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 last year we only managed 18 points and 22nd place.  Fortunately, our Big 4 status means we make it through to the Final no matter what, but we must ask the question 'where are we going wrong?'

 

 

Finally we've entered something new and different to Eurovision, and we'd be right to have high hopes for this, would we not?  The song will surely stand out among the others, with a different performance, catchy chorus and impressive rapper.  Daz seems to be a big Eurovision fan, and has certainly been drumming up support from his home country and has announced plans for a European promo tour.  The song's one you'll either love or hate, and we do have some problems such as how the girls will sound on stage when singing live, but this should be sorted with few problems and in the mean time we should delight in something that just might win at Eurovision.

 

 

While we do have a possible winner on our hands here, I think it's more likely Daz will sit comfortably in the top ten than on top of the leader board.  I think this will pick up lots of points from some countries and nothing at all from others.  I really do hope this wins though, at least nobody can say we haven't tried!

 

 

I've really rather gone off Daz Sampson.  There's been alot in the media about him, and his enthusiasm could be translated for cockiness.  The 'down to earth' guy really is a bit of prick.  The song, done live, sounds good, especially the girls.  I can't help thinking he ruins the chorus by speaking over them though.  I don't think we have the winner this year.  It could be top ten, but I think mid-teens is more likely, sorry Daz - NOT!

 

 

Well Daz, I apologise and take back what I said - you did the home turf proud!  I thought 19th place and 25 points was massively less than what the UK deserved this year.  The performance was another one of the unexpected highlights of the show for me.  The girls sounded wonderful onstage (if they were a little off beat at the start of the song) and Daz did a wonderful job - I loved the jacket too - much better than denim!  The whole routine looked well and entertaining on stage - and it all came across as being very British.  In my opinion, the song unfortunately was simply overlooked on the night amidst much stronger competition - and bigger gimmicks, but rap invariably flops at Eurovision anyway.  If we look at the points though, the UK did well enough to make it into the top ten in countries as far away as Croatia and Poland - so I think Daz should be happy with that.  I think we need to go back to our routes though and enter the simple disco pop or a good female ballad if we're to get anywhere in Eurovision.  So my prediction was wrong again, but considering recent years, at least we didn't do quite so poorly as 2003 and 2004.