It was a year of records for Eurovision, filmed in front of a reduced live audience in Rotterdam after last year’s event was cancelled. Eden Alene from Israel sang the competition’s highest-ever note. A model moon measuring six metres across and suspended above Spain’s entry was said to be the biggest-ever prop. Also on Saturday, the UK became the first nation to receive the dreaded nul points under a new voting system introduced in 2016, where the splitting of votes between juries and viewers was thought to make it almost impossible for a song to plumb such depths of unpopularity. Ooh la la, as the French contestant Barbara Pravi (one of a minority of competitors to sing in a language other than English) might have said.
Ms Pravi came second behind Italy’s Måneskin, a band that was caught up in another drama. Damiano David, the singer for the triumphant Roman rockers, agreed to take a drug test after he was caught on camera appearing to snort something off a table. The test having come back negative, his band kept their title. Down at the bottom of the scoreboard, there was even less room for manoeuvre. Britain’s James Newman took the rejection of his lacklustre tune, Embers, with good grace. In a contest that revels in being over the top, there is perhaps something fitting about such a spectacular defeat.
But the uncomfortable fact is that this is the second time in a row that the UK has come last. Michael Rice’s dismal showing in 2019 even led to a shake-up of the rules. Appearing to blame viewers of the reality show Eurovision: You Decide, who chose his entry, the BBC teamed up with the music label BMG, a sort of public-private partnership that was described as “a turning point for the UK at Eurovision”. Alas, when the wheel of fortune turned, Mr Newman ended up further down than Mr Rice who, though a loser, at least brought a few points home with him.
What to do? The comedian Bill Bailey, recently a victor in that other glitterfest, Strictly Come Dancing, volunteered to try next time. That’s the spirit! Things can only get better. And the UK public loves it: Saturday’s audience of 8 million for the BBC’s broadcast, anchored by Graham Norton, was the biggest for years. A whole continent, and Russia too, watching and voting on the same show, is a musical analogue to sport’s ritual competitions between national teams (with some traditional costumes and melodies thrown in alongside the catsuits, suspenders, glitter and angel wings).
Who knows which songs such a vast and diverse audience plump for? Judging from previous years, one indispensable criterion is for contestants to look like they are having the time of their life. But voters (whether juries or viewers) also have a habit of standing by their friends. Does it matter that the UK appeared to have so few on Saturday? Even fewer, perhaps, after presenter Amanda Holden delivered a terrible line about not knowing whether bonsoir was French or Dutch. We can laugh it off – our pop industry, after all, is one of the biggest in the world. But unpopularity is nothing to be proud of.
