British MPs to tackle UK crisis — why it does so badly in Eurovision
Por Jules Darmanin — POLITICOPolitics » POLITICO
Lawmakers in the United Kingdom, the country that gifted the world The Beatles and S Club 7, will seek answers on how to make the nation’s pop music more competitive on Europe’s biggest stage.
The House of Commons’ Digital, Culture, Media and Sport committee will hold an evidence session in the coming months to discuss the process to select the U.K.’s Eurovision Song Contest entry, its chair, Dame Caroline Dinenage, told the BBC.
MPs will examine what Dinenage called a “dismal record of achievement in recent years.” At this year’s Eurovision in Vienna, ‘Eins, Zwei, Drei,’ a synth-pop song from the British YouTuber ‘Look Mum No Computer,’ finished in last place with just one point.
The British entry is currently selected internally by the BBC, one of the world’s largest public broadcasters, and chosen from the third biggest record industry on the planet, behind the U.S. and Japan. It also automatically qualifies for the contest’s final because the BBC is one of the largest contributors to the event’s organizer, the European Broadcasting Union.
Despite this, the U.K. has repeatedly finished in the bottom half of the leaderboard over the past 15 years, with only one exception: Sam Ryder, who claimed second place in 2022 with ‘Space Man.’
The committee is expected to hear from figures from the BBC and the music industry to establish whether the U.K.’s track record is “the result of bad song choice, weak performance … or something else,” Dinenage told the BBC.
The British broadcaster has yet to announce its entry for next year’s event, which will take place in May 2027 in Burgas, Bulgaria.
The contest has been overshadowed in recent years by boycotts from multiple nations over Israel’s participation, following the Oct. 7 2023 Hamas attack and subsequent Israeli military offensive in Gaza. Dutch broadcaster AVROTROS and Ireland’s RTÉ have already announced that they will not be taking part in next year’s contest.
Fonte: POLITICOPolitics » POLITICO
