A Nifty Fifty-Fifty?

By Jamie McLoughlin on Sep 15, 08 04:23 PM

Some very, very important people have been making Eurovision-related decisions this week. Boom Bang a Blog can only dream of being so vital to the smooth running of the Song Contest machine.

Over in Moscow, lots of presumably po-faced types in slacks and sweaters have been discussing what to change and what to retain at next year's event which rumbles ever closer to the Russian capital.

Do you want to know what they've come up with?

Firstly, the UK, Germany, France and Spain have qualified directly for the final again - there was a strong rumbling the Big Four nations would have to qualify through the semis from 2009.

Realistically, that would have meant the UK never reaching the Eurovision final ever again. The collective apathy from both the BBC and the British record industry towards the selection process will never yield a tune good enough to get through the qualifier.

So, we're safe for another year - but I don't bank on us staying that way in 2010 and beyond.

Also, following the scoring process tried out at the Eurovision Dance Contest in Glasgow, it has now been officially rubber stamped that next year's Song Contest result will be a split between a professional jury vote and a public one.

How much of the vote is weighted in which direction remains to be seen, but it may entice absent friends such as Austria and Monaco back to play in the Eurovision garden.

Then again, it could swing the results even further in Eastern Europe's favour. Who knows?

The juries have given their scores live on air before; namely in the Contests of 1971, 1972 and 1973.

Here they are in action from the final year this system was used - the gentleman in the sparkly jacket from Switzerland may have been the very reason this system was abandoned.

Mind you, anyone could go doo-lally after being forced by your national broadcaster to spend Saturday night in Luxembourg holding numbers up in front of a TV camera.