The UK are one of Eurovision's most successful nations, winning 5 times (1967, 1969, 1976, 1981 and 1997) and coming second a massive and rather uncanny 15 times.  The latest of our wins was of course in 1997 with the wonderful Katrina & The Waves singing the brilliant 'Love Shine A Light'.  This was one of Eurovision's biggest wins, securing no less that ten 'douze points' and five 'dix points', meaning it was some time before the end of the voting that their victory was assured.  Immanni then finished 2nd in 1998, but since the free language rule was introduced in 1999, the UKs fortunes took a severe turn - coming 12th, then saw our worst position ever in 2000 when the rest of Europe agreed with Nicki French's 'Don't Play That Song Again', placing her 16th of 24.  2001 saw nothing new, the same amount of points, but one position higher in 15th.  2002 was our last ray of light at Eurovision when Jessica Garlick sang her way to joint 3rd with an impressive 111 points.  Unfortunately 2003 saw the UK received the ultimate in bad placings - not only did we come last, but we gained the elusive 'nul points'.  maybe we should look on the bright side - at least we can't do any worse - but on the other hand, even France haven't fared quite so badly.  2004 didn't see much change when James Fox secured 16th place with 29 points - surely he deserved more.  We had very high hopes for Javine last year, but with what I thought was one of the most disappointing vocal performances of 2005 we only managed 18 points and 22nd place.  Hopes were high for Daz last year, but his gimmicks seemed timid when performing between Finland and Lithuania, we only managed 19th place.  Fortunately being members of the Big 4 ensures we get direct qualification to the Final in 2007. 

 

 

The UK’s Making Your Mind Up 2007 was probably the biggest National Selection the UK have held to date, despite the fact that it still only lasted for one evening.  Starting at 7:30pm, it had an unrivalled prime time Saturday Evening slot, and you could tell a lot of hard work and money had been thrown into putting together a very impressive set.  There certainly was a much bigger feel about it, and all but one of the artists had experienced chart success – the BBC was finally taking the Eurovision seriously. 

 

First up was ex Atomic Kitten member with a light hearted, upbeat song which would have done well at Eurovision – ‘Don’t It Make You Happy’.  Following her was desperate to revive his career ex-East 17 member Brian Harvey who had already experienced some solo success as well as Liz.  Unfortunately, it wasn’t meant to be as the song which he had chosen to help him revamp his career was outside his vocal limits (either that or he just couldn’t sing).  Following Brian were the big favourites – Big Brovaz.  They gave a sound performance of a good song, and it actually looked like it would fit in Eurovision.  However, I’m glad it wasn’t meant to be as rap would never have done well at Eurovision.  Following Big Brovaz was Cyndi who sang the beautiful ‘I’ll Leave My Heart’.  She gave a fantastic performance, with a pristine vocal and mesmerizing appeal but being followed by Scooch was never going to help.  Scooch gave an entertaining tongue-in-cheek performance of ‘Flying the Flag’.  It wasn’t the best vocal but they clearly gave their all to the  dance routine and thoroughly enjoyed themselves.  Last up was Justin Hawkes and Beverlei Brown.  Both gave a good performance although it all just didn’t sound as good as it should have.

 

When the results were announced as to who were the Final two it was clear to see why the public had selected Cyndi, and a huge shock to see Scooch actually make it through.  Performing again both gave a much better performance than their first – although I’d say Cyndi’s was better, but both songs couldn’t have been more different.  In the end, this Making Your Mind Up will always be remembered for Terry Wogans extremely unprofessional blip – where he announced Cyndi as the winner instead of Scooch.  At this point I was jumping up and down in fits of excitement – the UK was finally going to win Eurovision 10 years later.  It was only seconds though before I was brought back to ground with an almighty bump – Fearne announced that it actually was Scooch.

 

Despite feeling Cyndi maybe would have been more of a dead cert, I have had time to warm to Scooch’s entry, and am not feeling as much in dismay as I was.  They have set out to do what they meant to do – put smiles on people’s faces.  They certainly did it for me before I found out they won – but I’m sure they’ll also put smiles on people’s faces across Europe during their performance on May 12^th.  This is one of the few novelty entries that actually manages to respect Eurovision – unlike Ukraine and Israel, this manages to embrace Eurovision enthusiastically which I feel Scooch should be given credit for, and I’m sure people will notice on the night.  It’s all about having a bit of fun, not taking themselves too seriously, while respecting the competition at the same time (even if the majority of Europe doesn’t).  This year won’t be the UKs year, but I really do think we have a much better chance than we have had in the last few years.  It’s an upbeat, fun, happy pop song, with great choreography and a catchy tune.  I think it ticks all the important boxes, so GO SCOOCH – I’ll be clapping and singing along in my living room and I’ll have my fingers crossed for lots of votes – something I think that isn’t too far out of reach.

 

 

I think we should expect a strong performance from Scooch in the Final.  The song's fun, upbeat, catchy and entertaining.  While I don't think we'll manage to get lots of douze points, Scooch should make it comfortable into everyone's top ten and receive between 3 and 7 points from each country.  The song should outdo entries from the Ukraine and Romania, and shine out with plenty of sparkle and enthusiams.  Here's hoping, it's about time we got a good result, and Scooch really are putting in the effort.

 

 

It's getting more and more difficult to say how the UK will do.  Very few cheesey numbers went through, so maybe Europe don't want cheese, then again, as one of the few upbeat, camp, fun cheesey numbers in the Final, they could pick up alot of points.  I think the UK should make the top ten this year - and if we don't, it's high time the EBU reassessed the voting procedure!

 

 

Well, considering a girl with a big ballad won, it seems the UK really did make the wrong decision sending Scooch over Cyndi, and as much as I adore Scooch and have even met them in person, I can’t help but think that it would have been Cyndi and Marija head to head at the top of the scoreboard had we have sent her.  Following Verka’s performance was an unenviable task, and a ballad may have just been the contrast we needed.  Nonetheless, camp pop followed camper pop, and I’m afraid Scooch’s enthusiastic attempt just wasn’t enough to follow Verka.  Nonetheless I thoroughly enjoyed it.  I met Scooch in August and got photos taken with them.  They signed all my CDs and were one of the loveliest bunch of people I have ever met, and weren’t regretful or bitter toward their Eurovision experience.  After they performed they went down a treat in the arena, being one of the best supported acts of the evening.  Unfortunately the applause didn’t translate into votes.  I’ve mentioned before that I simply think there were no novelty entries in the competition this year that would have been able to outdo Verka, so this was no exception, and that is exactly the reason why I think Scooch scored so poorly (apart from the fact that not everyone likes the cheesiness this offered).  Scooch sang well and the choreography was brilliant.  If I had to criticise anything about the performance it would have been the two backing singers, who looked so unforgivably out of place on stage.  They should have been dressed in black and inconspicuously positioned to the side of the stage with microphones on stands, and left Scooch to do the entertaining.  Other than that I thought everything was great, and all the flags on the back of the trolley was a lovely, if not expected touch.  Despite a poor position I think Scooch should be happy, they set out to put smiles on people’s faces and for 3 minutes I think they brightened up living rooms across Europe with their enthusiastic, upbeat pop.  Back to the drawing board for the UK and the less said about my prediction the better… it was wrong.