Like I did. However there was no sound on (or I just didn’t listen) so I didn’t hear anything.
Watching Questions & Answers tonight on RTÉ and one of the questions was, “Should Tony Blair worry about the Eurovision result”.
Surprisingly most of the panel (which included Irish pols Richard Bruton and Willie O’Dea, plus a few lesser knowns) did think the UK result was political. Only one of them pointed out the fact that the song was, in fact, dreadful. Then a couple members of the audience started talking about Terry Wogan’s comments and suddenly it occurred to the host that they’re talking about a broadcast on a competing network - subject changed very quickly indeed after that 
That Sun article amanset linked to claims that Joe Dolce of ‘Shaddupya Face’ fame was Italian! Uh no…Dolce is Australian! Who’s checking the facts at that paper? Doh!
And Jemini scored the holy grail of suckitude, nul poit because the girl singer sang hideously out of tune. It was so amatuer it was embarrassing. The song itself, in its studio version isn’t that bad. But performance counts on the night. They weren’t the only ones out of tune, but they were the worst by a long way.
The daft American asks:
Qualification round? But…isn’t this thing supposed to be mainly for fun? Why impose strict standards?
And having a qualification round seems to be like admitting that not everyone in the competition is all that. Who’d sit through a second round, if they’ve already seen what the competitors don’t got?
Unfortunately not everyone sees it that way. That is definitely my issue with it in Sweden, you will not believe how seriously they take it.
The UK with our “emjoying it and having a laugh” attitude has still got a better record than Sweden though 
Aftenposten (which is a Norwegian paper) had an article yesterday about an article in Aftonbladet (which is a Swedish paper) concerning the Norwegian presenter’s characterization of the Swedish duo; I believe he said they had “less charisma than an IKEA bookcase”. I’m not sure which is more bizarre, the fact that Aftonbladet was offended by what is after all a relatively mild put-down, or that Aftenposten found this significantly important to write about.:rolleyes:
Cheers to the (London) Times who had enough of a sense of humor about the UK’s dismal result to call up the original “nul points expert” for an interview. But if Mr. Teigen attempts another comeback as a result of the attention, it’ll be on their heads!
Interesting, especially considering that last week Aftonbladet had centre-page spread with headline “Stop the bullying!” (in Swedish, obviously). Apparently some Swedes had been ripping into the pair for being boring, so the Swedish lass was trying to counter this by saying that she was not boring and could go out and party all night if she wanted to.
Aren’t tabloids great?
Actually Annie, we had a LonDope on Eurovision day last year.
This would be less of a big deal to mention, but I do believe that you were there.
Of course, we didn’t watch the Euro foolishness, because Ianzin’s nail-up-the-nose antics were more entertaining.
pan
BWAHAHAHAHAH!!!
Jemini are now alleging sabotage.
I can’t think of a ghastly pun to go with that, so I’ll leave it to stand on its own merits.
Don’t knock it, they’ve already managed to convince my Mother, who seems oblivious to the fact that the song was immeasurably bad.
Oh, and curly chick:
I can’t find the article now, but she was tripping out for a little while because she thought the [ahem] garment had been stolen. Turns out someone on their crew had taken it away for “safekeeping”. (Anticipated this, maybe?)
From the BBC website:
Before Eurovision:
How prescient.
After Eurovision:
Substitute “performance” for “result”, and he’s nearer the mark
The problem is that there are too many countries who want to compete. A few years ago they introduced a rule to eliminate the worst entries from competing in the next year’s competition, and I suspect that too many such countries are knocking on the door for at least a chance to try again straight away. Two competitions a year would kill me though – it’s hard enough avoiding one ;).
As well as the controversy over Israel, Morocco have also entered in the past and Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Libya and Syria are all eligible along with numerous European countries who weren’t included this year. So’s the Vatican btw – singing nun anyone?
I’ve probably disqualified myself from contributing to this thread at all because I didn’t watch the show, but having heard them singing it on the radio the song itself didn’t seem too terrible (except in the way the all are), and they evidently could sing it in tune. But I’ve also heard the competition rendition since, and it was dreadful. The politics might have made the difference between them getting no points and getting three or four, but they were always likely to finish near the bottom of the pile for anyone not voting for Gemma’s legs.
Did they actually claim that themselves in so many words or was it an answer to a leading question? It seems a bit far-fetched that somebody would switch the monitors off deliberately, but perhaps there’s some truth in it if the stories of their dressing room being trashed are also true.
Check my post above.
Yeah, Twistoffate I know, ‘The Sun’ and ‘facts’ in the same sentence…what was I thinking? :o
amanset, don’t you have qualifying rounds in the national GP?
I understand we’re going to do the same thing here. Two national competitions and two international competitions equals four times the fun.
Not that I know of - at least not televised (please a Brit correct me if I am wrong). When I lived in the UK it was only ever one final where you got to choose from eight to ten songs - the population had no control over what songs got to the final.
I am not joking, they had three or four efforts of two hours or so to choose who would go through to the national final and then a massive thing to choose their winner. It seemed to go on for ever.
They take it VERY seriously here.