It’s that time of year again, the Eurovision Song Contest.
I enjoy the ESC, and have done as far back as I can remember. It started proper in 1956, and I would have been too tiny to remember watching that, but I do have early memories of watching the black and white early 60s ones, Matt Monro and the like.
Most of us remember Sandie Shaw, who was the UK’s first big winner, Lulu and even Cliff, and there have been many great highlights since then, in the 60+ years. Abba, Riverdance, Johnny Logan, Alex Rybak, Bucks Fizz, even the wonderful Nicole:
My friends make fun of me, especially when I say I would love to go, if it was in the UK. Not much chance of that, I hear you say. We need to produce a good song by a decent singer first. They say that the voting system has been changed slightly this year to make it easier for us to win fairer.
It always looks like one great European party. People in the audience seem to be having a great time. Sure some of the songs are duff, and some are wonderful, but that doesn’t matter – everyone gets a cheer. You have ten or twenty or thirty thousand people from all over Europe showing that we are all the same, all nice people.
And not just from Europe of course. It is Eurovision, so any country that takes the Eurovision programmes can enter, hence Australia, who have appeared for the past few years, produced really great songs and done very well. Wish they could win. It’s a truly bonding experience, and it’s good that the UK will still be in it after Brexit.
And, before you scoff, the presentation and the technology are astounding, and don’t forget it is the second most watched tv programme in the whole world, after the Superbowl…