The UK is arrogant to believe we are the victims of political voting in Eurovision, an expert says.
James Newman scored nul points in Rotterdam on Saturday night, landing us in last place for the second consecutive year with his song Embers.
But despite claims the UK is penalised in the competition following Brexit, Brit Paul “Dr Eurovision” Jordan, blames the song Embers itself, “dreadful” staging and bad outfits.
He said: “Spain haven’t won since 1969. They’re not moaning about being hated. It’s arrogant to assume voters care about Brexit or [PM Boris] Johnson.
“They ’re not looking at UK politics when it comes to Saturday night television. Do you really think people are thinking: ‘I want to vote for the UK but I’m jealous of their vaccine rollout?’
He added: “If it was political, Israel wouldn’t have won in 2018, and they wouldn’t have qualified this year.”
Israel’s entrant Eden Alene sang Set Me Free and scored 93 points, finishing 17th.
But Dr Eurovision does believe UK entrants are scored more harshly due to the quality of global British artists such as Adele and Ed Sheeran.
He explained: “We are judged differently because of our music industry. Why would Vera in Moscow or Shirley in Lithuania vote for something that is not representative of music from the UK they hear on the radio?”
Paul believes we should follow the example of this year’s hosts the Netherlands and take the ceremony seriously every year rather than “flip-flopping” between joke acts and musicians with more gravitas.
He said: “For 10 years the Netherlands had the same discourse – moaning about not qualifying. They stopped blaming others, looked at themselves and entered a decent song. They won eventually.
“You need to have three things: the song, the performance and the staging.”
Of James Newman singing between two giant trumpets, he said: “It just didn’t look good.”
