(The road trip starts today.)

Chig's drive to Düsseldorf starts today, via the Retro bar in London tonight for Douze Points (semi-final 2) and a sleep in Walthamstow, then Eurotunnel tomorrow and a drive from Calais across a tiddly bit of France and halfway into Belgium for a stag weekend in Brussels. On Monday, another couple of hours' drive to the campsite on the Unterbachersee in Düsseldorf which will be my home for the following fourteen nights, if I can put up my new, bigger tent.

Camp Chig! Camp Eurovision! Call it what you will. It's going to be a very different Eurovision, and hopefully a lot of fun.

Eurovision rehearsals start this Sunday (1st May). I'll be reporting back from Tuesday 3rd onwards. Bis bald, meine Freunde!

Labels: Eurovision, London, road trip, stag weekend

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With an uncanny sense of timing for St. Paddy's day, the very lovely Paddy O'Connell has revealed on twitter today that he has been relieved of his Eurovision duties and will not be commentating on the semi-finals this year;

Just heard I'm being refreshed from EUROVISION, so if you're a broadcaster needing commentary in English, French, or my new German plz tweet

'Refreshed' is such a lovely, gentle word for being sacked, isn't it?

Paddy's glamourous assistant, Sarah Cawood, has also twitterised the same news;

Sad news: @paddy_o_c & I are being stood down from Eurovision duties this year:( On the upside: I can now have a Eurovision party! Whoop!

This is sad news for me and also for Paddy, who is quite the enthusiast, and has become more so since he started this job, partly because various London friends of mine have taken him under their wing in the last few years, had him round for various parties, subjected him to long-forgotten Eurovision videos and fed him their Eurovision propaganda helped him with his research.

As it won't be happening again, here is a final picture of Ms Cawood on last year's BBC Eurovision day trip, where a coachload of us journos toured the sights of Oslo with Josh Dubovie and the BBC PR team, as some people interviewed Josh and some of us photographed him. (It had the desired effect, as a larger version of this very pic ended up accompanying one of my pieces for the attitude website, plus another one on another day.) Oh, and your licence fee paid for me to have an ice cream. Tell the Daily Mail. I don't care.

Seconds after this picture was taken, Josh, Sarah, myself and a handful of other people squeezed into a little cube on a spring, in which we were shown a film to experience the thrills (and no spills) of downhill skiing, while being tossed around in the cube, but without having to bother actually getting on Oslo's Olympic ski slope, which was directly above us (and which is highly visible on the city's skyline). Very good fun it was too.

So, farewell Paddy and Sarah. Who will ever forget, "You can't have a ley without a rimi rimi?" and other Paddy commentary classics? But the question is, who will replace them? Who could? My mind is a blank. Any suggestions?

Labels: BBC, Eurovision, Josh Dubovie, Paddy O'Connell, Sarah Cawood

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Chig is saddened to hear that a link with the past has finally been broken today with the sad death of Millvina Dean, the last survivor of the Titanic. She was rescued from the sinking ship as a baby, and reached the grand old age of 97. I feel an appropriately sombre tribute is due.

But no, there's always a Eurovision connection. Let's have this instead.

'Titanic' by Frederik



You might think that a jolly pop song about 1,517 people dying when a boat sank, by Finland's answer to Engelbert Humperdinck (meets David Hasselhoff) could be inappropriate. But no, for Frederik, songs about sinking boats are his speciality. Here's another one he made, about the tragic sinking of the MS Estonia ferry in 1994, which killed 852 people. Frederik's capacity for songs about seafaring disasters is truly astonishing. How was he overlooked when Ferry Aid was put together?

'Estonia' by Frederik

Labels: Eurovision, Finland, Frederik, Titanic

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Last night's Eurovision party, hosted by the Schlagerboys at the Wellington, was utterly fantastic. Much vodka, much flag-waving, much singing and many blue and yellow balloons!

There was an unwanted guest though. Here I am, trying to reverse her powers of witchcraft and make her disappear.



Photo (c) Schlagerboys 2009

Labels: Carola, Eurovision, Schlagerboys

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You may have missed this if you weren't watching Norwegian TV last weekend. After I wrote about Alexander Rybak's victory in the Melodi Grand Prix on Saturday night, I was invited round to Glitterball Mansions on Sunday as Norwegian TV was repeating it at teatime. (Can you imagine the BBC doing that with our final?) Knowing that the Schlagerboys had gone there with their banners, I asked my host if they'd been caught on camera. "Oh, they were in it," he replied. You mean audience shots of them waving their flags? "No, they were in it." And indeed they were. I wasn't quite prepared for this. On our national final, we get Eurovision royalty (Lulu) and, er, Duncan 'from Blue' James. Norway gets two blokes from Birmingham. But they are Eurovision royalty too. Regardez. Note how little of the English the presenter feels the need to translate into Norwegian. There are two possible reasons for this. I have decided to believe it's because most Norwegians will understand their English anyway.



Two of the SIX contestants in Your Country Needs You are now wondering if they're the two who Schlagerboy D has forgotten.

I also have a feeling that the UK probably will "stem på Norge" anyway, so the host can relax. I think every country in Europe will "stem på Norge" on 16 May and it could easily be douze points from us.

Labels: Eurovision, MGP, Norway, Schlagerboys

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At last, after months of speculation, the BBC has announced that Wogan's xenophobic, stale and repetitive commentary on Eurovision is being retired. After 35 years, we have the opportunity to choose a UK citizen to do our commentary. So they've chosen another Irishman. To the surprise of no one, Graham Norton has landed the job. Well done to him. Things can only get better...

There's a misplaced apostrophe in the BBC's own news story on this which just about sums it up for me.

Jay Hunt, Controller of BBC One, thanked Sir Terry for his work on the programmes. "Terry has enhanced viewer's enjoyment of Eurovision for many years," she said.

Quite. Would that lone viewer who has had their enjoyment enhanced by Wogan like to put up their hand?

Labels: Eurovision

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¡Ole! ¡Ole! ¡Ole! ¡Ole! .... ¡Y Viva España!

A thoroughly deserved win tonight for Spain in the Euro 2008 final. I don't even mind about the money. It had been 44 years since Spain's football team won anything significant (when they won this competition in 1964), so it's about time and no one will begrudge them their win, as they finally put to bed their reputation as perennial underachievers in football tournaments. The stats speak for themselves; 12 goals scored and only 3 conceded across their six matches, due in no small part to goalie and captain Iker Casillas. That's him holding the cup above - and a bonus picture here, for Adrian, who picked him out as one of the hunks of the tournament.

It's been 39 years since Spain won Eurovision. Perhaps they could have a serious go at that next? In a timely news story, it's interesting to note that the last person who was seen as a serious Spanish hope for winning the song contest, namely Rosa in 2002, last night became the first person chosen to represent their country in both the Eurovision Song Contest and the Eurovision Dance Contest. She won the right to dance for Spain later this year in yesterday's final, with her male partner to be chosen at a later date.

España...¡Baila! ¡Baila! ¡Baila!

Labels: Casillas, Euro2008, Eurovision, Rosa, Spain

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Just as we hoped. Except that it's the kids' version. Ukraine was announced today as the host of Junior Eurovision 2009. (Yes, it is still going, but the UK - in the form of ITV - pulled out after the third contest in 2005.) Can we please have Ani Lorak as the interval act? Then I might watch the damn thing.

Labels: Eurovision, Ukraine

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The lovely James Fox is about to remove himself quite spectacularly from the 'failed to have a UK hit after Eurovision' list of UK contenders. None of the last eight UK entrants have ever charted again under their own name after doing Eurovision. The last act to have a post-Eurovision hit was Precious (1999), who managed three.

Compare this with the ten year period 1967-1976, where all nine UK Eurovision entrants (because Cliff Richard did it twice) had UK hits afterwards. Between one hit for Clodagh Rogers and Cliff's 85+, they have an average of over 17 post-Eurovision hits each. It really is clear that doing Eurovision is the modern kiss of death to any chart career, but it wasn't in 'the olden days'.

Bluebirds Flying High, James Fox's song (above) with the Cardiff City FA Cup Squad, is in the top 15 in the unofficial midweek charts. (It's also considerably better than most other FA Cup squads' songs since the beginning of time.) James may therefore eclipse his own hit, as Hold On To Our Love made #13 (and not #12, which it said on Wikipedia until I corrected it a few minutes ago, proving that Wikipedia can NEVER be trusted).

Labels: Eurovision, James Fox

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It's been a bad 48 hours for the UK's Eurovision fans. On Sunday, Wogan was elevated to the status of cultural icon by well-meaning but ultimately batty Radio 2 listeners. This has probably extended his tenure on Eurovision by another five years, at least.

Today, we learn that Ronnie Hazlehurst has died. Not only was his name one of the most seen in TV credits of the 1970s, because he'd written the theme tunes, but he was also a Eurovision fixture. He was musical director for three Eurovisions and conducted the UK entry seven times. This clip, from Eurovision 1974 in Brighton, is possibly not Ronnie Hazlehurst's finest moment, but Katie Boyle does mention his name twice in the first minute, once in English and once in French. What more could anyone want?



Here's a better tribute. Hazlehurst is the one looking like Steed from the Avengers at the beginning of this 1977 Eurovision clip (Wogan-free version):

Labels: 1974, Eurovision, obituary, Ronnie Hazlehurst, Wogan

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My Brum chums the Schlagerboys are touring Malta, funded by the Foreign & Commonwealth Office*, to thank the country for the UK's 12 points in Eurovision this year (which the boys themselves achieved). It was Russ Scooch's idea, the day after Eurovision, to reward Malta by UKers going there on holiday. The Schlagerboys have taken him at his word. They are doing this by investing heavily in the island's economy (vodka bars) and clearing dancefloors with their overly expressive fan-dance routines. (I heartily recommend reading about their week. It's hilarious.)

They've been stalking Chiara and Olivia Lewis, leaving gigs early for reasons best known to themselves and even been recognised, following their appearance on Maltese programme Xarabank, which was live from Helsinki in May. I just love this bit from their blog, about Chiara's hotel gig:

We finally got “Angel” at about 11:00. There was a fab bit when the Maltese family on the table next to us joined us in singing the chorus. The man said “Eurovision Chiara!” and we said something like “We love Chiara. We love Maltese Eurovision songs”, to which the woman replied “We know; we watched you on Xarabank!”

How utterly fabulous! Boys, you are national heroes! In both countries!

Tonight, they're live on Maltese TV show Pjazz! We can watch it here at 20:30 CET (or 20:40), just before watching annoying Tracey and dull Kara-Louise being evicted from Big Brother. Hurrah!

* The funding bit's not true, but it damn well should be.

Labels: Eurovision, Malta, Schlagerboys

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The Premier League season has started and Aston Villa swung into action on Saturday with...an embarrassing own goal and a defeat at home to Liverpool. Start as you mean to go on lads, why don't you?

After one match for each team, Villa sit at 14th in the almost meaningless Premier League table, helped largely by alphabetical order. (Fulham, Middlesbrough and Wigan are 15th, 16th and 17th respectively, although they all lost 2-1, like Villa.)

Enough of the real world. Chig has also signed up for the official fantasy league this season. My team is in a league of Eurovision fans. Yes, in a shocking breaking down of stereotypes, there are at least thirty people in the world interested enough in Eurovision and English football to play along. Along with fans in the UK, our league includes people in the USA, Sweden, Norway, Portugal, Serbia, Kazakhstan and (quite possibly) Estonia and Turkey. How fabulous!

Our league, hosted by a guy in the States (thanks Darrell!), is called Salvem el Gol, which gives a nod to Andorra's Eurovision entry from earlier this year. I have named my team Lanto Silva United, in homage to an entrant in Portugal's Festival da Canção in 1966.

Well, that's what I told the Eurovision listers, at least. It may not be true. Can you work out the real inspiration?

After all the weekend's Premier League games were completed, I checked our Salvem el Gol league table, and guess what? Chig's team is proudly sitting somewhere with real Eurovision significance.

Rock bottom.

Labels: Aston Villa, Eurovision, Fantasy Football

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Tanzen!

Verka Serduchka (left), the Ukrainian bacofoil drag queen who came second in Eurovision last week, has entered the official UK chart today at number 28, entirely on the strength of downloads. The song came third in the UK's televote, behind Turkey and Greece, getting our 8 points.

The song has fallen away a little from its midweek position of #18 (apparently), but at least we have just had the surreal experience of Dancing Lasha Tumbai being played on the Radio1 chart show.

This is the first time that a non-winning, non-UK Eurovision song has made the UK charts since...er...since....hmmm. Help, anybody?

It's possibly the first ever UK chart hit to feature Mongolian in its title, if it really is Mongolian, as claimed, but not the first in Eurovision, as Dschingis Khan and their eponymous song would have a claim to that. Ha, ha.

It's the second of Ukraine's Eurovision entries to make the UK chart, as Ruslana's winner, Wild Dances, spent one measly week at #47 in 2004, after coming 6th in the UK televote, getting 5 points. It's not bad going though, for a country which has only entered Eurovision five times.

Verka Serduchka has also entered the Swedish chart at #6, despite receiving only three points from Sweden last Saturday. Serbia's winner, which Sweden rewarded with 10 points, has entered the Swedish Hitlistan at number nine.

UPDATE: (Thanks Martin, and Dave in the comments.) From a debate that's already happened on the above issue, on the Eurovision Nation message board, it seems it was 1974 when a non-UK, non-winning song last made the UK chart. Thirty-three years! Respect to the tinfoil goddess and the UK's sense of humour! In 1974, the whole of the Eurovision top four charted here, with the top three all charting higher than the UK entry and having longer chart runs:

1974 Eurovision position / song & artist (country) / UK chart peak (Weeks on chart)

1st Waterloo - ABBA (Sweden) #1 (9 weeks)
2nd Si* - Gigliola Cinquetti (Italy) #8 (10 weeks)
3rd I See A Star - Mouth & MacNeal (Netherlands) #8 (10 weeks)
4th Long Live Love - Olivia Newton-John (UK) #11 (8 weeks)

*Gigliola charted here with the English version, 'Go (Before You Break My Heart)'.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Scooch have fallen only three places in their second 'proper' week on the chart, to number 8. I understand that, in the middle of the week, if downloads weren't being counted and the chart were based on CD sales only, Scooch were Number One!

YET ANOTHER UPDATE: The song which was number one in midweek, by Maroon 5, has failed to clinch the top spot today, in a genuine surprise. They have been nudged away from the top spot by Rihanna and her 'Umbrella', probably helped by the rain here in the last week(!)

THE LAST UPDATE: Last week's number one, by McFly, has broken a record quite spectacularly, by falling from #1 to #20. This breaks the record for the biggest tumble ever from the top spot for a non-limited edition single. This record had been held by Harry Belafonte since January 1958, when Mary's Boy Child fell from the top to #12. McFly have even equalled the all-time fall from number one, set two years ago by Elvis Presley's One Night / I Got Stung (also the 1,000th Number One), which was a limited edition release. No single has ever fallen lower than #20 from #1. All of this indicates that McFly's niche market gets more niche and more tuned in to first week sales with every release, and that the singles chart is excitingly unpredictable.

Labels: chart, Eurovision, McFly, Ruslana, Scooch, Ukraine, Verka Serduchka

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It's the 300th anniversary of the act of union today. Celebrations seem a bit muted don't they?

Never mind, it's a much more important anniversary period we've entered today. I don't think anyone has ever asked me what the best three day period of my life was, but I just wanted to note that we're entering the tenth anniversary of it today. The 1st, 2nd and 3rd of May 1997 were incredible, joyous, sunny days and have wedged themselves firmly in my mind as the best of times.

Thursday 1st May was general election day, and the false dawn (and abandoned party) of the previous election was about to be wiped away forever. I had a party in my flat on election night. I was about to leave the rented flat (in July) to move into my first bought house, so life was on the up. A handful of us put stickers on a constituency map that I had bought and stuck to the wall. We watched the country turn red through the night and greeted the daylight as Labour did with their Things Can Only Get Better moment. It was joyous, with the sun streaming through my flat's window. One friend then stayed over and we slept for few hours during the morning, getting up in the afternoon as I had taken the day off work, enjoying the first day of my adult life under a Labour government; a day that at times under the darkness of Thatcherism as a student I had feared we would never see.

Friday 2nd passed by and then on Saturday 3rd, we went and won the Eurovision Song Contest! Katrina and The Waves broke our 16 year dry spell. She had always been the hot favourite to win in Ireland, so it probably would have happened anyway, but I remain convinced that the whole of Europe was giving the UK a goodwill message and the benefit of the doubt for getting rid of the Tories the day before.

If Katrina hadn't won on 3 May 1997, Eurovision would never have come to my home city the next year, I would never have known about journalist accreditation, and I may never have gone to six more Eurovisions since and had a fantastic time in six different countries. I have a lot to thank that 72 hours in 1997 for. If only we'd known how unpopular that government would become...

Labour winning a general election and the UK winning Eurovision. Don't they seem distant possibilities now?

Labels: 1997, Eurovision, generalelection

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...watching the Nottingham leg of The X Factor on tour, with Mike, who has reviewed it in the local paper today. (It's online here.)

Due to some inexplicable box office mix-up, we were delayed going in. We weren't that bothered as we walked in late, just in time to catch Nikkita's last song. But then we found out from the girls in front of us that we had missed Eton Road. They'd been on first! Gutted. Never mind though, we'll catch them when they return at the end for whatever all the acts are going to do together. And Eton Road's Danny and David were compering the whole event, so we saw a lot of them.

Except there was no other appearance. Leona did her number one single at the end of her set. Flames, ticker-tape bombs, firework curtain, Leona leaves, lights up, bugger off. Thank you and goodnight. It was a terrible, anti-climactic ending to the evening.

So, I drove a one hundred mile round trip and still haven't seen little Anthony and the other one on stage. Bugger.

Still, I did recognise two of the dancers, as they were Turkey's dancers at Eurovision in Athens. I chatted to one of them on the phone afterwards and he revealed that the X Factor tour's choreographer is the same guy who choreographed the 'Superstar' routine for Turkey. It was still a good night out, even watching the desperate ones, and Leona was fantastic. I was entertained by the crowd too, almost as much as the singers at times, but I still can't believe we missed Eton Road.

Here's that Turkish routine again, because it's fabulous:

Labels: Eurovision, gig, Turkey, X Factor

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News 24 running out of stories
Originally uploaded by Thoroughly Good.

They're right out of correct facts as well. Just where exactly did Daz Sampson come fifth last year? (Look closely at the caption.) It certainly wasn't in Eurovision, where he finished nineteenth. And a note to the subtitler. It's spelt 'Jemini'.

On a positive note, this is my friend Dean being interviewed yesterday on BBC News 24. Last seen by me at the Schlagerboys' Eurovision party on Christmas Eve Eve. Oh, the media circles in which we move! Very handsome and authoritative he looks too. No idea what he said.

This is the second in a continuing series called 'photos of people I know being interviewed on News 24, which Jon took of the office TV and which I've linked to from Jon's flickr page'. This time, I have shamelessly used his title as a header too, because it made me laugh. Thanks Jon.

Because Jon is an intellectual type, he was also listening to something called Radio 4 last night, in which the Morrissey for Eurovision 'news' 'story' was elevated to the level of high culture by being discussed on Front Row, which is apparently an 'arts' programme. I understand that Birmingham's most excellent (resident) music journo Stuart Maconie (whose book, Cider With Roadies, I am currently reading) gave Mozza the big thumbs up. We can all listen to it on the Listen Again thingy here. (Go to Front Row in the alphabetical list, then click on 'Tue'. It's 25 minutes in, if you want to skip forward.) I would be doing this right now if I didn't have one hand eye on Jesse Metcalfe's return in Desperate Housewives.

LATER: I've listened now. Excellent little piece from Mr. Maconie. He has a wonderful turn of phrase (as evidenced in the book, which I highly recommend). I particularly liked the idea of a "low level furore" and his description of Daz Sampson's Teenage Life as "a Balamory version of gangsta rap".

And yes, the "cultural bric-a-brac" of my own teenage life exactly matched the indicators that Stuart describes. I still have one of those albums, and the cassette recorder, which I mentioned the other day in that Bowie rundown.

Labels: BBC, Dean Asker, Eurovision, Morrissey, MYMU

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DSC00005
Originally uploaded by Thoroughly Good.

The 'Morrissey for Eurovision' rumours are buzzing around again. Only this time, there's some substance to the story. It's been on News 24, with the lovely Paddy O'Connell being interviewed, as shown by my friend Jon's thoroughly good photo of the office TV (above). (Thanks Jon.)

It may just be a quiet news day, but here's the story from the BBC, Orange, ESC Today and The Sun (with 'hilarious' mocked-up picture of Mozza in Buck's Fizz).

"The BBC says it is in talks with the singer to write and possibly perform a
track for this year's contest in May. But a spokeswoman for the corporation
warned "nothing is confirmed at the moment".

The BBC has approached several other high-profile acts as it tries to "up the ante on the calibre of artists" taking part in the annual competition, she added."

That obviously means that Radiohead are being held to their promise, made on Jonathan Ross's TV show in 2003, immediately after the Jemini débacle, to write a song for Eurovision. Doesn't it?

It's no secret that Morrissey's a big Eurovision fan, but would he actually do it? The BBC's announcement a few weeks ago that the UK's song would be chosen in March surprised nobody, but it was telling that it didn't mention Making Your Mind Up, leading to inevitable speculation that the process might be changed. The BBC doesn't have to have a contest at all. The UK could just do what some other countries do and select the artist and song internally, or pick the artist and allow the public to choose the song (as we have done before).

If, as is mooted by the BBC in their own news report, Morrissey writes a song for someone else, who could do it justice? A return for Sandie Shaw?! Be still, my beating heart! Nancy Sinatra? Has anyone else covered a Morrissey song apart from those two?

Here's the Morrissey video from last April for You Have Killed Me, which really gives the game away about his love of Eurovision:

Labels: BBC, Eurovision, Morrissey, MYMU, Paddy O'Connell

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