Eurovision

Last night we watched the Eurovision song contest for the first time in a good few years.

This competition was first held in 1956 in Switzerland when 7 countries entered 14 songs. It became compulsive viewing in our house for a long time as we willed artists like Sandie Shaw, the Brotherhood of Man, Bucks Fizz and Lulu on to win.

Of course Europe is a bigger place now and the competition embraces Eastern and Western European countries. Damn it, I'd have to consult a recent atlas to locate where some of these places are.

The enlargement of the competition has had a big influence on the results. This year the Russian entry got maximum 12 points from former Soviet states Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine, Belarus and Armenia, as well as Israel. Politically, Russia was always favourites to win whatever their entry sounded like.

You could argue now that entry into the competition is almost a waste of time for the Western European countries which is sad. The UK has participated 50 times and won it on 5 occasions. 1997 was the last occasion -when Katrina and the Waves "Love shine a light" stormed home with a clear 70 point lead. Spain's record is even worse with two wins; one in 1968 and joint winners in 1969.

This year though, it looked like Blighty was going to get the wooden spoon. Eventually, the song scraped 14 points and came last. Six of those points came from San Merino and eight from Ireland. Let's face it the UK has only finished in the top ten of the competition once in the last ten years. If the UK wasn't one of the four counties guaranteed a place in each year's competitions, it would be out of the running for next year.

PS Do you remember when Ireland had a winning streak ? They won in 1992, 93 and 94 lost it to Norway in 95 but won it back in 96. Or when in 1969 four countries; France, Spain, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom tied for first place. Heady days that sadly may never return -I don't think we'll bother watching next year.