I see Sir Andrew has now taken the "sympathy route" in his relentless pursuit of Eurovision votes. He wants us to believe Jade Ewen is from a poverty stricken background. Her youtube page describes how her parents scraped by on disability benefits and couldn't afford to send her to drama school.

The plan now is to go to as many of the participating countries as possible where she sings her song and tells her story. I'm trying not to be unkind here but does she really know what poverty is ? Surely the residents of Moldova, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Albania, Georgia, Armenia and Macedonia know more about poverty than somebody in the UK whose family receives disability benefits ?

Considering where she comes from, it's great that she isn't shooting people or being shot but don't try the sympathy vote as it won't work.

Tottenham and Edmonton are pretty scary places to live by the way - and the poverty is immense.

They are an area which have produced Bruce Forsyth - Lemar - Caroline Alexander ( Those 3 all went to the same schools) and now Jade.

I think the area does produce some amazing talent perhaps because of how depressing it is to live there.

I can imagine that money is not everything and that poverty of opportunity is often just as bad.

Good luck to her - I really hope she wins or does better than usual.

It is fantastic to see people succeeding from that part of London.

I rather like that part of London but then I like most parts of London.

I agree with mikemacca, a lot of the participating countries have greater poverty than anywhere in the UK, so good luck to her in convincing Eastern Europeans that she's had a hard life.

I still haven't heard the song, but I'm still convinced that the next winner will be from the Eastern block. I know people on here will disagree, but I doubt it matters how good the UK entry is. The last two winners, Serbia and Russia, have been instantly forgettable.

BR wrote:
Tottenham and Edmonton are pretty scary places to live by the way - and the poverty is immense.

They are an area which have produced Bruce Forsyth - Lemar - Caroline Alexander ( Those 3 all went to the same schools) and now Jade.



suddenly Jade is as successful and famous as Bruce Forsyth ?

I think she's more likely to be as successful and famous as Lindsay Dracass who sang the UK entry in 2001.

spot on, i had forgotten about lindsay
after May jade will disappear from the public eye but only after she or her connections have blamed eastern block voting for her poor showing,
i predict bottom 6

mikemacca wrote:
BR wrote:
Tottenham and Edmonton are pretty scary places to live by the way - and the poverty is immense.

They are an area which have produced Bruce Forsyth - Lemar - Caroline Alexander ( Those 3 all went to the same schools) and now Jade.



suddenly Jade is as successful and famous as Bruce Forsyth ?

I think she's more likely to be as successful and famous as Lindsay Dracass who sang the UK entry in 2001.
Indeed!

Many countries have tried all sorts of tactics to plug their entries in advance of the contest and considerably less desperate and inappropriate attempts than this have invariably failed. The song and/or gimmick speaks for itself. Nothing more.

What might spare ALW's blushes is the introduction of 50% expert jury vote. They may just be seduced by his and Warren's names, as may the odd televoter. Time will tell on that one.

Anthony wrote:


What might spare ALW's blushes is the introduction of 50% expert jury vote. They may just be seduced by his and Warren's names, as may the odd televoter. Time will tell on that one.

I didn't realize it was an "expert" jury. I guess Belgium's experts will be Armenians and Turks.

the winner will probably come from eastern europe but this may be due to the fact they are trying harder
better songs or more suitable songs sung by top well proven performers not unknowns who are unknown for a reason
as for the last 2 winners - russian song did nothing for me but the singer is the real deal
the serbian winner was a brilliant song, very well sung by a stephen fry lookalike
i believe the performance is the major factor among many factors determining the winner
as long as we send unknown, unproven acts we will never win
who was our last well proven entry with a suitable song? katrina

elk wrote:
the winner will probably come from eastern europe but this may be due to the fact they are trying harder
better songs or more suitable songs sung by top well proven performers not unknowns who are unknown for a reason
as for the last 2 winners - russian song did nothing for me but the singer is the real deal
the serbian winner was a brilliant song, very well sung by a stephen fry lookalike
i believe the performance is the major factor among many factors determining the winner
as long as we send unknown, unproven acts we will never win
who was our last well proven entry with a suitable song? katrina

Times and voting systems have changed since 1997


When 1997 when Katrina won, only 1 country (Malta) gave the Uk less than 5 points and only 3 countries didn't place her in the top 4. 10 countries gave her the maximum 12 points. But this was before televoting

Russia's victory last year included these votes.

United Kingdom 0
Sweden 0
Denmark 0
Iceland 0
Switzerland 0
San Marino 0
France 1
Belgium 3
Netherlands 1

I think you are onto something there.

One of the great managers who I worked for for a few years who discovered some of the biggest names in British music (who I know JK knew) always theorised that the UK produced so much talent from the 60's onwards because of the natural desire for young people to rise out of poverty plus a set of co-inciding events-technology etc. And that's how he set out to discover groups.

I think we are going to see major talents emerge from the former Eastern bloc-they are really just getting into their stride now.

Poverty is a great motivator.

Bucks Fizz were an unproven act, but that was quite a few years ago. I think we must not get away from the fact that it is a song contest, not one for beauty or fashion, or choreography - although we do seem to have already got away from it.

I think the UK song should be written by a UK writer. Where the singer is from is perhaps less important.

I think we could do worse than re-unite Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman.

I can think of a couple of your own tunes that might fit nicely, Al!

My tunes?

You must have heard me whistling in the corridor.

Are you not the pianist/composer/singer Al who sent some excellent music to us a few years ago?

'Fraid not, JK. I never quite managed to conquer the piano. I could probably have a go at writing a Euro song though. I can't do much worse than some of the recent attempts.

you are not wrong about the voting system being different and together with a doubling of countries entering it is a very different contest nowadays
however i do feel that if we a had a real quality well proven performer it would be a major step forward
and if we did i would not expect to win but i would expect to have a respectable showing providing the song was suitable
our recent representatives were sadly lacking either through lack of talent or a having a suitable song
i liked daz's song but that type of song was never going score very highly in the contest
is it true that the voting system is being changed for 2009 ?

elk wrote:

is it true that the voting system is being changed for 2009 ?
The semi finals will be decided in the same way as last year, i.e. nine out of ten songs chosen by televoting, and a wildcard jury entry.

The votes for the final will be a blend (probably 50-50) of televotes and juries. As it stands, each jury consists of four members of the public and four music professionals. Only one professional jury member may be connected with a record company or music publisher. Changes to this may be announced after a meeting on the 16th/17th March. I'm sure I heard somewhere that the juries will be wholly professional.

Is anyone still awake? I am quite sad.

being sad is not a crime, well not yet
sounds like they are making the voting system more complicated than is necessary,
on the other hand it will be interesting to compare jury votes with public votes
it might be another strictly come dancing voting fiasco
and lead to another balkan war

I don't think it's limited to poverty. A lot of great songs, poetry and literature are inspired by life's hardships, extreme emotions and experiences.