One of the more absurd questions asked by voters regarding the infamous referendum that took place in the UK in 2016 was ‘if we left the EU would we still be able to take part in the Eurovision song contest?’ The answer is yes of course since the song contest is organised by the European Broadcasting Union which is quite separate from the European Union. Indeed, European countries who are not members of the EU have regularly taken part in the song contest, including the UK both before it entered the EU and after it exited, the Ukraine and Albania. Furthermore, non-European countries have also joined in. For example, Morocco was in the competition in 1980 and Australia has taken part since 2015.
Despite this I am convinced that there is a correlation between the belittling of the Eurovision song contest by some UK citizens and the development of the brexitian movement. The late Terry Wogan’s sardonic comments regarding the competitors and their presentation veered towards making fun of the whole show and amusing the viewers – and he was born in Limerick!
It thus became generally assumed that the competition entries were not of a particularly high quality and were to be considered yet other variants of ‘Eurotrash’ mentality. This was in spite of those songs that have become classics in their own right, mostly notably Sandie Shaw with ‘Puppet on a String’ which won the 1967 edition and Abba’s ‘Waterloo’, the winner for 1974.
UK Eurovision presentation hasn’t always been so off-handedly ‘woganish’. Katie Boyle was the stylish Eurovision contest presenter in 1960, 1963, 1968 and 1974. My Italian-born mother couldn’t stand her but then she did not know that Katie’s full name was Caterina Irene Elena Maria Boyle, Lady Saunders (née Imperiali dei Principi di Francavilla) and that she was born in a royal palace in Florence, the daughter of the Italian Marchese Demetrio and his English wife! (PS Katie Boyle’s autobiography is an entrancing read).
The sad fact is that Terry Wogan persuaded so many English viewers not to take the Eurovision contest at all seriously – in spite of the fact that his country of origin has won it six times to-date, including three years in succession. This attitude regrettably spilled over into snobberies about the UK being a member of the EU. The fact that the UK has not won the contest since Katrina and the Waves in 1997 has, in my opinion, also something to do with this lack of seriousness and the willingness for the UK to continue to contribute too many songs of the most appalling mediocrity.
The winners this year were rightly Italy with ‘Zitti e Buoni’ (roughly translated as ‘shut up and behave’) dynamically performed by Damiano David, Ethan Torchi, Thomas Raggi, and the half-Danish female bass guitar player Victoria De Angelis who gave the group its name of ‘Maneskin’ (Danish for ‘Moonlight’). The same song also came first in this year’s San Remo festival (which was the model for the Eurovision song contest).
The UK’s entry represented by James Newman sounded truly tired and hackneyed and fully deserved the dreaded ‘nul points’ it was awarded (or rather not awarded!)
It’s incredible to think that only five years ago Maneskin were just another group of buskers in the streets of Rome. At least both the Sanremo festival and the Eurovision contest have recognised their talent in this especially difficult year for artistes. I just wonder how many more years the UK will have to wait before it gets a winning entry – perhaps more years than it will take to re-join the EU? I wonder….