I'm very much in the love camp. It's a great event, a fantastic show, an exchange of cultures and a lot of fun. Sure, there may be some strange outing patterns, but I think they're overstressed by the nations who lose.
One thing, however, that does concern me is the way that the UK entry is selected.
In the past we had Song for Europe in which shortlisted songs and acts ompeted against each other to win the public's vote and, ultimately, the chance to represent the UK at Eurovision, which this year is being held in Baku, Azerbaijan.
Some years, the performer was ore-selected and songwriters wrote songs for that performer. I liked that. t put the emphasis on the songwriting because, after all, this is meant o be a songwriting competition.
Then we had the song imposed on us and chose wo would sing it. This, I thought, really wasn't in the spirit of Eurovision and, even with songwriters as eminent as Andrew Lloyd Webber chosen to write the song, missed the point.
And now we have a situation whereby there is no public vote, no selection process, no home of song and no choice of performer, It's all decided by a small group of music industry people in a darkened room.
This year's song is ok but, in my opinion, fails to really make the best use of Englebert Humperdinck's voice. It will probably do ok but I'd be amazed if it won, but the biggest problem is that the public haven't had the chance to have their say about it. They haven't invested in it in any way. They aren't part of the journey.
It's time that Song for Europe was bought back and the public choice the song. With Internet voting the long list of entries could be quite long before being whittled down to a shortlist of finalists, but it's important that we return to entering a songwriting contest, not just a celebrity singing contest, or, worse still, an X Factor karaoke night.
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