UNITED KINGDOM 2010 - Josh Dubovie - That Sounds Good to Me

[AdrianW]

The only thing amazes is how Britain, who have some many fantastic (and in many cases genre defining) bands/musicians in nearly every genre I can think of, manages to send in absolute rubbish every year ... I mean we are talking about the country which gave us stuff like Depeche Mode, RadioHead, U2, George Michael, Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Beatles, Placebo, and many others I can't think of right now ...

Unfortunately, I don't think Britain's musical history makes much difference when it comes to the ESC. I doubt if the really big names would enter and even if one did, there's no guarantee that it would do well. Perhaps it would even be seen as trying to gain an unfair advantage.

Considering that the German song was already popular throughout much of Europe, probably the best approach would be to leave the selection as late as possible and try to persuade a British singer or band that had recently had a major hit throughout Europe to perform the song at the ESC! Or would using a song released before ESU selection be against the rules?

 

[ESCGirl]

I'm sure the UK radio and media will be whingeing on about how europe hates them, how rubbish eurovision is and that it's all about neighbour voting, rather than grab the truth of the thing that you have to actually send in a good song to stand a chance.

You are dead wrong. The UK media today has been criticising our song for being too dated and praising the songs that have done well. They've also been commenting on the high standard of the event. Even the BBC's own news was slating our song. The fans have come out in force to try and put a bit of pressure on the BBC to try a bit harder next year so hopefully someone is listening...

Not entirely. Just checked the Times website and they think Germany won because they are bailing out failing Eurozone economies. You've got to admit, that's creative thinking.

Yeah but that's The Times for you...
The press in the UK has generally been pretty scathing about our entry today. Some have been kind about Josh's singing but all have slated the song for being too dated. Germany has been praised for bringing the contest up to date.

 

[bashers]

Upon reflection on what I said earlier, Serbia, Greece, Germany to name but a few sent already well established artists in Europe. The funny thing is, us brits have never heard of them because they would never get near the top 40 charts. However, the rest of europe love them.

Maybe we should send someone who has just released a single or something...

 

[Milos-BC]

Sad to say this, but this is a well deserved last place.

Josh is a great singer, he gave his best last night, but the song is so dated, and so mediocre, that you couldn't help it.

Well, I hope for a serious approach next year, and I hope UK sends something at least as good as "My Time" to Germany

 

[ESCGirl]

This is an article from BBC News, they are basically slating their own song???
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainmen ... 192518.stm
UK public deserve soooo much better than this fiasco. Hopefully if we make enough noise, someone will listen to us for a change. We've all had enough.

 

[Margerita86]

The only comment to that is if you though it was outdated, why the hell did they pick it?
Josh could only work with whatever song they, the BBC gave him...

 

[FallenAngelII]

Upon reflection on what I said earlier [...] Germany [...] sent [an] already well established [artist] in Europe.

Lena is not well-established at all.

BTW, it's because of people like this that I hate the UK's attitude towards Eurovision so much:
viewtopic.php?f=10&t=1829

Also, can someone link me to all of these articles criticizing the entry? Preferrably published before the contest.

 

[AdrianW]

This is an article from BBC News, they are basically slating their own song???
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainmen ... 192518.stm
UK public deserve soooo much better than this fiasco. Hopefully if we make enough noise, someone will listen to us for a change. We've all had enough.

That has to be seen to be believed! It's staggering that the BBC News Entertainment reporter should be so stupid as to say, concerning Josh: "His fatal mistake was to cling stoically to decades-old Eurovision cliche, in a year when the contest finally dragged itself into the 21st Century." As if he had a choice! They should apologise for giving him such garbage.

 

[Margerita86]

Yes, unfortunatly some brits don't realise they place bad because they send entries that not even their own country men like and expect us to like it instead...

 

[djh013]

I'm sorry but no matter how good the performer is the song is what actually matters and you lack in my mind a good one.
I wish you luck, but I will not vote for you there are other performances where I enjoy both the performance and the song.

No-one should apologise for not voting for us - we should apologise to the whole of Europe for forcing this dross on you.

We're not even doing our usual moaning about political voting because we all know our song was total rubbish.

I'm all for lining Pete Waterman up against a wall and ...Bang!

 

[AdrianW]

Upon reflection on what I said earlier [...] Germany [...] sent [an] already well established [artist] in Europe.

Lena is not well-established at all.

BTW, it's because of people like this that I hate the UK's attitude towards Eurovision so much:
viewtopic.php?f=10&t=1829

Also, can someone link me to all of these articles criticizing the entry? Preferrably published before the contest.

The UK commentator said that Lena's song had been a hit in several European countries. Would you say this is incorrect?

I don't think the person with the attitude you dislike is representative of people in the UK. Speaking as one of them, I'm pleased to see that most UK people seem to agree that we don't want rubbish like this year's song! If we had had the chance to select the song, it's unlikely that it could have been so bad!

I don't have time to research links for "all" the critical articles, but here's one that refers to the "brutal" response to the song - so it should display the strength of feeling:

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sh ... -song.html

 

[Margerita86]

Before the show Lena had charted in her native Germany, Switzerland and Austria and maybe one more. All 3 of those share artists in common.
I would sure not call that a massive hit, it has charted in Sweden after the final and might chart in more during the summer, but your presenter exagerated.

 

[Metaller]

Upon reflection on what I said earlier [...] Germany [...] sent [an] already well established [artist] in Europe.

Lena is not well-established at all.

BTW, it's because of people like this that I hate the UK's attitude towards Eurovision so much:
viewtopic.php?f=10&t=1829

Also, can someone link me to all of these articles criticizing the entry? Preferrably published before the contest.

I'm not sure if basher was talking about Lena this year, and more about maybe the No Angels, who really were an estabslished act when they competed for Germany. Of course I don't know if they were really successful outside of the German-speaking countries, cause I never really liked them and didn't follow their career.

Also, France competed with Patricia Kaas just last year. I don't know if there ever was a better known act who competed in ESC. I mean, Patricia should be very well known in at least the whole Western Europe (perhaps not in the broad mainstream, but at least within the circles of music lovers).

 

[Margerita86]

Patricia is also very popular in Russia, not sure about the rest of the region.

Regarding No Angels wikipedia while a bit unreliable speaks of chart succes in France, Estonia, Latvia, Poland and a few more countries but that was a few years before Eurovision so they might have been forgotten when they went for Germany.

 

[94ayd]

Even if they hadn't been, they sucked live so much they weren't able to get points from pretty much any countries. I was actually surprised Patricia got so few points from Russia as I was aware of her popularity over there.

 

[FallenAngelII]

The UK commentator said that Lena's song had been a hit in several European countries. Would you say this is incorrect?

How does that make her a well-established artist before Germany picked her to represent their country?

The claim was that Germany chose to send a well-established artist to represent them at the Eurovision Song Contest 2010. At the time of her election, she was not well-established at all, not even in Germany. The fact that she then went on to chart in several European countries is neither here nor there in this case.

Also, a single hit does not a well-established artist make. It she does not follow it up with more hits, it makes her a one-hit wonder.

I don't think the person with the attitude you dislike is representative of people in the UK. Speaking as one of them, I'm pleased to see that most UK people seem to agree that we don't want rubbish like this year's song! If we had had the chance to select the song, it's unlikely that it could have been so bad!

This is the first time in years that people like him are in the minority here on the forums among Brits and that the British newspapers aren't raging at the UK's poor placing. The mere fact that there still exist some people like that and that Brits haven't come out in droves to disagree with him yet, however, annoy me.

 

[Margerita86]

Yes, this is the first year that both media and some brits are showing some realisation that we don't really hate you guys, just the awful songs you chose to torture us with...

 

[Metaller]

Even if they hadn't been, they sucked live so much they weren't able to get points from pretty much any countries.

And how they sucked! :shock:

I can still remember that they were just as bad in the national finals back then. I can't really remember who competed against them in the NFs, but I CAN remember that I prefered every other act over them. But what can you do. They had by far the biggest fanbase and were still popular in Germany at that point.

 

[Deltage]

Estonian radio stations used to play some No Angels songs years ago and their first (and probably biggest) hit song Daylight In Your Eyes in 2001 was a hit here. But then, when they competed in ESC they had just made a comeback after a few years so I guess they were sort of forgotten.

By the way, I wonder what would've happened if Scooter had represented Germany (I think they tried in 2004 or so).

 

[MrJadeEwen]

The only comment to that is if you though it was outdated, why the hell did they pick it?
Josh could only work with whatever song they, the BBC gave him...

The BBC picked the songwriter as they thought he'd write a good song, but as many of the BBC reporters and commentators etc have written they dislike the song but he sent it to them they day before YCNY. I'm sure had it been submitted before they'd rule it out and pick someone else.

This has maybe enlightened the BBC yes a good song is needed but not necessarily by a well-known songwriter just a good one. Perhaps the YCNY format (with an ALW judge not the shitty candidates with only one who could hold a note) with 3 songs at the end sent in by 3 different songwriters would work better and we can actually send a good song.