‘Eurovision Has Changed into A Cultural Dustbin’ | Mike Graham BLASTS Tune Contest

Uh the Eurovision song contest I mean it sounds even ridiculous saying that now because it's so much more than a song contest it's now a sort of you know cultural Dustbin uh for people to row about for people to you know commit all sorts of bizarre acts on stage it is no longer the sort of you know the Eurovision song contest of Lulu and.

Danna and Abba and all of those other names that come from the past Steve danius here from Virgin to tell us all about it Steve very good morning to you good morning Mike I mean Julie Harley Brewer I think got it right when she tweeted at the weekend that it's now become something far sort of darker than it ever was it's now become this kind of.

You know rather sexualized um evening where where it's all about politics you know we saw you and I spoke on Friday about all of the uh the the the demonstrations gret tunberg turns up you know to try and get Israel banned you know they have to have protection for people I mean it was just mad but according to the son's figures here the.

Show Lost 2 and a half million viewers as well so it's obviously not what the public wants no I mean down to about 8 million people watching do you remember back in the 80s Cher Baker days you would have got an easy 20 million wouldn't you I mean it was it was like a point you know appointment to view stuff um it's really interesting I think there.

Was such a huge buildup we were on a all day Saturday with the fallouts with the island act not appearing at the flag ceremony of course the the Dutch act being banned yeah banned for some inappropriate behavior right and then it starts at 8:00 on Saturday night and it just seems so long the whole thing I mean it's for it finished just before.

Midnight it is mad isn't it I mean I started watching because I thought I'm going to need to see a bit of it just because I'm going to be talking about it so I watched a couple of the Acts including the Spanish which was was pretty much the end of it for me as I was like what is going on here I mean this is like something you would see in.

An Amsterdam nightclub you know exactly right I mean and an adult very adult themed really adult themed um you've got all kinds of people on X as the as the uh as the show went on saying this is like a kind of bondage nightclub and it was sleazy you had naked bodysuits you know the thing about our entry and obviously we did really bad we got the.

Neil P but if he just that's about as much as it deserved to be fair the song isn't great my thinking we chat on Virgin Radio about this earlier when we put rock songs in we do well if you try and compete with the rest of Europe by putting a Euro Euro Euro and it's interesting you mentioned Euro trash you remember that channel 4 season it was.

Like like Euro TR as a show but it was on very late at night on Channel 4 and it had an awful lot of adult themes and that was fine because you knew what you were getting but this is a show that's put on sort of you know Prime Time television where kids are watching it I don't know what they're thinking I really don't I think what they're trying.

To do is they're trying to make each song like a music video yeah uh but in doing so that takes the attention away from the actual music it's it's always as as far as I remember it's always been the best song isn't it and it's always a little bit sort of quirky but didn't sound quirky this time it looked sort of nasty and a bit dark and just rather.

Rather unsavory really for one of a better word you know yeah I think my my feeling is if there were kids watching there were moments where I felt slightly awkward thinking well what is this if you're going to rename it and it's some kind of you know best of uh you know pop video best direction or whatever then fair enough we'll put it on a bit later.

On but when it started but also the BBC because the BBC pays for it I presume yes they do and and then over promotes it in my view and they give it far too much time you know for me it's should now be a sort of BBC 3 minority Channel kind of episode you know what I mean shouldn't be BBC One and even Laura cburg on Sunday morning on her show was.

Busy toling off to uh to interview Jo and alumy about how great it was to be a presenter at the Eurovision song this is supposed to be a political show yeah you know yeah it really was I can't remember such a controversial Eurovision like before it started almost the show was a bit of a disappointment and of course yeah and the thing that annoyed an awful.

Lot of people as well uh particularly the wokest was that the public vote from this country from England um went to Israel yes so you know nobody mentions that the BBC didn't want to mention it you know because that would be considered bad also we were told that they somehow quietened down the booze when the Israel performance went.

On which was very good by the way sort of traditional Eurovision you know flag waving performance um but there were apparently a lot of people booing which they muted my friend was there and said the booing was louder than the cheering the Boos were and it took everybody surprise just how how you know how kind of angsty that boo was but yeah when you.

Watched it on TV it was drowned out people were saying our performance was drowned out well people are saying the OE Alexander the music wasn't loud enough you couldn't really hear what he was doing it was just all eyes on the performance so but I mean you know that bizarrely even though it was quite a runchy um sort of set and quite a runchy.

Per performance didn't look that runchy compared to some of the other stuff exactly I mean it looked sort of like PG RAC oh going hang on a minute you know do we have to ramp it up and I think greme Norton himself actually said oh this is a good one for you if you like naked male flesh yeah yeah I'm kind of going I don't really well it's.

Interesting because it was naked males wasn't it it wasn't usually it's kind of you know like your Rihanna your the other point about it that's interesting that some people made over the weekend as well is that you know we've spent many a year now sort of taking away um sort of what sexualization of women um in shows like that and sexualization of.

Performers and you know scantily clad you know dancers and all that but now it's gone completely the other way but it's all men so the sexualization of men is fine apparently well seemingly I you know on Saturday night that was very much the case wasn't it and that's changed from previous years it's always been the men of the backing dancers and.

Not at the Forefront um but very much as far as our performance was concerned that was a very over sexualized almost a homoerotic uh male thing going on wasn't it and then there was the crazed Irish entry which didn't do very well at all Bambi Thug they weren't happy at all about I mean there's a huge problem at the flag waving ceremony but they claim.

The Israeli entry was filming maybe mocking some of the other acts so four of them didn't appear last minute and then there was heat on who was actually going to appear Mike it was a miracle it went ahead I mean is this going to be a watershed moment perhaps for the BC where they say look you know this is just now getting silly it's getting too.

Controversial and we're also losing viewers yeah but the viewers is the main thing I mean down to 8 million that's really what it's 7.7 I think that's shockingly low and for the money they're pumping into it and the air time they're giving it 4 hours you know but Graham nson was brilliant always great you know he's.

Great and you know he's he's a former virgin DJ as as you are indeed and and and he's he's part of that family but yeah I just I just think it's it's it's too much now I think they could have have to think the whole thing yeah I mean I'd stick it on BBC 3 it's interesting we've been talking about it for 10 minutes we haven't mentioned a.

Song that we like because it's just been I like song that's the point is

Sharing is caring!