In an article in a British newspaper, i, who claim to have spoken with the producer of the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest, they state that Christer Bjorkman has informed them that “Jake and Joe would continue the UK’s woeful failure to emulate Katrina and the Waves’s 1997 victory”.
In this article it says that the Swedish singer / TV producer blames the former UK commentator, The late Sir Terry Wogan, and current commentator, Graham Norton for their attitude toward the contest saying that “Terry Wogan did the commentary for 25 years and it was always mocking” and “Now Graham Norton also has this flippant tone. It doesn’t work. It’s a lot easier to joke than to win”
According to Mr Bjorkman “You have to say ‘we are taking this seriously and we will not stop doing it until we succeed. You have to accept what Eurovision is – it’s not a singing competition or a song competition, it is music entertainment.” And when questioned about the neighbour / bloc voting his response was “That is something you’ve made up. You sound like the French now. We all love you. We all want you to be good in this competition,” he said. “It’s just that you don’t send any good stuff. Why don’t you?”
And in his prediction for the UK’s result in Stockholm: “Joe and Jake is a fairly good song and the boys are charming. It’s a step in the right direction but no, it won’t win. If you sent another Katrina singing Love Shine A Light, that would make a huge difference.”
Other news outlets will be covering the story, which has made the front page of one of the major newspapers in the UK, The Daily Mirror. You can read the full interview HERE.
