UK Selection Fiasco

[hudweiser]

I wonder if a pop-rock song along the lines of Busted's Green Day-lite style might work? Nobody's sent anything rocky that has a killer melody for a while.

[KamikazeHeart]

Yeah, I don't think the rest of Europe is asking for much, but just... more. It's not like we expect Adele or One Direction to get up there, but seeing The Hump prancing around and talking in interviews about how he had the sideburns before Elvis did the last weeks has been quite embarrassing to be frank. How many people these days can hum even one hit of his?

I think it's a matter of confidence in the selection process. The general consensus in Sweden after we failed to qualify for the final in 2010 was almost to withdraw, after years of failing miserably. Everybody I knew was like "yeah, whatever, we'll never beat the Eastern voting blocs anyway" before the competition last year, but with Eric Saade's third place behind us there was just a completely different feeling during Melodifestivalen this year. We were actually excited about having Loreen represent us and proud of her, instead of feeling like we were sending sheep to the slaughter. People are saying "yeah, we're hosting Eurovision!", but I'm almost more excited to see how this will affect Melodifestivalen. Hopefully this will open the door for a lot of Swedish artists to perform who have been a bit reluctant in the past.

[WowWowWowWow]

Maybe I'm just naive, coming from the other side of the ocean to the rest of you all, but for years I have wondered... are there legitimately no famous UK musicians who also happen to enjoy Eurovision, and wouldn't mind throwing their hat into the ring even just for the experience of being part of the whole circus? (Perhaps Katie/Pixie/Hurts fell into that category.)
Kind of like somebody going on Big Brother because they are a fan of watching it and wants to see what it's like (emphasis on kind of).

[Robsolete]

I don't like Pixie Lott, but why on earth would they reject her? Especially to then choose The Hump?

[Alphableat]

I don't like Pixie Lott, but why on earth would they reject her? Especially to then choose The Hump?

Probably a byproduct of the people in charge being fucking idiots.

[Solenciennes]

Call me cynical, but I think the UK just doesn't want the financial burden of hosting it. Imagine they'd sent Pixie Lott this year - we'd have been in with a serious shout at winning the whole thing by default, meaning the UK would have had to foot the bill of Eurovision after the Queen's Jubilee and the Olympics. I think we just send along crap for a few years running, then make a half baked attempt (see: Jade Ewen 2009) to pretend like we care. It's very irritating.

[Ray]

UK has approximately 10000 great acts they could send. And they REJECT "The Flood" and they REJECT Pixie Twatt and they send Engelbert Humperdinck whose fanbase has, by now, largely died?

SHORT LIST OF ACTS UK COULD SEND THAT WOULD POSSIBLY DO SLIGHTLY BETTER
1. Saint Etienne 2. Pet Shop Boys 3. Morrissey 4. Geri Halliwell 5. Emma Bunton 6. Mel C 7. Depeche Mode 8. Everything But The Girl 9. Sophie Ellis-Bextor 10. Anyone younger than 80 whose career hasn't ended with a #40 entry IN THE UK ITSELF in the PREVIOUS CENTURY

[tommie2]

It amuses me to no end that UK had a choice between The Flood and That Doesn't Sound Good To Anyone in 2010. What the actual hell?

How do you even defend that decision? Is it any wonder that UK remains the laughing stock of the competition?

[Fire]

We should just send in Susan Boyle. She could easily win it if she was given an uptempo number.

[StratusJM]

We should just send in Susan Boyle. She could easily win it if she was given an uptempo number.

It's honestly this simple.

[KamikazeHeart]

Or at least Mary Byrne.

[Rhombus]

I want Marina to do it!

[KamikazeHeart]

Marina would end up like Silvia Night though.

[stevo_1988]

it annoys me when really good songs are 3 minutes long (ie perfect for Eurovision), Kylie's Timebomb or The Saturdays 30 Days for example. Imagine one of those had been our entry. Can you imagine if Kylie sang for us at Eurovision (i'm not stupid i don't think she's do it in a million years) but can you imagine!!?!?! *sigh*

[Jack]

It has just come to my attention that the UK head of selection at BBC has caused a fiasco for the second time in 3 years. Engelbert Humpledick was NOT our first choice in fact according to one of his relatives our representative had been chosen but Katie Taylor veetoed her.

"He was a reasonably late selection, as they told him they were going with Pixie Lott (until Katie Taylor vetoed that option) and before that The Darkness (who are shite but were ruled out early as they only wanted to do a song off their new album). He's a total professional, so told Katie yes despite his packed diary for this year."

This comes two years after she veetoed Katie Melua's request to represent the UK with her track The Flood.

IMO it's time Katie Taylor left her post and selection was put back into the hands of the UK public with either choosing the act or the song ala A Song For Europe with Sonia and Michael Ball.

Either way Katie Taylor needs to be removed from her position before 2013 selection begins!

You're telling me we could actually have had Katie Melua AND Pixie Lott represent us? Instead we had Blue and Englebert?

We should just send in Susan Boyle. She could easily win it if she was given an uptempo number.

Supported. Send in the SuBomb.

[jruk2007]

It amuses me to no end that UK had a choice between The Flood and That Doesn't Sound Good To Anyone in 2010. What the actual hell?

How do you even defend that decision? Is it any wonder that UK remains the laughing stock of the competition?

I can only guess (hope) that the BBC hadn't actually heard the song but decided to go with it because the famous songwriter, unknown singer thing worked in 2009. Also, the fact that they turned down a singer of Katie Melua levels of international fame would suggest that they were far more interested having a selection show than getting a good placing at Eurovision. Of course, it is a truly terrible decision in hindsight.

Hopefully now that Loreen is set to dominate charts across Europe in a way that no UK act whose name isn't Adele would be able to at the moment, we should get some properly decent names coming forward to represent us next year.

[magictreehouse]

it annoys me when really good songs are 3 minutes long (ie perfect for Eurovision), Kylie's Timebomb or The Saturdays 30 Days for example. Imagine one of those had been our entry. Can you imagine if Kylie sang for us at Eurovision (i'm not stupid i don't think she's do it in a million years) but can you imagine!!?!?! *sigh*

I said a similar thing the other year when I saw that Gabrella Cilmi's On A Mission was 3 minutes long.

[cjwhite1]

Kylie should be forced to represent us as a thank you for years of UK support. There must be a way. She would fit in to it all SO perfectly!!

It seems the BBC has become hellbent on drawing a well-known artist - this isn't and never has been the way to win. Vocals and song are surely all we need?? I just do not understand how it always goes wrong.

Why can they not just base things on the current itunes top 10 across Europe? Euphoria fits in to all of them, hence the win, and consequent chart success.

Eurovision fans now face another year of public 'it's crap, we should withdraw' arguments to combat. 2009 - 5th - is my only response.

[tommie2]

'Best music nation on the planet'... that's not the UK by any stretch! Sweden? But yeah, we need to start taking it seriously. Send Alexandra Burke with a Swedish-produced fantastic pop song and slay.

Well, we can all have our own opinions about that obviously, but when was the last time that UK sent something that sounded relevant to their own top ten in the charts? The problem is that the UK keeps taking the piss year and year again. Pretty much everyone I spoke to (including me) had the same reaction to Englebert's song - "well, it could be worse". But is that what UK should be aiming for? Only to be slightly shit? It's frustrating when you know that UK CAN do better because you guys produce international hits on a regular basis, yet send z-grade stuff that's barely passable to Eurovision.

Is it that hard to take it seriously?

[citoig]

I said a similar thing the other year when I saw that Gabrella Cilmi's On A Mission was 3 minutes long.

I'm still convinced that song was originally intended for Eurovision, to be honest. The length, the feel, the release time. Even the video feels like a set up for a Eurovision performance, with the cheesy choreography and the flowing dress (even down to any scene with Gabriella having five dancers at most!).

[passionoia]

Thing is I'm sure it's easier said than done for the Beeb to choose a Katie Melua/Pixie Lott-esque 'big' act. These aren't gonna come without a huge list of conditions from their management/record company whose minds are firmly wired towards the commercial... which I imagine isn't entirely compatible with the ethos of the Beeb and may potentially cause problems.

I mean Pixie Lott is one sponsorship deal away from changing her name to O2... the Beeb were probably shitting themselves that the McBurgler would be playing base.