The return of Esctoday

Hello all....

After much digesting and conjetating over the eurovision results, it appears that both albania and andorra used juries as their votes. Whats even more interesting is that both juries gave points to three of the big four. OK so the UK didnt get any points, but with Juries I think it would be safe to say all of the big four would have been top 10.

I really think the voting procedure needs to be reviewed. I harped on about going back to only allowing countries to vote who are actually in the final during my eurovision week, and to be honest I think im right on this. Here's why:

1) In the semi final, ex-Russian and ex-Yugoslav states can't vote for their neighbours or ex-pats can't vote for their country of origin....because they are not in the semi themselves...

This is not to isolate the ex-russian and ex-yugoslav states, as it could be agreed that all 10 of the songs qualified deserved to?!?!?!

In the semi and final you have more of an open-field in this case. Picture a situation where an citizen of Georgia (for example) knows of all the russian, ukrainian, belarusian, macedonian, croatian, romanian singers (basically they are all well-known in Georgia)...combine this with loads of ex-pats voting for their country of origin....and let's throw into the mix that the individual also likes the Danish song! What chance does Denmark have of scoring? If they do it will likely only be a maximum of 5 points at best....

If you ensure that countries participating in the semi-final can only vote, then it stops all this nonsense, and potentially results in songs which are UNIVERSALLY preferred to qualify, not singers/songs that are already well-known before the contest...(example TATU)


2) Bring back the jury - but only 50/50

If Svante is hell-bent on ensuring that the voting income is secure, then why not ensure a 50/50 split of jury and televotes. That will ensure that there is a smoother playing field. Often juries are fans, and therefore the neighbourly voting isnt always so prevalent....not always the case, but probably not so much!

Frankly, this is the weaker choice of the two, but it strikes me that you could probably predict that Russia and UKraine will be top 5 again next year, almost 1 year before they choose their song!!!!!! Also, that Macedonia will make the final, and Croatia will either just make it or narrowly miss out! It all frankly sucks, and gives the BIG FOUR or any other western nation vitually no chance!!!!

Why????

Because the western side of europe generally votes for their favourite song without too much bias....Svante has maybe five more years until ALL of the big four pull the plug. This mess must be sorted out, but dont expect a change until at least 2009 (where we enter two semi-finals)

Two semi-finals????

That wont make any bit of difference. You will still see the same country guarantee qualification from the semis, while the countries who should have qualified miss out. How many people felt Andorra were mugged of a place in the final?

Finally, Daz (of Daz Sampson fame) text me to basically rub my nose in it in a kind of 'I told you so...' kind of way. Bring back Daz. I really hope we send him again next year.

By the way, I noticed Jonathon Kind in Helsinki......Lets hope he is not sniffing around the Beeb again!!!! Shock Horror!

Oh and esctoday.com has reappeared as if it had never vanished, in a sort of bermuda triangle sort of way!