2008 Eurovision UK Entry

Michelle Gayle will compete to represent the UK at this year's Eurovision Song Contest.
She is one of six acts vying for the honour, including X Factor second series runner-up Andy Abraham.

Girl groups LoveShy and The Revelations and ex-Joseph and Maria hopefuls Rob McVeigh and Simona Armstrong complete the list of candidates.

I voted for The Revealtions on the strength of their name sounding like that of a Motown girl group.

There's a reason for that.

"The Revelations - It's You

The Revelations consists of Annika Magnberg, 24, Louise Masters, 24, and Sarah Vitorino, 22. Their classic soulful pop music is influenced by Sixties girl groups such as The Supremes, along with more contemporary influences like the Scissor Sisters.

The Revelations' song, It's You, is an upbeat and original modern motown song celebrating love and how good it feels. The girls think It's You has all the right ingredients of a winning some because it's a good tune with fantastic harmonies."

http://www.esctoday.com/news/read/10552

I'm going to wait until I hear the songs - The rest of Europe's entries so far are far too ballady, and I can see people campaigning for us to send a ballad because one won last year and everyone normally overlooks the ballads (like the rest of Europe hasn't thought of that too). That probably rules out Andy Abraham and the two BBC reality ones.

Bit of the Loveshy (half of Clea) one here -

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=302388973

Is this the same Michelle Gayle who did "Sweetness" back in 1994? God, I used to love that song.

It'll be her. She's fairly famous here, used to be a soap star and has been on reality TV and stuff.

What's her Eurovision entry like?

This is what The Revelations sound like by the way

http://www.myspace.com/therevelationsuk

The first Eurovision hopeful to have released something on Fierce Panda?

...and to have been bigged up as a Bright New Hope by Alan McGee? (Glasvegas beware...)

What's the point? The best 10 songs will all be from Eastern Europe anyway.

Actually, EU should of course recognize Kosovo, but they should demand that Kosovo never get a right to vote in the ESC :)

"sweetness" was to its source what "i only want to be with you" was to its, 31 years earlier: a brit appropriation before the original had really made the transition (obviously the source of "sweetness" had had more exposure here than dusty's inspiration had in the pre-offshore-radio era, but not really mainstream yet). it's not that good (little is), but i loved it, too. it gets its source slightly wrong, which is precisely why it (and most british pop until recently) is good. she must be desperate now, though.

re. kosovo in the esc, i always find wogan's constant moaning about balkan bloc votes mildly offensive considering what was happening there for most of the 90s.

Maybe Eurovision UK should get Jonathan King to run the show again. Under his watch we had Love City Groove, Gina G and Katrina and the Waves, the last named of whom even won the bloody thing (the fact that two of these three acts aren't British isn't really here or there).

That description of the "Revelations" song makes them sound like the 'Sheila's Wheels' advert.

I was just thinking that what the world needs now is yet another group influenced by the Supremes and the Scissor Sisters.

Couldn't they have got the Scissor Sisters themselves? Their last album didn't exactly surf off the shelves.

I thought Scissor Sisters were American?

It doesn't matter (Katrina and the Waves won it a while back for Englan' and herself is American), I think it's the songwriter that has to be native. I think.

Mark G is right.

actually Katrina and the Waves contain British, Canadian and US members. Katrina is American and another member, who is British, Kimberley Rew, wrote their Eurovision entry. Rew was also in the Soft Boys and Katrina and the Waves formed in Cambridge, UK, and had most of their success in the UK.

the Norwegian entry Nocturne should have been disqualified for not being a song tho!

What is it, some wallpaper?

It was an instrumental.

Even the Shadows had to sing when they did Eurovision in '75.

There was a small sung part in the beginning of Nocturne, though the rest of it was instrumental.

Ukraine's entry from last year was hardly a "song" either.

Oh, I remember it, it was like the intro bit to Riverdance, wasn't it?

Still, they won not, so no doubt they'll all be singy songs, once again.

This years UK entry has to be better than "We're flying the union jack, it's graet!"

Btw, if you haven't seen it already, I'd like to offer you some Finnish musicians' idea of a perfect Eurovision entry.

The revelations for me, been on their myspace site- very talented ladies.
the others have had their 5 minutes of fame don't see why they get a second chance.

Some clips of the songs -

Revelations/Loveshy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EdPDYdZgiE

Rob Mcveigh/Simona Armstrong
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvGxeB3rjac

Michelle Gayle/Andy Abraham
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSuHE2MwCU0

Fucking hell, Ireland: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z28STzFIFBU

Is that seriously their entry???

Sub-title: "We don't want to win (it's too expensive)"

Eurovision - LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT YOU SNIDE GETS

I quite like the revelations. even though vocal-wise they are a bit anonymous and stage-schooly. apparently they were dreamt up as a pipettes-type vehicle for the songs of the guy out of captain soul.

spain, by the way, are considering sending la casa azul, which I think is terribly exciting. la revolucion sexual was a single of his/their most recent album and is now leading the polls.

It seems that the writer of LoveShy wrote the verses a couple of minutes before it was time to clock out for the day. And after a promising start too. But other than the predictable yawnfest of Rob McVeigh, these aren't too bad. I guess this year we're taking it kind of seriously, after the wonders/horrors of Scooch.

Ireland, on the other hand. W, T, F.

although if La Casa Azul don't make it through and WIN it'll be a travesty!

hmm. Got the timing of this WRONG!

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

The singing dustman wins. That'll be another 22nd place position in the contest itself, then.

Why did the BBC feel the need to turn A Song For Europe into The X-Factor?

WTF has dreary Carrie Grant ever done for Eurovision?

WTF has happened to Claudia Winkleman?

After the failed camp of last year, we're back to worthy, forgettable, Cool Police "soul".

And I can't remember any of these songs a day and a half later.

Maybe we should just accept that the Eastern Bloc pwns Eurovision and leave them to it.

Meanwhile, Finnish voters choose yet another campy heavy metal act to represent the nation. I have nothing against the band nor the song, but I wish people would come up with some new ideas instead of trying to replicate Lordi's success.

Fuck that dude who won sounds like 1989.

The band itself is not a Lordi clone, they were already doing stuff like this before Lordi's win, but obviously one of the reasons people voted for them was that they thought Finland might win with heavy metal again.

Could happen!

Anyroad, who wuz robbed? I only heard the winner as the kids moaned to watch Ant and Dec instead. (actually, there was one girl singer I saw (not Michelle Gayle, shortish/blondish, song verri forgettable), I took their point to be honest.!)

I saw the fat dude out of S Club 7 whining about autotune the other night. Then I laffed so hard I fell off the settee.

"Don't Stop Movin'" minus Autotune equals the Goat in Boots of a Friday evening.

Ant and Dec had better hurry up and find their Eddie Braben.

I would rather they stumbled across their Eddie Gein.

An appalling selection, wasn't it? Michelle Gayle clearly thought she'd got the whole thing sewn up, almost from the off, so from that perspective alone it was good to see Andy Abraham beat her - meaning that instead of finishing 22nd as we would have done with MG, we'll now poll a respectable, ooh, 17th? 18th? Eurovision has never favoured slick retro-soul. It pains me to say it, but the only entry with the ghost of a chance was lardy-legged Simona Armstrong's steaming pile of doo-doo, IF - and it would have been a Big If - a lot of work had been put in to polish it up.

I think a lot of work needs to put in to polish up UK Eurovision, full stop.

When they try camp or novelty - Daz Sampson, Scooch - they fail.

When they try Proper Songs - Andy A, Michelle G - they are undoubtedly bound to fail.

When they try the old one artist/six songs formula - Michael Ball, Sonia - it doesn't work.

The only winner we've had in the last quarter century was an American act, transplanted to Newmarket.

I suppose the shop is too closed and the facade too irretrievably naff for major artists to be attracted to Eurovision anymore but if Russia can summon up tAtU then surely it's not unreasonable to expect the likes of Girls Aloud or Sugababes to have a chance (see for instance "Don't Speak French" as performed by GA on Ant and Dec's show on Saturday which would have WALKED Eurovision).

Nul point from the French voters.

Ant and Dec had better hurry up and find their Eddie Braben

they should enter themselves!
Where would Let's Get Ready to Rhumble have come if entered?

The breakaway is bound to happen before long as the Big Nations complain that they're not going spend all their hard earned cash putting this show on if Eastern Europe insist on pwning it. I wouldn't be surprised if next year you have Eurovision East and Eurovision West, like the Berlin Wall before David Hasselhoff pulled it down.

Wonder if Kosovo will be in it? If they are, wonder if they'll grudgingly vote for Serbia, like Bosnia always seem to?

Winton to replace Wogan as commentator.

Serbia - "Good track."
Bosnia Hergesadventuresoftintinslovia - "Good track, that."
Finland - "Good rock track."

Nation switches over to super-exciting Nick Hancock quizshow Duel Or No Duel.

Eastern Europe pwns it because they take it seriously. They tend to have their best songwriters, singers and performers taking part, whereas the UK will have some bunch of nobodies who only met for the first time the week before and who will never see each other again once their plane touches down at Heathrow. Having the show presented by a geriatric xenophobe who was last funny about 20 years ago doesn't help. Also the idea that you have to be Dale Winton to be interested in Eurovision in the first place.

Oh I agree totally, but unfortunately the UK, France, Germany etc. have the money and if they're going to occupy the last four places every year then they'll pull out and Serbia will have to slug it out with Estonia in a corrugated tin bath somewhere near Gdansk - that is, unless SUPER RICH NON DOM TAX DODGING RICH RUSSIAN BACKERS can see them through.

Serbia will have to slug it out with Estonia in a corrugated tin bath somewhere near Gdansk

this will be an improvement, especially if it's in Sopot.

I remember Germany's entry last year, it was a strange kinda jazzy swing thing, don't know how they ever thought it would win. France's was some awful kinda New Wave thing, like a Rubinoos b-side or sumthin'.

No one actually wants to win though, except emergant states who haven't really thought it through! Costs a shitload to put on.

The German one was like a Texas B-side if they'd been going in '83. France was skinny ties WURR AVIN A LARF except nobody was larfin.

(xp) But think of the worldwide publicity for that tractor factory in Smolensk

has anyone mentioned the Irish entry yet because... well :O

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z28STzFIFBU&feature=related

Dustin the Turkey - Irelande Douze Pointe

eastern europe we love you
do you like irish stew?

... it appears to be favourite to win too

The main point about Eastern Europe, surely, is that - for them - pop itself is still almost a miracle, still something only recently allowed freely into the bloodstream. We may in this country attempt to construct a history of oppression of pop (others may, dangerously, attempt to construct a present of same) but whatever we might say about grammar school headmasters or the Light Programme, it was minor, petty, unimportant disapproval compared to the (general) official belief that pop was a tool of the geopolitical enemy, and the hoops that had to be jumped through to hear it, in the Warsaw Pact countries through pop's first three decades. If that had ever happened here, pop would seem wholly different to us now: if we haven't lived there, I don't think we can fully understand it.

The latterday history of the ESC can be explained by the same criteria as the embrace of neoliberalism by the new elites in Poland, Hungary etc. The opposite of whatever you were once told to be.

La Casa Azul ended up coming third in the Spanish vote, sadly.

This is what won
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s28qgVd0tEc

^did lol @

Eastern Europe pwns it because they take it seriously. They tend to have their best songwriters, singers and performers taking part

And yet, the Western European songs are better. Unless you are into Balkanic "world music" sung in some Slavic bollocks language that nobody can understand.

http://img296.imageshack.us/img296/618/hitlerbotpe8.jpg

Is that "Baila el chiki chiki" song supposed to be a reggaeton parody? It sounds quite like a cheap imitation of "Gasolina".

Yeah, it's a comedy spoof.

Well, even for a spoof I think it's pretty lame. "Chacarron" was a much better self-parody.

This is probably already common knowledge, but this is France's entry (Sébastien Tellier, produced by one of Daft Punk)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXVC06jC9do

Kinda anemic, that song.

Geirbot getting funky up there.

Yeah, he's doing the Mussolini.

The French entry will probably be the best of the entire final. But it will probably be last, as it isn't sung in Serbo Croatian and has no bagpipes or 13/8 parts.

Contest might benefit from some ethnic cleansing maybe.

Sebastian Tellier: It's Telex's "Eurovision" (Belgium, 1980) all over again, innit.

so, by that rationale, a cross between Genesis, Yes and the Royal scots dragoon guards would be a sure-fire winner?

And yet, the Western European songs are better

You mean like the last year's French, German and British entries? You're wrong anyway, in the past few years, the overall standard of the Eastern European songs has been higher

... plus hotter chicks

... but not last year's winner obviously

That French entry is awful and if blokey from Daft Punk weren't involved people would just laugh at its lack of a tune. the Eastern European songs are loads better generally but it is true that good Western European songs are struggling, viz. possibly the best entry since "Waterloo" not even making it out of the semis in 06.

I agree about the French entry, the singer's voice is thin as hell, the production is that great even if it is by one half of DP, and the song sorta lacks hooks.

"isn't that great"

The song actually is completely shit. ONly good "big four" entry in recent memory = Texas Lightning's "No No Never". Which was written by an Australian.

so, by that rationale, a cross between Genesis, Yes and the Royal scots dragoon guards would be a sure-fire winner?

You would need to add a lot of fiddles, strange and weird Balkanic harmonies and obviously some bollocks lyrics written in some other language than English. Preferrably a language that nobody in Western Europe can understand.

Preferrably a language that nobody in Western Europe can understand.

Like Norwegian?

possibly the best entry since "Waterloo" not even making it out of the semis in 06

OK, I'll bite. Which one do you mean, Edward? I'm guessing "Je T'Adore".

For extremely personal and tragic reasons, I can no longer bear to listen to "No No Never", great as it is.

Obviously, Mike! I have played it for people who hate Eurovision and they've all thought it was bloody great.

Extremely personal? If they were just personal, would you disclose?

It involves the death of my partner's sister, while I was covering Eurovision in Athens for Slate. She was hospitalised from a stroke on the Friday and died every early on Tuesday morning. So there I was at the live finals on the Saturday night, on a last-minute blagged ticket, separated from all the people I knew, having to watch all this insanely chirpy music while half my partner's family were cutting short their holidays and flying back, because I was being paid to (handsomely, as it happens) and I didn't feel empowered to walk out on by far the biggest journalistic assignment that had ever come my way and let down bloody Slate magazine, and besides, we didn't know she was going to die on us, did we...

...and then on come Texas Lightning, with the song I had been enjoying the most all through rehearsals week, singing "I'm never gonna leave you to cry on your own"... well, I was, wasn't I?

The sixth row from the front of the Eurovision Song Contest isn't exactly the best place in the world to be bawling your eyes out, on your own, dressed in school uniform. I literally cannot hear that song again.

(I've never properly written that down before, anywhere.)

OK, can we get back to arguing with Geir about bagpipes? :-)

That's awful, Mike. I'm sorry.

Yes, sorry to hear that, Mike.

Thanks guys. And sorry if I've killed the thread; I wasn't quite expecting to find myself writing all that down. Bit weird. Please resume.

lol geir's a nazi

(will that do?)

Not really