On Thursday, the BBC will reveal the UK‘s act for Eurovision 2020. But the broadcaster’s decision to internally select their act for 2020 has sparked a reaction from the British public. And one of the people speaking out is the UK’s 2008 Eurovision singer Andy Abraham.
Andy represented the UK at Eurovision 2008 after winning the UK national final Eurovision: Your Decision. The former X Factor star made it through the complicated national final, surviving a duels round, a semi-final and a superfinal — all in the one show.
He went on to perform his song “Even If” in Belgrade, where it finished last with only 14 points: eight points from neighbouring Ireland’s televote and six points from San Marino’s composite televote.
Twelve years later, Eurovision is still on Andy’s mind. He has released a statement to the media, sharing his thoughts on the state of the UK at Eurovision in 2020. In the statement, Andy begins by valuing the participation factor of Eurovision:
“If I’m honest, I look at Eurovision like I look at the Olympics these days. It’s not the winning that counts, it’s the taking part, you know.”
But he goes on to express a gloomier outlook on the UK’s chances at the song contest. He claims:
“We all know Britain has no chance of victory, that much is clear. It’s all about politics usually anyway, with everyone voting for their neighbours and historic allies or whatever. Most of the voting you can guess.”
This news will come as a surprise to Switzerland. The politically neutral country took a triumphant fourth-place finish at Eurovision last year. Luca Hänni’s “She Got Me” picked up points from all but two countries and the song went on to chart in 17 nations.
“With Brexit, I can’t see our chances improving”
But Andy’s gloomy outlook continues, this time looking at the UK leaving the European Union. He says:
“Things haven’t gone very well for us in years and I don’t believe that’s changing anytime soon. It’s not like we had too many Eurovision friends before and, with Brexit, I can’t see our chances improving in 2020.”
Again, this is at odds with the Eurovision of the 2010s. In recent years, non-EU members Ukraine and Israel have won the contest, while Australia placed second in 2016. At Eurovision 2019, seven of the top ten finishers were non-EU members, including televote winners Norway.
Andy also drags out the old claim that no matter who the UK sends, they wouldn’t get any points. Though this time, instead of the oft-used examples of Adele and Ed Sheeran, he’s picked elderly pop legends:
“You could put Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger and Elton John up there together and we’d still get more than our share of ‘nul points’.”
Sadly, the UK didn’t have much luck with veteran stars Engelbert Humperdinck and Bonnie Tyler — but their Eurovision entries weren’t hits in the UK, either.
But despite all the gloom, Andy still remains a fan. He confirms:
“I will be watching events in Rotterdam, though. Whatever you think of the politics or even the music, it’s a rich bit of European culture and something we all have fond memories of from childhood. It’s glam and camp but most of all its spectacular. The special effects just get more impressive each year and there’s always a surprise package and a couple of real characters to make it interesting.”
But in the end, Andy has some sound advice. He concludes by saying:
“I think the important thing for me is not to take it too seriously. It’s good family fun, with a variety of acts, a bit like Top of the Pops back in the day, and it makes a great night in in front of the telly.”
This year, the BBC cancelled their national final Eurovision: You Decide and reverted to internal selection. The broadcaster partnered with music company BMG to select the right song and artist for Eurovision 2020.
The BBC will announce their act for Eurovision 2020 on Thursday morning, broadcast on both BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 2.
What do you think? Does Andy Abraham have a point? Or is the BBC on the right track with their selection method for 2020? Tell us your thoughts below!
Bad songs = bad results. In Spain “cool country without brexit bla bla bla” we have a master class in that
Oh and by the way, no one watching Eurovision is going to care about Brexit! Only the British care about Brexit…!
OK this is pathetic. The UK has not sent anything worthwhile to Eurovision in a long time. They have themselves to blame for not doing decent in the finals. Lots of Europeans love British quality pop music but that’s not what we are getting at Eurovision. Just look at 2011 and Blue. That was actually somewhat good (expect the terrible staging) and they did very well in the televotes. It is possible for the UK to win but you have to deserve it!!!
Do people not understand that 2 things can be true at the same time? It is not it is either the UK is “Hated” or UK does not send good songs! People denying the Eurovision is not political are delusional! Greece and Cyprus swap 12 points every year no matter the quality of the song! Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland will all trade points and there are many other examples! Is anyone seriously saying that Russia has received less points in recent years due to political reasons? Just look at some of the Jury Scoring! However, that does not mean… Read more »
Eurovision has always been political but you can beat that with a good song.
That is exactly what i said in my comment… I am saying the people who say We can never win because of politics are wrong
And the people who say it has nothing to do with politics are wrong!
Seems like UK is content on blaming everyone else but themselves. No, no one “has it against you” or the big 5. Germany won ten years ago, Italy is constantly in the top 10. Not to mention, the arguably “most disliked” country, Russia is always in the top 10!(well almost always) Seems like people there see Eurovision as a joke, send a boringg, forgettable song and when it flops scream “See?!?!?!?”. Start putting more effort and stop blaming everyone else but yourselves. Hopefully this year will be the change UK needs.
He doesn’t do himself any favours by using the Olympics as a comparison. The UK always does really well at the Olympics well summer ones anyway. We do well because we send excellent athletes. I think we can all learn a lesson here.
If they send trash how could they!? Tell me a song from the past 20 years, except 2009 which deserved to win???????
Blue
ElEcTrO VeLvEt
“with Brexit, I can’t see our chances improving” – but for example Poland had the best result when we weren’t yet in EU, and there were NQ’s almost every year right after becoming a part of the EU, so entering EU seems being worse for having good results in Eurovision than not being a part of it. 😉 For me it seems more that with becoming one of big 4 & 5 UK stopped caring about having a good song in the contest…
Kinda off topic.. Loved Storm, got me through some hard times.. Hope the UK gets their act together and not go around blame Brexit.. Rooting for you!
Britain won’t do well this year? Sooo.. how will this be any different from their last 20yrs of results? Lol. Don’t blame this on Brexit you sour and bitter Remoaner.
Every British person thinks they are an expert on Eurovision and every British person is very bitter that we don’t win every year. This just isn’t news. (I am British btw).
I’m also British and far from bitter, some of us aren’t deluded it’s nothing political it’s the fact the songs the BBC send are consistently awful and bargain basement crap quality. That’s the real problem.
Sadly this is true but the fault lies with the BBC and of course the relentless British media.
Does anyone know what he’s doing now? Is he a bin man again?
Hopefully
Israel is the most disadvantaged country when it comes to politics and neighbour voting, and still won 4 times. There is an aspect of neighbor etc, yes, but if you send a really good song, politics wont matter that much. UK’s problem is that for other countries, Eurovision is often the only opportunity artists have to be seen outside of the borders of their own country. Famous UK artist have the world stage for free anyway, so Eurovision wont help them much. This, plus the UK’s habit of shaming their losers, makes the good artists and song writers shun away… Read more »
Trivia: when was the last time the UK sent a song that made it into THEIR OWN top 15 singles chart?
2007!
the British public don’t even like their OWN songs – why on earth would the rest of europe?!?!?
This is the point I have been making for years. At last someone with common sense. Apart from BBC radio 2, I can’t recall any radio stations actually playing our entries for years let alone actively promoting them. We always have a go at the rest of Europe yet we don’t give a damn ourselves.
The BBC is the problem. The BBC is about as current as my nan, and she’s been dead for 20 years. If the song was being played on KISS then maybe it would fair better.
I’m so sick and tired of UK blaming everyone but themselves. How about stop sending bland/forgettable songs and acts if you want to win.
Amen!!
What I take from this article is that Andy is still a fan
And respect the contest in general and this is better attitude then some of this year contestants.
About the UK songs, you need to remember the good song is subjective thing.
In my opinion for example all the songs that UK send from 2008 are decent and non of them deserve last place and In 2012 I really thought “Love will set you free” was top 5 material, this song is still in my top 10 of all times.
“Love will Put you to sleep” got what it deserved so did the BBC they rejected the world class and well known Katie Melua for that garbage of a song!
Maybe he should’ve said this when You Decide was still around.
I heard the same argument in Germany in the past. ‘We won’t ever win… They just don’t like us….’ They are just voting for their neighbours. .. Then came Lena and everyone was surprised we won. If you have a good song, you win! Strategical voting won’t get you in first place, however it guarantees that you won’t come last. In my opinion it has more to do with how the UK (and Germany as well) views ESC. For most of the public it is something to poke fun at, it is cool to make jokes about it. The broadcaster… Read more »
The part that neighbour voting guarantees you don’t come last is something I wish more people understood! 😉 Exactly, that is the only guarantee e.g. Greece and Cyprus have. If nobody votes for them, the other guy will. Although I think Cyprus voted for Greece more frequently than the other way round – at least visibly – because Cyprus didn’t make the final as often, and that’s the only part where the votes get announced in public. As such, even Greece often ended up giving points to, say, Armenia instead. But even the perfect double-12 points from jury and televote… Read more »
Andy Abraham: “the important thing for me is not to take it too seriously”
Also Andy Abraham: *sends out press release with his thoughts and feelings on Eurovision*
The problem is Brexit, solved……..NOT! It is still possible for UK to do good at Eurovision, but the major problem is the song. Look at Michael Rice, he‘s a likeable guy and I admit that I kinda like Bigger Than Us, but not in the way like this is my winner song, it‘s more like maybe I listen to it if I‘m in the mood and I won‘t skip it, if it‘s on the radio. UK does have great singers/bands, no doubt (I‘m not only talking about the famous ones but also people like Michael Rice and others), but they… Read more »
If Andy Abraham watches Eurovision and enjoys the special effects each year then we would see that the voting is far more varied than it was in 2008. Many countries that struggled when he participated have had wins in the last 10 years (Netherlands, Austria, Germany)
I get tired of hearing about these old cliches about Eurovision from the UK.
That said I have often thought the BBC could better support its contestants though. It broadcasts the contest, selects and entrant yet refuses to put the song on rotation on its own radio stations.
The UK always sends worst songs. Thats why no victory for You.
We have done it a few times and once or twice as a default country when the winner from previous year could not host.
Lol… still blaming their bad results on brexit… WHAT ABOUT SENDING BETTER SINGS … I can’t. Oh and of course Netherlands won cuz of the points from Belgium… UK, get ur stuff together
I’m tired of UK past entries who went with undeveloped songs and undeveloped staging talking about how impossible it is to win.
The UK last won in 1997, 23 years ago. Belgium last won in 1986, France in 1977, and Spain 1969.
It took the Netherlands 43 to win since there last victory, and Portugal 53 since they were participating.
With a great staged song and a vocal to match (and the bit of luck that comes with) any country can win the contest outright on their entry’s merit.
songs need a modern feel , looks at all the others that do well , with decent songs and well crafted lyrics. You need a hook usually. Please stop buying crap songs from sweden notally JL and Gson. The latter is well past his sell by date.
If other countries that have rocky relationships with the rest of Europe, such as Russia or Israel, can get points, there is no reason that the UK cannot. The problem is the songs they send.
Yet you sound far more unbearable.
Agree with you. How obnoxious.
What do he know, his song is one of the worst that ever made it to Eurovision since I started watching.. And blaming brexit is just sad
He is another idiot who pumps out the tired cliche old dross. He needs to realize we left EU political set up. Not Europe
Come on, you can’t dismiss neighbourly voting it’s still very real just you don’t see it so starkly as individual country televotes are no longer revealed on screen. But you can still find them after.
Also certain juries are known to continue to share flagrant biases
Only because neighboring countries share common musical cultures so they feel more connected to songs sent from next door. But since they have 10 sets of points to give, juries and televoters never always allot their biggest sets to a neighbor.
One good example is Portugal, which only share a physical land border with Spain but have managed to score well in just about every country in contention in 2017, on both sides of the vote. Likewise with Bulgaria, who never always have a strong bloc of neighbor support prior to coming back strong in 2016 and 2017.
And even that isn’t always assured. Spain gave Portugal top marks in both their jury and televote in 2017, and then in 2018 neither of them gave Portugal anything.
I agree, it still exists, BUT, why had countries like Germany, Austria, Portugal (!), Israel or the Netherlands won over the last decade? Guess it‘s because of their great neighbours……wait
What about that British girl who ended up the 5th? I think Jade Even was her name.
Jade Ewen, yes. Thanks for remembering her. 🙂
I made a cover of her song on my channel and uploaded it the day Brexit came into effect, just to rub it in the UK’s faces. ^^ Exactly, Jade was great, and that’s why British Eurovision haters have to quickly gloss over her, because she single-handedly (or single-vocally) destroys their narrative. Also with regards to the message of the song: “I’ve got the will, I’ve earned the right.” Indeed, she did. Currently, the UK seems to have neither.
Yes Jade was great. No shame in 5th place or even 11th. We have won 5 times and had countless 2nd or 3rd places. Not a bad record. Looks how long Portugal waited for their first win and same for the Netherlands long hiatus from winning until last year. Some countries send great stuff year after year and are still waiting for their first win(looking at you Lithuania) Makes m so annoyed when people bang on about not doing well and writing stuff off just because you spent too long parroting the old crap that Came out of wogan and… Read more »
Gosh, that’s not about Brexit or anything else, that’s because of totally predictable and old-fashioned non-creative stuff you are sending each year
Also, kudos for the great article, Robyn! By Georg(ia), you’re right: seven out of the top ten countries aren’t currently in the EU (the exceptions being the Netherlands, Italy, and Sweden). It doesn’t include either the televote or jury winner.
Irrelevant. This is not about non-EU countries having no chance to succeed at Eurovision (no one ever said that). This is about the UK being in an open and ongoing diplomatic conflict with the rest of the EU countries, which could potentially lower their chances (of course that’s currently irrelevant, as they haven’t sent a decent entry in years anyway).
Quite the opposite actually. The UK could easily become the powerhouse Sweden has been, the only difference is the UK doesn’t try. I find it very hard not to believe that if household names such as Adele, Ed Sheeran, Dua Lipa etc. were to take part that they wouldn’t do well (given they have a good song, of course). The UK’s problem is that the BBC doesn’t really gave a rat’s ass, which leads to bad results, which leads to ESC’s bad reputation within the UK public. Blue showed in 2011 that when a famous (albeit nostalgic) act participates with… Read more »
One of Robyn’s very best articles, bravo.
I understand what Andy is saying, and everyone has the right to an opinion, but Robyn has done a brilliant job here bringing in the fact-checking contrasts. Some opinions don’t hold up to the facts; that’s just a reality, and it gets called out more regularly nowadays. I hope Andy doesn’t take it too seriously, in his words, and can enjoy Eurovision 2020 whatever happens.
I’m sorry but how is this a good article? It’s just a copy-paste of a Metro article coupled with “country X did that, country Y didn’t do that, so the UK is good” (what you called “fact-checking”, lol)…
Granted, Robyn alternatively could have just re-posted Andy’s Instagram message in full, without comment. Instead, she creatively wrote an introduction and provided an historical context before picking out selections of Andy’s text for analysis in the style of “fact checking”. Robyn also pointed out that Andy claimed he remains a fan of Eurovision in spite of his own opinions. The article brought context and added information to an otherwise opinionated Instagram post with what appeared to be outdated assumptions. I would gladly challenge you or anyone else to do better than Robyn. Please do prove me wrong, if you can.… Read more »
Why are you giving this absolute prat a platform!
I think he’s 80% wrong. Our songs have sucked for a long time. The “politics is all” theory ignores how countries like Finland (2006), Portugal (2017) can win for the first time against all odds…..great and original songs WIN. Why would Netherlands go 40 yrs without winning and then, “Arcade”?? The song!! BUT….I think there may be a jury/televote problem for the UK. Lucie Jones’ 111 votes were 99/12 jury vs televote. I think we are unpopular at the moment in Europe, for obvious reasons and I fear that a really good song will get stacks of jury votes, but… Read more »
Logically if this were true – neighbourly voting/political bias has a heavy impact on the results – the scoreboard would show little change from year to year.
Same tiresome excuse year after year! Do they all have the same guide in how to not have self critique?
It’s always someone’s fault. It’s politics, or “we don’t have friends” , or it’s “Brexit” or “it’s people not liking us”.
No, the reason you’re not doing well is because you haven’t find out the formula to do well. Don’t expect people to like mediocre cookie cutter entries that doesn’t even get airplay on the BBC radio 2 A-Playlist!
Give us a bop and you will see results..
It’s not about the politics. We watch Eurovision for the music, the performances, and for the festivities, not for the poltics. You send a good song, you win — or at least place well. Is there block voting? Undeniably yes. But does it break the contest? No. At the end of the day, even if there is a controversy, a fan favorite wins! So just send a bop and people will vote!
Andy crawls out of the dumpster. He was a bin man before x-factor. Wonder what he is doing these days apart from whining lol. Been watching esc since I was a child in the mid-sixties , I know q lot of songs and can even name many of teh artists and winners etc…I can’t even remember his song. Trying to laughingly keep him self relevant which he never was apart from those few weeks he was on X factor.
He was a bin man, so what? The implication being?
Now I hope the UK either wins or does amazingly well in the televote at the very least to spite opinions like these. Imagine if they didn’t do that well with the juries but the televote pushed them up like in 2011. Then the critics would have to shut up because they blame the televote on all of the bad results.
I love when wiwibloggs low-key trolls these past British contenders that slate our chances because of politics and Brexit. I remember you did it to the Bucks Fizz people to, we love to see it.
Low-key, Bucks Fizz did so much damage to the UK’s perception of Eurovision as all-camp, no-substance. They vindicated it, since the goddamn thing won and sold a ton of copies, and the idea that that’s what you need to send to do well at Eurovision hasn’t been shaken off in the almost 40 years since.
I’m talking about wiwibloggs low-key trolling them in their articles, like the comment they make here about Luca Hänni doing well for a politically-neutral Switzerland in response to Andy saying politics is why we won’t win. (And I remember them doing something similar when Bucks Fizz spewed the same nonsense he is)
I agree with you on your criticism of Bucks Fizz as well though 100%
Oh, I see what you mean.
Time and time again we have people saying that we could send the most talented stars and we still wouldn’t win. The issue with the UK’s entries is that they are non-memorable. The last half decent one is Lucie Jones back in 2017. Before that, I am struggling to remember who represented us and what song, and I am a big Eurovision fan. Compare our songs to those that won or took a top 10 placing and you can see why we have performed so poorly. It’s not about politics, it’s not about Brexit, it’s about the quality and performance… Read more »
How many times do we have to trot this out? The uk isn’t failing at Eurovision because of politics. It’s because you keep sending crappy entries year after year after year! Stop bellyaching and put some heart so you can possibly escape last place.
I’m English and fully agree. I gnash my teeth every year/ Take it away from the bloody snotty dinosaur that is the BBC and we may get somewhere.
Portugal never even reached to top 5 in the more than 45 times they participated and then Salvador Sobral won. The Netherlands didn’t qualify for the final 8 years in a row and won last year. If Portugal and the Netherlands can win, so can the UK. Send something good instead of a Melfest reject.
They’re much worse than Melfest rejects, though… ‘:-/
We’re tired of the excuses, brits. Brexit doesn’t even matter, what matters is all your songs lately are garbage…if you sent something really good then it wouldn’t matter.
I still don’t get why some people in the UK thinks that their bad results are because of the Brexit.
IM English and neither do I. I doubt the average ESC fan gives a toss . From what I hear we won’t be the only ones giving eu the finger.
That constant vision than Eurovision is only political annoys me. People don’t spend money to vote for their neighbouring country, they vote for songs they enjoyed and singers they might admire (sometimes being from their neighbouring country).
Send better song to Eurovision, and maybe the UK won’t get last place!
You can’t get that upset, for instance, when Balkan countries give each other good scores. What kind of music do you think they listen to? What artists are all over the radio and regularly perform concerts there? It’s like if another country randomly picked a Mizrahi song. Would you get mad if Israel gave it a good score?
Exactly!
Once again, with feeling:
The EBU is not the EU.
The EBU has members who are not part of the EU.
Eurovision is, in essence, a gathering of national broadcasters doing their thing together.
“Tactical voting” ain’t a thing. This isn’t Big Brother UK.
Bitterness and ignorance are not a good look on you, Andy.
“Yessir, we are legal, we are/Though we’re not as legal as you/No sir, we’re not equal, no/Though we’re both from the EU.” I feel like Lithuania predicted the entire pre-Brexit attitude all the way back a decade ago. Amazed that a song as silly as that probably has the cleverest and most biting political message in the history of the contest.
Get up and dance to our eastern European kind of funk
Its an excellent song and has caught the imagination of ESC fans . Sometimes the little cogs slowly click into place. Good job Lithuania , regardless of if you win this year. It resonates in many ways.
Should’ve qualified, dammit. Anna Bergendahl nothing, THAT was the snub of 2010.