wooltonian
Very Clean
"Football isn't a matter of life and death - it's much more important than that." Bill Shankly.
Posts: 796
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Post by wooltonian on Jan 9, 2010 3:12:40 GMT -5
I'm no great expert on this, but I think that the broadcasting company from each of the competing countries sorts out that nation's representative act and the song. In old Blighty the BBC usually have a panel of 'music industry' people who shortlist a number of acts to represent the UK....and the public vote for their favourite via a phone-in poll. The exact procedure - and the make-up of the panel - has probably varied quite considerably over the years, and each country probably does it slightly differently - but that's the gist of it. This isn't really for you to answer Wooltonian, but my question is then, why wouldn't England submit the Beatles or Dave Clark Five or Herman's Hermits or Petula Clark or Lulu or any of the other great British acts of the 60's? Seems like it would be a slam dunk every year - unless they were up against the Singing Nun or someone like that. I can only presume that the prevailing ethos of the time was to promote new talent. Also, I think in those days, the competeition was seen more as a light entertainment thing. The UK's record on promoting new talent in the competition has been patchy. We were represented by Cliff Richard in 1968 and 1973, which suggests that we were serious about winning it at that time. Katrina and the Waves won it for us during the nineties, but most of the time it's people or groups we've never heard of. In the wake of Abba's success there was a fashion for (hugely inferior) two-boy-two-girl acts, such as Brotherhood of Man and Buck's Fizz, who won the competition for the UK in 1976 and 1981 respectively. Actually, I was wrong to say that only one stellar act has resulted from Eurovision. An unknown Celine Dion won it for Switzerland in 1988...
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Post by sayne on Jan 9, 2010 9:50:50 GMT -5
. . . Katrina and the Waves won it for us during the nineties . . . So, an American had to bail out the UK . . . again. ;D An unknown Celine Dion won it for Switzerland in 1988... Switzerland!? What a whore! ;D
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Post by ChokingSmoker on Jan 19, 2010 15:53:42 GMT -5
The Eurovision Song Contest is a very strange cultural phenomenon. Beamed across Europe to gazillions of homes once a year, the entrants are made up of obscure light entertainment groups, novelty acts, and bizarre freak shows. The UK went through a phase in the late 60s / early 70s of taking it all quite seriously and wheeled out 'big hitters' of the day -- Cliff Richard represented us in 1968 and 1973, although he was successful on neither occasion. Apple's own Mary Hopkin did the honours in 1970 with similar results. After that it was back to a succession of club singers, failed glamour models and hopeless wannabees. In Britain the whole thing is regarded as a huge joke - unless we win the thing, in which case it's a cause for great national pride. Oh, and there's lots of political in-fighting and vote rigging. Neighbouring countries invariably vote for each other and everyone hates the UK, because of Tony Blair and the war in Iraq.....not that we were ever that popular in continental Europe in the first place. The fact that a group as great as Abba came to prominence as a result of this competition was a freakish one-off occurrence. I guess I could have seen the Bay City Rollers or Bonnie Tyler or Chris DeBurgh or even Sweet being considered. ( ;D ) Or even Sweet? Blasphemy I say!!!! I'm on record as saying that Sweet's American released Desolation Boulevard is my favorite true rock album of all-time. I was basically laughed off the board, but I don't care. Sweet would have won the Eurovision hands down if they were entered at the right time.
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Post by sayne on Jan 19, 2010 15:57:44 GMT -5
I guess I could have seen the Bay City Rollers or Bonnie Tyler or Chris DeBurgh or even Sweet being considered. ( ;D ) Or even Sweet? Blasphemy I say!!!! I'm on record as saying that Sweet's American released Desolation Boulevard is my favorite true rock album of all-time. I was basically laughed off the board, but I don't care. Sweet would have won the Eurovision hands down if they were entered at the right time. Actually, I did not mean it as a dig. Sweet would have been a good choice.
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Post by ChokingSmoker on Jan 19, 2010 16:31:31 GMT -5
Or even Sweet? Blasphemy I say!!!! I'm on record as saying that Sweet's American released Desolation Boulevard is my favorite true rock album of all-time. I was basically laughed off the board, but I don't care. Sweet would have won the Eurovision hands down if they were entered at the right time. Actually, I did not mean it as a dig. Sweet would have been a good choice. Don't sweat it on my account. I like the Bay City Rollers in their own way, but they cannot hold a candle to my Sweet!!!!
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Post by sallyg on Jan 26, 2010 19:50:56 GMT -5
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Post by sayne on Jan 26, 2010 21:45:13 GMT -5
I have to admit that for me it looks really geeky. Between Star Trek and Beatles conventions (sorry), and now AbbaWorld, we now have another convenient place to assemble all the dweebs of the world in order to tag them and sterilize them so that they never breed (not that they would ever be able to get a date to get close to even breeding). ;D
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