UK in Eurovision 2016: What needs to be done to taste success in Stockholm?

In the second of two opinion blogs, The Euro Trip blogger Elliot Harris takes a look at the route he'd like the BBC to take when it comes to Eurovision 2016.

As we know the United Kingdom has announced essentially an open casting call for their Eurovision representative.

Bonnie Tyler sang 'Believe In Me' in Malmo in 2013

For me I feel we need, and I have said for many years amongst friends, is that we need to send a up tempo song, nothing swing, no ballads, simple easy listening up tempo, something with replay ability and mainstream, basically what Sweden did last year and looked what happened. The UK’s problem is that in recent years we have played the gimmick of “big name” card with no effect, trying to stand out with a big name is pointless without a decent song to back it up (Bonnie Tyler anyone?) At the end of the day the song needs to be good enough ANYONE can perform it and do a good job, so first and foremost we need to focus on the song, maybe take some Scandinavian pop influences perhaps?

As for the performer itself to grace the stage and fly the flag for the United Kingdom in Stockholm, if I had my way I would probably send someone from the X Factor or The Voice, someone with stage and competition experience, it won’t be a big leap from what they are used to. I think someone with that experience would work wonders potentially, but if we were not to send someone from that area I personally would love Sam Smith to go, he is my favourite UK act in the last decade and love his song and his performance and is a fantastic songwriter, however with him just releasing his new single for the new James Bond film, something tells me he doesn’t have to do Eurovision anytime soon.

Well they are my thoughts on the UK for Eurovision 2016, feel free to agree and disagree on the comments, but let us see what happens with the UK in Sweden, hopefully not languishing near the bottom of the leader board once again. Elliot

Can the UK do well at Eurovision again, and what do they need to do to succeed?

In the first of two opinion blogs, The Euro Trip blogger Emily Herbert takes a look at how the UK had enjoy success at Eurovision next year.

Over the past few years, the UK have gained a reputation of doing “bad” at Eurovision, but why? Perhaps we haven’t quite got the formula right. It’s hard to tell what song you’d like to see at a contest when you don’t know what genre the other songs are (e.g is it a ballad year like 2015?). What I’ve found is that if a solo female wins the year before, there’s an increase in solo female artists the year after (2013 for example). The same goes with duets; The Common Linnets came 2nd in 2014 for The Netherlands, and we saw an increase in duet entries in 2015.

So, if we look at the top of the leaderboard in 2015, we see that we obviously have Sweden at the top with Måns Zelmerlöw, his catchy pop song and captivating graphics. Perhaps cool graphics are the way to go? Stage presentation is key. With Electro Velvet, the stage looked nice and colourful, but VERY busy, and so that could have made it forgettable. Additionally, we haven’t sent a (young) solo male artist in a while, maybe now is the right time?! 

Jade Ewen sang the UK to 5th in Moscow

Songwriting is also key. Whoever ends up producing the song for this year must have experience or background in the industry, or at least done research on the competition so they know what they’re looking for. Gary Barlow for example (though I have a feeling he mentioned he didn’t want to do Eurovision?) would be a good choice, with the success of Take That and the X Factor. Andrew Lloyd Webber was the songwriter for Jade Ewen in 2009 where she came 5th (and that year was a tough one!), so that is one factor that needs carefully deciding.

Personally, as much as I’d like a National Final, the quality of the songs may not be as good as if it was selected internally with a good songwriter. If the NF was at Melodifestivalen standard (which I think is the best NF), there would be more budding artists wanting to get involved with good quality songs, but for now I think that the country doesn’t take the contest seriously enough.

In 2016 I’d like to see a powerful solo male ballad from the UK, produced by a well-known composer or songwriter. I don’t think there are ever enough male solo ballads at the contest and they do relatively well (e.g Andras Kallay-Saunders or even Johnny Logan). A young artist would be better (see Engelburt Humpadinck), thought they have to be experienced and not so nervous (see Josh Dubovie). With the right staging, strong vocals and support from the public, I believe we could do well again. Emily

Episode 17 of The Euro Trip is here!

How's it going, have you missed us?

Yep that's right, The Euro Trip is back...and coming all the way from Rob's bedroom. As ever there's the usual mix of brand new music, plus the European Music Chart and plenty of Eurovision news.

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The Euro Trip : Episode 17 by The Euro Trip on Mixcloud