My only thought was… why waste such a huge potential shop window for great talent every year? An associate company of mine publishes ABBA and has done so since before their Eurovision win, so I knew it could be a launch platform for a global career. Why wasn’t it?

I also found out very quickly that the then Controller of BBC1, Alan Yentob, hated Eurovision and wanted to drop it. Ratings were collapsing. Viewers were deserting it in droves.

Well, I managed to save British involvement and even won in 1997 with Katrina and the Waves and Love Shine A Light. Indeed, in 1998, when, as previous winners, we hosted the event in Birmingham, John Birt and Michael Grade came up to me and said it had been “the best evening of our lives”. Rather sad, I thought.

But then I’d discovered that Eurovision does have incredible closet fans. Both Tony Benn and Ken Livingstone had admitted to me, off air when I had them on my Talk Radio show, that they adored Eurovision.

And when I arrived for my first event I realised why.

There are the fans, getting younger all the time, fascinated by the tacky acts and bizarre songs featured. And the competition. Who will vote for who? But most of all there is the media.

It’s the only event, every year, that attracts top coverage from news units belonging to countries as diverse as Australia and Japan, the USA and Indonesia, many who do not have entries yet must feature long items on the show in their national bulletins. And it’s not disastrous or tragic or boring like a summit or a tsunami.

It’s the one gathering attracting the very top news teams in TV and radio and the press which does not go looking for scandals or sleaze because the show itself is quite bizarre enough.

The Press Conferences are all packed. Sample CD’s are grabbed in seconds. Total unknowns, about to do their one show in front of millions before sinking back into anonymity, suddenly find themselves worshipped. Autographs, please. Photos, please. There is an incredible feeling of positivity and bonhomie.

Many of the fans are gay and the wit and humour is carried through (so don’t be surprised by some amazing bitching) but it’s all in great good humour. Attending Eurovision is truly one of the major eye openers of life. You would never believe the fun and the positive, relaxed atmosphere.

So perhaps John Birt and Michael Grade were not so far off the mark. They had never been to Eurovision before and it really is a quite splendid evening of positivity to experience. It’s not just the madness on screen, nor the wit and humour of Wogan’s commentary. It celebrates the cultural and social global changes in humanity.

Don’t underestimate it. It’s far more important than the much more high profile political coverage we are force fed (and bored to tears by) in the media every other day. G8 or Eurovision? Give me Eurovision any day. Jonathan King 2006.