sour grapes?

[ajva]

Further thoughts on Eurovision, I'm afraid. :o)

I think we've been able to ignore the extent of the political voting for the past few years because of the shiteness of the UK entries. Now, Andy Abraham's song is not my usual choice of genre, but I happened to like it and I thought that was quite a commendation for it, since it suggested a certain amount of crossover appeal. I didn't expect it to win, but I was hoping for a top ten finish. I think a lot of people over here felt likewise, and I expect that's why there's going to be more irritation about this (among people who care about it) this year than in any year over the past decade.

So I've got to wondering: do you think it's possible there might have been a certain amount of subconscious (maybe even conscious) racism going on? I mean, it was quite striking that, of all the entries in the final, we fielded the only lead artist who happened to be black. How the hell did that happen? There are people of colour all over Europe, and yet we're the only ones who sent one to the contest. Do you think it's possible our entry was dismissed by many immediately as "boring black music"?

Anyway, as I pointed out on ms_katonic's post, it looks like the bloke who won is something of a teen idol in the Eastern bloc. It would have been the equivalent of America being involved, allowed to split into all 50 states separately for voting purposes, and then Tennessee sending Justin Timberlake.

What on Earth can they do about it? I know they've been trying their best to come up with a fair system, but I really don't see how it's ultimately going to be possible.

Comments

[alan1957.livejournal.com]

I don't know about a possible 'racism' reason for the UK's poor showing...but haven't people been saying that anti-British feeling over our support for US wars has been a 'possible' reason for hostility, which has led to poor voting in this Political beauty contest?

'What on Earth can they do about it?'
scrap the whole thing...or maybe start again with an entirely different format.

[ajva.livejournal.com]

I don't really think it's got much to do with wars per se; I think it's more of a positive vote for the neighbours. We did have the only soul song in the contest, though, so it must be partly a question of taste. It's not as if the Western European countries were giving us many points either.

[alan1957.livejournal.com]

Well I really don't know all that much about the contest and you may be completely correct, but I would point out that amongst 'the Western European countries' anti-US opinion (and anti-UK opinion by extension) is just as high (even higher when compared to countries like Poland) as across the East.

[swiftangel.livejournal.com]

I wasn't sure if it was the type of music. I didn't think it was tremendously strong soul music, so it should have had enough crossover appeal. Race didn't occur to me at all. I was leaning along the same lines as Alan, that it was more about politics. The UK's support of US idiocy coupled with its reluctance on certain EU matters doesn't make for a lot of friends out there.

In terms of the fact that it is supposedly up to the public now, I doubt the phone-in votes are completely legit in all 43 of the voting countries... some are probably far more legit than others, and some are very likely rigged from the start.

[ajva.livejournal.com]

The thing is, I think most people in continental Europe who're going to be voting in Eurovision don't really give much of a shit about UK foreign policy. I think it's easy to overestimate the importance of the unpopularity of the UK's support for the US - particularly if you are either a liberal Brit or a liberal American. I think the issue is much more about positive voting for neighbours than negative voting against us, despite my mild ponderings about potential racism above.

But if we're going to talk politics, let's not forget that, as far as the invasion of Iraq was concerned, the "new members" of the EU (the Eastern bloc ones) actively came out in support of the UK's position at the time, totally against the opinions of vast majority of Western Europeean countries (does that surprise you? - look up the history). This was a political annoyance for France at the time, as I recall. OK, so that was the governments' rather than the people's opinion per se. But if you're going to take the Western European governments' positions at the time as being representative of those of their peoples, then we can't do otherwise with the Eastern European countries. They are democracies these days. And you'll find that the UK has many more political friends in the EU over many issues in the East than in the west.

Even if it comes down to the fact that tastes differ around Europe and that is simply all it's about, it's still a bit wrong that we should be paying so much for a contest we'll never do well in. Italy and Austria have already boycotted the event - we wouldn't be the first.

[ms-katonic.livejournal.com]

it looks like the bloke who won is something of a teen idol in the Eastern bloc.

And much that was puzzling me about Russia's win is now becoming clear...

I still don't know what can be done about the political voting. I don't know if racism was a factor - it could be, I suppose, there's enough of it out there. But I'm mostly inclined to think it's just nations voting for their neighbours, or along ethnic lines (eg. Turkish guestworkers in Germany voting for Turkey, Greece and Cyprus voting for each other, Balkan states all voting for each other because Serbs don't just live in Serbia, nor do Croats and Bosnians only live in Croatia or Bosnia), and the UK not really having anyone to take its corner in the same way (Brit emigrants tend to be relatively wealthy and thus emigrate to other English-speaking countries). And there's not much we can do about that.

I wouldn't object to the BBC continuing to broadcast and even fund the contest, but I think maybe we should consider not entering again. If we're not going to win, what's the point? I'd still continue to watch and enjoy Eurovision, possibly more so if it wasn't an annual exercise in national humiliation. :)

[ajva.livejournal.com]

Yes, I think I'm with you on all this. My racism noodle was just a noodle, really. I don't actually think it's necessarily a big factor. I do love Eurovision, and would be sad to see it fragment. It's just, as you say, a bit depressing to get humiliated year after year. I honestly didn't think Andy deserved to come last. But we can't blame political voting for that. The Russian entry winning, though, is pissing me off much more than Andy's poor showing...