Originally published at: UK steps up to host Eurovision on behalf of Ukraine; releases glitzy promo trailer | Boing Boing
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UK, UA? close enough
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Given that the winner of the previous year hosts, then it’s no surprise that the UK is going all out on this one. It’s going to be their only opportunity for a long time.
For a brief moment I’d hoped it might be held in Glasgow, just so it would match the Netflix film of the previous (?) year, but never mind! I bet Liverpool will put on a brilliant show.
Mostly just here to post a link to a couple of recent episodes of Helen Zaltzman’s Allusionist podcast on the subject, where I finally learned, among other things, why so many apparently non-European countries are in the competition.
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The UK came second last year and would have won except everyone rightly voted for Ukraine to express their disapproval of Russia.
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Money! any one can pay to be a member of the European broadcasting group or what ever it is, and that’s how oz gets in and the others.
I see the Uk has decided not to even try and win this year by sending “so I wrote a song” which has to be one of the stupidest things ever!
Ireland used to be serious contenders year after year, winning a decent amount of times. They won twice in a row in the '90s, then put forward a truly terrible song so as to not have the expense of hosting a third time (allegedly). Perhaps thats why the UK entry is lousy this year (allegedly).
With the new contest format Ireland rarely qualifies for the finals anymore.
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Certainly money, nowadays. And weird or even horific political posturing too, of course! I felt bad that I’d never known about the European Broadcasting Area before listening to this podcast, though. It seems so very sensible, now…
I was under the impression at the time that the UK getting to host it was a thank you for that. UK would have won by a long distance last year bar the solidarity vote.
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