[thechat] No-one likes us... we don't care (apparently)

[Martin]

Now, I don't know how many of you on other continents are aware of the
Eurovision song contest.
http://www.eurovision.tv

Basically, it's an annual Europe-wide event, where groups from 26
countries perform live on TV, then each country awards points based on a
phone poll (or in some countries, a jury). Top country get 12 points, then
10, 8, 7, 6, ..., 1. And 16 countries get nothing.

You *might* think that the points awarded have something to do with how
much the nation in question liked the song/performance in question. And
some countries do indeed do more than nod towards this naive concept.
However, local politics and national alliegences have much more to do with
it.

Thus, Greece & Cyprus always give each other top points (and normally give
a big fat zero to Turkey, although relations have obviously warmed in the
last year), while there are obvious voting blocks in Scandanavia & the
baltic states.

Usually, the UK does OK - somewhere between 3rd and 10th is a fair bet,
mostly because our entrant novelly has some idea of what semi-decent pop
should be.

However, this year, we got null points. Zero. Our song was pretty
reasonable Euro-pop fare, so it can't be that. The explanation everyone's
assuming is that it's a punishment for snubbing the rest of Europe in
favour of Bush's approach to Iraq.

This is one of the countries that beat us btw:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/realmedia/eurovision03/austria.ram
which goes to show that Europe has some kind of sense of humour.

Here's some background info:
http://www.eurovision.tv/public/participants/23309.html

Cheers
Martin

-- 
"Names, once they are in common use, quickly
 become mere sounds, their etymology being
 buried, like so many of the earth's marvels,
 beneath the dust of habit." - Salman Rushdie