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Should the UK veto Eurovison? · Mark and Pete

• 0:05
  Should the UK veto Eurovision? Welcome to Mark and Pete.
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  Britain sending an act into the Eurovision Song Contest is like
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  a man entering a crocodile enclosure carrying a ukulele.
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  Yes, this is Mark and Pete, 2 blokes with half an opinion.
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  Now here's our first thought. Is the Eurovision Song Contest
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  designed to select the tune of choice, or is it simply staged
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  by activists to vent a political voice?
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  Well, indeed. Well, remarkably, the Bulgarian
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  pop star Dara has won the Eurovision Song Contest for
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  2026, and that is with her pneumatic dance anthem
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  Bangaranga. I know that Mister Pete loves
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  that beat. But what's more significant
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  about this is, yes, once again, the United Kingdom came last.
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  And that was with a song that was called Einsfi Dry, which was
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  by an artist called Look Mum, No Computer.
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  But the fact is there were no points or very little one point,
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  thank you, Ukraine. But the fact is, is that Mister
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  Pete, I ask you, I know that you'll be thinking to yourself.
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  I've always loved those little tunes.
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  Is it now at a point where the United Kingdom, no matter what
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  they did, could never win the Eurovision Song Contest?
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  Yes, there's a Bible verse written about the Eurovision
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  Song Contest from Ecclesiastes which says all is vanity and
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  vexation of the spirit. At least that's from the point
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  of view of of the British entry. I mean, yeah, it does seem like
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  a vain hope that we would ever get anywhere because people
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  don't like us. Mr. Mark.
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  I can't understand. I don't mean Mark don't like
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  Mark and Pete. Obviously they're very popular.
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  Of course not. Yeah, the Eurovision contest, we
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  we won it a couple of times, but we.
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  But lately, by lately, I'm talking over the past few
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  decades, because it started back in 1956.
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  That's a long time ago, but in the past few decades, people
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  just don't like Britain. So they're not going to vote for
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  a song bias. But I just want, I'm going to
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  put in a little codicil here, a little counter argument.
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  What if just, you know, Just as a suggestion, I know this is a
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  ridiculous what if Britain entered a song that was good?
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  Ah now you see that's a good idea because you're absolutely
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  right. A lot of people felt that
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  Ironside Dry was by many music artists and critiques Marmite,
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  meaning you either love it or you hate it.
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  I will say I thought he was a clever idea but in his execution
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  was somewhat annoying. I will also highlight that the
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  winning song was equally annoying and not something that
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  I'd really sort of go out and buy.
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  But the fact is I think it has become politicised as a music
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  contest there. There is an irony that is not
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  really the right name anymore because, you know, it's gone way
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  beyond countries outside of the European Union.
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  But I think it almost needs to be renamed and restructured now.
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  Is there a way in which possibly songs could be submitted where
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  you don't know where they come from and you just make your
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  judgement and then you you do it that way?
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  So it probably would lose the spectacle because you'd have to
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  sort of reveal yourself as to who you were.
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  But I think that for me, I think that maybe a boycott could be
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  something as a statement to say, guys, maybe take aside the
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  Einsfire dry, um, song, because in the past they have had
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  reasonable songs. Um, and, and I think that, uh,
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  you know, they, they have not always come last, but they've
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  come very close to it. And, and I think that it's
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  unfair on the artists themselves because I look at it from
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  different perspectives. So from an artist's point of
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  view, if you're representing the United Kingdom, that's good,
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  that's fine. But you know, you may have a
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  very good song, but really you're just going to be
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  overlooked because of politics. Now.
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  I don't see how that they can really continue with the format
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  to eliminate politics. One of the criticisms in the
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  past just to this is separate to recent times, certainly over the
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  last decade or so, was that always the the Germanic
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  countries used to vote for one another.
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  So Germany voted for Austria and Austria voted for Germany and
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  Switzerland and so on. So there was always a bias.
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  You can't really get away from that.
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  But nevertheless, you know the the songs like making your mind
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  up from Buck's Fizz. Which one in 1981 did win
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  overwhelmingly and and certainly resonates?
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  Today so. Do you do you think there's a a
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  different way in which we can tackle this?
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  Well, I. Think Britain could be given an
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  exception in some way? I think it's you just have to
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  accept the bias against you and just have really, really good
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  songs. I think it's the only way, the
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  only possible way to do it. Now we, I think there's an
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  example now I this is from comments given to me.
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  I have to admit, although obviously I'm very thorough in
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  my research for this show, I couldn't bring myself to
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  actually listen to the songs from this year's Eurovision.
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  You probably spared yourself. Yeah, however, I was told is it
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  that the Israeli entry was pretty good.
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  Israel, famous European country, they entered a song and it came
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  second, I believe, and I think that was from comments that have
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  her made, you know, I know that you listened avidly.
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  Well, perhaps, perhaps you could tell me, was it because
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  actually, despite people's bias against Israel, it was actually
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  really good? Well, I do think, and again,
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  yes, that that was a good song, but I mean, there were other
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  good performances and and I think that this is where you
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  have to sort of balance it because there's the song.
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  What I will say is I don't know that you might sort of have to
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  sort of slump in your seat a little bit here.
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  I think as a visual spectacle, it's actually very good because
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  when you look at the dance, when you look at the lighting and the
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  the whole setting, it's very spectacular.
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  I remember the days when I can sort of go back a long, long
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  way, folks, not quite to the beginning, but I remember when
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  he was very staid and very dry and very boring brand
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  backgrounds and there was very little.
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  It was just the song and the performer and they'll be good.
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  They were very good performers. But today it's quite a
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  spectacle. And, and I, and I think that
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  that's a good thing. But yes, I, I think that again,
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  what you're hinting at here is that there was a little bit of
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  political voting because I think that maybe the Israeli vote
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  probably was overlooked and maybe they should have done
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  better. But I will say that I, I sort of
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  wonder where does this contest go?
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  Should we allow America in it? Why not?
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  I mean, let's make it a world contest if we really want to
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  sort of see the true biases around the world.
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  I mean, I've, I wonder where, where it would all end.
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  Personally, I'm, I sort of, I just, I just do hope that maybe
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  maybe it's asking a little bit too, too much.
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  Maybe it's possible that we could invite some some other
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  countries to to join around the world just to sort of help us
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  out a little. Bit yes, I, I, I think I, I
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  agree, I think it would be good to, I mean, you could keep the
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  name or, but you know, America has the World Series, which only
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  Americans enter for the not for singing, obviously, but for one
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  of their lesser known sports. But so we could always just
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  include more and more. Or you could actually just
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  change the name global vision instead of Eurovision.
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  And then when we shortly, I think, colonize the moon and
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  Mars and planets, you know, universe vision, why not?
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  Let's think big. And then, you know, then
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  there'll be there will still be politics involved, but there'll
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  be more politics. So that it might be that with
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  all the politics all getting jumbled up, the Best Song
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  actually wins. Possibly, but it might end up
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  being a Martian.