It’s that time of year again when the Eurovision Song Contest hits our screens in an sequin-filled explosion of cheesy music, crazy dancing and awkward presenting, but despite having the second most wins in the competition’s history things haven’t been good in the contest for Britain over the last few years.
It’s pretty safe to say that the UK hasn’t exactly had the best relationship with the competition, with a variety of acts trying but failing as in the last 10 years three entries came in last place.
In previous years, the public have voted for who theywant to represent the country on the BBC show “Eurovision: Your Country Needs You”. Entrants over the years have included glamour model Katie Price, R&B act Big Brovaz and popstar turned actress Kym Marsh, all of who failed to make it to the final.
But this year, the voting system was scrapped and recently reformed boyband Blue were chosen after an internal decision was made by the BBC.
The band, who were popular in the early 2000s, will face competition from controversial act Jedward, who managed to get through the semi-finals to represent Ireland and favourites of the competition, Azerbaijan’s Ell and Nikki.
Since 2000, the UK has automatically qualified for a place in the competition along with Spain, France, Germany, and starting this year Italy, because of the financial contributions that they make to the European Broadcast Union. All other countries have had to fight for one of 20 remaining places in semi-final heats.
This is something that the UK should be grateful for seeing as how it has been 15 years since they last won the competition with Katrina and the Waves’ “Love Shine A Light”. Since then, they have only made it into top ten three times and who can forget the abysmal nil-points from Jemini back in 2003.
With previous winners including the costumed Lordi and the violin playing Alexander Rybak, will the decision to stop the public choosing the act that represents the UK be the right one? Will Blue be able to end up in a higher position than the 25th place Josh Doubovie managed to get last year? And most importantly, what will the rest of the world make of Jedward?
The Eurovision Song Contest is on Saturday, May 14th on BBC One at 8pm.