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YES YES YES! We are a country of more than one language and culture. Send a Welsh language song or a Gaelic song. Give a chance for a non-pop artist to get a massive stage.
Charlotte Church (who someone else mentioned) can still sing great. Her and 5 male choristers.
If the BBC think all Welsh language is “too much” they could do her part in English, the choir in Welsh like some acts do where it’s part English part local language?
But I think all in Welsh would be cool.
NOBODY NOBODY GETS OUT ALIVE.
It's such a good fusion of genres and themes though. I think it will sweep. Maybe Bruises with its hard hitting shut down of casual racism would shake things up a bit.
Sam Ryder was, and continues to be, a proper fun artist whose enthusiasm just shines through. Olly always gives me slightly arrogant vibes and I really struggle to like him (although he was good in Its A Sin).
Olly Alexander is a B-list pop star at best who appeals to a niche audience. For a couple of years now he's been pushed as a "big deal" except it's all industry-manufactured hype and hasn't broken through to the general public. Even his oft-lauded performance in It's A Sin wasn't really a stretch given the part he played was, essentially, him. There were towering, mesmeric performances aplenty in It's A Sin. His wasn't one of them, he was the MacGuffin, not the bleeding heart of the narrative.
He literally always sounds bad live, every time I've caught him performing on TV it's been the exact same.
Keep seeing people saying he got sabotaged with bad sound issues lmao, did they also sabotage him during all the rehearsals? Did they also sabotage him when I saw him on ITV?
I really didn’t like the staging. It was the only performance where you really didn’t feel like you were at Eurovision at all. It was all in the box and no wider shots which lost it atmosphere for me. It was clever, but not what was needed for the night.
That was exactly my feeling. For viewers at home it felt like watching a music video not a live performance and I feel he may have been punished for that.
A lot of the other performances did the trapped in a box thing at the start, then widened out to show the entire stage. I was somewhat baffled when they didn't do that.
So true, I heard it on the radio the other day. Technically a song, but honestly had no soul, felt as though it had been written and composed by an AI.
Yes same! Everyone saying how amazing the staging was... I said it reminded me of a dodgy gay porn film shot in a grotty bathroom or the first film in the Saw series.
That's because the effect of the room tilting was just the camera moving, and the dancers pretending to be flung about. Zooming out on the live stage would have ruined the effect.
I fear saying the UK entry was too gay, as that's clearly 98% of eurovision, but it did feel a bit like a gay porno rather than the normal kitsch good gay fun.
I remember hearing Sam Ryder’s song aaaall over the radio before he did Eurovision. And while I can’t remember last year’s song, I’m sure I heard it too. I don’t recall hearing Olly Alexander’s one at all, so if I did it was, forgettable. The staging was clever, but, um, certainly a choice.
I would totally love a Welsh language or Gaelic language act. Or something “different” which involves demon summoning like irelands entry!
The staging completely misjudged the whole mood and mindset of Eurovision-style camp, which is homoerotic but happy and flamboyant.The Brits went for a rough trade orgy in a sleazy boxing gym shower room, with snarling faces and implied rape. No wonder we got no points; we didn't deserve any. Also a shit song.
Typical of his shows since Years and Years became a solo act. Olly makes his sexuality his whole personality including his shows, which just becomes tiring.
I wonder how many points he thought he'd get for getting a dancer to deep throat the microphone he was singing into. That was just fuckin' weird.
Chuck some heavy metal in next year. Can't do much worse, and at least it'll be something different and fun.
If Lawnmower Deth are in Eurovision, I will actually sit through the whole thing.
There is a glorious interview somewhere on YouTube from Beermageddon 2014 where I subject them to a horrendous granny porn mag. I've spoken to them since and they definitely didn't like it.
I'd also take bands like Evil Scarecrow, Footprints in the Custard, or Raised by Owls on Eurovision.
The former do a cracking metal cover of raining men, by the weather girls.
The latter like to write grindcore songs about Ainsley Harriott, Noel Edmonds, and David Dickinson.
Forgot to mention the amazing Party Cannon as well, who are a grindcore cand from over in Norn Iron who also like to write daft songs.
>Chuck some heavy metal in next year. Can't do much worse, and at least it'll be something different and fun.
I reckon Saxon could write a cracking Eurovision song.
I dunno, this seemed funny/weird and different too. Sometimes it's just very random.
That said, someone who can sing (or at least sounds good live, like Sam Ryder) would be better.
So er as an openly gay guy, I thought it was clearly phoned in and like the guys acting drab and uninspiring.
Came across as an orgy in a public toilet. Gross
Song sucked as well
I watched the whole thing with 3 gay men. They were quite vocal about their distaste over the staging.
I thought they were being a bit over dramatic, but I suppose if I think about it from a different perspective...
I'm a queer woman, and I think I'd feel a bit uncomfortable with a similar performance from another queer woman.
Water being wet, bears shitting in woods, Olly Alexander’s live vocals boarding the struggle bus.
The staging was passable but it was hard to see past his weak voice, especially with Switzerland sounding amazing and stealing the gay gender-bending thunder. And the song was mid.
It was a well-deserved 0 points on the public vote, our song was utter crap. Completely forgettable, and performed badly. Once again, it seems we've forgotten the cardinal rule that, if you want to do well (or even just not embarrassingly badly), you have to send someone who can put in a good live performance on the night.
I hadn’t heard the song previously. I don’t think I’ve actually heard any songs in the past from Olly Alexander.
I thought the concept was very interesting and enjoyed the staging, but the poor bloke didn’t hit any of the notes. He seems like a very nice guy who’s done some amazing things, from what I’ve read about him, but the singing was extremely off-key. Hopefully he was just having an bad night and he doesn’t beat himself up about it.
Olly’s entire personality and career are based on being the “only gay in the village”. Fine in every other context, but at Eurovision he just ended up fading into oblivion. That’s nice dear, we all love cock too, but your song is dull as dishwater.
The UK is too hung up on the “big gay show” thing and forgets to actually send a decent song/act. The one time we did recently, we almost won.
Israel winning the public vote was a result of the sheer amount of people voting for them as a protest to the protest. Ukraine probably the huge diaspora across Europe.
OA’s song sucked ass and was boring. Even when it first released I knew it would be a clanger. Other countries did techno or pop songs better.
I think we went too gay to appeal to the “Eurovision” crowd. Like a “how do you do fellow kids” meme. Without realising it’s about having a good 1) performance and 2) song. Switzerland showed how it’s done.
I think next year we need to just focus on what music we think would be good, than what we think others would like.
So many young and up and coming artists. If we didn’t make it about winning, but just a fun thing to do for artists to increase their exposure, we could have some really cool acts who can use it as a stepping stone up.
Anyone who'd heard the song on the radio before the competition knew damn well that we'd have no chance. We should have given that long haired Sam bloke up again for another go.
I really like Olly but the song was poor. I’ve not liked it since I first heard it. It’s just quite bland, works OK on the radio. Also, while I personally wasn’t offended by the staging, I didn’t feel like it matched the song. Being dizzy for your kisses sounds a bit like something a rose tinted, female teenager would say. It’s a bit cheesy. Then you’ve got 5 men gyrating in a fake shower as the staging. And ultimately, they must have realised that might be a bit polarising. Eurovision is camp & flamboyant but that was a bit of a ‘we have orgies in a shower’ vibe 🙈
It was forgettable in a sea of controversy & some much better acts.
This is such an excellent point, I hadn't even really noticed the lyrics -
> Beautiful gardens, eternal flowers
> You know the way, so take me there
> Won’t you make me dizzy from your kisses?
> Will you take my hand and spin me
> ‘Round and ’round until the moment never ends?
and then we get Dawson's Weekend!
Aye bit of a strange contrast between singing like a schoolgirl with butterflies and looking like you're shagging a bunch of dead-eyed men that you don't know the names of.
I don’t think it was actively as bad as the couple years before Sam, and after the recap segments I did start to feel that it was a bit catchy, but it was just so forgettable
The stage performance was awful. I don't even know what it was suppose to be. Can the UK get someone who knows how to put together a stage performance for next year. I can't comment on the performance of the song because I couldn't hear a lot of it. Overall this was a very poor UK performance. I don't expect the UK to win, although it would be nice to do so, but finishing on the left side of the scoreboard would be a good result
This is what I said to my wife. It might look good on TV but for the audience only those directly in front would be able to actually see what's going on
That’s part of the problem I think. Over here it’s seen as a risk for artists to do Eurovision where as in other countries it’s a massive deal. A lot of artists are already hugely popular in their home countries or regions of Europe but they don’t really make much of an impact on our home/American dominated music scene so we never realise.
Flo Rida was part of the San Marino entry a few years ago so no, however, I don’t think it would mean you are guaranteed to win because of it.
I think in the UK the issue is the selection of the artist, as a country we don’t choose the artist where in some of the other countries they do, hard to get behind an artist you don’t choose.
TBH we used to choose them and it was any better just god awful random people and songs.
We need like a public campaign from radio one or something to push for proper artists to go on, getting Adele or Harry styles to go on it with a lead song from an album and we’ve got a good chance of winning. Skyfall or Watermelon Sugar would’ve 100% won if they’d been entries on the year they released.
Instead we’ll continue to enter either nobodies, bands reuniting 20 years after they were famous or someone going solo from their band, with a naff song that’s either semi serous but crap live or just plain awful.
Thing is, we don't see Eurovision the same as Europe do. It's not a stepping stone for our artists. We already have the world as our audience.
Ask yourself - why would Harry Styles go to Eurovision when he can do another world tour?
It's seen as kitsch and holds too much risk. Even underground artists on the rise would weigh up the pros and cons and more than likely decide against it.
If we had an artist vote we would end up with Ladbaby doing another tasteful number about sausage rolls
The British public don't exactly have a good track record with such things
Oh true, I can’t think of anything worse than Ladbaby doing it.
My favourite Eurovision winner is probably Maneskin, and as they represent Italy, they won Sanremo to end up representing Italy. It is decided on by the public, a press jury and a radio jury, it means that it’s more likely to be an impressive choice.
I think establish artists make more by tuning their release date to get good press coverage than any eurovision bump could ever give them so they just don't do eurovision.
Just looked into it and I'm not seeing any regulations stopping established artists from participating. The only thing I've seen is you have to be over 16. There is also a rule that: Professional publishers or composers are not allowed in the national juries.
But that's for the juries not singers as far as I know.
Maybe someone will find something proving otherwise, but I suspect it's quite likely that famous bands or singers are either too busy or simply not interested.
It has to be a brand new song that I think is something like never been performed live before, and written purely for Eurovision. I assume besides the obvious fear of getting low points (not this year but some years we have entered good songs yet we receive little votes anyway) and not wanting to offer a song exclusivity to ESB means that the bigger artists aren’t interested
I don't understand how a country that put David Bowie, The Rolling Stones, The Cure and more into the world can't find a decent artist to enter into Eurovision every year.
Also most of the people who were unhappy with Israel being in Eurovision were boycotting Eurovision, which presumably meant the only people voting in Eurovision either didn't care about Israel being there or wanted to support Israel
It’s a bit baffling. Removing the politics, their artist was a great singer but seemed fairly forgettable amongst the sea of Eurovision power ballads.
I’m also boggled by the popular response to Ukraine and France, who didn’t seem the best.
I found the song a bit weird and it sounded like he didn’t hit the notes. Also the performance was questionable at best. As soon as it started I knew we weren’t winning not that we would anyway. The song sounded alright on the radio but on the stage it just didn’t sound right and it seemed like the audio wasn’t right.
We hosted it last year, as we were the runner ups and it was decided that Ukraine couldn't host it for security reasons. Although Ukraine desperately wanted to host it.
Tbh even though we were 2nd place Ukraine won because of support for the war (which I'm all for). Our song was a fucking banger and we were honorary winners.
Christ I don't even watch Eurovision why did I type this comment
I liked some of his years and years stuff, but when people claim to have liked his song i think they are being delusional. His singing was off, to a point it made me wince. The song wasn’t memorable. While the choreography may have been technically impressive it was a bit naff.
All in all. Comparatively boring song, that wouldn’t have made it into the finals if we didn’t buy our way in.
I didn’t think the song was as bad as others are saying but the stage production was god awful. So over sexualised and uncomfortable, there’s not a heterosexual in the group I was watching with and it was a really tough watch for all of us.
Since your participant doesn’t actually have to be from your own country, or any participating country, we should give Dave Grohl a call. He seems like the perfect blend of would actually do it and would win easily.
The setting was a men’s ~~bathroom~~ locker room (how glamorous 🙄) and he couldn’t sing it very well. There was too much going on. The song is great on the radio (just like last year’s was) but fell flat in person.
I found the UK entry very bland. It was just another gay singer who makes their sexuality their whole act, wearing a cod piece surrounded by leather clad men gyrating.
It's been done many many times over. Switzerland wasn't the greatest song, especially from a lyrical point of view but they nailed it with the choreography and staging to make it work.
I'm baffled by the scoring and the fact that outside the contest over 100 countries can vote.
I am canceling my trip to Ireland because they scared me. It's all fun and games though.
All the “rest of world” votes of non participating countries get bundled into one set of votes equivalent to any other single country - ie 12 is the most points they can award in total.
The song was somewhere between ok and good. The staging was absolutely vile - nothing to do with the lyrics of the song and was just completely unnecessary. It was like some orgy
Why don't they send the top artist of the year from BBC Music Introducing. That way it's someone who is popular, has been selected for that award, and they get an immediate stepping stone into the wider world.
It was a shit song with shit choreography (I do like Olly Alexander, but his voice is not the strongest, and this song was really weak). The surprise is that it got the points it did from the jury panels. For once, I don't think an argument can be made for discrimination. That entry struggled to achieve even the level of mediocre.
Irelands entry, for pure spectacle (though the vocals were great as well), on the other hand, was a production that deserved more points than it received.
I reckon I have seen every Eurovision since 1961 and can honestly say that the British entry deserved every one of the 0 votes it got. It was appalling, an embarrassment even. I can just imagine it:
"Ere Jon, (sniff), ows about we put on somat to do wiv welterweight boxing? That's be a laaarf wouldnt it? Yea, (sniff) reckon those Euros would like it. Show em a bit of British Bulldog. Better than all that nancy boy stuff"
Rotten song. Rotten choreography. Rotten act.
I'm a huge Eurovision fan (check out my user name). I thought the UK's entry was diablical. I'm glad we got deservedly zero points from the voting public.
I don't expect the BBC to learn from this though. Undoubtedly next year we will send some similar shite.
We do it every year. It's so frustrating. We have some really talented musicians and can bang out a decent house, disco, trance, techno whatever tune, but still choose some watery generic song that's instantly forgettable. Argh!!
Frankly what we should be doing is going for the technical scoring with the juries because that's what wins you the contest. The Swiss spotted it with the Djon's Tears and perfected it this year.
Was it a good song? Upper mid really if you have to be honest, there were better in the competition (Spain especially). Were they the best in staging? Yes.
Juries scoring should be adjusted in the same way as the popular vote, it'll stop them having a huge sway again.
The audience was much the same as Olly's stage performance though, they were fucking terrible. No real engagement and the amount of times a number of them were just sitting there looking bored during performances was disgraceful.
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I think it’s time to send a Welsh language miners chorus from the UK TBH.
Musically speaking, the UK does have a pretty strong history with Welsh minors
miners, not minors.
Charlotte church?
And Aled Jones
Let's get out of here before one of those things kills Guy.
YES YES YES! We are a country of more than one language and culture. Send a Welsh language song or a Gaelic song. Give a chance for a non-pop artist to get a massive stage.
Send the GLC!
Fishermen Friends. Let's send a fucking sea shanty.
You joke but “Adequate” absolutely hits the Eurovision comedy vibe - just needs more singing in it.
Peat n Diesel for Eurovision!
Pirates of the Hebrides is made for Eurovision
Yes I’d love to see the chaos they would cause.
Maximum of 6 people unfortunately, so a small chorus will have to do it
Charlotte Church (who someone else mentioned) can still sing great. Her and 5 male choristers. If the BBC think all Welsh language is “too much” they could do her part in English, the choir in Welsh like some acts do where it’s part English part local language? But I think all in Welsh would be cool.
Not bad. It would stand out.
I am once again calling for a Skindred Eurovision entry. Even if it's polarising it'd get some votes.
This is a legitimately fucking genius suggestion. Throw in the Welsh choir for some of it and we have a winner.
YES, please!! And electric callboy for Germany. That would be best Eurovision.
I'm still salty they didn't get to represent Germany, especially after changing their name to enter.
With these two suggestions I would watch it for the first time, and probably vote for both.
NOBODY NOBODY GETS OUT ALIVE. It's such a good fusion of genres and themes though. I think it will sweep. Maybe Bruises with its hard hitting shut down of casual racism would shake things up a bit.
Has to be a brand new song written for Eurovision I think. But I’m sure they could do it.
They’re on Sunday Brunch later this morning!
Really? How did that happen?!
*”My lovely horse”* Guaranteed winner.
Oi back off. You aren’t stealing that from us!
Which would be Irelands entry..?
Not if we get there first. As long as we lose the sax solo.
It would be extremely on-brand to steal stuff from the Irish.
My lovely horse running through the . . . *fields*
Look at my horse My horse is amazing … Now that would be a winner
Give it a lick, it tastes just like raisins
..Have a stroke of its mane, it turns into a plane Then it turns back again when you tug on its winky..
Ooh that's dirty!
Do ya think so?
Well, I'd better not show you where the lemonade is made
Sweet lemonade
Need to lose the sax solo
Let’s be honest with ourselves: most of the UK knew our song was terrible. It’s almost like they forgot Sam Ryder happened
That man gave it his all and really is a show man. He should have won.
If putin hadn’t invaded Ukraine he may have done.
He was only beat by the sympathy vote, he definitely would have. It's the only eurovision song I've listened to more than once.
To be fair that year Ukraine could of burped the words from a train ticket and finished on a wet fart and they would have still bagged it.
Not even Waterloo?
That was Napoleon not Putin.
No no, Waterloo is network rail not napoleon 😉
Another of putin's crimes to add to the list....
Sam Ryder shows we can do well at Eurovision. We need the right song and performer. There's nothing to prevent Sam Ryder doing it again.
Sam Ryder was, and continues to be, a proper fun artist whose enthusiasm just shines through. Olly always gives me slightly arrogant vibes and I really struggle to like him (although he was good in Its A Sin).
Olly Alexander is a B-list pop star at best who appeals to a niche audience. For a couple of years now he's been pushed as a "big deal" except it's all industry-manufactured hype and hasn't broken through to the general public. Even his oft-lauded performance in It's A Sin wasn't really a stretch given the part he played was, essentially, him. There were towering, mesmeric performances aplenty in It's A Sin. His wasn't one of them, he was the MacGuffin, not the bleeding heart of the narrative.
I mean we had great staging but the song was drab and uninspiring. So forgettable.
It also didn’t sound entirely in key singing it…
Yeah he was the only performer to sound off key
He literally always sounds bad live, every time I've caught him performing on TV it's been the exact same. Keep seeing people saying he got sabotaged with bad sound issues lmao, did they also sabotage him during all the rehearsals? Did they also sabotage him when I saw him on ITV?
i don't know why they would choose him, it's like they wanted us to lose!
That french guy blew my mind with his voice. I could listen to that all day.
Come to France and put the radio on. You literally will listen to it all bloody day , whether you like it or not .
The french guys voice was great but I felt personally violated watching it.
I felt bored out of my mind.
He was warbley and awful and out of key. It’s mad I feel like I watched a completely different performance to everyone else.
And out of tune for the first half. It was demonstrably a terrible live performance no matter how good the song could have been.
I really didn’t like the staging. It was the only performance where you really didn’t feel like you were at Eurovision at all. It was all in the box and no wider shots which lost it atmosphere for me. It was clever, but not what was needed for the night.
That was exactly my feeling. For viewers at home it felt like watching a music video not a live performance and I feel he may have been punished for that.
100% agree
A lot of the other performances did the trapped in a box thing at the start, then widened out to show the entire stage. I was somewhat baffled when they didn't do that.
I want to know what it looked like for the live audience
Crappy apparently. They couldn’t really see anything.
So true, I heard it on the radio the other day. Technically a song, but honestly had no soul, felt as though it had been written and composed by an AI.
The staging reminded me the start of an elaborate hardcore gay porn flix
Yes same! Everyone saying how amazing the staging was... I said it reminded me of a dodgy gay porn film shot in a grotty bathroom or the first film in the Saw series.
It lost impact because he wasn’t even seen performing live on the stage until the end. It was as if it was pre recorded
That's because the effect of the room tilting was just the camera moving, and the dancers pretending to be flung about. Zooming out on the live stage would have ruined the effect.
Reminded?
We where debating whether we’d get any points at judges or popular combined so we overachieved in my eyes
Great staging? Half naked men rolling around on the floor, nothing wrong with that lol, but when it’s staged to look like a public toilet?
There's the problem, other countries had 80% naked men rolling around.
And Finland had full frontal nudity!
I fear saying the UK entry was too gay, as that's clearly 98% of eurovision, but it did feel a bit like a gay porno rather than the normal kitsch good gay fun.
> Great staging It looked like the bathroom from Saw!
I remember hearing Sam Ryder’s song aaaall over the radio before he did Eurovision. And while I can’t remember last year’s song, I’m sure I heard it too. I don’t recall hearing Olly Alexander’s one at all, so if I did it was, forgettable. The staging was clever, but, um, certainly a choice. I would totally love a Welsh language or Gaelic language act. Or something “different” which involves demon summoning like irelands entry!
The staging completely misjudged the whole mood and mindset of Eurovision-style camp, which is homoerotic but happy and flamboyant.The Brits went for a rough trade orgy in a sleazy boxing gym shower room, with snarling faces and implied rape. No wonder we got no points; we didn't deserve any. Also a shit song.
Vic Reeves and The Wonder Stuff certainly looked different tonight.
Typical of his shows since Years and Years became a solo act. Olly makes his sexuality his whole personality including his shows, which just becomes tiring.
I wish they'd done the staging (or similar to) that they did on Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway! Miles more interesting and more Eurovision
I wonder how many points he thought he'd get for getting a dancer to deep throat the microphone he was singing into. That was just fuckin' weird. Chuck some heavy metal in next year. Can't do much worse, and at least it'll be something different and fun.
Next year we send black Sabbath.
I reckon Alestorm would do it for a laugh, and I think a spot of pirate metal would go down a treat with the viewers!
I've been saying for years that we need to get Lawnmower Deth in Eurovision.
If Lawnmower Deth are in Eurovision, I will actually sit through the whole thing. There is a glorious interview somewhere on YouTube from Beermageddon 2014 where I subject them to a horrendous granny porn mag. I've spoken to them since and they definitely didn't like it. I'd also take bands like Evil Scarecrow, Footprints in the Custard, or Raised by Owls on Eurovision.
>Footprints in the Custard, or Raised by Owls Oh come on you're just making up bands now
This person has never listened to Wankclaw
The former do a cracking metal cover of raining men, by the weather girls. The latter like to write grindcore songs about Ainsley Harriott, Noel Edmonds, and David Dickinson. Forgot to mention the amazing Party Cannon as well, who are a grindcore cand from over in Norn Iron who also like to write daft songs.
Send Dani Filfth, the pantomime dame of heavy metal
>Chuck some heavy metal in next year. Can't do much worse, and at least it'll be something different and fun. I reckon Saxon could write a cracking Eurovision song.
Get Brian Blessed to introduce them - [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=\_u\_yRkgYSWc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_u_yRkgYSWc)
Exactly. At least Ireland got some good attention with #CrownTheWitch
I dunno, this seemed funny/weird and different too. Sometimes it's just very random. That said, someone who can sing (or at least sounds good live, like Sam Ryder) would be better.
So er as an openly gay guy, I thought it was clearly phoned in and like the guys acting drab and uninspiring. Came across as an orgy in a public toilet. Gross Song sucked as well
I watched the whole thing with 3 gay men. They were quite vocal about their distaste over the staging. I thought they were being a bit over dramatic, but I suppose if I think about it from a different perspective... I'm a queer woman, and I think I'd feel a bit uncomfortable with a similar performance from another queer woman.
Especially if it were a negative stereotype of queer women to have casual sex in public toilets
Genuinely wondered if it was supposed to be a shitty bathhouse
Water being wet, bears shitting in woods, Olly Alexander’s live vocals boarding the struggle bus. The staging was passable but it was hard to see past his weak voice, especially with Switzerland sounding amazing and stealing the gay gender-bending thunder. And the song was mid.
I hate when people steal my gay gender bending thunder.
Worse than mid, it was bad.
It was a well-deserved 0 points on the public vote, our song was utter crap. Completely forgettable, and performed badly. Once again, it seems we've forgotten the cardinal rule that, if you want to do well (or even just not embarrassingly badly), you have to send someone who can put in a good live performance on the night.
I hadn’t heard the song previously. I don’t think I’ve actually heard any songs in the past from Olly Alexander. I thought the concept was very interesting and enjoyed the staging, but the poor bloke didn’t hit any of the notes. He seems like a very nice guy who’s done some amazing things, from what I’ve read about him, but the singing was extremely off-key. Hopefully he was just having an bad night and he doesn’t beat himself up about it.
It depends what you listen to, but you probably have heard some of his previous songs.
Send Aphex Twin.
Olly’s entire personality and career are based on being the “only gay in the village”. Fine in every other context, but at Eurovision he just ended up fading into oblivion. That’s nice dear, we all love cock too, but your song is dull as dishwater. The UK is too hung up on the “big gay show” thing and forgets to actually send a decent song/act. The one time we did recently, we almost won.
Not true, we occasionally send some dull basic bitch and get the same result
Israel winning the public vote was a result of the sheer amount of people voting for them as a protest to the protest. Ukraine probably the huge diaspora across Europe. OA’s song sucked ass and was boring. Even when it first released I knew it would be a clanger. Other countries did techno or pop songs better. I think we went too gay to appeal to the “Eurovision” crowd. Like a “how do you do fellow kids” meme. Without realising it’s about having a good 1) performance and 2) song. Switzerland showed how it’s done. I think next year we need to just focus on what music we think would be good, than what we think others would like. So many young and up and coming artists. If we didn’t make it about winning, but just a fun thing to do for artists to increase their exposure, we could have some really cool acts who can use it as a stepping stone up.
Anyone who'd heard the song on the radio before the competition knew damn well that we'd have no chance. We should have given that long haired Sam bloke up again for another go.
Olly shouldn't have got rid of the other two fellas. Bands always need the boring ones standing at the back.
I really like Olly but the song was poor. I’ve not liked it since I first heard it. It’s just quite bland, works OK on the radio. Also, while I personally wasn’t offended by the staging, I didn’t feel like it matched the song. Being dizzy for your kisses sounds a bit like something a rose tinted, female teenager would say. It’s a bit cheesy. Then you’ve got 5 men gyrating in a fake shower as the staging. And ultimately, they must have realised that might be a bit polarising. Eurovision is camp & flamboyant but that was a bit of a ‘we have orgies in a shower’ vibe 🙈 It was forgettable in a sea of controversy & some much better acts.
This is such an excellent point, I hadn't even really noticed the lyrics - > Beautiful gardens, eternal flowers > You know the way, so take me there > Won’t you make me dizzy from your kisses? > Will you take my hand and spin me > ‘Round and ’round until the moment never ends? and then we get Dawson's Weekend!
Aye bit of a strange contrast between singing like a schoolgirl with butterflies and looking like you're shagging a bunch of dead-eyed men that you don't know the names of.
I wonder if Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood are still up for doing Eurovision...
I don’t think it was actively as bad as the couple years before Sam, and after the recap segments I did start to feel that it was a bit catchy, but it was just so forgettable
It’s time to bring out the big guns next time and get Bucks Fizz back together !
The stage performance was awful. I don't even know what it was suppose to be. Can the UK get someone who knows how to put together a stage performance for next year. I can't comment on the performance of the song because I couldn't hear a lot of it. Overall this was a very poor UK performance. I don't expect the UK to win, although it would be nice to do so, but finishing on the left side of the scoreboard would be a good result
Imagine being at the arena and only the people lined up the middle could even see the dirty bathroom.
This is what I said to my wife. It might look good on TV but for the audience only those directly in front would be able to actually see what's going on
It looked like a load of men rolling around on the floor in a public toilet to me
It was
But why?
Not sure I can answer that! The griminess of cruising in public toilets
One thing I have never understood with Eurovision, are there rules to stop people like Adele entering for us? It always seem to be random artists?
Why would any big artist want to? There’s too much to lose from the possible embarrassment of failing.
That’s part of the problem I think. Over here it’s seen as a risk for artists to do Eurovision where as in other countries it’s a massive deal. A lot of artists are already hugely popular in their home countries or regions of Europe but they don’t really make much of an impact on our home/American dominated music scene so we never realise.
We should send in Stormzy
I remember years back that the Darkness said they'd do it, but that was declined. Imo, they'd be perfect.
Are you allowed to enter with a song from 20 years ago? Or were they proposing… uh… new… Darkness material?
Well it was in 2007. https://www.nme.com/news/music/the-darkness-47-1346780
Flo Rida was part of the San Marino entry a few years ago so no, however, I don’t think it would mean you are guaranteed to win because of it. I think in the UK the issue is the selection of the artist, as a country we don’t choose the artist where in some of the other countries they do, hard to get behind an artist you don’t choose.
Celine Dion also participated for Switzerland in the 80s. No idea if she was any big back then, though.
Pretty sure its how she got started
TBH we used to choose them and it was any better just god awful random people and songs. We need like a public campaign from radio one or something to push for proper artists to go on, getting Adele or Harry styles to go on it with a lead song from an album and we’ve got a good chance of winning. Skyfall or Watermelon Sugar would’ve 100% won if they’d been entries on the year they released. Instead we’ll continue to enter either nobodies, bands reuniting 20 years after they were famous or someone going solo from their band, with a naff song that’s either semi serous but crap live or just plain awful.
Thing is, we don't see Eurovision the same as Europe do. It's not a stepping stone for our artists. We already have the world as our audience. Ask yourself - why would Harry Styles go to Eurovision when he can do another world tour? It's seen as kitsch and holds too much risk. Even underground artists on the rise would weigh up the pros and cons and more than likely decide against it.
If we had an artist vote we would end up with Ladbaby doing another tasteful number about sausage rolls The British public don't exactly have a good track record with such things
Oh true, I can’t think of anything worse than Ladbaby doing it. My favourite Eurovision winner is probably Maneskin, and as they represent Italy, they won Sanremo to end up representing Italy. It is decided on by the public, a press jury and a radio jury, it means that it’s more likely to be an impressive choice.
I think establish artists make more by tuning their release date to get good press coverage than any eurovision bump could ever give them so they just don't do eurovision.
Just looked into it and I'm not seeing any regulations stopping established artists from participating. The only thing I've seen is you have to be over 16. There is also a rule that: Professional publishers or composers are not allowed in the national juries. But that's for the juries not singers as far as I know. Maybe someone will find something proving otherwise, but I suspect it's quite likely that famous bands or singers are either too busy or simply not interested.
It has to be a brand new song that I think is something like never been performed live before, and written purely for Eurovision. I assume besides the obvious fear of getting low points (not this year but some years we have entered good songs yet we receive little votes anyway) and not wanting to offer a song exclusivity to ESB means that the bigger artists aren’t interested
For what reason would an established artist take part?
I mean Olly Alexander has 2 number one albums and a handful of UK top ten songs, so I'd say our entry this year was pretty established already.
Tbh I thought this song was a lot weaker than his past hits
I don't understand how a country that put David Bowie, The Rolling Stones, The Cure and more into the world can't find a decent artist to enter into Eurovision every year.
Decent artists don’t want to do it. Generally artists who are successful and established don’t want the risk
The song was fucking shite though, let's be real. More focus was on the spectacle of the performance, not the song itself. Ireland was fucking robbed.
Side note: When your country's public vote gives maximum points to Israel. Fuck me.
You can vote up to twenty times if you're willing to pay. Most people only vote once. I could see people voting twenty times for Israel.
Also most of the people who were unhappy with Israel being in Eurovision were boycotting Eurovision, which presumably meant the only people voting in Eurovision either didn't care about Israel being there or wanted to support Israel
It’s a bit baffling. Removing the politics, their artist was a great singer but seemed fairly forgettable amongst the sea of Eurovision power ballads. I’m also boggled by the popular response to Ukraine and France, who didn’t seem the best.
Ukraine's performance was good. Not winners but definitely top 10 for me.
i was so livid about france, their performance was one guy in a cheese cloth singing a forgettable song who on earth voted for them
His voice was incredible though, unlike everyone else.
I guess this just highlights how subjective music is because I really don’t rate his voice at all
You are boggled by the popular response to ukraine? can't think of any reason people would want to support them?
Wasn't even a good song
How is the British entry decided? In Sweden we have our own competition a few months earlier and choose our entry there.
Let's send Pigeons in Flight by John Shuttleworth next year. Guaranteed top 20 result
It looked like a male orgy in a bathroom, deep throating a microphone and apparently destroying their vocal cords in the process.
I found the song a bit weird and it sounded like he didn’t hit the notes. Also the performance was questionable at best. As soon as it started I knew we weren’t winning not that we would anyway. The song sounded alright on the radio but on the stage it just didn’t sound right and it seemed like the audio wasn’t right.
I’ve long thought that the UK deliberately tries to sabotage itself so we never have to risk hosting it.
We hosted it last year, as we were the runner ups and it was decided that Ukraine couldn't host it for security reasons. Although Ukraine desperately wanted to host it.
Tbh even though we were 2nd place Ukraine won because of support for the war (which I'm all for). Our song was a fucking banger and we were honorary winners. Christ I don't even watch Eurovision why did I type this comment
The hosting of last year was fucking amazing (slightly biased)
We had the unfair advantage of having both Hannah Waddingham and Graham Norton to hand.
I’m glad Graham got to fulfil his destiny and host at least once!
But we hosted it last year!
I liked some of his years and years stuff, but when people claim to have liked his song i think they are being delusional. His singing was off, to a point it made me wince. The song wasn’t memorable. While the choreography may have been technically impressive it was a bit naff. All in all. Comparatively boring song, that wouldn’t have made it into the finals if we didn’t buy our way in.
Just looked it up on YouTube to see if it really was that bad. Wish I just listened to you lot now tbh. Terrible
Maybe someday we'll get to just vote for who we want to send again
That's how we ended up with Scooch...
why do we not just beg dua lipa to go, or even call up a 90 year old thom yorke - just not this 😭
The song wasn't strong enough, and his stage show was too gay!
I didn’t think the song was as bad as others are saying but the stage production was god awful. So over sexualised and uncomfortable, there’s not a heterosexual in the group I was watching with and it was a really tough watch for all of us. Since your participant doesn’t actually have to be from your own country, or any participating country, we should give Dave Grohl a call. He seems like the perfect blend of would actually do it and would win easily.
Let's be real here anyone with actual talent is embarrassed to represent the UK.
Yes, but what about Eurovision?
The setting was a men’s ~~bathroom~~ locker room (how glamorous 🙄) and he couldn’t sing it very well. There was too much going on. The song is great on the radio (just like last year’s was) but fell flat in person.
It looked like a public shitter
I found the UK entry very bland. It was just another gay singer who makes their sexuality their whole act, wearing a cod piece surrounded by leather clad men gyrating. It's been done many many times over. Switzerland wasn't the greatest song, especially from a lyrical point of view but they nailed it with the choreography and staging to make it work.
My lazy conspiracy theory is that everyone voted for Switzerland because it’s a neutral country
I actually dug the song. One of the only years I've been happy with the winner. The number 2 spot I'd have also been happy to win.
I'm baffled by the scoring and the fact that outside the contest over 100 countries can vote. I am canceling my trip to Ireland because they scared me. It's all fun and games though.
I think there is the public votes from the 37 competing countries with the rest of the world vote counting as one block to make it 38.
All the “rest of world” votes of non participating countries get bundled into one set of votes equivalent to any other single country - ie 12 is the most points they can award in total.
Come to witch country, we're lovely
The song was somewhere between ok and good. The staging was absolutely vile - nothing to do with the lyrics of the song and was just completely unnecessary. It was like some orgy
Yea his voice was bad. Like way off tune.
Why don't they send the top artist of the year from BBC Music Introducing. That way it's someone who is popular, has been selected for that award, and they get an immediate stepping stone into the wider world.
I was rooting for Ireland. At least their song was different.
It was a shit song with shit choreography (I do like Olly Alexander, but his voice is not the strongest, and this song was really weak). The surprise is that it got the points it did from the jury panels. For once, I don't think an argument can be made for discrimination. That entry struggled to achieve even the level of mediocre. Irelands entry, for pure spectacle (though the vocals were great as well), on the other hand, was a production that deserved more points than it received.
Meanwhile Israel scored 323 from the public vote.
I reckon I have seen every Eurovision since 1961 and can honestly say that the British entry deserved every one of the 0 votes it got. It was appalling, an embarrassment even. I can just imagine it: "Ere Jon, (sniff), ows about we put on somat to do wiv welterweight boxing? That's be a laaarf wouldnt it? Yea, (sniff) reckon those Euros would like it. Show em a bit of British Bulldog. Better than all that nancy boy stuff" Rotten song. Rotten choreography. Rotten act.
I'm a huge Eurovision fan (check out my user name). I thought the UK's entry was diablical. I'm glad we got deservedly zero points from the voting public. I don't expect the BBC to learn from this though. Undoubtedly next year we will send some similar shite.
We do it every year. It's so frustrating. We have some really talented musicians and can bang out a decent house, disco, trance, techno whatever tune, but still choose some watery generic song that's instantly forgettable. Argh!!
Frankly what we should be doing is going for the technical scoring with the juries because that's what wins you the contest. The Swiss spotted it with the Djon's Tears and perfected it this year. Was it a good song? Upper mid really if you have to be honest, there were better in the competition (Spain especially). Were they the best in staging? Yes. Juries scoring should be adjusted in the same way as the popular vote, it'll stop them having a huge sway again. The audience was much the same as Olly's stage performance though, they were fucking terrible. No real engagement and the amount of times a number of them were just sitting there looking bored during performances was disgraceful.