Play The Game! - Eurovision Redux

There has been a lot of cynical reporting since the results of Eurovision regarding how it was "the worst Eurovision" ever, and that Britain should withdraw. There are comments on rearranging the ESC, creating Western and Eastern versions and "weighting" the votes based on population. See some reactions here

It all sounds very bitter to me (the words "poor losers" best describe it, at least Scooch were graceful losers). And a few of the comments stink of racism against Eastern Europeans.

So there is certainly block voting. People call this "political voting". However I would be interested in seeing some stats on something that might shed some light on this phenomenon; how many visits does the band make to neighbouring countries compared to those further afield?

It is a fairly common practice on the continent for bands to tour their neighbours promoting their song. It makes sense, as the bands home nation can't influence the vote. Is this so called political voting really just a symptom of people being familiar with some songs more than those of countries further away?

I would also be interested to know how much promotion Scooch did abroad. None? Some TV slots on Irish telly? A little burst of promotion in Helsinki itself? I bet it was negligible (based on the amount of shows they did over here!). Perhaps this may explain our failures at Eurovision. What if we sent our band to other countries and promoted it heavily there?

Perhaps it's not the ESC that needs reforming but our own promotion of our entries.

Here is a modest proposal: Make Making Your Mind Up into a talent contest set over a few weeks. This would allow the British public more involvement in the selection process and might lead to them NOT choosing a gimmicky song on the night just because it's fun. They might appreciate the most talented person more if they have time to get used to them. This would also get the public on board behind the finalist having invested their emotions in the selection process.

Once selected (hopefully at the latest possible date) the finalist should then be sent to as many EBU countries as possible to promote the song, and get their name out there. They should be absent from British screens.

What do you think?

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