A couple of questions:

1) was I the only one this morning, lying in bed, listening to the newsreader say the words 'Englebert Humperdinck, Crooner who had a number 1 in 1967 with Please Release me...' that expected her to finish the sentence with '...died aged 75' but then had the shock of my life when she didn't and it finished with '... will be the oldest ever Eurovision contestant at the age of 76!?

2) So what do we all think?

3) How many of the youngsters on here have actually heard of Englebert?

Its a bold move, and I can't wait to hear them all try and pronounce his name, and lets face it - has to be an improvement on JEDWARD and Blue!

Jedward and Blue. Now are they SUPPOSED to be good or something because there's something I don't get.

Why couldn't they have had Jamie Cullum. Now he IS good!!

I remember seeing 'Uncle Bert' on Saturday Night Clive way back when, apparently he had a TV show in the USA whereas people would contact him and ask him to 'make things better' in their lives somehow. Like a sort of a non-religious liberal Swaggart or Graham type. Only Mr James could handle such an interview.

I really miss Clive James telly shows.

Well, it'll certainly add another angle to the ESC this year! I'm not quite sure what I think - maybe I haven't got over the shock yet.

1) He can sing.
2) He has a proven track record of performing live.
3) If he makes a go of this then there is good news for the 'not still in teens with a figure like a stick insect' to have a perfoming career.

Go Englebert for the maturer viewer throughout Europe.

(Just hope they write him a decent song now!)

ESC is at the top left of my computer keyboard and it is an abbreviation of escape. What a brilliant idea.

Well if it works with Englebert this year maybe they'll dig out Old Cliff next year

It has all the formulae to work, remember it's for Europe not for Britain (except for viewers in six of the Irish counties whose telephones are geared into our +44 system and therefore CANNOT vote for Britain) plus the overt political voting systems will ensure Bert will finish in the bottom half of the table, if not in the bottom five.

'The Daily Mail, Sir Terence Wogan, and similar conservative voices will call for Britain's withdrawal from the Eurovision, as is the case every year we have a flop, and guess what...'We're All Going On A...' for 2013 then.

Here Here






Noooooo




To be fair - we have actually done marginally better since Sir Tel moved on, we seem to have taken it slightly more seriously, and Europe didn't seem to appreciate his commentary, which was always hillarious

2013 entry, Zimmerframe Remix of the Floral dance, sung by Sir Terry?? Would be a good money saving 'inside job' for the cash-strapped Beeb...and all of Europe will probably know who he is.

Oh yes

I'm sure between us we could also donate a cornet, clarinet and slide trombone



(couldn't find anything resembling the trombone so though I'd go for a snowman instead)

Mind you it may not qualify under the 'original song' rule though, they tried to get puppet on a string banned because it used two bars of fairground music.

...well as long as some European audiences don't get Mr. Gerry Dorsey confused with anything to do with Hansel and Gretel...

Can i count as a youngster who has heard of engelbert? (i'm nineteen)

i've never heard any of his songs and the only reason i've heard of him is because he was big in my dad's era.


and tbh, i know we haven't won for 14 years, but the closest we got was fifth and that was cos it was lord andrew lloyd webber's song.

that was Jade wasn't it?? I thought she may have been in with a chance. Possibly also with Andy Abrahams as well.

Oh YES!!
accompanied by Rolf Harris and his wobble board thingy

Yes you count as a youngster - I think I almost do too - I was 2 last time he had a hit

Yes, I too had a pretty surreal moment when I saw him on the news this morning (I had the sound off).

I was sure he must have died, but the truth turned out to be far more astonishing!

Perhaps the idea was that as Britain is unlikely ever to win again (apparently due to the voting habits of some of the newer european nations, and nothing to do with the quality of our entries?) we will at least get our name in the record books for putting forward the oldest candidate?

Winning is a poison chalice though isn't it? It means having to host the dreadful thing next time.

To be honest I thought he had died years ago because we never hear of him now. Where has he been hiding? He is one of my mother's favourite singers so she will be thrilled to know that he will be singing at Eurovision. I personally liked Andrew Lloyd Webber's song which Jade sung. I'm not a big fan of his music because most of it seems to be very repetitive or variations on the same tune, but that particular song was quite different.

If you ask me , he's candidate for 'nul points'

If Britain were to win, it would mean the BBC having to foot the bill to host next year's contest from, of course licence payers' money - of course they've just followed the rest of the public sector in launching a massive programme of spending cuts. So to solve this problem (cheaply and effortlessly) they pick something that they know will most definately lose. Now I await the sheer quality of the song Bert has to struggle his way through in Azerbaijan..whilst pretending he's Tom Jones.

I don't think he'll get zero. He'll get enough points I feel to take the UK to mid-table, but not higher, unless it's an absolute belter of a song. And is that likely? Doubt it...

Funny you should say that - when they made the announcement on R4 'Today' prog yesterday, the person who sprang to mind first of all was Tom Jones. (They gave a little "have a guess" type lead-in.)

But I'm inclined to agree with Fsharpminor - I think he'll get nul points too, although I'd be happy to be proved wrong in this case. He almost certainly will not win, so I don't think we need to worry about having to host the show!

I know it's got a bit blurred over the years, but remember the competition is not a performing contest, it's supposed to be voting on a song, not a singer. That's got spoilt over the years. I can remember as far back as Looking High High high, and even Sing Little Birdie, not quite the first. And in those days the song that won would almost certainly be played all over Eurpoe by town marching bands and palm Court Trios and little rock groups, sung by school choirs and played on pub pianos. Not even the ones that won - L'Amour Est Bleu was possibly better known across the continen t than (er, what did win that year? Was it Sandie Shaw, or was that later?) and people still play Volare, which didn't win. Nowadays I wonder if the juries are even reminded that they hae to think of the song, or maybe people today can't separate the idea of a song and a performance.

What does Englebert sound like nowadays? Is there a recent link?

I would be interested to know that too. I was impressed (?) by the fact that there were no recent clips of him in the news reports yesterday.

I saw one of his CDs for sale at 50p in 'Generatur de l'Argent' in Redditch an hour ago. He had a 'Tony Ferrino' (one of Steve Coogan's characters) style tash and looked like God's gift to virility. Fortunately I've entirely cleaned them out of classical.

ooh Linda, don't mention Sing Little Birdie!! Teddy Johnson and Pearl Carr. Hey Europe!!!

Englebert.

You might enjoy this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxX4M2hhto4
but you probably won't

Medallion man. Maybe the medallion says "do not revive" I'e always found that style an ugly sound, sorry.

One British one that bombed that i thought was brilliant was Lynsey de Paul and Mike Thingy singing Rock Bottom at two grand pianos.

Don't speak ill of Lynsey de Paul! She was my first ever person in the world that I had a crush on. As for Mike Moran, he's written album after album of non-commercial library music but I have no idea for whom off the top of my head, could be KPM Music, could be Bruton, could be another publisher.

That was Eurovision 1977 if my memory serves me well, and it was held on Yookay Island that year.

Hardly - he came last. That was the year Dima Bilan won and Terry Wogan stormed off muttering something about a Russian conspiracy. In which case, why hadn't Russia won before? Actually the arguments about block voting don't really stand up if you look at it closely. Last year's top three were Azerbaijan, Italy and Sweden - a fairly representative spread across the continent if you ask me. And if neighbourly voting were that significant, why haven't Iceland, Cyprus or Portugal won yet?

Back to the main topic - when I heard the news I thought this sounded like some Viz James Bond spoof: The UK's chances hang in the balance, depending on Engelbert Humperdinck's actions in Baku. That said, they would probably go for Shakin' Stevens!!

...or Des O'Connor...in spandex, naturally....

Euro-Bag x

Nooooo....please...... the picture that conjures up is unbearable! Arrrgh!

It does indeed....which is why I am now going to lie down in a darkened room....with wine, naturally...

Bx

Ireland is to be represented by Jedward again, and we'll have to be very careful not to be done by the moderators for contextual swearing when talking about the Austrian entry...

They could have had Roger Whittaker. His appaling 'Last Farewell' in 1975, Poor Jean Challis on Family Favourites having to play that almost every week for almost every British Forces outpost upon earth.

The Osterreicher entry has been described on an independent Eurovision blog as 'brain meltingly bad'. As for the name of the group, it sounds straight from Clive James on Television in the 80s.

The Moderators are Sabbath observers so you can say it. Tracks Hittaz is what they're called.

Nooo, seriously - I know they aren't in any hurry to win it again but surely thats stretching it a bit

Compare and contrast...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUGQf44NVTY

My piano teacher is a massive Beverley Craven fan. Why can't she represent us - she is capable of writing and performing a belting song that would indeed make one feel good to be British?

Or maybe Andrew Roachford (Cuddly Toy from '89) used to love him. Tasmin Archer (Sleeping Satellite) the list goes on. I still can't believe it's actually going to be Uncle Bert even after all this time it may have had to sink in.

Doubt either Beverley or Tasmin would score us enough points, but you have a point with Roachford!

She is still looking pretty good at the age of 62:




Mind you, old Arnold Dorsey is not bad for 75 (although his stage act is as cringeworthy as they come. Well, that is if you ignore Sir Cliff)

(comes over all weak at the knees and poetically museful....oh Ms de Paul you broke my heart when you married James Coburn....)

I have fond memories of Lynsey de Paul, but I was always more interested in Suzi Quatro and Olivia Newton John.

Talking of [man]Eurovision as we were, did anyone else see the Russian Grannies on the BBC news last night?

BBC News Report

The eldest is reported to be 76, and it was claimed, will be the oldest ever Eurovision contestant.

Their remote village church was destroyed by Stalin 70 years ago, and the Grannies are saying that if they win Eurovision they will use any money to build a new one.


SB

I saw that; I thought they were great

They'd never heard of Englebert Humperdink (or Jedward either, I expect). I never really liked EH, I'm afraid - he was always a bit too much of a smoothie for me.

And going back onto the off-topic, I never, ever forgave Lynsey de Paul for stealing James Coburn

Bring on Englebert I say - surely he can't be any worst than some of our past entries...

lol

Think I'll buy some shares in whoever makes Englebert's fake tan products.

SB

As expected - slow ballad
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-17430289

I can only assume the decision is to lose dramatically as we have no chance of affording hosting it next year. In which case I think we have a result!!

Anyhow; I thought this was a music forum.

If so, what are we doing discussing Eurovision?

SB

Funny, I used to get the same sort of comment in the music faculty common room in Oxford when I mentioned Gilbert & Sullivan. I suppose it's all relative.

I was listening to an interview with Nigel Kennedy yesterday on TV and he was discussing the breakdown in the snobbery of classical music.....ok so he wasn't discussing Eurovision and I probably wouldn't choose to watch it but..........