austria and Switzerland have given the 8,10 and 12 each year to Serbia, Macedonia and Bosnia each time since 2004.
Germany, France, Netherland and Belgium give Turkey and Armenia the 12 and 10 every year now.
These votes will never change under televoting as it is clearly the country being voted for not the song or performer.

The only way for any non East European country to win is to put a song in that gets 5 or 6 votes from all the east European countries.(as Finland did in 2006) and it helps if you are in Scandinavia as then you get another 45 point start.

One thing would be certain, give the UK contest back to our JK and the standard of song would improve dramatically,even if not the final result.

mikemacca wrote:

The only way for any non East European country to win is to put a song in that gets 5 or 6 votes from all the east European countries.(as Finland did in 2006) and it helps if you are in Scandinavia as then you get another 45 point start.

The only way for an East European country to win is to get at least 5 or 6 votes from all the Western European countries too. Serbia would still have won the contest this year even taking all the Eastern European votes out of the equation. Finland got 10 points from Croatia and Bosnia in 2006 and and 8 from Slovenia.

So, although it would be futile of me to deny that there is a cultural influence to the voting, it is not as predictable as people claim.

Montenegro failed to qualify this year and did not score highly from its former Yugoslav neighbours. Croatia didn't make it either. The song has to be good to win votes from anywhere.

There is absolutely no reason why UK cannot win the contest again. But it needs a JK at the helm!

there is a culture influence. Just look at Austria and Germany: For decades they gave each other zero points ...