Eurovision Song Contest

As ever, this time of year brings many contests of a sporting nature and what is also lurking around this time of year is the inevitable horror of musical endeavours that is the Eurovision song contest. It is something that we love to hate and hate to love. Every year I, and many million others are fixed and fascinated with the spectacular show of music and dance.

This year there is one change, half of the votes cast by each country are decided in the old-fashioned method of a jury which is an attempt to remove the effect of bloc voting. This should hopefully lead to more interesting voting and the chance that a country outside of eastern Europe may win again. Perhaps as this method becomes established and is seen to work, more countries in western Europe will take it seriously and enter acts who have a slight musical talent.

But do we want that? Do we want the Eurovision Song contest return to being exactly that, a song contest? I certainly enjoy having a reason to shout at the television and blame our poor success on the fact that we’ve annoyed so many other countries over the years. Maybe a top half finish would be good enough to satisfy my need for winning?

So, will this year be any different? Probably, yes. There will be a good mix of countries up the grid but this depends on the juries from each country. Some will be made of professionals, whilst others are going to be minor celebrities. So, we probably won’t win, but we will all certainly be watching!