So with that in mind I took a book out of the library entitled Eurovision - A history of Modern Europe through the world's greatest song contest.
I think it rather suggests that a song contest has had slightly more effect on Europe than simply being about music. It's an interesting thought that nations and individuals have used it for various purposes.
I've only dipped into it at present but I did like the year that the Russian entry came absolutely nowhere. Russian television didn't show the contest live but then cut and edited it so that their entry appeared to perform last and then they didn't show the voting or scoring, thus giving the idea that Russia had come first - so so Russian from a country that wouldn't know the truth if it jumped up and hit them in the backside. Apparently they cut out most of the performances as well
And so to the UK's entry for 2024. Every year I say the same thing - our entry is rubbish. It's going to come in the bottom three and could get nil points. Every year I say the same thing - it isn't political voting that sees us consistently coming in the nether regions. It's because we regularly enter the same kind of awful dross. We come bottom because we deserve to come bottom. It's almost that coming last is an achievement and something to be celebrated.
Then in 2022 it all went wrong. Yes we entered a good song with a good artist. Sam Ryder broke the mould with a genuinely good song Spaceman. The song was good, Sam looked good, everyone loved him and it proved that, with a good song and singer, we would come anywhere but last.
Spaceman came second and would have won but for the public's support and sympathy for the Ukraine entry which, I have to say, wasn't a bad entry anyway.
But Ryder had proved that the UK doesn't automatically come in the bottom three and that took us to Liverpool for last year's event. And what did we do? Yes we entered an awful piece of dross and came in the bottom three.
And so to this year. How do they chose the UK entry? It used to be some kind of contest within itself with the public choosing the winner. Now we have a song and an artist foisted on us.
And for 2024 that song is Dizzy and that artist is Olly Alexander. It's a piece of electronic nonsense with that awful synth beat behind it. It's the kind of song that has never ever won Eurovision. My prediction is it will finish in the bottom three and that's nothing to do with politics or nationalism. It's simply because it's another piece of musical dross, chosen by people who haven't got a clue of what a Eurovision song should be.
Meanwhile we will have to suffer the best part of two months listening to The One Show telling us how wonderful, incredible, superbly amazing and unbelievable Dizzy really is when we all know it's a heap of crap and that's putting it mildly.
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I took the advice of my bloggettes and rang up the RAC regarding my car insurance. I had high hopes that I would get a better deal than the 70 per cent increase they had offered me and which I had no intention taking. After answering lots of questions in order to get me to the right place I got through to somebody who obviously had little or no interest in helping me. That's after I had hung around whilst they played Mozart very loudly at me.
This guy was obviously feeling unwell as he kept coughing and spluttering but at least I could understand him. He asked me a few questions and then came up with the same figure I had previously been given. I pointed out that it was a ludicrous increase for someone who hasn't had a claim for decades apart from a replacement windscreen. Got absolutely nowhere. It was definitely a case of "computer says no."
He asked me if I wanted to go ahead with the quote. I said no and off I went to compare the meerkat and money supermarket and got some decent quotes until I went to try and pay and suddenly they rose by £100. Everything went haywire and I will have to try again in a few days time.
Final thought for today. I've been listening to Classic FM quite a lot recently but they seem more and more to have their programmes presented by celebrities. We have had Alexander Armstrong and Dan Walker and Jonathan Ross. I'm not saying these people don't have a genuine interest in classical music but sometimes I do wonder.