Well it was that time of the year again. The Eurovision Song Contest hit our screens on Saturday night. But hey, was it just me or did the standard of the songs presented this year just leap to a new all time high.
From the opening act I thought wow, that’s better, a decent song. Not the usual bouncy metronomic euro garbage. And so it went on through the evening with only a couple of exceptions. I guess its difficult to completely throw off the old Eurovision style shackles in one fell swoop.
I was perhaps one of the few who had not heard the UK entry before Saturday night. So I didn’t have a clue as to what was going to happen. So you can imagine my dismay when approximately half way through the show the UK offering whimpered its way on to the stage. I say whimpered because compared to so many of the preceding songs our entry was weak.
The song itself may have merits but our choice of singer and the stage presentation did nothing to bolster the overall performance. To me the performance was lack lustre overall and why did Josh walk up over the boxes past the backing singers. He didn’t interact with them, in fact he walked past in the same way as you might walk past anonymous shoppers waiting at the till in your local supermarket. Not even an excuse me out of politeness.
It is, therefore, hardly surprising that Germany were able to walk away with the crown jewels. They had a much better song performed with much more stage presence and of course the UK song was long forgotten buried in the middle of many much better, more powerful offerings.
Satellite performed by Lena wasn’t perhaps the best of the nights songs but it is very good. And performed where it was on the night it stood out. Many of the other countries had submitted power ballads performed by very attractive singers with long hair and long dresses. In the end it was the consistently higher standard that was their downfall. How to sort the best of them from each other. This is why I think Tom Dice did so well. His performance of Me And My Guitar was so different from everything else on offer but ultimately he was never going to win against the stronger songs.
There will now be the usual post-mortem and once again there will be the detractors of the Eurovision Song Contest crying out for the UK to withdraw, to stop submitting us to this annual humiliation. I think that would be wrong especially now when most of the competitors have woken up and, for this year at least, have realised that they need to up the anti.
Shame the folks responsible for the UK entry haven’t also realised that the old formula songs don’t work anymore. Can someone tell me why it was felt that relying on a song writing team that haven’t had a hit for years was a good formula for winning this competition. What has producing songs for Kylie and Rick Astley back in th eighties got to do with modern musical tastes ?
What is required is something new, fresh and contemporary to be presented. And lets not select our singers on the basis that everyone wants to mother them or have them as their grandson. Lets choose someone who actually has some strength and stage presence.
Lets learn from this years experience and go forward to 2011 with a real chance of winning.
WrAnTz 