Quote from The Moose :

Not once in living memory has a decent song/talented artist come out of Eurovision.

Abba, Cliff Richard

Who can forget 'Congratulations' that nearly won until Bloody Franco fixed it!

Quote from J@tko :

Abba, Cliff Richard

I despise both.

Boris, in the UK there are two schools of thought with Eurovision. One takes it too seriously. The other (the one I am in) almost enjoying our usual spanking in the final and watch it for comedy value as we don't take it seriously.

Now, I'm not going to regurgitate it so I'll quote myself about Dustin.

Quote from I'm schizophrenic and so am I (originally on Ten Tenths) :

I'm going to be a conspiracy theorist here.

I taped the coverage on BBC3 (I'm not sad enough to watch it over Waking The Dead) and fast forwarded it through the rubbish stuff.

There was booing after the performance as well as some more positive reaction. It got a lot more reaction than any other.

The suggestion - by the BBC's commentator Paddy O'Connell (Terry Wogan only does the final) was that there was a breach of the rules by Ireland.

The rules in Eurovision state that no more than six people can be part of the performance (not sure how that is phrased though). I wasn't counting, but Mr O'Connell said that there were six dancers/singers. However, we need to assume that there was a puppeteer who was also doing the voice of Dustin.

Six plus one is seven - if it isn't, I'm going to have trouble with my GCSE maths paper coming up in two weeks. There may have been five singers/dancers, in which case that would have been six people so it is kosher.

The EBU (who run Eurovision) do not publicise the results of the semi-finals, other than those who qualify until after the final. Their reason for this is that it may influence voting in the final.

I can't say that this is likely, but if it is the case that there are seven people on stage, one of two things may have happened. Firstly, Ireland may have been totally disqualified. Which they wouldn't tell anyone, because of the secrecy until the final. Or, they could have been slapped with a points penalty. This is totally moot if there were five people plus Dustin's operator, of course. In which case people just didn't vote for it.

Niall, they actually seeded the semi-finals to stop tactical voting. It's semi-worked as Greece, Norway, Israel and Finland got through. Last year, all the countries that qualified from the semi-final (there was only one last year) were Eastern Europe.

I quite liked Finland's entry this year, shame Estonia didn't get through.

Re : Israel. This sounds silly, but Japan is in ITU Zone 1. Therefore they can join the European Broadcasting Union. Therefore, they coud hypothetically participate. Algeria, Egypt, Libya and Tunisia are members of the EBU that have not tried for Eurovision.

Jordan entered one year, however during Israel's entry they cut away from the feed and showed pictures of flowers. When it became clear that Israel was going to win that year, they abruptly stopped the programme and the news reports later said the Belgium (who came second) had won. Morocco turned up once, when Israel wasn't there. Lebanon tried to enter a few years ago and had everything locked and loaded, but when they realised that local law bans recognition of Israel, they had to pull out, incurring a fine from the EBU.

Quote from Rdcranno :

I despise both.

But they are talented

Just had to go and check out the Irish contestant.

I thought it was good... fun.

Quote from J@tko :

But they are talented

I'll concede that ABBA definitely had talent, but Cliff Richard? i think not.



Duke seems to know far to much about Eurovision for someone who only watches it for comedy value

Tatu, Celeine Dion, Julio Iglesias, Olivia Newton-John....

Quote from Thorvertonian :

Tatu, Celeine Dion, Julio Iglesias, Olivia Newton-John....

I rest my case.

Johnny Logan

Lordi

Quote from Thorvertonian :

At least in the UK we have the prospect of listening to Terry Wogan as he becomes more and more drunk as the night goes on!

thats the best bit of Eurovison and the only reason I even dare to try and watch it....

Quote from The Moose :

Duke seems to know far to much about Eurovision for someone who only watches it for comedy value

obviously the finn was onto something

Why didn't you vote for Belgium? That was the best song ever. I'm still shocked

Duke is clearly fascinated about topless men.

And, seriously, I'm glad Estonia and Ireland aren't in the final. If you wanna be funny, you can do it like Spain

Quote from hyntty :

If you wanna be funny, you can do it like Spain

http://es.youtube.com/watch?v=d2sun973nfY

K now I discovered something new

Latvia

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JEEB0u4MeI

Here's Belgium

Eurovision is a big joke to me.

I hate Eurovision, Dustin is such a lej and the song waz great,(the words that is) we even said it in a foreign language(irelande douze pointe) .

Quote from pacesetter :

I hate Eurovision, Dustin is such a lej and the song waz great,(the words that is) we even said it in a foreign language(irelande douze pointe) .

You're missing the point. To me it looks like Ireland is a spoled prat who's protesting against the rest of Europe for not liking his songs

Quote from Thorvertonian :

Tatu, Celeine Dion, Julio Iglesias, Olivia Newton-John....

Are you serious or sarcastic?

The "best" out of that list is Celine Dion, and she's still pretty bad.


Oh, and I also hate most of the music there, but I'`m still going to watch it like every year.
And remember: Guildo hat euch lieb and Wadde hadde dudde da.

Quote from zeugnimod :

The "best" out of that list is Celine Dion, and she's still pretty bad.

Celine Dion is bad????? What the hell are you on?

most overrated contest ever.

How's the commentary in other countries? We've got things reasonably good (After the polish entry: now that's why the hotel solarium was occupied the whole time..) and UK has to suffer from Terry Wogan but how's the rest of Europe doing?

Quote from hyntty :

How's the commentary in other countries? We've got things reasonably good (After the polish entry: now that's why the hotel solarium was occupied the whole time..) and UK has to suffer from Terry Wogan but how's the rest of Europe doing?

You're wrong, the UK doesn't have to suffer Terry Wogan. For most British people, the fact that Terry Wogan is still presenting Eurovision is a blessing.

In fact, about half of the people I know only watch it because of wogan

Quote from JO53PHS :

In fact, about half of the people I know only watch it because of wogan

I refuse to believe that.

Well maybe then.

I suppose it appeals to you because he doesn't trash your own artists. I remember from last year (I watched it on bbc);

About the German entry: like the local neighbourhood butcher
French: That couldn't have won any competitions, that's France
Finnish (!): Will someone leave her alone, she looks kind of scary
And overrall about UK: Aren't we going to get any points? (!),