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Harmful influence?
UK MP: Eurovision damages Europe
Liberal democrat MP Richard Younger-Ross suggested that participating countries voted for their neighbours rather than the songs they liked best, and added that British broadcaster the BBC should insist on voting changes, or withdraw completely from the contest. According to Younger-Ross, the vote is based "largely on nationalistic grounds" and renders the contest a "joke".
The minister has tabled a Commons early day motion, taking the matter officially before the British parliament, and already he has gained the backing of fellow MPs Colin Reed, John Robertson and David Drew.
Gathering unrest
A review of the voting procedures has also been advised by MaltaSong chairman Robert Abela, who suggests an end to televoting as long as "the EBU cannot 100% monitor how the system is being done in some of the ex-Soviet countries". In Germany too, Eurovision celebrities such as 1982 winner Nicole are quoted on the "dirty trade in points every year", calling not for review, but complete withdrawal of the country from the contest.
Younger-Ross' criticism that the contest harms European relationships could be turned on its head if we look at the history of the alleged vote-swapping countries. At war a mere decade ago, the exchange of points between former enemies could be taken as a sign of blossoming friendships between old rivals.
Other voices in the media have also jumped to defend the contest. British Eurovision expert Derek Gatherer, who has spent years analysing voting patterns in the contest, suggested that Younger-Ross criticism was "a bit heavy", and pointed out that only a third of Serbia's winning score could have been influenced by the neighbourly voting factor. Moreover, Serbia was the winner of many pre-contest polls, both of the prediction and favourite variety, across Eurovision fan sites all over Europe. A large contingent of Western European fans are more than happy with Molitva as a winner - the first non-English ballad to win the contest in a long, long time.
Related polls
- POLAND: Your favourite song in the national final?
- ARMENIA: Your favourite song in the national final?
- The Netherlands decided: How much do you like Ik be verliefd (Sha la lie)?
- Cyprus decided: How much do you like Life looks better in spring?
- Iceland decided: How much do you like Je ne sais quoi?
- Denmark decided: How much do you like In a moment like this?
- Norway decided: How much do you like My heart is yours?
Go directly to the reactions
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Reactions
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*heavily embaressed* the commentary function was weird and appeared dysfunctional... soo sooo sorry.
firstly, jurgen parys, i can assure you that the ark's carreer is by no means harmed by there participation is the ESC. we loved them like crazy, but the song was not one of their finest. and maybe, to adore ola you have to know ola. this was not the first time a country sent a nationally famous act which didn't do well with the european crowd in one single go.
secondly, the national contest in sweden is huge- even bigger than the international one- and will definately continue to attract well-known swedish artists. and no doubt will we again do the same misstake of voting for artists rather than songs, not caring for a second that everyone is as unknown to the rest of you.
firstly, jurgen parys, i can assure you that the ark's carreer is by no means harmed by there participation is the ESC. we loved them like crazy, but the song was not one of their finest. and maybe, to adore ola you have to know ola. this was not the first time a country sent a nationally famous act which didn't do well with the european crowd in one single go.
secondly, the national contest in sweden is huge- even bigger than the international one- and will definately continue to attract well-known swedish artists. and no doubt will we again do the same misstake of voting for artists rather than songs, not caring for a second that everyone is as unknown to the rest of you.
thirdly, we've won four times in the past 50 years so wit ha little over 40 countries in the contest we've more than well had our share. i assure you all - we can deal with not winning for a while as long as the winning songs are of these standards! in sweden we tell children that the most important thing is not winning, but competing, having fun and doing your best. hopefully, we'll take our own advise soon and lighten up a bit!
my further ideas on this east/westmumbojumbo are presented on my profile.
first off, jurgen parys, i'm pretty sure no harm's done to the ark or their musical career. we love them in sweden, we do. but also, we know them. the song's not one of their finest and you need to know ola to get ola. that's just probably how it is.
secondly, in sweden the national contest is huuuuge, probably actually bigger than the international one. well-known swedish artists will continue to partcipate. and the swedish populace will no doubt do the same misstake again and vote them through on behalf of a really good song sung by an unkown singer.
thirdly, it's a tough world we live in! people move and settle outside their original little village and ooohhhhh, gosh! *sigh* are we now punishing people who've fled war and abuse and started new lives in our countries (and in many ways enrichened ours - thank you by the way!) for having old countrymen and -women who write good music?! for heaven's sake. let it go if you're not german. and maybe germany would've done better had they not been part of the big four. what's the fun in voting for someone in the fast lane? people have always liked underdogs. sweden's won 4 times in then last 50 years and there are more than 40 countries in the contest these days. i assure you, we can survive not to win for a while... in sweden we teach children that the most important thing is not winning, but competing, having fun and doing your best. i hope we take are own advise. soon.
my further thoughts on this are on my profile.
OH SHUT UP YOU MP! UK DID NOT WIN WAWAHH! DID SCHOOCH DESERVE TO WIN? NO DOES UK DESERVE TO WIN THE WAY IT IS CARRYING ON ABOUT NEIGHBOUR VOTING AND JOHNNY FOREIGNER? NO AND DONT COMPLAIN ABOUT SERBIAS WIN! YOU GAVE THEM 12PTS ASWELL NOT JUST BOSNIA, MACEDONIA AND SLOVENIA!!!
Er.....you are wrong. The UK gave 12PTS to Turkey this year.
How many points did the UK give to Serbia? - 0PTS
I agree the UK did not deserve to win - the song was not good enough.... but neighbourly voting DOES exist - not just Eastern countries though, the Scandinavians do it too etc.... The voting is just silly.
>>> OH SHUT UP YOU MP! UK DID NOT WIN WAWAHH! DID SCHOOCH DESERVE TO WIN? NO DOES UK DESERVE TO WIN THE WAY IT IS CARRYING ON ABOUT NEIGHBOUR VOTING AND JOHNNY FOREIGNER? NO AND DONT COMPLAIN ABOUT SERBIAS WIN! YOU GAVE THEM 12PTS ASWELL NOT JUST BOSNIA, MACEDONIA AND SLOVENIA!!!
.... Er, actually, you are wrong - the UK gave 12 points to Turkey....
How many points did the UK give to Serbia? Nil - 0pts - Zero....
I'm not saying anybody has been cheating.. Perhaps it's just a cultural thing - countrys close to eachother share some taste, understanding of the artist etc.. we in Scandinavia also seem to vote for each other and like the pop-ish sound.. So basically there's nothing wrong with the votes and majority rules. But if it still is unfair - no matter what. The contest would only be fair if the western european countrys contained of 25 countrys too..
I don't want to listen to 42 boring power ballads. It was like that in the 90s, and I really struggled to watch. The show should be a festival with many styles (including the dreaded ballads). And before anyone complains, I'm not running the Serbians down, I absolutely loved the song and the performance just blew me away, I just don't want everyone else to knock out a poor immitation next year.
How are you supposed to dance and sing along to Molitva? You can't, but you can be moved by it's power. It's the mix that makes Eurovision so great, the fact that you can watch in awe as Marija belts out a storming vocal masterpiece and yet still bounce along with the Eurocrowd to Verka.
Nonsence. Eurovision does not damage Europe... Europe was damaged since it became monotheistic, ages ago. Thank the Gods for the Renaissence, but it looks like some MPs live in the DARK AGES!
MOLITVA(prayer) for all Europeans!
Mother Earth
When you rise your seas up
and drown us like you have had in the past,
let some sane people survive
so they can form new communities based on love
and when the continents unite again
let there be a PANGEAVISION!
Some thoughts:
Any country can win ESC, and I think Finland proved it last year. Finland was one of the least successful counrties, and any "nordic block" has not traditionally given us points either. We admit that the songs have not been very good either, the entries were chosen too tactically. But I read some press stories saying that Finland cannot win because it don't belong to any block - quoting journalist Marko Ahonen - "Even if a choir of angels represented us". Well, it was not angels, it was monsters - and we won!
To win the song must kick some butt. It is not enough to be "okay", or "nice" - that kind of stuff makes you want to go to sleep. It must be emotionally appalling, Imake you want to dance - or cry - or something like that. THEN the viewer will pick up the phone and cast a vote of few to that song. Not like "lets send some Irish folk music and see if it works", or "we'll send some jazz or rap, that ought to do the trick". It's gotta be kickass folk music, kickass jazz, kickass ballad, kickass anything. Something that will keep the viewer on the couch awake.
The competition is very hard these days. Musically the level has gone way up from what it used to be, much of it thanks to Eastern European countries, and yes, televoting.
Nothing is worse judge of music than some lame board of so called "experts", we have seen it. Music is for people, let the people decide.
Surely espcially Turkey gets a lot of votes from immigrants, but not enough to put turkey automatically into a high position. Last time Turkey was in top ten was 2004.
Anyway are the immigrants only people that vote? Is the 2.2% turkish population in Netherlands solely enough to give turkey 12 points. Natives are still the vast majority in all countries. So native western europeans, push your buttons next year.
UK just needs to learn that times of the bubllegum pop are over. Flying the flag, come on? Why don't you just come up like a fine ballad (just like those that Blue sing it or Gareth Gates and these folks) and you will rise high. Europeans are not a different people in different time opposing to UK and America, we listen to the same music and we dress in the same clothing. So stop complaining and send something smashing next year.
They should carry out a televoting with a question if people want televoting or not : P 
Why would any decent act want to represent the UK (or Ireland, Sweden, France, Germany, etc) when they predictably know in advance that they will end up with shame and embarrassment?
The Arks is Swedens most popular band. Do you suppose they will recommend this experience?
100 % agree withthis comment. Belgium , just like Sweden, has organised a giant preselection process in the past few years and have sent some of their most popular artists. What more of an effort do you expect ? I cannot see any of the big artists want to participate anymore. They just risk being ridiculized by the voting system. So, it's definately not a matter of sending second rate artists. The bigger names will just not feel like participating anymore. Those days wil be over. Sad :-(
@ DAN WILSON
...I`m not sleeping with you...told you already that you don`t have
to pay me for sex.I`ll rather vote for UK next year 10.000 times than take your 10.000 euro...but however i`m very sory about your undergone lobotomy.
I know that your verbal skills are reduced to unintelligible babble,
but do not worry,medicine is going way ahead..and who knows,maybe they`ll find some cure...and one day you`ll have sex without paying.
....Congratulations for SERBIA....from MACEDONIA..see you all next year in BELGRADE ARENA
".. just introduce a rule were you can't vote 4 the country next door"
Russia is gonna love that! You've just stopped them voting for about 20 xountries.
How about we introduce a rule that only good songs are put forward by countries?
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@Morten DK
You're right! Western Europeans are losing their interest and don't vote anymore...The 'new' Western European voters are originally from Turkey, Armenia, ex-Yugoslavia etc.
The contest will continue untill 2010.
Than, the big 4 will withdrawn, because than, they'll realize Turkey and Armenia will remain in the top ten because of......
(Turkey deserved this year, Armenia not)
@Emmanuel Belgium
Your results are very nice and all but it has one major FLAW, You didn't count the immigrants living in the traditional esc countries, and that is the biggest problem of the televoting.
So your results mean nothing tbh.
should we pull out? no.. just introduce a rule were you can't vote 4 the country next door, e.g u.k cant vote for ireland cuz we share a border with them. the eastern europeans say they vote 4 each other cause they already know the artists and songs, put i think its a case of both, what u.k should do? do a spice girls reunion, if we still fail after that? pull out 
About, the Finnish voting analysis.
I think it even says that it is about block voting. I believe the analysis has been made as so many people are talking about block voting.
OH SHUT UP YOU MP! UK DID NOT WIN WAWAHH! DID SCHOOCH DESERVE TO WIN? NO DOES UK DESERVE TO WIN THE WAY IT IS CARRYING ON ABOUT NEIGHBOUR VOTING AND JOHNNY FOREIGNER? NO AND DONT COMPLAIN ABOUT SERBIAS WIN! YOU GAVE THEM 12PTS ASWELL NOT JUST BOSNIA, MACEDONIA AND SLOVENIA!!!
The Finnish voting analysis which Tommi provides the link to, is interesting but fatally flawed since it fails to take into account diaspora voting in the West.
It's also a bit unfair on the UK - I know what Flying the Flag means but what the hell is Dancing Lasha Tumbai about? And I bet if Flying the Flag had been the Ukraine entry it would still have got votes from Belarus, Russia, Poland etc!
Perhaps it's just time to call it a day...
@TOMMI HUHTA
Thank you so much!!! It is a great analysis. Everybody should have a look on it.
Soni Malaj - "Ndarja" or the original "MOLITVA"!
http://www.thesun.co(...);clipID=1347_SUN2045
@ Novac Stevanovic
U R A MORON..............
U REDICULE YOUR POOOOOOOOOOR COUNTRY'S IMAGE
SHAME SHAME SHAME POOR LAD 
I'm really fed up with all that fuss about the voting! The only reason why western entries didn't qualify is because most of them were poor, old-fashioned and expecially written for the contest. Even western viewers disliked them! Do you want a proof? Here it is! I've discounted all the votes awarded by those "corrupted" ex-communist and balkan countries during the semi-final so that we get to know what the final choice of our "respectable" capitalist countries was ...
1. Serbia (140)
2. Hungary (122)
3. Turkey (113)
4. Latvia (95)
5. Bulgaria (86)
6. Belarus (59)
7. Slovenia (58)
8. Portugal (53)
9. Georgia (48)
10. Iceland (46)
11. Andorra (45)
12. Poland (42)
12. Denmark (42)
14. Moldova (40)
15. Cyprus (39)
16. Norway (35)
17. Netherlands (33)
18. Switzerland (31)
19. Albania (24)
20. Macedonia (22)
21. Croatia (14)
22. Estonia (9)
22. Malta (9)
24. Israel (7)
25. Austria (4)
26. Belgium (2)
27. Czech Republic (0)
27. Montenegro (0)
As a matter fact Macedonia qualified only thanks to Balkan votes but the same situation would have happened for Iceland (12 from Sweden, 12 from Norway, 12 from Finland and 10 from Denmark) if only good old eurovision nations had been allowed to vote ...
I wonder why this top 10 has not been published so far ... maybe because the truth hurts and some diehard eurovision fans refuse to face the truth. Sorry guys but schlager is totally out. That kind of music belongs to the past ...
lol, I've just been watching Cyndi's performance at MYMU on youtube...why oh why did the UK have to send ANYTHING other than that beautiful piece of music?! Imagine what could have been, IMO a much better more powerful ballad than Molitva (which was still very good anyway)
It's true that Western countries voted for Eastern ones too, but despite this, they don't vote for us! Check out my profile page, where you can see how the Eastern European countries distributed their 12 points, to each other! The only exception is Albania.
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