Summer is drawing to a close and all eyes are beginning to look towards Stockholm 2016, even in the modern Eurovision waste ground that is the United Kingdom. It’s been six years since the country last broke into the top ten, and four since they graced the left-hand side of the scoreboard. However, in recent days two very different names have come forward to comment on the nation’s fortunes at the contest – Scott Mills and Katie Price.
Scott Mills: “We need a killer song”
Speaking to Digital Spy, the BBC’s semi-final commentator admitted that there’s a problem.
We still see it as a joke, and that’s where the problem lies. They [aka everyone] see us seeing it as a joke, and therefore they don’t buy into what we do. The trouble is, it’s now a multi-million Euro competition with actually quite good production values, and sometimes not half bad songs. But we still see it as the Eurovision Song Contest from the ’80s and ’90s, where it’s kind of like, ‘Let’s laugh at some Serbians’.
Mills continued to point out the obvious by adding
We’ve tried everything; novelty, brand new singer, heritage singers. I think we now just need a killer song by someone that can really perform it. We need to look like we’re taking it seriously, and then I think we’ll do a lot better.
He might not be saying anything we don’t already know, but it’s refreshing nonetheless to see someone at the BBC express similar sentiments to the rest of us. However, the radio DJ feels that there’s too much stigma attached to the contest for acts such as One Direction, Olly Murs or Robbie Williams to consider entering. So who could the Brits send?
Katie Price: “I might rectify it”
Enter Pricey! The Sun reports that Katie Price would like another opportunity to represent the UK at Eurovision. Y’all will remember that the glamour model turned reality tv star lost out to Javine in the 2005 British national selection.
Earlier this year, during a stint on Celebrity Big Brother, the woman formerly known as Jordan stated that her Making Your Mind Up bid was her only regret. And apparently the lady wants redemption. The claims were made on ITV2’s Safeword, which is set to be broadcast tonight.
I would never say never. I might rectify it.
Now we love a good comeback as much as the next person, but it doesn’t seem like Katie is overly bothered about doing well. In fact, the UK’s poor track record seems to be one of her main motivations.
I mean we’re never going to win it really are we?
So what do you think? Could Pricey be the one to provide the UK with its “killer song”? Or will she forever be nothing but a “pink condom” (her words not ours)? And what about Scott Mills’ comments? Let us know below.
my advice to the BBC: you won’t find a song in the UK. the professionals won’t touch the contest with a yard and your left with ageing performer and amateurs who have not seen a stage outside of the pub.
so, much like all the British thing like tea curry or kabab. the BBC should look for talent or a song out side of the eurovision bubble and call it you’re own.
or
if you don’t johnny foreigner to muck up you’re national pride for being foreign. i would suggest getting local BBC radio station to put forward an act/song.
More people at the BBC (like Scott) need to speak up about the issue of our poor entries, then the BBC might take notice. Guy Freeman and co have proven they simply don’t have the capability of choosing a hit and therefore should leave it up to the public (but an online vote, so its youth voting and no sympathy votes etc).
Katie would be good but I really wan Ellie Goulding, Jess Glynn with Clean Bandit or Calvin Harris to do it.
Katie Price: She gets my vote – after all, she’s clearly not daft, being worth some 45 million, and you never know, she might twerk on stage – that would put a very large cat amongst the pidgeons >:-)
Also, I would have no qualms whatsoever that she didn’t know exactly what she was getting into in advance, which is something I worry about annually……
Racal I disagree about France. The caliber of their recent entries have been great, particularly this year and in 2013. They were stunning songs overlooked by Europe
It would be nice to see Alt-J for the UK or Clean Bandit. Something different, with good songs and something new.
The UK has the best music industry in the world. If they wanted to win it, they easily would. Scott Mills sums it up perfectly: they see it as a joke (same as France), so no serious writer, composer or singer would bother. But… What if they did?
The irony here is that Katie Price wouldn’t stand a chance to win. She pretty much just crawls out of the hovels once a year for her moment of “stardom”. UK will never send real stars, but something they should really look at is their upcoming stars that usually appear on BBC (I cannot recall the show name) such as Years & Years. There are so many REAL musicians would bite at the option. Kitty Brucknell had offered 2 very decent songs to them and they threw them back at her. They should go to some sort of a national… Read more »
I thought the problem this year was the genre. If the BBC actually thought that was considered “modern contemporary” song as they described it, they really need to listen to more European radio. Or BBC Radio 1 for that matter. Where in Europe beyond Britain is that genre popular? Is not even popular enough to be on Radio 1 and that’s a big issue. At least with Italy that genre is still popular in the Balkans and Eastern Europe, which is part of why they did so well. And the performance wasn’t actually any fun either. A song like that… Read more »
The UK may laugh at Eurovision and treat it like one big joke. But the truth is, the contest is still very popular in Britain and the public are starting to cop on when it comes to matters like the voting and are realizing that they are sending poor quality songs. I think it is only a matter of time before the UK actually send a winning song. Heck, I wouldn’t be surprised if they matched Sweden’s 6 wins in Stockholm. The UK has the music scene to win Eurovision every single year if they really wanted to. They could… Read more »
Any country can win IF they put in the effort to have a well produced, well written and brilliantly performed song. (Until politics come into it i.e. France 2015, which was flawless) A country like the United Kingdom has more musically at their disposal than any other country in Eurovision. But they are waste sending Englebert and Bonnie and ElectroVelvet. In 2014 they had one of the better songs but paired with a girl who had almost zero live performance experience and who quite frankly didn’t even want to be there. Clearly that wasn’t going to go down well and… Read more »
The last UK song killed by a poor performance was in 2014! 2015 the problem was the song… who ever chose such a song withbelieving it could win??? Why doesn’t the UK look for a good song, by a talented artist and create a professional performance!!!
Honestly, “Still in Love with You” wasn’t and isn’t a bad song. It’s not a great song either, but it’s fun and different. Comparatively, the song wasn’t up to snuff to this year’s competition, but still should have done better than it did… The problem was Electro Velvet. It was a bad performance. They couldn’t hit the notes when it counted (like during the actual performance), and they looked scared, like they might wet their pants if they ran into another Swede or a Russian backstage. And that set… It looked like a middle grade performance of Chicago, the musical,… Read more »
I was very disappointed about UK this year. I liked the song (not a masterpiece, but it was funny) and they get a very low placement. I don’t think it’s UK’s fault, but eurofans’ fault that think UK doesn’t take it seriously.
I actually think Katie could do great with a good song…..
Hurricane, I completely disagree. I think Scott was pretty up for it and loved the entries. Both him and Mel were so enthusiastic, whereas for the first time, I despised Graham’s coverage. He massively insulted Norway’s entry whilst their postcard was on, which really angered me as it was an obviously good song. As for Katie Price…the public wouldn’t choose her. She was proper famous in 2005 and we still didn’t choose her then, let alone now when we all legit hate her. No chance. Can’t remember who put it now, but to whoever said CHVRCHES yes yes yeeeeees (though… Read more »
National selection is usually only a viable route if there is enough interest from the public to warrant the air time, and countries only publish televoting results from national selection contests if they are large enough. You can find this out by looking at the National selection results for every country on wiki, which go back at least 15 years for many. The UK only published televoting results in the years 2000, 2001 & 2002, where approximately 100,000 votes were cast on each occasion. This gives us a voting rate of approx. 0.2% of the UK’s population. Compare this with… Read more »
I think Scott Mills is correct in his analysis, unfortunately he was a major part of the problem this year with the derogatory and mocking tone of his semi-final commentary for BBC 3 which was very poor. It’s pretty obvious that the BBC has totally lost the plot with Eurovision, the contest has moved on but they haven’t. It’s hard for the British public to see the contest for what it has become because the BBC constantly reminds them of what it was 15 years ago through the tone of its commentary and the acts it selects. We need a… Read more »
Wait – they tried heritage entries? When did that happen? There’s such fantastic folk music in the UK, and it’d be great to see it on the Eurovision stage.
@Calvin by “heritage” entries they mean Bonnie and Englebert, not folk music 😉
They need a big national final show in an arena like Germany with new artists since known names won;’t take part. I wonder if artists that do not enjoy success right now like Leona, Katie Melua, Hurts and Duffy, would be interested in Eurovision.
Blame it on BBC for not trying. Hurts wanted to take part but they went for Blue. Same for Katie Melua in 2010.
By the way in that video 4 her 2005 NF song she reminded me of Pamela Anderson 😛 😉
@:Robyn Gallagher
The BBC may not have learnt anything, but the public have. Before we would send a bad act and blame political voting for the result.
I was listening to Radio 2 Eurovision the next day, and all the tweets were blaming the BBC for choosing it, not Electro Velvet or political voting. Most were demanding a national selection in the style of melfest.
I’d like to give it a try 🙂 cmon BBC open up national submissions again!
Katie should stay away. If the UK sees it as a joke, sending an even bigger joke won’t work. We need to convince our big names that it’s not a career killer, unless you make it one. If you have a career, you don’t loose it. Sandi Shaw, Cliff Richard, Lulu, Michael Ball, Olivia Newton John all had a career before and had an even bigger ones afterwards. For crying out loud OLJ was in one of the most celebrated musicals of all time. We need to remind our finest musical artists to appreciate that.
Katie Price, no. Not at all. She’s a nobody here in the UK (now at least) and she’s just trashy.
The solution is simple enough but something the BBC will not contemplate: an actual national selection.
Your Country needs you to be honest was dependent on the song. In 2009 it had a decent one but in 2010 the song was downright trash (how anyone liked it I don’t know). What’s needed is something like DGMP, accepting submissions from the public and a 1 night selection with jury and public voting and a couple of rounds to pick the best act.
The BBC just don’t want to flash the money that they have
Hell no to Katie Price, Hell yes to CHVRCHES!
Oh…She was Jordan as well.. I remember her after i read in the news that she was harrasshed in a night club with another woman touching her boobs & then she punched her on the face.. Well i can see why this happened to her as she seemed too sl*tty & provocative.. She is the english Kim Kardashian of UK i guess…But in more sl*t version.. 4 her to go to our Vision as a singer(???) would be just lame & embarrashing 4 both our music contest & UK’s image profile.. So its a NO… Her song will be a… Read more »